In the days before Tuesday’s contested Democratic primary race for the Assembly District 59 seat in Canarsie, Brooklyn, the family members of the sitting legislator resurfaced a deed theft lawsuit they filed against her in 2020.
The daughter- and mother-in-law of Assembly Member Jaime Williams rallied outside her district office on Monday, the eve of the election, to call for state prosecutors to investigate their deed theft claims against Williams.
The legal fight dates back to 2020 when the lawmaker’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth Logan, sued Williams and her husband, accusing them of fraudulently removing Logan’s ownership of her and her husband’s home at 5602 Avenue O and installing themselves as the property owner.
On June 22, Logan gathered with members of The People’s Coalition To Stop Deed Theft and her grandchildren, who claimed that they have faced procedural hurdles getting their case through the court system.
“I’ve been reaching out to people [since] four years ago, and this is the first time we’re getting help,” her granddaughter Jessica Jones told members of the media. “It’s not even about the election. It’s about what they did. It was fraud what happened to my grandmother.”
Logan claimed that her son Phillip Williams and his wife, the assemblymember, used faulty notaries to forge a series of legal documents that ended up removing her and her now deceased husband’s name from the deed, according to court papers. A 2014 deed gave the property to Phillip while retaining Logan’s right to live there until death. A 2016 deed added Jaime to the title.
Finally, a 2019 deed transferred the mortgage to Phillip and Jaime. Logan claims she never signed any of the notarized documents, according to court papers.
Several months after Logan filed her deed theft suit. Phillip Williams sued to evict his mother and stepfather, Gabriel Logan.
“The family is basically divided. I used to have a very good relationship with my dad up until all of this happened,” Jones said. “When all this happened, we were all appalled and outraged for my grandmother.”
The conflict that tore the family apart reappeared at the very end of the election cycle after The People’s Coalition To Stop Deed Theft discovered the case and offered to help call attention to it.
The conflict intersects with Brooklyn Democratic party politics. Williams faced a Democratic challenge in Tuesday’s primary from Jibreel Jalloh, an insurgent community organizer from Canarsie, who has attacked her over the issue.
‘Political smears,’ Brooklyn Assembly member says
Neither Williams’ district office nor campaign staff replied to a request for comment, but she released a lengthy statement dismissing the reemergence of the issue as “political smears” orchestrated by her opponent.
“[Jalloh’s] latest attack is a desperate attempt to portray a simple family dispute as a deed theft issue,” Williams wrote in a statement.
In taking up Logan’s cause, the Stop Deed Theft coalition said it was seeking the governor’s and state prosecutors’ attention.
“The governor of New York State needs to remove her in the interest of justice while this case is investigated and picked up by the DA, the sheriff, or the attorney general, whichever investigatory agency is willing to take it, because this is a crime,” Evangeline Byars said at the press conference.”
A spokesperson for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, however, said that the office had investigated these allegations first in 2018 before the civil lawsuit, then a second time in 2022, “and no criminality was found.”
When asked what kind of resolution she would want to see, Jones said she wanted her grandmother, who worked hard to buy the house, to be financially compensated. According to Williams, she has been living with friends and family since she was locked out of the home in 2020. In the family’s civil lawsuit, they claimed to have suffered losses exceeding $700,000 and to have incurred substantial legal fees.
Her claim sat dormant in housing court for years after it was filed. Logan said that after lodging the lawsuit she and her husband ran out of money to pay their attorney, and couldn’t pursue the case further. A Brooklyn judge reportedly dismissed the case in 2024 after the Logans had not been active for over a year.
Williams addressed the controversy Sunday in a video she posted to her Facebook account, in which her husband, Phillip, sat on a stoop with Logan and dismissed the claims over the deed transfer.
“This is my mother right here,” Phillip said, pointing to Logan. “My mother don’t have any hard feelings against me.”
Logan said at the rally on Monday afternoon that Phillip had coerced her to appear in the video. When Logan was asked what she wanted next out of the family dispute over her former home, she said she wanted Jaime Williams to lose her election.
“That’s what I want,” Logan said. “And I want her to tell the truth about me… what she did to me. Let everybody know she’s not a nice person.”
Adam Daly contributed reporting.
Center left, Elizabeth Logan rallies rallies with her two grandchildren and deed theft advocate Evangeline Byars, right.Photo by Max Parrott