Suffolk drug dealer's arrest only start of problems

Drug dealers have mortgages, too. The people who watched the police storm 107 Linden Ave. and arrest its owner in October 2007 weren't thinking about that. // Instead, they cheered.

They applauded because they had finally won after trying for years to rid themselves of William W. Colby Jr.

They figured the house soon would have a new owner, and before long the shabby two-story home would be revitalized, helping the historic West End neighborhood.

It wasn't that simple. Colby would sign away the home and break the deal. Prosecutors had to find his ex-wife in Washington state and cajole his mortgage company in Texas. The events show how difficult it can be to clean up a drug house.

"It's slower than I would like," Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Ferguson said of the effort to get 107 Linden in someone else's hands. "It's been very difficult on us. That's the best way I can put it."

Colby is now serving six years for selling the prescription drug OxyContin. His house is boarded up.

Kay Hurley, a secretary in the West End Civic League, said people aren't afraid to walk by anymore.

"I think it's definitely changed the atmosphere for that street, for that block and for that whole neighborhood," she said. "But it took a long, long time to bring about that result."

Now the house just exists, with its peeling paint and the windows and front door covered by plywood. Residents see it as an embarrassing eyesore at an entrance to their neighborhood. Last spring, The Garden Club of Virginia's Historic Garden Week tour visited a home one block away.

"It just seems to be stuck in time," said Angela Koncz, the civic league president. "It's just been an amazing journey that it has taken this long to rectify an atrocity to the neighborhood."

The commonwealth's attorney filed papers on Oct. 16, 2007, to seize the house. The law allows authorities to do so if they can show a property was used in substantial connection with a drug operation.

The move is rare in Suffolk, partly because local dealers often don't own their homes, said Matthew Glassman, the assistant commonwealth's attorney on the Colby case.

The commonwealth's attorney's office began the civil case by whittling down the claims on the house.

One belonged to Sharlene Colby, the ex-wife who had a $7,500 interest from the divorce. She moved from Virginia in 1998. The authorities tracked down an address for her in Lakewood, Wash., near Tacoma, and had a local sheriff's deputy serve papers on her on Jan. 8, 2008.

Sharlene Colby wrote a letter back that same day.

"I don't care what happens to the house as long as I get the money in equity that I had coming to me," she said.

She lost her interest on April 3, 2008, because she failed to file a proper answer.

Things seemed to be moving along nicely at that point for prosecutors. Colby had signed a plea agreement the day before to forfeit the house in exchange for consideration at his sentencing.

He signed a settlement agreement three months later, but within weeks he refused to sign additional documents necessary to sell the house, Glassman said. The commonwealth's attorney asked Circuit Court Judge Carl Eason to compel cooperation, but the judge declined.

Colby was sentenced months later, so he didn't get credit for the aborted forfeiture agreement.

The prosecutors next turned to a lender with a $23,000 note on the house. U.S. Bank had sold the mortgage to Litton Loan Servicing since Colby's arrest, Glassman said.

Litton, out of Houston, agreed to foreclose on the property, negating the necessity of moving ahead on the civil forfeiture.

"Basically, we said, 'Have at it, and we're not asking for anything. Sell it at cost,' " Glassman said.

"We just wanted the property turned over to somebody who was going to take care of it and restore it. That's all we wanted."

An auction was advertised for 12:15 p.m. on April 16. About 20 people gathered outside the courthouse - except the auctioneer.

"We all stood there and stood there and stood there," said Robert Baker III, the owner of a funeral home across the street from Colby's house.

Glassman called the company that was supposed to be running the auction. He said he was told Litton had canceled the sale and was contemplating just writing off the loan as a loss.

Baker had taken out a loan that morning to cover a down payment on a bid. "And I just carried it back," he said.

Ferguson said he was stunned. His office had to wait for Litton to release their lien so Glassman could get on with the court action again.

The necessary paperwork was recorded June 29.

Colby, meanwhile, has appealed his criminal conviction and written to Judge Eason saying he was having trouble getting legal help on his house.

Glassman wouldn't guess how much longer the civil action might take. But he doesn't consider it a possibility that a convicted drug dealer really can go home again.

"It's now just us and Colby," he said.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com