The man accused of being a manager and part owner of troubled Aurora apartment complexes shut down by the city in recent months fired back in a court filing on Thursday, accusing the city of “selective enforcement” and alleging officials might have targeted him because he’s an Orthodox Jew.

Aurora officials have maintained that their actions resulted from numerous code violations at the complexes. 

Zev Baumgarten, who has been connected to CBZ Management, faces 26 counts that primarily included allegations of violating the Aurora Municipal code, such as by maintaining “substandard building or premises.” He was due in Aurora Municipal Court on Friday morning.

The management company, which is controlled by New York-based Shmaryahu Baumgarten and supposedly Baumgarten, at one point owned several metro area properties, including three in Denver and four in Aurora. Some of the buildings had been closed for persistent code violations.

In the filing, Baumgarten said he was targeted “though he was neither the owner nor even a property manager,” according to his motion for discovery.

He told the court he and his family moved to Lone Tree in 2019 and “are members of the Jewish faith and follow Chabad Orthodox Judaism.” He dresses in the traditional Orthodox Jew fashion, with a long beard and yarmulka on his head, his filing said. 

“Mr. Baumgarten’s religious affiliation has not gone unnoticed by the City and may even be the motivating factor behind its aggressive enforcement of municipal ordinances against Mr. Baumgarten,” the motion said.

CBZ owns and operated The Aspen Grove Apartments on Nome Street under the company Nome Partners LLC, and The Edge at Lowry on Dallas Street under the company Five Dallas Partners LLC and Whispering Pines, owned by Whispering Pines Partners LLC, BZMRS LLC and 733Dekalb Ralty LLC subsidiaries of CBZ, a Brooklyn-based company that owns 11 properties in Colorado, including three in Aurora.

The Edge at Lowry was shut down by Aurora in February in a high-profile press conference with Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain in the cockroach-infested building.

The move marked the second shutdown of a troubled apartment complex owned and operated by CBZ Management that became the focal point of America’s debate on illegal immigration, particularly after the activities of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua or TdA into Colorado cities like Aurora and Denver came to light.

As an example of the alleged behavior targeting him, Baumgarten cited a phone call with the supervisor of the Aurora Code Enforcement officers in late 2022. He asked the supervisor why the city “was being so hard on him” — to which the official “retorted ‘because you are an Orthodox Jew.’”

Baumgarten called the alleged episode an “alarming and disturbing statement.”

City officials have alleged the properties were so far run down that they were uninhabitable. Chamberlain, the police chief, said at the press conference that the situation was “not humane” and that no one should have to live under such conditions.

Aurora city officials filed a criminal nuisance case against CBZ’s Zev Baumgarten in December.

According to the city’s petition, the Edge at Lowry had been plagued with violent crimes and quality of life issues since September 2023.

The Denver Gazette emailed the City of Aurora for comment, but had not received a response of of this publishing.

Denver Gazette reporter Nicole Brambila contributed to this story, which is developing and will be updated.