By Dana RubinsteinThe Brooklyn Paper
A Park Slope lawyer whose throat was slit in the parking lot of his building has taken one of the borough’s biggest developers to court.
Christopher Nesterczuk’s life changed forever at around 7 am on June 16, 2004, when he walked into his backyard parking lot at Park Slope Terrace, which was still under construction. The lot, accessible via a driveway connected to Sackett Street, between Fourth and Fifth avenues, was equipped with an automatic gate that had not yet been activated.
That morning, as Nesterczuk began unlocking his Audi, a man approached him and slit his throat. When Nesterczuk held up his arms to cover his neck, the assailant stabbed his arms and his head repeatedly.
One of the victim’s neighbors, Dimitri Lilikakis, heard the screaming and went to his window. “At first [I] did not recognize Chris because his blond hair had turned black from all the blood,” Lilikakis said, according to papers in the case, which was scheduled to begin in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Friday.
When the assailant was unable to start the car, he escaped down the driveway, shedding his bloody clothes as he went. The cops later nabbed him on the fire escape of a Fifth Avenue building. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 22-1/2 years in prison.
The basis for the civil lawsuit is the contention that Alisa Construction, as general contractor, was required to provide 24-hour security while construction was still in progress, according to Nesterczk’s attorney, Andrew Laskin of the firm Robinson and Yablon.
Alisa is run by developer Shaya Boymelgreen’s son-in-law, Haysha Deitsch.
The city’s building code requires “reasonable and adequate protection” for residents during construction. In court papers, Alisa said that safeguards are not required once a temporary certificate of occupancy has been issued.
The Buildings Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Alisa Construction declined to comment, and Nesterczuk’s attorney refused to make his client available for comment.
According to Laskin, Nesterczuk has suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, closed his legal practice and now works in a non-attorney position for the city.
“He suffers emotionally and physically to this day,” said Laskin. “He has limited use of certain area of his body because of the stab wounds and he has no feeling in a significant percentage of his body, including the whole side of his face.
“This is not a case about inadequate security,” said Laskin. “It’s about no security at all. That building in that location … was nothing short of a sitting duck.”
