An Atlanta-area mother claims her family was illegally evicted at gunpoint and without a court order. Lawyers say the incident shows that the number of such cases has increased since 2020 and stress that landlords must take legal action regardless of tenants' debts.
Cherise McMoore shared her traumatic experience with WSB Channel 2 last week, exposing a serious case of wrongful eviction in DeKalb County while also highlighting the increase in unregulated evictions across the country since the end of the pandemic.
The horrific confrontation with McMoore reportedly occurred in April when a leasing manager from the Cavalier at 100 Apartments on Panola Road in the Atlanta suburb of Stonecrest came to her apartment accompanied by an armed DeKalb police officer who also serves as a deputized officer on the property.
Cherise McMoore said she was held at gunpoint and ordered to move out of her apartment, even though no eviction notice had been filed. (Photos: Facebook/Cherise McMoore, Google Maps_
“When I opened the door and got out, I saw a gun right in my face,” McMoore told the station. “It was traumatic. It really was.”
McMoore claimed she was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. She followed the officer's orders and told her family to move quickly, but she knew this was outrageous and illegal.
“They are telling us we have to leave, as part of an eviction that has not yet taken place,” she told WSB.
The McMoores have since moved out of the apartment, a move they made after a $16,000 judgment was entered in the complex's favor. Court records show that both parties agreed to vacate the judgment if the tenants vacated the property, which the apartment complex confirmed.
But the matter of the officer and the rifle was still not resolved.
McMoore filmed the ordeal on his cellphone, capturing the moment the woman from the leasing office said, “I'm the assistant manager. The locks have been changed,” suggesting that the eviction was being enforced at that exact moment.
The entire time, the officer stood next to the property manager with a long gun, although the manager denied ever pointing it at McMoore.
McMoore said the couple evicted their entire family from the home despite no order from a DeKalb County judge to do so.
“Why didn't she show you any eviction papers? Because there aren't any,” she told WSB after the incident.
In the video, the officer tells McMoore that she has the opportunity to take legal action if she contests the decision to evict her without warning.
“If you want to sue her for wrongful eviction, you can do that,” the officer advised McMoore. However, the video does not show him pointing the gun at the woman.
McMoore's son, who was responsible for the lease, admitted that he was behind on rent.
But Cherise McMoore said she expects they will be given due process before being evicted.
“It's difficult for everyone and we still have to go through the process,” she told the broadcaster.
WSB reviewed court records and found that a justice of the peace granted an eviction order in the McMoore case in October 2023, but the complex dismissed the case without prejudice the very next month.
The apartment management filed another eviction suit later that month, demanding $1,703 in unpaid rent. The case was dismissed because neither the lawyers nor the management appeared in court.
McMoore's attorney, Daniel Crumby, said there was no official court order for the eviction at the time of the incident.
“To be clear, their actions occurred before the governor signed this new law giving law enforcement the authority to prosecute trespassing,” Crumby told WSB, referring to a landmark tenant protection law signed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in April.
The law creates new rules for rental housing. It ensures that apartments are habitable, gives tenants three additional days to pay past-due rent before an eviction notice can be filed, and limits security deposits to a maximum of two months' rent.
Erin Willoughby, an attorney with Atlanta Legal Aid, said landlords are bound by due process laws.
“A landlord cannot simply decide that he no longer wants you in his property,” she said, according to WSB.
Willoughby says it doesn't matter how much a tenant owes, landlords still have to follow due process. She says attorneys in the Atlanta metro area are seeing an increasing number of illegal evictions.
“Under Georgia law, there is only one person who has the right to tell you that you no longer have the right to live anywhere, and that person is the judge,” Willoughby said.
Willoughby noted that the involvement of a DeKalb police officer in McMoore's eviction was also problematic, stressing that only deputies or bailiffs have the legal authority to carry out such actions.
“To actually evict someone from their property, an officer never has the legal authority to take that action,” she said.
After the incident, McMoore filed a police report against DeKalb Detective Winston Simms, which led to an internal investigation that found Simms violated department policy by assisting the housing manager with the eviction. However, the investigation found no evidence that Simms pointed the rifle at her. McMoore called the findings nonsense and claimed the officer pointed the gun at her before she began filming.
“He had it right in his hand. He had both hands around the gun. It was right in my face,” she said.
Simms stated in his report that management had asked him for help removing squatters from McMoore's apartment. The officer acknowledged at the time that as a police officer he did not have the authority to conduct evictions, but agreed to help the assistant manager ensure her safety.
Later, the property's corporate office issued a statement to WSB clarifying that the management's actions were not an eviction but merely a review of the occupancy situation. The officer was merely assisting the management and the property had contacted local authorities to confirm the tenants' status.
