{"id":191582,"date":"2026-04-10T00:45:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191582\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T00:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:45:33","slug":"nyc-squatter-from-hell-sends-tenants-fleeing-from-their-beds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191582\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC ‘squatter from hell’ sends tenants fleeing from their beds"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Village residents claim their building\u2019s \u201csquatter from hell\u201d<\/a> is continuing to terrorize them \u2014 forcing them to run from their beds in fright as he screams death threats and bangs on walls so hard they shake, new court filings detail.<\/p>\n

But the terrified tenants of 400 Bleecker St. will have to wait at least another two months for potential relief from the nightmarish situation involving their accused tormentor, 66-year-old Melvin DeJesus.<\/p>\n

A Manhattan judge on Tuesday delayed a hearing in the building owner\u2019s bid to boot the alleged squatter until June after DeJesus made rambling claims in court about needing medical assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melvin DeJesus arriving at Manhattan Supreme Court for a hearing Tuesday. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Brodsky Organization filed a $5.5 million lawsuit seeking to ban DeJesus from the fifth-floor rent-controlled unit he commandeered<\/a> following longtime tenant John Grafenecker\u2019s death at 84 last fall.<\/p>\n

Since then, DeJesus has allegedly agonized his neighbors, keeping them up all night with noxious parties, yelling death threats and at one point, storing a four-gallon jug of gasoline outside his door, according to the suit.<\/p>\n

The company won a restraining order in February barring him from harassing tenants, and he also faces separate eviction proceedings brought against him by the landlord.<\/p>\n

Residents called the cops last month after DeJesus allegedly smashed their Ring doorbell camera<\/a>, leading to his arrest \u2014 but none of it appears to be able to stop the alleged madness.<\/p>\n

Neighbors now claim the building \u2014 where a two-bedroom unit recently rented for $6,700 a month \u2014 is \u201cuninhabitable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenants said they\u2019ve been so frightened, they\u2019ve had to flee the building \u201cmultiple times\u201d in recent weeks, according to the new filings in Manhattan Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Tenants at 400 Bleeker St. say neither cops nor the courts have stopped the nightmare inside their building. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

DeJesus spent much of the morning muttering and cursing to himself as he paced around a Manhattan courthouse. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a near nightly basis, he bangs on our doors, and walls until as late as 5:00 a.m.,\u201d one wrote in a March 29 email \u2014 claiming the all-night death threats are still going on more than a month after the court order demanded an end to the mayhem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple inhabitants claimed they\u2019ve had to sleep elsewhere out of fear \u2014 including one who said they ran away from DeJesus at 3 a.m. last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe banging on the apartment is so intense that it is shaking our unit,\u201d wrote another tenant, adding they worried something \u201ccould come through the ceiling or walls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others said they feared even entering or leaving the walkup \u201cdue to concerns about encountering [DeJesus].\u201d<\/p>\n

DeJesus in the hallway, shortly before his case was adjourned for two months. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

The accused nuisance neighbor arrived late to the scheduled court hearing Tuesday, loudly mumbling that he had just left the ER and needed an ambulance or he would \u201cdie here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his claims of being in the throes of a medical emergency and suffering from a foot injury, DeJesus spent much of the morning muttering and cursing to himself as he paced around the circular hallways of the 60 Centre St. courthouse.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, DeJesus loudly clarified for nearby court officers who might mistake his activity as a sign of good health that, actually, he was on the brink.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all going black! It\u2019s all going black!\u201d he shouted at one point, demanding an ambulance.<\/p>\n

When the case was called, Judge Kathy J. King immediately granted a two-month adjournment without asking any questions of either DeJesus or the building\u2019s attorney \u2014 who thought he was going to be heard on the Hail Mary motion seeking a new restraining order barring the alleged menace from the building.<\/p>\n

When the lawyer, Paul Coppe, asked the judge a question, DeJesus interjected vigorously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wanna go on, let\u2019s go on,\u201d he said loudly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But rather than take him up on the offer, the judge told him to wait until the new date in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. DeJesus\u2019s aggressive and unsafe behavior in court should make clear that he must be removed from our building,\u201d Coppe said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

DeJesus\u2019 March arrest marked the latest case in a long rap sheet that includes an attempted murder charge from 1987 in the Bronx.<\/p>\n

He has argued that he has a right to remain in the desirable unit because he was the life partner of the now-deceased tenant, Grafenecker, who lived there since 1946 and had taken him in \u2014 a claim that neighbors and a close relative say is likely bunk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Village residents claim their building\u2019s \u201csquatter from hell\u201d is continuing to terrorize them \u2014 forcing them to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,53965,4327,57,9,56,63,65,64,14835,58,2380],"class_list":{"0":"post-191582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-exclusive","9":"tag-landlord-tenant-dispute","10":"tag-manhattan-supreme-court","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-squatters","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-west-village"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}