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Defense in Portland Landlord’s Trial Argues House Was Up to Code

The manslaughter trial of Portland landlord Gregory Nisbet continued Thursday. Prosecutors say he’s responsible for the deaths of six tenants in a house fire two years ago.

Prosecutors say Nisbet’s building was a death trap, with fire hazards, inoperative smoke alarms and a lack of top-floor escape routes as required by code. But Nisbet’s lawyers are trying to sow reasonable doubt about those claims, and arguing that the building did not have to meet the most stringent safety codes.

One former city inspector testified that in 2012 he responded to a complaint that an illegal unit had been added to the building, but he found no code violation. He also acknowledged that he never went inside the structure to determine whether there was an illegal unit, and that he did not follow up when Nisbet failed to return his telephone call.

One defense expert testified that the fire was so forceful and fast-moving that even if smoke alarms had been working, the heat would have knocked them out before they were activated. And that even if the alarms had sounded, tenants still would not have had enough time to escape.

He suggested that some of those who died would not have been awakened by an alarm, because they had been drinking before going to bed.

Any of those arguments could exonerate Nisbet, because his neglect of the property would not then be the cause of the tenants’ deaths.

Closing arguments could come on Friday.

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.