CROWN HEIGHTS — A Brooklyn landlord could face up to a year in jail for harassing and endangering rent stabilized tenants at his Crown Heights building, the state attorney general announced.
Daniel Melamed, owner of 1578 Union St., was arrested in 2015 after an investigation by the newly created Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force found he had intentionally cut heat to rent stabilized tenants in the middle of winter, failed to shield them from lead dust and asbestos and did illegal construction to try to push them out.
Melamed was the first person arrested due to the work of the task force, created in 2015 by Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Schneiderman this week said Melamed has been found guilty of three counts of unlawful eviction following a trial that included testimony from tenants who detailed how they lived under Melamed’s ownership, including bathing using buckets, having to cover their faces to protect against dust and heating their apartments with ovens.
“We won’t hesitate to bring the full force of the law against anyone who harasses, intimidates, and jeopardizes the health and safety of tenants,” Schneiderman said in a statement Tuesday. “Daniel Melamed intentionally endangered rent-stabilized tenants in order to push them out — and line his own pockets.”
Melamed was not, however, found guilty of two other charges — falsifying a document and endangering the welfare of a child — which would have brought a longer sentence.
When asked Thursday about the trial, Melamed maintained his innocence to DNAinfo despite the June 13 verdict, saying they were “trumped up charges” and thinks it is “highly unlikely” he’ll serve time in prison.
“They only tell what they want,” he said of the attorney general’s office.
Melamed will be sentenced on the guilty verdict Sept. 13, the attorney general’s office said.
