Bradley house goes to sheriff’s sale
The Lewes home of convicted pedophile Earl Bradley is set to go to sheriff’s sale this summer.
Bradley is currently a resident of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, serving 14 life sentences and 164 years in prison for rape and sexual exploitation of 86 children at his BayBees Pediatrics office on Route 1.
Since his arrest in December 2009, Bradley’s house has fallen into disrepair. Windows have been broken, torn window screens flap like flags in the breeze, and weeds have worked their way up the side of the house.
In the driveway is a black Volkswagen Beetle with the license plate “MOE.”
No date has been set for the sale, although Deputy Tina Timmons with the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office said the sale would probably be in May or June. She said the Sheriff’s Office got notice Jan. 17 that the property was to be sold; the office has a four-to-six-month backlog, which will delay the sale of the Bradley property.
U.S. Bank, which holds the mortgage on Bradley’s Savannah Road home, was awarded a $559,000 judgment in its attempt to collect unpaid mortgage payments from Bradley. Georgetown attorney Thomas Barnett represented U.S. Bank in its suit against Bradley but declined to discuss the case.
U.S. Bank foreclosed on the property Oct. 21, and Sussex County Superior Court Judge Richard Stokes awarded the judgment Christmas Eve. The judgment includes $493,000 in principal, $60,000 in interest, $4,200 in escrow advances and $310 in late charges.
The BayBees offices were similarly foreclosed on by Fulton Bank, which then sold the property to Realtor Bruce Geyer, who had the buildings demolished Oct. 10.
Bradley’s residence is subject to a state lien as part of a civil racketeering suit brought by the Attorney General’s Office. Jason Miller, spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the lien against Bradley’s residence is still in effect.
The state was granted a $600,000 judgment against Bradley as a resolution to the racketeering case. Any proceeds from the sale of Bradley’s residence would go to the state after the bank’s lien is satisfied, Miller said.
Judge William C. Carpenter found Bradley guilty of 24 counts of rape, sexual exploitation of a child and assault in an Aug. 27 bench trial. Bradley’s defense team has appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, claiming the conviction was based on illegally collected evidence.
A class-action civil suit against Bradley is also ongoing. In that case, attorneys are waiting for a ruling from New Castle County Superior Court Judge Joseph Slights III on whether to dismiss the Medical Society of Delaware and doctors Carol Tavani, James Marvel and Lowell Scott from a suit against Bradley and Beebe Medical Center.
