'All I'm Asking Is for a Normal Life,' Crown Heights Tenant Pleads in Harassment Trial

Francis Roberts fought back tears in the witness stand of a Brooklyn courtroom Thursday as he explained how alleged harassment by his landlord and a tenant in his building has affected his life.

“I’ve had to take on a whole new different lifestyle. It has affected my life in terms of living in my apartment peacefully…It’s affected my life in that I’ve had to spend some time away from home to get solace from the tent cities erected outside my apartment. It’s affected my life because I’ve had to get involved with the police,” Roberts said, choking up as he reflected on his situation over the past seven months.

In August, Roberts, with representation from Brooklyn Legal Services, filed a lawsuit against his landlord 972 Park Place LLC (HPD is named as a co-defendant) accusing the LLC and its president Yehuda Gruenberg of failing to repair the rent stabilized garden apartment at 972 Park Place he has lived in for more than 20 years, and harassing him in attempts to get him to leave.

That alleged harassment includes “utter neglect” of the apartment; not immediately fixing sewage that was bubbling up through his kitchen sink and bathtub due to broken plumbing; allowing more sewage to leak in front of his bedroom windows from two portable toilets set up outside; drug deals taking place in tents set up around his front door that house “vagrants and itinerants” who have had conflicts with Roberts and threatened neighbors; music blaring into his living room 24 hours a day through a hole in the ceiling; chickens roaming outside his bedroom windows and a large dog roaming inside the building; and more.

The trial for the case started on Monday, December 5, and continued Thursday, with more trial dates set for December and January. On Monday, Raquel Namuche of Brooklyn Legal Services testified in front of a courtroom in Kings County Civil Court at 141 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn filled with Crown Heights Tenants Union members, other supporters of Roberts, and local Council Member Chi Ossé about Roberts’ apartment, calling it severely neglected and unlivable. Namuche said it contained some of the worst conditions she had seen in more than a decade working as a paralegal and tenant advocate at Brooklyn Legal Services.

In cross examination, 972 Park Place LLC’s lawyer Julius Toonkel questioned Namuche on the contents of the apartment and asked if they stopped her from getting to places she needed to go, alluding to a possible defense of hoarding (which Roberts has previously called “preposterous”). However, Namuche said items in Roberts’ apartment didn’t pose any issues for getting around.

Roberts took to the witness stand on Monday and continued his testimony Thursday. Over the course of his testimony he explained the situation in his apartment and how conditions had deteriorated since the new management bought the building in April to the point where he had no gas, no heating, limited electricity, mold, holes in the walls, leaks, sewage in his kitchen sink and bathtub, and no security, which had given “itinerants and vagrants unfettered access to the building.”

At the start of Thursday’s trial, Judge Remy Smith suggested a settlement between Roberts and the LLC that included the LLC fixing the apartment and allowing Roberts to live there rent free for 15 months from the time the majority of the repairs were complete, and for other aggravating factors in the case to cease. Although he signaled interest in the settlement, Roberts decided to continue with the trial given the LLC would not agree to a finding of harassment as part of the deal, something his legal team said was important to him.

During his testimony, Roberts alleged he had made repeated attempts to contact the building management to ask them to make repairs, improve security and deal with the issues caused by another tenant in the building, Aaron Akaberi, who had allegedly set up tent encampments outside Roberts’ apartment and allowed people to sleep in them. There were also two portable toilets installed outside Roberts’ bedroom windows, which Brownstoner saw on a trip to the address.

Roberts said he witnessed people in the tent encampments using drugs, smoking, fighting, cooking on a grill, and doing more disruptive activities, which he said made it “virtually impossible to get a proper night’s rest.” He said: “They made it extremely difficult for me to live a normal life.”

He added that “vagrants and itinerants” had free rein of the building, as Akaberi allegedly removed locks, took doors from their hinges and propped others open, making the hallway outside Roberts’ apartment, which leads down to the cellar, a thoroughfare used at all times of the day and night.

