Donald Trump Father's 1976 Arrest In Maryland Revisited

The father and Trump family business partner of 2016 Republican party presidential candidate Donald Trump--Fred Trump [II]--was, coincidentally, finally arrested and fined by Prince George County officials in Maryland in 1976 for failing to comply with a court order to repair housing code violations in the Federal Housing Administration [FHA]-financed Gregory Estates housing project that the Trump family business owned in the 1970's. As the 1992 book by former Village Voice reporter Wayne Barrett, Trump: The Deals and The Downfall, recalled:

"...In Maryland...Fred [Trump II] wound up handcuffed and arrested by Prince George County officials when he appeared at one FHA project that local officials said he was `bleeding' dry. The arrest came in 1976, but it was after at least 4 years of battling Trump to make repairs on the beleaguered 504-unit Gregory Estates, which county officials flatly called `a slum property.'

"With over a hundred vacancies, a series of disregarded code violations, a history of heat and hot water problems, defaulting payments to FHA, hundreds of thousands overdue to the gas and electric companies, and a minuscule local staff that `couldn't buy light-bulbs without authorization from New York,' the project was denied a license to operate. When repeated conversations with Fred [Trump II] proved fruitless, county officials surprised him on a visit to the project and charged with noncompliance with a notice of violation...

"...Fred [Trump II] was first taken to a local precinct...When he reappeared in the district court, the judge levied a heavy fine on Fred [Trump II]'s corporate entity..."