Cleveland Tenant Retaliated Eviction By Setting Fire: Police

CLEVELAND, OH — A Cleveland man apparently wasn’t happy Sunday when his landlord served him with a 30-day eviction notice. The landlord accused Marvin Fisher, 54, of “threatening to punch his lights out” and told police his behavior was “extremely bizarre and threatening,” according to reports.

Several hours after getting the eviction notice, Fisher allegedly retaliated, setting fire to an apartment building where he and about two dozen others live, forcing an evacuation and earning a fresh arson charge. No one was injured in the fire about 6:40 p.m. Sunday on the 8700 block of Detroit Road, but the fire did cause about $2,000 damage to a door and a wooden deck, police said.

Arson is nothing new for Fisher. He has twice been convicted of the crime.

The first time was in 2002, when another landlord served an eviction notice for an apartment on the 500 block of Lawn Avenue. He cleared out his belongings, then set the place on fire, according to Cleveland.com.

Now Fisher, who was arraigned Tuesday on the new aggravated arson charge, is sitting in jail on $25,000 bond while the Ohio State Ohio Adult Parole Authority determine if he violated the terms of his supervised release after serving four years on a 2010 arson conviction, police said. In that case, he was accused of setting fire to the front porch of his home on West 65th Street.

Fisher denied he set the fire Sunday, police said. Fisher’s girlfriend told police he had been drinking and behaving aggressively, Cleveland.com reported.

Fisher’s criminal record also includes a 2007 burglary conviction and a 1999 conviction for attempting to assault a police officer with a crowbar, the report said.

Photo via Cleveland City Jail