Man with pending burglary charge had resort’s master key

But some there are frustrated after learning their property management company hired maintenance employees, some with connections to serious crimes, without screening them. At least one such employee had access to a master key that opened many of 267 homes in one part of the resort, which is located next to Ocean Lakes Campground on Kings Highway.

Amon Rasheem Rutledge was arrested in August 2014 on a trio of charges for attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and second degree burglary, according to records from the Georgetown County Public Index. Records indicate Rutledge pleaded guilty to the burglary charge on Oct. 25. Rutledge was sentenced with “time served of 46 days,” and prosecutors dropped the other two charges.

Steve Dame, a resident, said that Rutledge, then working as a maintenance employee, attempted to enter his condo on July 5 with a master key. Rutledge told him he was attempting to let in a plumber, though Dame said nobody but himself, Rutledge and his wife was present at the time.

Dame’s lock was specialized and did not fit the master key.

“I had no reason to believe he was lying,” Dame said, “but the problem is he had a criminal history, and he was trying to get into my unit by himself.”

Mel Renkey, the community manager for property management company First Service Residential, confirmed the incident Dame described. However, he said it was not an issue because Dame was present and there was no risk of opening the condo with the master key. Residents are free to change their locks if they wish, but then must provide management with a new, corresponding key, he said.

“Everything gets blown way, way out of proportion,” Renkey said.

He confirmed that Rutledge and one other man with connections to serious crime were hired at roughly the same time this summer and worked at Myrtle Beach Resort for about a month each. They occupied maintenance positions, and mainly dealt with trash collection and basic repairs, but were also sometimes responsible for letting residents into homes if they had been locked out, or letting workers like plumbers into homes.

Renkey said he was not with the company at the time of the hires, but that the standard policy said employees should not be allowed on payroll before their background checks and drug tests were completed.

The two hires had serious pending criminal charges, however. In addition to Rutledge’s history, Demond Hannah, the other initial hire, had been arrested on two previous domestic violence charges in 2015, one of which was dismissed and the other which was remanded to family court.

“They were supposed to be vetted,” Renkey said. “Apparently they weren’t, obviously. When I found out about it, I got rid of both of them immediately.”

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article111913552.html#storylink=cpy

N.J. homeowners groups must recognize residents’ free speech

"FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER

NASHVILLE, TENN.

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

TRENTON, N.J. — A state appeals court panel ruled yesterday that homeowners associations must recognize residents’ rights to freedom of speech under the New Jersey Constitution.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel stemmed from a case brought by residents of the private Twin Rivers community in East Windsor, who had sued their homeowners association to be able to put political signs on their front lawns, among other things.

Residents’ “rights to engage in expressive exercises … must take precedence over the [association’s] private property interests,” the panel said in its ruling inCommittee for a Better Twin Rivers v. Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association.

“For the first time anywhere in the United States, an appellate court has ruled that such private communities are ‘constitutional actors’ and must therefore respect their members’ freedom of speech,” said Frank Askin, a Rutgers Law School professor and lead counsel for the Committee for a Better Twin Rivers.

“The Court recognized that just like shopping malls are the new public square, these associations have become and act, for all practical purposes, like municipal entities unto themselves,” Askin said in a statement.

Homeowners in the 10,000-resident Twin Rivers community are also seeking equal access to a newspaper run by the community’s board of trustees and to a community room for meetings for dissidents.

The case had initially been dismissed by a state Superior Court judge. Yesterday’s ruling overturned most of that decision.

“Expressive exercises, especially those bearing upon real and legitimate community issues, should not be silenced or subject to undue limitation because of changes in residential relationships, such as where lifestyle issues are governed or administered by community associations in addition to being regulated by governmental entities,” the ruling said in part.

The appeals panel sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

The outcome of the case is of interest to 50 million Americans who live in communities governed by these associations — and whose states “who may emulate what New Jersey has done,” Askin said."