Bitter divorce leaves man stranded in front yard of his million-dollar home

Kevin Reece | KHOU-TV, Houston

Show Caption Hide Caption Man lives in front yard of his million dollar home A bitter divorce has resulted in an elderly man refusing to leave the property he and his estranged wife co-own. His wife kicked him out after years of alleged abuse.

HOUSTON — Neighbors in the upscale waterfront development of Taylor Lake Shores in Lakeview are asking authorities, and a reclusive doctor, to find a solution to a months-long dispute that has left a 69-year-old man camped out in the front yard of his million-dollar house after a dispute with his wife.

Sharafat Khan has reportedly been living outside his house, mostly on the front lawn, since his wife, Shahnaz Khan — a Friendswood-area doctor — kicked him out of the house in March and left him with only the clothes on his back.

“I’m really weak, but otherwise OK,” he said Tuesday, seated underneath the palm trees in his front yard on Ray Shell Court.

HIs wife has placed a sign on the front door asking people not to feed him.

“If you want to feed him, take him to your house. If you want to, you can keep him at your house. Thanks for your sympathy, but do not bring anything on this property,” the sign reads.

Neighbors continue to bring him food anyway.

“It just seems the man is elderly and it seems inhumane to leave him stranded out there,” said neighbor Laurel Stout.

It was an everyday argument that got him kicked out of the house, Khan said.

Lakeview Police report a series of arguments have brought them to the upscale home as many as 30 times in the last six months. Khan says his 61-year-old wife kicked him out, changed the locks and demanded police to remove him from her property.

Problem is, they can’t.

The property is deeded in both of their names. And police say that if he wants to loiter in his own front yard, there’s nothing they can do.

“My emotions are with this house. I could live on the floor over there,” he said, admitting he has had offers from friends and could afford to stay in a hotel if he chose to. “But I’m on my own property.”

Khan is clearly in frail health, and neighbors question his mental state. When we met him Tuesday morning, he was still wearing hospital scrubs, hospital socks and the hospital bracelets from a recent stay.

Khan says he has diabetes and high blood pressure. Neighbors and police confirm multiple ambulance calls to the home to take him to the hospital. Doctors treat him, but each time he ends up back in his front yard.

“I just know that she’s the stronger one in the family,” David Flores said after stopping by to check on his friend.

Flores says he was the general contractor for the Khan family home about a decade ago.

“I don’t understand why somebody wouldn’t come help their father, even if Mom tells you no,” Flores said.

One of his sons told KHOU-TV the wife finally got tired of years of verbal and physical abuse. There also have been allegations of theft. Harris County Criminal Court records show that Khan was arrested for domestic violence in 2008 and civil court records show his wife received a protective order in December 2014 and that she filed for divorce in June. She's also asked for multiple restraining orders. Records show that a final judgment has not yet been signed.

Multiple attempts to reach his wife at her doctor’s office and the home were not successful. She returned home early Tuesday afternoon, drove her SUV through the circular driveway past Khan, parked in her garage and entered the home without comment to us or her husband.

We asked Khan one final question: What is he trying to accomplish?

“To realize whatever she is doing she’s doing bad,” he said. “People will know, the neighbors and everything else. People will ask her, put her down. Let her know what you’re doing to your husband.”