{"id":221190,"date":"2026-05-05T21:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T21:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:54:07","slug":"nyc-judge-ponders-liberty-of-hellish-squatter-as-tenants-live-in-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221190\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC judge ponders ‘liberty’ of hellish squatter as tenants live in fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge Tuesday said she needs to assess a hellish squatter\u2019s right<\/a> to \u201cliberty\u2019\u2019 before she can boot him from the West Village building where he\u2019s been terrorizing residents for nearly a year \u2014 even after he was a no-show at the hearing.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for 400 Bleeker St. in the trendy Manhattan neighborhood demanded the judge sign off on a restraining order that would ban alleged crazy-like-a-fox Melvin DeJesus, 66, from the well-heeled building.<\/p>\n

Melvin Dejesus is a squatter from hell, West Village residents say. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHe began his reign of terror in the building with death threats,\u201d said Paul Coppe, a lawyer for site owners the Brodsky Organization, to Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Kathy J King.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s said \u2018I have a knife and I\u2019m going to use it,\u2019 \u201d Coppe said of DeJesus \u2014 who has a 30-year-old attempted-murder conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an exaggeration to say the building residents are terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

But King said she needs more time to render a decision \u2014 after previously delaying the case in early April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a request that affects someone\u2019s liberty,\u201d she said Tuesday. \u201cSo I will have to take this back to chambers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenants at 400 Bleeker St. in the hip neighborood say neither cops nor the courts have been able to stop the nightmare inside their building. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

Tenants in the building \u2014 where a two-bedroom unit recently rented for $6,700 a month \u2014 were left fuming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she cares so much about [DeJesus\u2019s] \u2018liberty\u2019 to free accommodation, maybe she should house him,\u201d a resident said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat more does it take? An actual violent crime?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am angry and feeling a bit helpless,\u201d the resident said. <\/p>\n

Coppe had insisted to the judge, \u201cThe underlying case is based essentially on nuisance abatement,\u201d <\/p>\n

John Grafenecker lived in the unit until his death last fall. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

DeJesus \u201cpromptly embarked on what can only be described as a reign of terror\u201d when he moved in just months before the previous life-long rent-control tenant died last fall, Coppe recalled for King.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. DeJesus is a multiple predicate felon,\u201d Coppe said.<\/p>\n

The Brodsky Organization has also filed a $5.5 million lawsuit seeking to ban DeJesus from the fifth-floor\u00a0rent-controlled unit he commandeered<\/a>\u00a0after longtime tenant John Grafenecker\u2019s death at 84 last fall.<\/p>\n

Since then, DeJesus has allegedly agonized his neighbors by keeping them up all night with noxious parties, yelling death threats and at one point, storing a 4-gallon jug of gasoline outside his door, according to the suit.<\/p>\n

DeJesus was unruly at hish last court appearance. William Farrington for NY Post<\/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

In March, he was arrested for allegedly smashing a neighbor\u2019s Ring doorbell camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tenants say he\u2019s only gotten worse over the months, with many claiming in court papers that his late-night terror have forced them to flee the building in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

Last month, DeJesus showed up to court, where his conduct required a flock of court officers to follow him <\/a>as he yelled in the court room and court-house hallways, mumbled about dying and was granted an adjournment for two months after he claimed a medical emergency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coppe noted that DeJesus knew to be in court Tuesday, since he requested to move the delay up by a month, and served him papers informing him of the new date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge Tuesday said she needs to assess a hellish squatter\u2019s right to \u201cliberty\u2019\u2019 before she can boot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221191,"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],"class_list":["post-221190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-exclusive","tag-landlord-tenant-dispute","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-squatters","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221190","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=221190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}