Hurst Mayor Henry Wilson is no Friend of Property Rights

Remember back in 1997-2000 when:

"The city of Hurst, Texas, agreed to let its largest taxpayer, a real estate company, expand its North East Mall and thus increase its sale and property tax revenue. There happened to be 127 homes in the way, but that did not deter the City. Under the threat of eminent domain, almost all of the homeowners sold their property. Ten did not, and brought a lawsuit. The Lopez, Duval, Prohs and Laue families each owned their homes for approximately 30 years. Others had been there for more than a decade.

A Texas trial judge refused to stay the condemnations while the suit was ongoing, so the residents lost their homes. Leonard Prohs had to move while his wife was in the hospital with brain cancer. She dies only five days after the house was demolished. Phyllis Duval's husband also was in the hospital with cancer at the time they were required to move. He died one month after demolition. Of the ten couples, three spouses died and four others suffered heart attacks during the dispute and litigation.

In court, the owners presented evidence that the land surveyor who designed the roads for the mall had been told to change the path of one road to run through eight of the houses of the owners challenging the condemnations."
(Government Theft: The Top 10 Abuses of Eminent Domain; March 2002; page 11)

Hurst City Councilman Henry Wilson (who is now Mayor) was cold and unsympathetic about this blatant disregard for property rights saying at the time “We’re doing something neat for all of the citizens of Hurst.” (Dallas Morning News; April 13, 1997) 

Henry Wilson actually uttered these words while forcing long time Hurst families to move for a private mall expansion, while two of their spouses were dying of cancer!