For the first time, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration used a new law to intervene on behalf of a Brooklyn family facing an eviction they say stems from deed fraud.
But the move may not have worked.
A city lawyer filed papers Friday to try to prevent the impending eviction of a family in order to examine a possible underlying case of deed fraud or theft related to the historic Crown Heights brownstone where they live.
But a Brooklyn housing court judge declined to grant the stay, writing in a filing that two courts had already litigated the deed theft allegations.
An eviction could take place as soon as this week. The City Law Department is evaluating next steps, according to spokesperson Nick Paolucci.
The family, including Helen “Queen Afua” Robinson and her grown children Sherease and Ali Torain, have been fighting to keep their home for over a decade. They alleged their late grandmother Ida Robinson, who purchased the home with her husband in 1968, was a victim of deed theft.
“After all this time, I was hoping for something totally different and unfortunately this happened,” said Sherease Torain on Sunday evening from her stoop, where over 30 locals gathered to speak about the situation and plan to stop a possible eviction by physically blocking the home.
“It really breaks my heart that I started this in my 30s, now I’m in my 40s , and I’m not too far away from my 50s,” she continued. “This is what it does to you — it steals time and that’s something you can never get back.”
The ongoing saga has played out across multiple lawsuits over the years, as the family tried to reclaim the property deed and the current recorded owner of the home attempted to kick them out. In the past, local tenant organizers have kept watch over the stoop to prevent previous eviction attempts — and at one point, helped the family re-enter the home after the owner changed the locks.
New Law to Halt Eviction
The Friday filing marked the first time city lawyers had intervened in court to halt an eviction related to possible deed theft under a state law. In 2023, state lawmakers had updated the law to allow for government entities to motion for a stay — to prevent eviction — in order to investigate matters where deed theft or fraud may have taken place.
Philip Schaffroth, the chief of detectives at the Office of the New York City Sheriff supported the request for a stay, as the city Department of Finance’s Bureau of Investigation looks into a claim of deed fraud. The Mayor’s Office of Deed Theft Prevention referred the case to the finance agency’s investigators in September, Schaffroth wrote in court documents.
He said the investigation would include a records review, interviews of the parties involved and subpoenaing bank records.
The law states that if a government motions for a stay, the court “shall issue a stay” of the proceeding in the face of an ongoing investigation. But a Housing Court judge, Javier Ortiz, did grant the request
“Any new investigation constitutes futility of process with an inevitable and obvious conclusion,” Ortiz wrote.
Edward Mostoller, director of the Homeowner and Consumer Debt Advocacy Project at the City Bar Justice Center who is not involved in the proceedings, said he was “surprised” by the judge’s decision to not grant the stay.
“Like with many newly instituted legal protections for consumers and homeowners, it will take efforts to educate our courts to promote greater awareness and a more uniform (and proper) interpretation of these new laws,” Mostoller wrote in an email.
Disputed Deed
The dispute over the deed stems from a deal Ida Robinson appears to have made in 2015. Property records show she sold the home to an LLC, which transferred the property to another LLC and then to Menachem Gurevitch, who is the owner according to current property records.
Robinson and her family became tenants in the home. They have alleged in court documents that the deed was forged. Gurevitch, who is associated with the companies Mandy Management and Netz Capital Management, moved to sue the family for eviction, but they have continued living in the home.
Gurevitch and his lawyer did not respond to an emailed request for comment and in a brief call, Gurevitch’s attorney Pamela Smith declined to comment. In court papers, they have denied the family’s allegations. In a letter to the court after the city filed its paperwork, Gurevitch’s attorneys called the move “an eleventh hour ploy” to delay eviction.
Previously, both the New York Attorney General’s office and Brooklyn District Attorney’s office have investigated the matter regarding the brownstone. Neither office brought criminal charges.
Deed theft happens when the title to a home is stolen without the homeowner’s approval or knowledge. It can involve forgery, fraud or other tricks. A lawyer who examined the case in 2022 — whom Attorney General Letitia James referred to the family — determined the situation could be a “foreclosure rescue scam,” a scheme where an entity claims to help a property owner who is behind on their mortgage but exploits them instead.
Deed theft has been an ongoing issue in New York City, especially in gentrifying Black and brown communities where home values have skyrocketed. Elderly people have long been targets for predatory real estate schemes.
Deed theft burst into the national spotlight in the spring when Councilmember Chi Ossé was arrested while protesting an eviction of a family at a Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone, about a mile north of the Crown Heights home at the center of the Robinson’s fight.
Ossé — along with Inez and Charles Barron, both former members of City Council and the state Assembly — appeared at the stoop of the Crown Heights home Sunday evening.
Editor’s note: This article previously stated that Ida Robinson had once fallen behind on her mortgage. It has been updated and corrected.
Our nonprofit newsroom relies on donations from readers to sustain our local reporting and keep it free for all New Yorkers. Donate to THE CITY today.
The post Mamdani Admin Intervenes on Eviction, a First Use of New Deed Fraud Law appeared first on The City Reporter.
