COLORADO SPRINGS — A single mother was evicted from a Terry Ragan-owned apartment for being behind on her rent about five weeks after her 15-month-old son slipped through the railings of an indoor stairwell and died in a three-story fall.
Adrianna Spedilari was ordered by the property managers to leave the Cedar Crest Apartments, 2010 Carmel Drive, by Sept. 8 after she failed to pay September’s rent of $675, due on the first of the month. With late fees and other charges, Spedilari owed $737.43, according to the notice she received from Cedar Crest Properties.
Spedilari paid the back rent and late fees Sept. 17 and agreed to cover attorney’s fees and vacate the apartment by the end of the month, court documents show.
On Monday, the attorney representing Spedilari and the child’s father, Christopher R. Perez, filed a motion requesting that the eviction action be dismissed and replaced with a lawsuit against the apartment owner.
The lawsuit, the motion states, would claim that the railings on the third-floor walkway were spaced 8 inches apart, creating a hazard for small children that the apartment owner failed to correct or warn tenants and visitors about.
On July 30, Spedilari was doing laundry while a friend watched her son, Christopher Antonio Perez, as he played on the third-floor walkway. Spedilari told The Gazette she was putting clothes in the dryer when she heard the friend scream.
Christopher squeezed through the railings and fell about 20 feet to the carpeted floor below, Colorado Springs police reported.
The boy died at a hospital.
Attempts to reach Ragan on Thursday were unsuccessful.
The Gazette ran a series in 2003 on the problems at Ragan’s apartments, with police describing how tenants lived in fear of gangs, and tenants describing insect infestations, bad plumbing, no heat and other unsanitary conditions.
