In what would have made for a perfect episode of "Matlock", authorities arrested three people in connection to a drug and prostitution ring taking place in the most unlikely of places, a housing complex for senior citizens.
Police arrested 75-year-old James Parham and 66-year-old Cheryl Chaney for possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a drug nuisance at the housing complex for seniors. Also arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia was suspended school crossing guard Selma McDuffie, according to the Associated Press.
According to The Record, the defendants had turned Vicente K. Tibbs Senior Citizen Building in Englewood, N.J., into crime den that had citizens afraid to leave their apartments. Residents were complaining of vagrants, drunks and drug addicts invading their hallways.
"Essentially they were prisoners in their own building," said Englewood Police Chief Arthur O'Keefe. "I wasn't going to allow that to happen."
The most salacious charge coming out of the investigation is that Parham has admitted to providing prostitutes - mostly young women who were crack addicts - to some of the tenants of the building, Detective Captain Timothy Torell told The Record.
Maria Iwano, executive director of the Englewood Housing Authority, which manages the home, said that Chaney and Parham had passed all of the background checks given to potential residents. The home does not allow residents with recent drug convictions or violent criminal histories to live in the building.
"They came up absolutely clean," Iwano said. "They had nothing to prevent us from putting them in the building."
O'Keefe said Chaney had no criminal record and Parham only had a few low level charges from years ago, according to The Record.
Since the arrests police officers have been maintaining an around-the-clock presence at the home to make sure that the illegal activities don't start up again.
"Things are getting better," said 11-year resident James Harrison. "Druggies and drunks, that's what used to be here, all day long, day and night."
A man who has family living in the building, Kevin Thomas, was dumbfounded that such crimes were being committed by seniors.
"Why they wait so late in life to start doing stuff they should have did years ago, or shouldn't have touched period, why do you wait so late?" Thomas said.
