The Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) tomorrow is losing an embarrassing round in its months-long, taxpayer-funded battle to resist paying outstanding lead paint poisoning judgments:

The Baltimore City Sheriff will be seizing trucks and other agency property in the wake of HABC’s refusal to pay a $2.5 million judgment in one of those cases, according to The Daily Record.

In all, the agency is refusing to pay about $12 million in court-ordered judgments in 12 cases in which former residents were poisoned by exposure to lead paint.

On Wednesday at 9 a.m., the sheriff’s office will seize nearly two dozen trucks, computers and other office agency supplies and eventually auction them off to pay the judgment, according to the Record’s Melody Simmons. (Most of HABC’s assets are federal property, but plaintiffs’ lawyers have found a small number of trucks and other items that are city-owned.)

The authority is facing scores of lawsuits over its use of lead paint, which can cause brain damage and learning and behavioral problems. The agency has paid outside lawyers about $4 million since 2005 to fight these cases, the Baltimore Sun reported earlier this year

City Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano has refused to pay the legal judgments, saying that the agency does not have the resources to do so. Earlier this year, Graziano defended the public housing authority’s legal fee spending, saying the expenditures were limited to cases requiring “specialized expertise.” He said the agency had spent $6.3 million since 2003.

Graziano’s comments about the legal fees came in response to the news that U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa began an inquiry into allegations against HABC that include “possible conflicts of interest, fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayers’ monies.”