AURORA | The saga of The Edge at Lowry and Whispering Pines apartments in Aurora added a new twist Friday when lawyers for the embattled apartment owners alleged in court that the city has harassed them because they are Jewish.
Allegations of anti-semitism were made in a motion filed in Aurora Municipal Court, where CBZ corporation owners and principals, specifically Zev Baumgarten, face criminal nuisance charges in an ongoing battle and controversy over squalid conditions and crime problems in apartments shut down by the city over the past several months.
“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.
Aurora officials said this was all news to them and denied the allegation.
“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 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.”
There was no working heat at the apartment complex. Residents where using kitchen stoves were possible. Pipes were broken everywhere, creating ice in side, as seen in this bathroom. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA 
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain addresses reporters inside a cockroach and bedbug infested apartment at the Edge of Lowry complex Feb. 19, 2025. The complex was finally shuttered by the city Feb. 18 after months of controversy. PHOTO BY CASSANDRA BALLARD, Sentinel Colorado 
There was no working heat at the apartment complex. Residents where using kitchen stoves were possible. Pipes were broken everywhere, creating ice in side, as seen in this bathroom. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA 
Occupied apartment with wires hanging and nearly impassable. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA 
A common area going to the first floor apartments and then the mechanical room. Ice layer on floors made it hard to pass. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA 
There was no working heat at the apartment complex. Residents where using kitchen stoves were possible. Pipes were broken everywhere, creating ice in side, as seen in this bathroom. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA 
An active leak in an apartment hallway, flooding the building. It was unknown how many days the water line had been broken. PHOTO VIA THE CITY OF AURORA 
A photo depicting an apartment complex common area going to the first floor apartments and then the mechanical room. Ice layer on floors made it additionally hard to pass, according to city officials. PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA
New York-based CBZ Management owns three apartment buildings in Aurora that have drawn national attention, and that of President Donald Trump, after a viral video depicted armed men breaking into apartment units. 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.
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.
During the Friday Aurora criminal court code violation 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 yarmulka, long beard and Jewish prayer shawl. Lawyers said the city has been subtly and outright antisemitic on multiple occasions, spelled out in the court filing.
“Mr. Baumgarten is conspicuously of the Orthodox Jewish faith,” lawyers said.
Besides the unrecorded recollection of Mayne’s comment to Baumgarten, lawyers 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, lawyers said in the motion.
“The thinly veiled allusion to Jewish east coast wealth was not lost on Mr. Baumgarten’s counsel,” lawyers said.
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 tact 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.
Lawyers for Baumgarten revisited past arguments made that the apartment units were overrun by Venezuelan gang members, and that pleas for help to Aurora police were unanswered or that police were unresponsive.
Aurora officials have consistently said substantial police and city records make clear that problems were well documented and that CBZ virtually abandoned managing the properties, inviting a variety of criminals to flourish in the complexes, including some members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.
Defense lawyers said that on Aug. 22, 2024, Maynes and a host of code enforcement officers and Aurora police went to the Edge properties for an inspection.
“The properties are obviously in a state of disrepair caused by third parties,” lawyers said in the motion. “At this time, the APD knew the damage was caused by members of TdA, but the City had not yet admitted this to the Properties’ owners.”
Lawyers said Aurora police body camera video obtained by defense attorneys “reveals the extent of the animus toward Mr. Baumgarten and the Properties’ owners.”
Attorneys said the video depicts the complex’s former owner appearing at the apartments and having an extensive conversation with police and city inspectors.
“The City employees acknowledge that the damage has been done by “gang kids,” attorneys allege. During the video, the former owner “acknowledging that he has seen (gang members) standing around the Dallas Street properties with guns in their hands.”
Later in the video, the man said he is “waiting” for the city to “red tag” the complex so he can re-purchase it on the cheap.
The Sentinel has requested the police body cam video.
Lawyers for Baumgarten made clear in Friday’s motion that they plan to focus their not-guilty defense on what they allege was the city’s anti-semitism and harassment.
Garnett requested additional time for discovery and a motions hearing on June 11. A date for a jury trial has not been set.
Aurora Judge Brian Whitney said he would allow the request, but it was “above and beyond” discovery, while Garnett said he has never had a case like this and needed the extra information.
Whitney also said that Baumgarten needed to be present at the next hearing, as he was absent Friday, to which Garnett said that he would be, but there was a concern for his safety in Colorado.
Baumgarten last year said he was physically assaulted by residents in one of the apartment buildings and injured.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
Whyvould anyone care if Jewish?
The fact of the matter is that most people in Colorado can’t tell an Orthodox Jew, from a reformed Jew and/or non-practicing Jew. Especially OVER THE PHONE.
Want to know the #1 way you’ll find out? They’ll tell you in court filings.
Sorry, this “game” has been playing out in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley for decades.
Dear Slumlord: the citizens of Aurora and our public servants could care less “what” you are, but rather “who” you are. In this case someone who believes they can hide behind their religious status, to evade decency and responsibility.
As a NYC transplant, I know what most in your community would say: SHAME!
Scurrilous and unsubstantiated allegations impugning the reputation of a dedicated public servant. The attorneys for the Defendant ought to be sanctioned for trying to raise this as a defense. The court should demand their good fxaith basis for raising the issue and if they don’t have corroborating independant evidence of such remarks they should be directly sanctioned and thier licenses revoked. Ms. Maynes should begin her lawsuit against those attorneys immediately. The first thing she ought to do is find out through discovery who their malpractice carrier is and copy them on the lawsuit. lets see how quickly those attorneys are then brought to heel byt their insureres who will not want to cover the resulting judgment.
EXCELLENT Advice.
Put the sun on all of them, out of the libelous dark.
The normal city process for code violations in Aurora, a violation is noted to get fixed. If that is not addressed then the next step a date in court and make your case to defend against the violation. This only takes a couple months to start resolving the case and city sends summons to make this happen. In this particular case, CBZ had this going on for some time, for some reason, the usual couple months was not followed. The Westword.com piece says “the city argued the property had outstanding code violations dating back to 2020”. Has the city ever identified Baumgarten as its indisputable owner? They’ve had five years to figure it out, maybe that’s not enough?
Certainly, if Tren de Aragua (TdA) had not misbehaved rather laid in the woods quietly as our new guest sent to us from Denver and had not made a national spectacle, these places would likely would still be open. Just getting more pages of violations, nothing more. To that end, this industrial strength code violation episode has moved slowly to the courts. After a thorough investigation the production and talent of what the Aurora City justice machine looks like will now finally take place. It’s only going to take another five years.
https://www.westword.com/news/aurora-officials-accused-of-antisemitism-embattled-slumlord-24194815
A monied Developer and/or Property Owner can string out Violations for years and years as the condemnation of a building is absolutely the last resort. In fact, in the 5 years I spent in real estate, I’ve never seen it happen.
This case sure sounds like a savvy slumlord that has the necessary gall and dishonest against a City Agency that had never experienced such behavior. Lesson hopefully learned.
As a region, let’s make sure we seek out the dirtbags and remove their games. Most often it’s the poor they take disproportionately advantage of.
As a Jewish Aurora resident myself, I’m disgusted that these landlords would try and play the anti-Semitism card to avoid the in-humane neglect they showed to our neighbors. There are so many tenets of our Jewish culture -tzedakah, tikun olam- that push towards care the under resourced, and this Mr. Baumgarten clearly has some major cognitive dissonance going on. There’s not a single congregation I know in the Denver area that would condone or support his actions even IF the allegations were true, which it seems very clear they are not. Hope this case gets thrown out quickly, and he is barred from preying on our community ever again