Chicken Man Set For Thursday Eviction

Andrew Wordes - also known as the Roswell Chicken Man - blames the city of Roswell for his pending eviction in more ways than one.

Wordes is set to be evicted from his Alpine Lane home on Thursday, Dec. 8. But he contends it never would have happened this way had the city of Roswell used Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to purchase his property, which was damaged by floods during 2009. His accusations go deeper still, telling Roswell Patch he believes the city purposefully so that he would miss a Sept. 8 bancruptcy court date.

Roswell City Attorney David Davidson said there is no truth to the theory that Roswell put Wordes in jail to further along his foreclosure.

"Mr. Wordes probation was revoked for failure to do his community service," he said. "The city had nothing to do with his choice not to follow the judge’s order."

Wordes - who is known for raising chickens at his Roswell home - was cited by the city on two separate occassions: the first involved illegal grading on his property during 2009; the second was a violation of a city ordinance that maintains how many inoperable vehicles residents are allowed to keep.

"I'm not trying to be the neighbor from hell," he said. "My property didn't always look this way."

He says the deterioration of his property stems from flooding, which he blames on the city. In trying to mitigate the damage, money ran out and things broke down.

"I was told to leave things as they are until the case was settled," he said, explaining the rundown condition of the property.

But the city has said it is not at fault for Wordes property flooding and sentenced him to pay $1,000 for each violation, in lieu of up to one year of jail time. However, the sentence was commuted to 180 hours of community service, which had not been completed by the April deadline, hence the reason for his jailing, Assistant City Attorney Bob Hulsey told Roswell Patch back in August.

, he was also in and out of bancruptcy court. In fact, the day prior to his probation revocation hearing in front of Roswell Municipal Judge Maurice Hilliard, Wordes was in court fighting against the foreclosure of his home.

Davidson said the city has nothing to gain from Wordes' foreclosure.

In recent years Wordes' private mortgage holder - a woman in her 80s - sold the property to a private investor, "whose sole purpose is to take the house,” said Wordes, who is currently looking for a new attorney to represent him.

However, according to Wordes, there may have been light at the end of his long, litigious tunnel.

The investor's attorneys told him that they would potentially hold off on foreclosure if he showed back up on Sept. 8 with a 'proof of claim' and information which might lead to a potential lawsuit against the city of Roswell.

That never happened since he was in jail and unable to negotiate with attorneys.

"I informed Hilliard and the chief of police, but I was basically told 'too bad,'" Wordes said.

The law firm of John J. McManus, which represents the investor who owns Wordes' property, never returned phone calls by Roswell Patch.

When he got out of jail in early November, Wordes found his home had been ransacked and looted. He said authorities were notified of the potential danger to residents at that time, since Wordes kept an "arsenal" of guns that could be stolen.

"The city put the community at risk knowing I had guns and not doing anything to stop the looting," Wordes said.

But, Channel 2 reports that the city did assign a patrol car to watch the house and didn't see anything suspicious going on.

Roswell Police Department Spokeswoman Lisa Holland said there are no leads in Wordes' burglary case.

"Mr. Wordes could not provide any serial numbers to any of the guns that were stolen and there are no suspects," she said.