Roxbury "Problem Property" scene of alleged animal abuse

Police Commissioner Edward Davis and Mayor Thomas Menino spoke outside 102 Blue Hill Ave. on July 5. The house was the subject of 105 service calls in a year.Police Commissioner Edward Davis and Mayor Thomas Menino spoke outside 102 Blue Hill Ave. on July 5. The house was the subject of 105 service calls in a year.

A man police arrested on drug charges July 5 while living in Boston's first officially recognized "problem property" was re-arrested early this morning, after police responded to a complaint that he was throwing kittens out of a second-story window out of the same building.

Thomas Ganzales, 47, was arrested shortly after midnight in the problem property at 102 Blue Hill Ave. in Roxbury and charged with cruelty to animals and resisting arrest. According to a Boston Police report, Ganzales’ wife, Angela Ganzales — who along with her husband was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine in July — was “crying hysterically in the common hallway as she was holding a black kitten,” when officers arrived on the scene.

Thomas Ganzales acknowledged to police that he had tossed kittens out a window and told police to kick in the door to his second-floor apartment, according to the report. Ganzales “took an aggressive posture, with both hands up while screaming at the officers,” and “did violently struggle with officers” before being forced to the ground.

A witness told police two kittens had been thrown from the house. Police recovered two kittens at the scene, and an animal inspector found them in good health, according to the report.

On July 5, Mayor Thomas Menino stood outside 102 Blue Hill and declared it the city’s first problem property, a designation he introduced to identify buildings and parcels that are sites of at least four criminal complaints in a 12-month period. Menino formed a Problem Properties Task Force by executive order in May, and the City Council passed an ordinance July 13 that makes negligent landlords financially liable for the cost of policing such troublesome properties.

The three-decker at 102 Blue Hill had been the subject of 105 service calls — 31 for serious crimes including assault and battery with a weapon, drug distribution and prostitution — since May 2010.

District Police Captain John Davin told the Dorchester Reporter in August that police had not been called to 102 Blue Hill since the mayor’s press conference. He said the property owner, Edward Franco, had erected a fence, installed surveillance cameras, and taken other steps to make the property safer.

Davin added that tenants on all three floors of the house, including the Ganzaleses, had agreed to move out, according to Franco.


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