AURORA | Zev Baumgarten, of CBZ Management and a central figure in the ongoing controversy surrounding the shuttered Edge at Lowry apartments in Aurora, failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing Wednesday.
The missed motions hearing court date prompted Aurora Municipal Court Judge Brian Whitney to issue a $2,000 cash bench warrant for each of Baumgarten’s seven summonses.
If Baumgarten turns himself in, the warrant can be converted into PR bonds, Whitney said to Baumgarten’s lawyers.
The missed hearing followed a defense motion filed April 25 that alleged antisemitic bias in the city’s enforcement actions.
City officials have denied the accusations.
“We are asking the court to order all communications within the city regarding this prosecution and enforcement action based on the evidence that was cited of anti-semitic bias,” Stan Garnett, attorney for Baumgarten, said in an email to the Sentinel.
The Edge at Lowry Apartments has long been the center of controversy after a group of men were videotaped breaking into one of the units last summer while toting large guns.
New York-based CBZ Management owns three apartment buildings in Aurora that have drawn national attention, including that of President Donald Trump. The video and ensuing developments drew a faction of local lawmakers insisting the apartments were overrun by Venezuelan gang members. City and other government officials insist malfeasance and mismanagement by CBZ were to blame for squalid living conditions and increased crime.
In the previous motions hearing April 4, the CBZ attorneys brought new allegations of prejudice shown by city employees toward the corporation and Baumgarten because of their Jewish heritage.
“During a phone call with Breezy Maynes, the Supervisor of the Aurora Code Enforcement Officers for the City, (Zev) Baumgarten pointedly asked Ms. Maynes to explain why she was being so hard on him,” lawyers for the defendant, Baumgarten, said in a court motion filed Friday. “Ms. Maynes retorted, ‘because you are an Orthodox Jew,’ an alarming and disturbing statement. Other City officials echoed these antisemitic sentiments.”
Lawyers for Baumgarten indicated they were seeking to prove the date of the phone conversation, but they did not indicate the conversation was recorded.
City officials denied the allegations and said evidence against CBZ is compelling.
“The city has compiled extensive documentation over the last several years to validate the numerous problems at the properties connected to CBZ Management and its principals, including Mr. Baumgarten,” Ryan Luby, Aurora spokesperson, said previously in a statement. “We have shared those records publicly. The city only learned of Mr. Baumgarten’s latest accusations against the city in the last 18 hours. Despite many interactions with Mr. Baumgarten and his teams of attorneys over the years, this is the first time the city has heard these new claims. We have no indication that any of them hold any merit.”
After months of controversy, protests, allegations of gangs, vermin and even allegations of torture, the Dallas buildings were shut down by the city Feb. 18.
The remaining five buildings at the Edge are still owned by CBZ, according to city officials. They are also still shut down until further adjudication of the civil case the city currently has going with the corporation that led to the complex being declared a criminal nuisance property.
During the previous Aurora criminal court code violation motions hearing, CBZ lawyers from Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow and Farbes argued that the reason the apartments fell into such disrepair was because of a conspiracy among city code enforcement officials and police to harass Baumgarten because he was “Orthodox Jewish.”
Lawyers said Baumgarten regularly wears a yarmulke, a long beard and a Jewish prayer shawl. Lawyers said the city has been subtly and outright antisemitic on multiple occasions, according to the original motions court filing.
Besides the unrecorded recollection of Mayne’s comment to Baumgarten, lawyers for CBZ said other city comments were striking as well.
During a July 8, 2024, settlement conference between defense lawyers and the city, an assistant district attorney suggested that a two-month jail sentence would be warranted in the case because Baumgarten “comes from East Coast money,” and a fine alone would not suffice as punishment, according to the lawyers’ motion.
“The thinly veiled allusion to Jewish East Coast wealth was not lost on Mr. Baumgarten’s counsel,” lawyers said in the motion.
Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte told the Sentinel that the city pursues the person in charge of the property when it comes to issuing a summons. He said that Baumgarten told the city he was the “person in charge of the upkeep of the property.” Baumgarten was also listed as the registered agent on the Secretary of State for five of the Dallas buildings from 2020 to 2022.
Baumgarten’s lawyers alleged that, despite Baumgarten not being a property owner or, technically, the property manager, he was targeted by city officials as the apartments began to become increasingly problematic.
“Mr. Baumgarten’s religious affiliation has not gone unnoticed by the city and may even be the motivating factor behind its aggressive enforcement of municipal ordinances against Mr. Baumgarten,” the motion said. “Numerous incidents give rise to this inference. In late 2022, the City started issuing code enforcement violations against Mr. Baumgarten personally, instead of the owners of the building – a tactic that is not only bereft of legal justification but odd.”
Lawyers in the brief also stated that city data shows that of some apartments in northwest Aurora near CBZ’s properties, other complexes were not cited as frequently as the CBZ complexes.
The data was limited and not substantiated by complete city records.
There is currently no date set for a jury trial.
Aurora taxpayers have plenty of questions after watching this City of Aurora v. Zev Baumgarten trainwreck. Zev Baumgarten (CBZ) has managed to accomplish for many years failing to fix, repair, take care of business. On the other hand, the city of Aurora code enforcement has for years ineptly, failed to fix, repair, take care of business. Records show Aurora knew beginning five years ago trouble was brewing in all three CBZ apartments, not just one big complex, the scope took in all three. This is an example of (code enforcement) preference to put off doing their job, and hopefully everyone will comply. CBZ managements observation of enforcement warnings were oooh! – That pesky city again, a bunch of bark and no bite. Discovery has provided the Garnett team with reams of files. The obvious take-away in these files the jury will look at and wonder WTF was Aurora doing all this time? These were simple building code issues coupled with the twist of Aurora’s secret knowledge gang members Tren de Aragua were inside these buildings creating havoc. Cindy Romero came forward in a Washington DC congressional hearing as she lived at the Edge in Aurora, for years. She too asked for Aurora’s help and saw little, to nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2g85eGtJQc I expect Cindy Romero, will be one of the main witnesses when this case finally starts. She will indeed have some things to talk about. I don’t believe Aurora politicians would like to hear they tried to quietly sweep the level of this problem under the carpet. It’s about time, Aurora backed themselves into a corner. Danielle Jurinsky, did this the right way and made this reality fully public. And Ground Zero was established.
And now the city has no choice and decided to and thus get tough. And although Zev was ordered for this hearing and was a no show, the judge has said no Webex trial stuff, Zev you gotta be here in person – Unlike today. And that’s another problem Zev, seems illusive to Aurora, the code enforcement department said they can’t find him to be served. Simple enough, time for Aurora to step up- time to hire a pro -Time to hire “The Dog”