Roberts added that items were placed along the hallway to block his access. He said at one point he believes someone was living in the cellar and said he has repeatedly smelled cooking coming from the area. Since Brownstoner’s original story on the situation, the Department of Buildings has placed a partial vacate order on the cellar.

Akaberi, Roberts said, also played a continuous loop of prayer music with commentary at all hours of the day and night at such a high volume the family in the neighboring building could hear it. The music, he said, was allegedly directed into his apartment from Akaberi’s, which is directly above.

The landlords were aware of all the issues due to Roberts’ repeated emails and calls to 311, but they never responded, Roberts said. Roberts, who said the situation was one of “utter neglect,” also said the members of the management company were frequently on site to see the issues, but until the last few weeks did nothing about them.

“I couldn’t sleep properly,” Roberts told the court. “There were concerns for my safety which culminated in the breaking into my apartment,” he said, explaining a night where he woke up to someone sitting at his desk using his computer.

Roberts got emotional explaining how on Thanksgiving, after DOB had installed new security doors in the building, he allegedly saw Akaberi changing the lock positions on the doors so they were open, causing him to fear his apartment would be broken into while he was celebrating with his family in Queens. Because of that, Robert said he didn’t feel it was safe to leave the apartment, resulting in him missing part of his family celebrations. “My family had to travel from Queens to be with me, and up until now there is still access to my entranceway.”

“How can that not affect a normal person?” Roberts said through tears. “I’m 77 years old, and these goons are trying to harass me out of my apartment after my abject pleading for my safety and well being, all I am asking is for normal life. All I’m asking is for normal life and peace in my apartment. Just let me live a normal life I would like to live at my age. That’s all I’m asking.”

Since Brownstoner reported on Roberts’ situation in October, it has been covered in other news outlets including The New York Times. Roberts said during his testimony that since media coverage, reps from city agencies had repeatedly visited his apartment and were taking action on mold abatement and correcting other violations.

In November, neighbors held a rally to support Roberts where around 150 people, including local elected officials, turned up. The rally, and neighbors’ emails to management, were successful in getting the tent encampments removed, Roberts said.

Park Place neighbor Hal Drellich previously told Brownstoner the people frequenting the encampments were “making everybody’s life miserable on the block, and the fact they are making Francis’ life miserable is despicable.” Drellich said at the time he wanted Gruenberg to be prosecuted and removed as the building’s owner, and for the building to fall into responsible hands and be fixed up so Roberts can live in peace.

Roberts said at the time: “If it wasn’t for the support of my now legal team and the neighbors, who have some of them have put their lives on the line to support me, if it wasn’t for them, well, I don’t know if I would have made it. I’m a prayerful man so I pray…It’s overwhelming, I never thought that people that don’t know me would come out and support me, and it is overwhelming. There are still good people in the world.”

The battle for repairs didn’t start with the current landlord, with Roberts saying he had similar repair issues with the previous LLC owner that bought the building from the city in 2012. Due to the apartment’s condition, the Department of Housing and Community Renewal has reduced the amount of rent Roberts pays on the stabilized unit to $450 a month.

According to StreetEasy, the median rent in the neighborhood is $2,900. Roberts alleges 927 Park Place LLC’s desire to charge more for the apartment is behind the harassment and attempts to drive him out.

“It goes beyond my reasonable thinking and imagination how a landlord could allow these conditions to exist after my pleading over such a period of time,” Robert said in his testimony.

A court finding of harassment could result in the landlord being fined as much as $10,000 in civil penalties and ordered to refrain from future harassment. Roberts is also asking for all violations to be corrected in the timeframe set out by law, that the landlord be fined for uncorrected violations to date, for attorney’s fees and any “further relief as may be just and proper.”

The trial will resume on Thursday, December 15, when Toonkel will have the opportunity to cross examine Roberts, and other witnesses on both sides of the case will be introduced.

Related Stories

• Crown Heights Landlord Harassment, ‘A Living Hell,’ Includes Sewage, Drug Deals: Lawsuit
• With Ownership Murky, Crown Heights Tenants Stage a Rent Strike Over Neglected Conditions
• Crown Heights Tenants Demand Meeting With Landlord After Years of Complaints

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