A new settlement from Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones makes sure David Merryman’s days as a landlord are over.
Former AG Mark Herring sued Merryman in 2021. State courts found that Merryman called his tenants — most of whom were Black women — racist, sexist and homophobic slurs and evicted renters who requested repairs.
Merryman is already serving 17 years in prison for fraud and discriminatory practices, Jones wrote in the press release. And the consequences don’t end there, according to the new settlement announced Thursday.
Merryman can never be a landlord in Virginia again and must sell his rental properties in the state within a year. The settlement also orders Merryman to erase millions of dollars of eviction filings and judgements against past tenants —legal records that could prevent them from securing housing in the future.
Merryman also has to pay $2,250,000 to the tenants he discriminated against.
“Justice has come,” Palmer Heenan, who leads the AG’s Office of Civil Rights, wrote in the press release. “He can never again harm a tenant in the Commonwealth.”
