Hooker Legacy Spoils Gallery Bid

Rev. Seymour Perkins will continue to be a regular fixture of the East Hackberry community for at least the next eight months or so, despite a local judge's rejection of his attorney's request for a new trial.

It was just a few weeks ago that CPS crews shut off gas to the home of this controversial artist and comforter of wayward streetwalkers and a bulldozer rumbled onto his property. That was the day after a local judge ruled in favor of the city's structural complaint about the home.

While Perkins' attorneys got a judge to phone in an immediate stay on that demo, no one seemed interested in hearing it.

[Check video here.]

This time, there was a granted stay of demolition until the appeals process plays out at the Fifth Circuit to determine if Perky's team has the right to present evidence or not. (If accepted by the court, that process will likely take up to eight months, said one pro-bono attorney handling the case.)

Attorney Eddie Bravenec said that volunteers have emerged from all points to donate time and resources to bring Perky's home up to city code. However, offers to transform the home into an art gallery and move Perkins to another location have met resistance in District 2 council offices of Sheila McNeil.

Rather than push the issue, Perkins y Co. will wait out the current council tenant, hoping for better luck next round.

"I think that what we're going to do is wait until we get a council person from that area that's not crazy," Bravenec said.

That new council member would be "reasonable enough to say if we can get the drugs and prostitution out of that area, that's great. That if we can make sure this building is safe, that's great too, and that should be one of our goals. Not that they want to take this old man's house."

The attorney added that he had heard there were backroom deals already being done on Perky's property.

Here's what McNeil told us…