Wilt fails to appear at Court Date
Dr. Glenn Wilt, who began teaching in the early 60′s, distinguished himself as an educator at ASU’s WPCarey School of Business. These days, however he is finding his reputation as educator eclipsed in the news by his reputation as a slumlord. Wilt, who has built a career out of teaching others about finance and real estate now finds himself at odds with the communities where he invests and the courts which are beginning to take action on his apparent blatant disregard of city codes and official requests for action. With over eighty properties – both residential and commercial- throughout Tempe, Superior, Globe, Hayden and Winkleman, Dr. Wilt and his company, Superior Development Co. are increasingly in the news.
According to many of his tenants and local municipalities, he has proven to be adept at side-stepping even the most basic requirements of maintaining his properties creating both a hazardous and blight condition in these areas. The East Valley Tribune and reporter Ryan Gabrielson covered the mounting problems with Wilt’s properties in Superior over a year ago.
It seems little has changed except for the resolve of local residents and town officials to bring Wilt to task for cleaning up and maintaining his properties.
Yesterday, in Superior Court, Dr. Glen Wilt was a No Show at a hearing where 11 citations for city code violations were presented to Judge Bravo. Many of the citations dated back to February when Wilt was asked to clean up weeds and debris and secure roofs and windows from the elements. The judge seemed to be in no mood to extend the leniency he had shown 30 days earlier when he had granted Wilt an extension on his court date. This time, he found the ASU professor guilty on all counts and issued a summons to appear for sentencing on December 17th at 3 pm. At this time the court can issue fines of up to $2500 per citation and/or jail time.
The Superior summons comes on the heels of a long-awaited trial- involving another of Wilt’s properties; The Pioneer Hotel. The hotel fire which consumed the building and all three businesses who were renting from Wilt, took out the adjacent Globe Theater in July 2005
The trial is slated to begin in Gila County courthouse in Globe on December 2. Judge Duber will be the presiding judge.
It appears that Dr. Wilt will be spending more time in the courtroom than the classroom this Fall, and that might prove to be his biggest lesson yet to pass on to his students.
Additional Links on the issue of Dr. Wilt and his Real Estate holdings.
AzSilverBelt on Wilt AzSilverBelt on Wilt Aug 12
….Ah. What an interesting article on The Good Doctor.
Perhaps his life will be more than inconvenienced the way
others have been in the not too distant past.