Following reports, Lexington mayoral candidate Adrian Wallace says he’s never been evicted
Adrian Wallace, a candidate for Lexington mayor, said he has never been evicted despite what appears to be a court ordered eviction notice entered against him in March.
According to court records, a Fayette County District Court judge approved the eviction March 23. Wallace said the eviction never went through. Family members were living in the home at the time of the eviction notice, he said, and he had already moved into another residence.
“My cousins moved in the end of last year,” Wallace told the Herald-Leader after other media reported Wednesday he had been evicted from his home. “They couldn’t find a place to go. We were trying to help them out. We eventually worked it out with the management company.”
There were other eviction notices filed against Wallace in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Those cases were all dismissed, according to court records. Dismissals in eviction cases sometimes happen after the landlord and tenant come to an agreement, including if back rent is paid.
“My family is still in the house and all of those cases have been dismissed and paid,” Wallace said. ”I have never had to vacate a property other than when I voluntarily left an apartment over 10 years ago because of a dispute with the landlord.”
Wallace said he has struggled financially at some points and has had to make up back rent when his development company went through tough times.
“Sometimes we wouldn’t be paid for three or four months,” Wallace said.
Wallace runs The Bishop and Chase Foundation, a local nonprofit. He also has served on multiple nonprofit boards and has been a local and state official with the NAACP. Wallace ran unsuccessfully in the 2018 Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council’s at-large race.
Court records also show in 2019, Central Bank sued Wallace over approximately $8,000 in overdrafts related to Bishop and Chase bank accounts. That case was dismissed and settled, according to court records.
“It was paid,” Wallace said. At the time, Wallace said Bishop and Chase was running alternatives to youth juvenile detention programs. Funding fell short and Bishop and Chase was still trying to pay staff who ran those programs.
“We were trying to pay two different directors. It’s been a struggle,” Wallace said. “I didn’t want to let them go.”
Wallace said Bishop and Chase no longer runs those alternative youth detention programs due to lack of funding.
Wallace faces Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber in the May 17 primary.
