They’ve got a dog in this fight.
The president of one of Coney Island’s largest private apartment complexes broke the law when he tried to muscle out disabled residents who rely on service animals, federal prosecutors claimed this week. Igor Oberman, who headed the co-op board at the 1,144-unit co-op, dogged three disabled residents — including a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder — when they exercised their rights to own pets that sooth their stress, the suit filed Dec. 23 states. The complex has a no-pet policy, but it must make exceptions for people who can demonstrate a medical need, a federal attorney said.
“Emotional support animals provide critical care and therapeutic aid for people with disabilities,” Vanita Gupta, a lawyer with the U.S. Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “The department will continue to enforce fair housing laws to ensure that housing providers make reasonable accommodations for individuals who rely on assistance animals in their homes.”
Oberman tried to evict U.S. Army veteran Eugene Ovsishcher and his wife in 2012 after they proved he was entitled to a service animal to alleviate his post-traumatic stress disorder. A court threw out the case because Trump Village accepted rent from the Ovsishchers after terminating their lease, according to the Dec. 23 civil complaint.
Another resident complained in 2013, and the federal housing officials forced Trump Village to allow service animals and submit board members to federal Fair Housing Act training. Oberman, a Soviet-born attorney, took the training — and then waged a cold war against residents in retaliation, the suit alleges.
Prosecutors claim Oberman, a controversial Council also-ran, used his influence on the board to withhold parking spaces from disabled residents who successfully resisted the co-op’s unlawful attempts to remove them for possessing service dogs. The feds also allege he retaliated by kicking Ovsishcher’s wife off the development’s board of directors “for commencing legal proceedings against the corporation.”
One complainant has chronic depression and another has a debilitating stuttering problem aggravated by stress — both need comforting animals to help them get through the day, the suit states.
The co-op’s management office declined to comment on ongoing litigation. Oberman did not immediately return calls for comment.
