Elizabeth Ladzinski
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — The Dakota apartment building as been accused of shutting out would-be tenants and discriminating against residents because of their race, according to a bombshell lawsuit obtained by the New York Times.
Former co-op board president Alphonse Fletcher Jr., a Wall Streeter who has lived in the Dakota since 1992 and is African-American, alleges that board members made ethnic slurs against prospective residents including a "Hispanic applicant" who they rejected because they thought he wanted to buy a first-floor apartment to score drugs more easily, the paper reported.
The lawsuit does not name the applicant, but the Times suggested the applicant was actor Antonio Banderas.
Fletcher also claims the board refused to allow him to buy a second apartment for his mother to live there, making him jump through unprecedented hoops, the Times reported. When he tried to take his dog out for a walk, he was ordered to use the service elevator, while white tenants were allowed to use the regular elevator, the Times wrote.
As more proof of racial discrimination, the lawsuit cites the board's treatment of singer Roberta Flack, who is the only other African-American tenant. Flack was repeatedly refused permission by the board to install a new bathtub in her apartment, the Times reported.
The co-op board, known to be one of the toughest in the city, claimed in a statement that Fletcher was rejected the apartment for financial reasons, and that, "any accusations of racial discrimination are untrue and outrageous," according to the Times.
Fletcher is a Harvard graduate who founded his own Wall Street firm, Fletcher Asset Management. His youngest brother, Geoffrey, wrote the screenplay for the movie "Precious" and won an Academy Award for the work.
Fletcher did not comment any further to the Times, but is asking in the suit to be awarded the apartment he applied for and to receive $15 million in damages, according to the paper.
