An Eastern Shore landlord who preyed on vulnerable women by pressuring them into sex in exchange for rent reductions is the target of the first lawsuit brought by Maryland Attorney General’s new Civil Rights Division.
The complaint, filed Friday in Wicomico County Circuit Court, accuses Eric Sessoms of sexually harassing five tenants relentlessly. In addition to offering rent reductions in exchange for sex, Sessoms made unwanted sexual advances, assaulted a tenant and allegedly pursued evictions against those who rejected his advancements, according to the lawsuit.
“Sessoms targets women who are unhoused or at risk of imminent homelessness,” the complaint says. “Defendant Sessoms employs manipulative tactics by requiring prospective tenants to disclose personal stories of their struggles with homelessness or housing instability as part of their housing interview. He exploits this knowledge to identify women he believes to be vulnerable.”
The lawsuit charges Sessoms, a resident of Delmar, and his property management company, Mt Vernon Group LLC, with violating several state and federal fair housing and civil rights statutes.
It’s unclear if Sessoms is being represented by an attorney. He could not be reached for comment.
Calling it a “historic day” for his office and for Maryland, Attorney General Anthony Brown said the case “sends a signal that sexual harassment in the landlord-tenant context and in any context is unacceptable.”
“We will identify you with our network of partners,” said Brown, a Democrat. “We will investigate you, we will bring enforcement actions and we will seek to remove you from being a landlord or housing provider in the state of Maryland, as well as other relief we will seek on behalf of those who you victimized.”
Jonathan Smith, head of the attorney general’s Civil Rights Division, said his attorneys would be seeking remedies “far in excess” of the boilerplate $75,000 listed in the complaint. He noted it is required under Maryland law to specify that lawsuits seek at least $75,000.
The complaint also seeks a court order prohibiting Sessoms from “working in the residential rental industry in any capacity,” barring him from having contact with past, current or prospective women tenants, as well as requiring any employees of Mt Vernon Group to undergo in sexual harassment training.
The lawsuit culminates a months-long investigation that began with a referral from an attorney with Maryland Legal Aid on the Eastern Shore, who first noticed Sessoms’ conduct, said Vicki Schultz, executive director of the nonprofit that provides free legal services, including in landlord tenant disputes. She said her organization has successfully sued Sessoms.
Schultz called the case “righteous” and said it represented a “terrific example of government, nonprofit partnership.”
“These are often housing of last resort, nowhere to go. That’s what keeps women in these terrible predatory situations,” Schultz said.
Launched in January, the Civil Rights Division was authorized to enforce state, federal and local anti-discrimination laws by the Maryland General Assembly in 2023. Brown said the division is now staffed by 23 “professionals,” including attorneys and investigators.
Brown and several of his deputies lauded the five women who came forward and whose experiences make up the allegations in the lawsuit, calling them courageous.
In late 2021, Sessoms rented a home to a woman experiencing homelessness and eventually “explicitly requested” that she have sex with him in exchange for reduced rent, the complaint alleges. The woman conceded for a while, but when she told Sessoms she no longer wanted to comply with his demands, he evicted her.
Around the same time, he approached another tenant who he’d sexually harassed and asked if she “would like to explore something with me and my girlfriend,” according to the lawsuit. She rejected his advance, eventually moving out and becoming homeless.
In March 2023, Sessoms reached out to a prospective tenant about signing a lease, knowing that she and her four children were without housing. The complaint says he asked her to meet him at a warehouse. When she arrived, Sessoms allegedly asked if her husband was coming and, when she said he wasn’t, exposed himself to her and placed her hand on his genitals.
The woman did not sign a lease, instead remaining unhoused for about a year longer, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint says the experiences of the five women “are not the only instances of Defendant Sessoms’ sexual harassment of women tenants and prospective tenants. Rather, they are part of his longstanding pattern or practice of illegal sexual harassment of multiple women tenants from at least 2019 through the present.”
Brown’s office encourages other victims to contact investigators and attorneys in the case by calling 1-833-282-2977 or emailing mdvsessoms@oag.state.md.us. The office also urged anyone experiencing sexual harassment in housing to contact his Civil Rights Division by calling 410-576-6300 or filing a report online.
Addressing a gaggle of television cameras, Candace McLaren Lanham, Brown’s chief of staff, appealed to all potential victims.
“What happened to the women in this case on the lower Eastern Shore of our state happens everywhere,” she said. “If you are watching in Baltimore or Silver Spring, Hagerstown or Cumberland, in Rockville or in Bladensburg, you do not have to remain silent.”
Originally Published: July 19, 2024 at 2:38 p.m.