A late June trial date has been set for a Juneau man accused of letting his home become unsafe or unfit for human occupancy. Ronald W. Hohman, 71, is currently barred from his house at 3101 Nowell Avenue except to make repairs between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Three charges that Hohman violated CBJ code requiring the use of public sewers have been dropped by city prosecutors. But Hohman still faces three charges of using a building for human occupancy that has been declared a public nuisance.
His attorney Deborah Holbrook says it all started with Hohman’s tenants skipping out of paying the sewer bill. She says her client has already been jailed twice in the last few months. Police officers say they posted notices in October closing Hohman’s home.
CBJ officials say sewage backed up into Hohman’s garage even after they disconnected his sewer service at his home on Nowell Avenue.
But Holbrook says public works crews mistakenly shut off the wrong part of the sewer service. They disconnected a line that Hohman shared with a neighbor that fed into the main sewer. She believes that it was the neighbor’s blocked sewage that backed up in Hohman’s garage.
