• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Nov 12, 2009 - Page: 5B

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BRUSLY — An outspoken landlord involved in a long-running zoning law dispute with Mayor Joey Normand and town government officials reported to jail Tuesday for a 48-hour stay imposed for violating a court order in the case.

Judge William Dupont, of 18th Judicial District Court, on March 11 fined George “Skipper” Grady $1,000 and sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court, a sentence that was later reduced by a higher court.

The judge had ordered Grady in June 2008 to remove tenants living in a building the businessman owns which is situated in a commercially zoned area of town.

Grady’s attorney, Steve Irving, said the town’s zoning ordinance has a loophole which doesn’t clearly prohibit medium- and high-density housing in the commercial zone.

Grady’s property, 557 E. Main St., was once a restaurant but later was converted to residential living space.

It is surrounded by single-family houses that were “grandfathered” in more than 10 years ago when the town government zoned the neighborhood commercial.

Irving has said that Grady did not immediately follow the June 2008 court order because Grady didn’t get an official notice from the court until several months after the ruling.

Irving added that when Grady finally received the notice in November 2008, he couldn’t ask his tenants to move out immediately because there was little rental property available after Hurricane Gustav struck the area Sept. 1, 2008.

Grady eventually appealed the contempt of court ruling to the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal.

On June 11, Circuit Judges Page McClendon, Jewel E. “Duke” Welch and Randolph Parro agreed with the lower court in finding Grady was in violation of town zoning ordinances.

The appeal court, however, suspended all but 48 hours of Grady’s six-month sentence, calling Dupont’s ruling correct but “excessive.”

On Monday, Brusly Town Attorney Michael Frugé said the state Supreme Court had declined to review Grady’s case.

“The town of Brusly is happy with both decisions, which affirm Judge William Dupont’s well-thought-out and legally correct decision,” Frugé said.