ASU Professor Glen Wilt Found Responsible for Fire

By Jesse Bryant
Dr. Glenn A. Wilt Jr. is a Professor of Finance and Real Estate Investment at Arizona State University, where he has taught for the last 48 years. Dr. Wilt has, by his own description, a personal hobby of purchasing historic buildings throughout Arizona. This hobby has made him an infamous name around rural Arizona, and garnered him two different appearances on the KPHO 5“5 Investigates” segment.
Dr. Wilt owns around 75 properties located across Arizona, with properties in Maricopa, Yavapai, Pinal, and Gila counties. Over half of those are located in the historic Arizona mining towns of Superior, Hayden, Miami, and Globe.
One particular building was the historic Pioneer Hotel, located in downtown Globe. A century old treasure left over from the boomtown era, the building was purchased by Dr. Wilt in the early 2000’s for $210,000, though he admitted it was worth a lot more.
In the yet dark morning hours of Sunday, July 17, 2005, Globe Fire Department was notified of fire in the Pioneer Hotel. Firefighters responded immediately, and despite attempts to fight the fire, the building was reduced to charred rubble, and the movie theater next door along with it.
In 2006, lawsuits were filed against Dr. Wilt by the Hollis family, owner of the adjoining theater; and the owners of businesses located inside of the Pioneer, the Brusca’s, owner of Java Junction, and Frank Balaam, owner of Balaam Art Gallery. A story of negligent ownership, and lost dreams entered its final chapter on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 when Gila County Superior Court summoned a pool of 100 jurors with the intention of finding only 10 who were unbiased. Attorney for the Brusca’s, John Perlman, commented to the jury that this was maybe the largest jury pool ever called in Gila County.
Trial began that same afternoon. Public safety first responders testified of their first hand accounts at the fire. Globe Fire Chief Al Gameros testified that this was the worst fire he had ever been on in his 30 years as a firefighter. Firefighters D.J. Bollinger, and Scott Hatch were the first to enter the burning building. Bollinger testified that they entered from the basement door in the back ally with charged fire hose in hand, but were denied entry by a plywood structure built by Dr. Wilt around the stairway that would have allowed them access to all four upper floors of the building.

Tenants Frank Balaam and Tony Brusca both testified to the lack of responsiveness by their landlord, Dr. Wilt, when vandalism, break-ins, or significant maintenance problems arose. Balaam showed the jury pictures he took of the water damage, and ruin on all four floors of the building after he suffered a “deluge” in his first floor gallery after a rain. Globe Fire Marshal Joe Bracamonte testified as an expert on the science of the fire. He stated the fire had to have reached over 1,000 degrees to melt the structural steel.
The trial put the onlookers at the edge of their seats when the defendant, Dr. Wilt, slipped up in his testimony, and made reference to his “properties” as a whole in vindication of his attention to maintenance with the Pioneer. This comment allowed the plaintiff’s attorney, Jerry DeRose, to motion the court to allow testimony on the notorious maintenance record of Dr. Wilt’s many historic buildings.
Fire Marshal Bracamonte returned to the stand to described his labors in fire code inspections and abatement of the Globe properties. Bracamonte recounted having to obtain a search warrant to inspect the historic East Globe Elementary School building due to Wilt’s repeated non-response to the city.
Superior Fire Department Operations Chief Todd Pryor testified next to his experiences with Dr. Wilt in attempting to have him abate fire and building code violations. Pryor described many of the over 40 buildings Wilt owns in Superior, and told of a list of over 14 buildings that have outstanding abatement orders, some over two years old. Pryor told the jury about the historic Superior Theater, owned by Wilt, that through a process of decay literally collapsed into Main Street.
The trial hit a cliff hanging moment when the defense motioned for a mistrial due to the jury being tainted by non-admissible evidence. During Chief Pryor’s testimony, he commented twice that Dr. Wilt had been convicted of two misdemeanors over his Superior code violations. The defense argued that prior convictions could not be used as evidence in this case. Judge Robert Duber asked plaintiff’s attorney DeRose whether he knew that the chief was going to testify about the convictions. DeRose responded he did not. Defense attorney further argued that DeRose’s questions led to the non-admissible testimony. The judge ordered the testimony be read back, disagreed and denied the motion, but instructed the jury to ignore the references.
The jury began deliberation at 1 p.m., Thursday, December 10, and took only two hours to reach a verdict. Rumors hit the halls that the jury had sent a question out asking if they found in favor of the plaintiff, whether they could award attorneys fees. All parties reentered the courtroom in anticipation of the jury’s return, save for Dr. Wilt, whose attorney stated he had to return home for business.
The judge warned the spectators that their would be no outbursts or applause upon the court clerk’s reading of the jury’s epic decision. With unanimous agreement the clerk reported, “We the jury… find in favor of the Plaintiff Frank Balaam, and award $223,000.”
In finding in favor of the plaintiff, the jury ruled Dr. Glenn Wilt to be responsible for the fire through negligence. The full impact of this judgment may be felt for sometime to come. Rural Arizona towns currently are vigorously pursuing attention to property upkeep through adoption of the latest and newest international building and fire codes, and equally vigorous enforcement. Wilt was recently convicted of 16 civil violations in Superior Magistrate Court, and remains in Globe Magistrate Court for around a half of dozen.