Complaint Against Harvard Thrown Out

The Third District Court in East Cambridge Monday refused to issue a complaint against Harvard for alleged violations of a state law requiring locks on the main doors of all apartment buildings.

Clerk of the Court Joseph D. Conway said that building inspectors had examined the apartment complex at 122 Mt. Auburn St. which was named in the complaint, and found that the building had the required locks.

Harvard installed the locks in the building several days after Jane S. Britton '67 was murdered there on Jan. 6.

Jessie L. Gill, chairman of the Mt. Auburn Tenants Union, which sought the complaint, said she would now take it to the City's building department and the district attorney's office.

Three Others

Also on Monday, the City Council asked that housing inspectors crack down on alleged housing code violations by Harvard in three other buildings, located at 8 Plympton St., 54 and 77 Garfield St.

Councillor Barbara Ackermann, who introduced the resolution passed unanimously by the Council, said that two of these buildings did not have locks and that the third had other "noticeable violations."

She said that the City should consider levying the penalties imposed by the codes on violators, rather than just using the threat of the penalties to make landlords comply with the codes.

Give Time

City Manager James L. Sullivan replied that landlords should be given "a reasonable length of time to comply with the law" before being brought into court. Sullivan said that he had sent a letter to all apartment house owners in the City, informing them of the law on locks passed last spring to "reinforce the fact that this applies to Harvard and all other landlords in the City of Cambridge."

"I don't know how many locksmiths there are in Cambridge," Sullivan said, "but I imagine they'll be rather busy."