Apartment complex settles suit after criminal act of resident

[Karen F.]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/28/after...

It appears that in a privately owned housing complex in Mattapan, MA, a man who had been arrested for domestic violence, and whose girlfriend then refused to press charges, then three months later raped and murdered a neighbor.  The victim's husband then sued the complex owner for 22 million dollars.  Owner settled the lawsuit, rather than risk a sympathy award.  Lawsuit claimed that complex should have barred the man from the property, even though he had not been convicted, and that the complex was at fault because it didn't have security cameras and guards.

So, landlords are now not supposed to automatically bar people with criminal records, but instead must evaluate on a case by case basis.  And how can you even bar someone from the property who hasn't yet been convicted?  Even if the landlord had decided to try to evict the man for possibly disturbing the neighbors with noise during the domestic violence episode, the courts in MA are strongly biased in favor of the tenant, and with the girlfriend refusing to press charges, it's very unlikely that an eviction would have been successful.

How could any landlord have prevented this?  Essentially, what this means is that should anyone suffer a criminal assault in a rental property, the landlord is now liable!