Exclusive: Newark residents dealing with man known as 'The Neighborhood Nightmare'

A man in Newark is nicknamed 'The Neighborhood Nightmare, the Terrorizing Tenant."

Mark Newton is notorious for filing frivolous lawsuits and phony charges against his so-called enemies.

You might say he's a serial 'suer'. When you hear the story, you're going to wonder: how has Mark Newton gotten away with it for so long? He's tied up the court system for years, and now one state senator says: enough.

We caught up with Mark Newton on a recent day leaving court in Newark...it's familiar territory. You might say he sues for sport...filing lawsuits and complaints against anyone he feels has wronged him...from hospitals to utility companies, to the guy next door.

"In our situation, he broke into a foreclosed property that was right next to us, and he told us that if we don't pay him $15,000 he was going to make our lives a living hell, which he did," said Andy Henry.

Henry and his wife claim Newton has targeted them for the past 5 years, constantly filing charges.

"I've had burglary charges, I've had assault charges, I've had terroristic threat charges, you name it, he's put on," said Henry. "They've all been dismissed but it takes a long time to get dismissed which causes me not to get a job."

"This man collects victims for fun, that's what he does," said Kiewanda Shabazz-Henry.

"People say you squat for a living and sue them when you complain. Could you....", we asked. "People lie, people lie," Newton said.

He calls Ed Young a liar, who rented an apartment in this 4-family home to Newton several years ago and says he vandalized it.

"I had holes in the walls, all of the windows were knocked out," said Young.

And listen to another former landlord....whose story is virtually identical to Young's.

"He started poking holes in the wall and breaking windows, and then called code enforcement," said Marlon Stevenson.

Marlon Stevenson says he couldn't get access to the apartment for five years until Newton finally moved out.

"And then within the process he would file criminal complaints saying you broke into the apartment...you threatened him."

("He accused you of assaulting him?") "Yes," he said. ("And what happened with those charges?") "They were thrown out."

But it takes time to go to court to answer those charges...and it costs money.

"He enjoys trying to destroy you," Young said.

"What about the people who say you've filed false charges against them?," we asked Newton. "What about them?", he said. "And that you make a living doing that," we asked.

"I don't make a living doing that. Ok?" How am I going to make a living?"," Newton said. "How do you make a living, are you working?", we asked.

"Of course I'm working?" ("Where are you working?") "That's none of your concern," he said.

Just minutes before, Newton had told a judge he doesn't have a job, and that entitles him to a public defender, when people fight back against him in court.

"I look at this as the system failing us totally. What this man is doing is outrageous, as you've seen, this man is destroying our lives. We want justice. We want this man to be stopped," Young said.

"Is everybody making up these things about you?", we asked Newton. "They're contorting things, basically, yeah. They start...You're talking," he said. ("So everybody's against you?") "Yes," he said.

State Senator Ron Rice says he is now introducing legislation to stop people like Newton from abusing the system.

"I think once you bring the first one or two, you're gone, You're are in jail or fined," said Rice.

Senator Rice says Newtwon even verbally threatened him. That was a mistake.