“He has no kids?” asks Sexton as she gazes at pictures of the 28,000-square-foot Belleville mansion that is owned by James Green, who lives in the home with his wife, Catherine, according to records in the St. Clair County Building and Zoning Department.

Green is a general partner of Granite Investment Company, which owns MacArthur Park. He has been a player in real estate since the 1960s, renting hundreds upon hundreds of apartments, mostly in Madison and St. Clair counties. Rex Carr, an East St. Louis lawyer and a partner in Granite Investment, says that MacArthur Park, built in 1969, is one of several apartment complexes that the partnership has owned since the 1970s.

Sexton gazes at one photo after another of Green’s house – the gate across the driveway, the entrance framed by Romanesque columns, the swimming pool. The mansion was built in 1995 at a cost of $4 million by John T. Connors, a former casino magnate and brother of erstwhile tennis star Jimmy Connors. Green acquired the property after Connors declared bankruptcy in 1999.

“Maybe even longer,” Sexton says. “Why hasn’t he been checking up on things? I’d like to know that – why, instead of leaving it up to someone else? Unless he doesn’t give a darn.”

Problems elsewhere MacArthur Park isn’t the only apartment complex associated with Green where tenants say they’ve suffered from lack of maintenance and repairs.

In 2006, a tenant in a Collinsville complex who fell through the floor of her apartment sued James Green Enterprises, Green’s property management firm, and Residential Marketing Systems, a leasing company that has Green listed as president in Illinois Secretary of State records. The woman suffered injuries that required more than $33,000 in medical care, according to Madison County Circuit Court documents.

The tenant claimed that the property manager had been told that the floor needed repairs, yet did nothing. Green’s lawyer said that the tenant was at fault because she didn’t exercise sufficient care when walking. The case was settled out of court, files show.

In 2008, a couple who lived in a Bethalto complex sued James Green Management and Residential Marketing Systems, saying that their apartment was nearly uninhabitable. Water cascaded down their walls due to a defective roof, the couple claimed in Madison County court documents, and chunks of drywall had fallen onto their floor, where carpet had grown moldy. The bathroom floor was rotted, the shower faucet worked only with the aid of pliers, faulty wiring caused shocks to anyone who used the kitchen sink and they lived amid rats and roaches, according to the couple who said that they stopped paying rent after five years of complaints.