{"id":2445349,"date":"2019-06-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=307962"},"modified":"2019-06-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T06:00:00","slug":"district-judge-again-rules-against-aspen-man-trying-to-keep-his-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/district-judge-again-rules-against-aspen-man-trying-to-keep-his-house\/","title":{"rendered":"District judge again rules against Aspen man trying to keep his house"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not just the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority that\u2019s been impacted by Lee Mulcahy\u2019s ability to hold onto his employee-housing unit by using various legal avenues, but also the local public at large, Pitkin County District Judge Chris Seldin said in a ruling delivered Thursday.<\/p>\n

In his latest order against Mulcahy in his legal feud with the housing authority, Seldin asserted that \u201csome deserving family that is actually in compliance with APCHA\u2019s affordable-housing guidelines will ultimately succeed in securing Mulcahy\u2019s residence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seldin\u2019s ruling denied Mulcahy\u2019s motion to stall the enforcement of his 2016 order that Mulcahy sell his house, through what\u2019s referred to in legal speak as a \u201cstay.\u201d The judge\u2019s ruling noted the case has gone through the state district and appeals courts, while the Colorado and United States supreme courts elected not to review the case.<\/a><\/p>\n

Even without the stay, however, Mulcahy can legally remain at his single-family home at Burlingame Ranch, an affordable-housing complex the housing authority governs, according to APCHA counsel Tom Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll signs are pointing to the goal line,\u201d Smith said Friday, \u201cbut it\u2019s not over yet, in terms of what\u2019s going on in the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulcahy has another motion to appeal pending before Seldin \u2014 this one arguing his rights to due process were denied when APCHA began taking steps to have him sell his house, and the case should start from scratch. Mulcahy had argued that the judgment should be stayed until after the court rules on his motion to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re obviously going to oppose that appeal, and we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Mulcahy and his attorney on the matter, Jordan Porter of Denver, said they will keep pressing on despite Seldin\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Mulcahy will continue to fight for his constitutional rights,\u201d Porter said. \u201cNotably, Mr. Mulcahy routinely takes documentation showing his compliance as an artist with APCHA\u2019s guidelines to City Council and other local government public comment sessions. He stands ready to show his compliance at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mulcahy lives there with his mother, Sandy, who said, \u201cWe\u2019re not leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to Seldin\u2019s ruling, Mulcahy said he realizes his case has divided the community to a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople know deep down in their hearts that my constitutional rights to due process were violated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The case has played out in the public arena \u2014 from media reports to online story comments to Mulcahy\u2019s vocal pleas to local officeholders \u2014 with some saying APCHA has unfairly singled out the activist and artist. Others, however, say the case is simple: Mulcahy has not followed the rules required of those living in affordable housing, chiefly his ability to hold down full-time employment in Pitkin County.<\/p>\n

Mulcahy, who has sporadically worked various jobs around town, from taxi driver to part-time teacher, had maintained that his full-time job is as an artist, where income flow is not as consistent as other lines of work. APCHA hasn\u2019t seen it that way, and sued Mulcahy in December 2015, alleging he didn\u2019t meet the authority\u2019s ownership requirements of working 1,500 hours a year in Pitkin County.<\/p>\n

Seldin\u2019s Thursday ruling said \u201cthis latest motion is best understood as an effort by Mulcahy to delay the effect of a judgment that has now been affirmed on appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge concluded the one-page order remarking about the importance of complying with the housing rules and its impacts valley-wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, even with its affordable-housing inventory, the city of Aspen is wholly incapable of housing the majority of its workforce, and thus imports them from elsewhere,\u201d Seldin\u2019s order said. \u201cThe attendant traffic impacts detrimentally affect communities throughout the length of the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. Glenwood Springs and Basalt, for example, suffer traffic jams significantly occasioned by Aspen\u2019s commuting workforce. And this is to say nothing of the effect on the thousands of individuals ensnared in traffic jams at the entrance to Aspen. Many of those enduring such long commutes and wasted time away from family would doubtless jump at the opportunity to live in Mulcahy\u2019s home and educate their children near their places of work. Ensuring that affordable housing is actually occupied by people in compliance with APCHA\u2019s Guidelines is, therefore, of widespread consequence indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement he issued Friday, Mulcahy struck a different tone, once again dropping the name of Lester Crown, whose family owns Aspen Skiing Co., which once employed Mulcahy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its dark heart, this case wasn\u2019t just about APCHA and its corrupt practices, but about making an object lesson on anyone who dared to criticize the owner of the company that owns the company town, billionaire Lester Crown,\u201d he said. \u201cOur constitutional rights to due-process rights were egregiously violated.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not just the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority that\u2019s been impacted by Lee Mulcahy\u2019s ability to hold onto his employee-housing unit by using various legal avenues, but also the local public at large, Pitkin County District Judge Chris Seldin said in a ruling delivered Thursday. In his latest order against Mulcahy in his legal feud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 19:16:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}