UPDATED 5:07 P.M.

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Yesterday, Washington City Paper's Alan Suderman reported that former D.C. government employee Sulaimon Brown was being accused of occupying his residence in Northeast Washington illegally: "we're suing him as a squatter," Stephen Hessler, the landlord's attorney, told Suderman.

This morning, TBD's Jeremy Binckes aggregated Suderman's post, winning TBD a phone call from Brown, who said he did in fact have a lease. "If you’re gonna come after me, come after me on the merits," Brown said, expressing disappointment that a "legitimate news agency" such as TBD would parrot City Paper's piece. "I would be more than happy to send you guys my lease and my payments," he said. I gave him TBD's fax number.

That was at 11:08 a.m., and at 1:37 p.m. I called Brown, asking when this lease would be forthcoming. The conversation was, at his insistence, off the record, and there was no doubt by the end of it that he would not be sending me the lease.

Hessler says he doesn't have first-hand information on how Brown came to live at this address.

"Mr. Brown is a unique person," Hessler says. "I believe he’s litigious. I’ve seen him on cable TV. I believe he’s going to fight tooth and nail to stay in the apartment for free."

"We don’t believe that he’s a tenant," says Hessler. "We don’t believe that he paid rent. Mr. Brown is going to have to prove otherwise."

Here's the complaint against Brown, which was filed Wednesday.

Sulaimon Brown Landlord