It’s a fact pattern that’s bizarre and perhaps humorous, but the result was not a laughing matter.
Tenant Michael Nien is accused of causing $14 million in damages at the 28-story tower of Van Ness Avenue by flooding the building when he opened a high-pressure fire hose valve while he was naked and allegedly having methamphetamine and cocaine in his system, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The deluge flooded hallways, stairways and hundreds of apartments, with more than 700 residents affected, according to the outlet.
Nien, who was paying about $2,600 a month for his unit in the building, was charged with felony vandalism and resisting arrest. An assault charge for Nien allegedly biting a police officer was dropped.
Nien’s attorney, citing the suspect’s intoxication at the time of the incident, filed a motion to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor. Nien has pleaded not guilty.
At a hearing to reduce the charges from felonies to misdemeanors, developer Oz Erickson, whose company Emerald Fund constructed the building, and Brynn McKiernan, an associate at Emerald Fund, argued against the motion, citing extensive harm caused to approximately 260 residents who were displaced for three months while repairs were done.
The flood severely damaged the tower’s elevator system, leaving elderly residents, including one who couldn’t leave their penthouse for five days, to navigate the stairs, they said. Of the 145 units damaged, 45 were below market rate, exacerbating the impact on vulnerable residents.
“I saw a woman — older than me — climbing the stairs of a 28-story high-rise, and she had to stop every single landing, huffing and puffing,” Erickson, who is 74, said, according to the Chronicle. “We had to move heaven and earth to get the elevators up and running.”
Families spent major holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the winter season, residing in a hotel due to the displacement, McKiernan said.
“The stories we would hear from [tenants], the mental pain of that, was really hard to hear,” McKiernan added, according to the CHronicle. “They didn’t have their home as a refuge during these hard times.”
The flood has also affected the building’s profitability, as 85 percent of its ownership belongs to construction union pension funds, they said.
Prior to the incident, residents had already complained about Nien’s confrontational behavior, which included an alleged rant on Facebook accusing a fellow resident of threats.
The judge, meanwhile, continued the hearing to July 21. The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, representing Nien, did not provide a comment to the outlet.
— Ted Glanzer