Mitchell-Lama misstep
The owner of a Brooklyn apartment building enrolled in the city’s Mitchell-Lama program filed a lawsuit against the city recently, claiming he was coerced into extending his time with the affordable housing plan.
In court papers, the owners of the Contello II Towers, located in Bensonhurst, said that they were in the process of receiving a $1.9 million dollar loan with the city’s Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) when they were told that they must sign a “non-dissolution rider” agreeing to remain in the Mitchell-Lama program for 20 more years.
The loan – which was for a rehab of building elevators and windows – was approved in 2000, meaning that the Contello II Towers would remain in the Mitchel-Lama program until 2020 – preventing them from renting their apartments at competing market rates.
Attorneys for the Tower owners contend that they were not given the opportunity to read all of the papers that came with the loan, including the non-dissolution rider.
The attorneys also were not told “that the rider would result in Contello not having the right to withdraw from the Mitchell-Lama Program for 20 years,” according to court papers.
Officials from the HPD countered the suit, claiming that Contello was not coerced in any way and that they had an ample opportunity to review all legal documents.
City attorneys also pointed out that, interestingly enough, Contello wants out of the rider only, not the nearly $2 million building rehab loan.
Contello said that the city used a criminal investigation into one of their board members as a bargaining chip in their push to get the Towers re-enrolled in the Mitchel-Lama program.
“The HPD knew that the District Attorney was investigating a board member at the time of the closing, and that HPD’s motive for proceeding with the loan was to perpetrate its own existence, since over one-third of the units in the city’s Mitchell-Lama Program withdrew between 1990 and 2006,” the lawsuit states.
But Judge Karen Rothenberg saw things differently.
In her decision, she said that “the court declines to hold that defendants insistence on an agreement that the plaintiff remain in the Mitchell-Lama Program for an additional 20 years as a condition to receiving the loan constitutes an unconstitutional taking,” Rothernberg wrote.
“Plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily entered into a contract pursuant to which it agreed to remain in the Mitchell-Lama Program for 20 years in return for obtaining a significant benefit in the loan agreement that it executed with HPD,” she wrote as she dismissed Contello’s motion.
Too unfaithful for his
own good
The Brooklyn-Queens archdiocese was hit with a lawsuit by one of their own flock, claiming that she was seduced by a parish priest.
In court documents filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week, Judith Rodrigues-Lytwyn, a congregant at Our Lady of the Snows in Queens, claimed that she was using Father Elvis Elano as a conduit to the lord, pouring out her thoughts and feelings, when the conduit began hitting on her.
During their sessions in the confessional booth, the two became closer, as well as more intimate.
Court papers reveal that the two were an item for seven months when Father Elano – who had reportedly purchased Viagra to enhance their sex life — ended the affair claiming that he had received a nasty rash in his groin.
Rodrigues-Lytwyn claimed that Father Elano received the rash from another woman, who he also seduced.
Rodrigues-Lytwyn is seeking $25 million for pain and suffering.
In court papers, she contends that Father Elano bilked her into believing that their relationship was “ordained by God.”
In an interview, Rodrigues-Lytwyn said that all Father Elano managed to do was take advantage of a troubled woman.
“I was going through a very rough patch in my life and I was looking for some spiritual guidance, and finding some peace from a religious perspective,” she told reporters. “He essentially took advantage of that. I was overwhelmed by his advances. Once I got my head on straight, I realized that he preyed upon me.”
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese would not comment on the suit.
The spokesperson did note that Father Elano had left his Queens Church two months ago and had moved to a house of worship upstate.
