{"id":251448,"date":"2026-06-01T22:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251448\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:10:17","slug":"squatter-from-hell-finally-banned-from-pricey-nyc-building-hes-terrorized-for-past-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251448\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Squatter from hell\u2019 finally banned from pricey NYC building he\u2019s terrorized for past year"},"content":{"rendered":"

A notorious \u201csquatter from hell\u201d has finally been banned from the pricey Greenwich Village building he\u2019s been terrorizing for nearly a year.<\/a><\/p>\n

Melvin DeJesus, who transformed 400 Bleecker St. in the hip Manhattan neighborhood into a real-life house of horrors \u2014 with all-night death threats howled at terrified tenants<\/a> \u2014 is no longer allowed to enter the building, at least for now, according to the judge handling the lawsuit filed by the building\u2019s owner earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary ruling goes into effect immediately and states that DeJesus is \u201cenjoined and restrained from entering the building\u201d pending the lawsuit\u2019s resolution, wrote Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Kathy J. King<\/p>\n

Melvin DeJesus (right) has finally been banned from the Greenwich Village building he\u2019s terrorized for a year. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

He also must entirely steer clear of the property.<\/p>\n

DeJesus previously ignored a court order to cease his \u201cdisruptive behavior,\u201d which \u201cdemonstrates that he is either unable or unwilling to abide by a Court order directing him to cease the objectionable conduct,\u201d King wrote in her decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe balance of equities tips in Plaintiff\u2019s favor, based on [DeJesus\u2019] ongoing and flagrant disregard with the peace and quiet enjoyment of the staff, tenants, and occupants at the premises,\u201d the order reads.<\/p>\n

DeJesus also has an ongoing Housing Court eviction case but hasn\u2019t shown up to recent hearings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

400 Bleecker St. in the West Village is pricey, particularly given its prime location. William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

Owners of the tony building, The Brodsky Organization, filed a $5 million lawsuit against DeJesus in February \u2014 just after a 4-gallon jug of gasoline was oddly discovered outside the the fifth-floor rent-controlled unit he commandeered<\/a> after lifelong tenant John Grafenecker\u2019s death at 84 in the fall.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit cited months of all-night terrors, where DeJesus allegedly pounded on his neighbors\u2019 doors, screaming death threats and blasted music all night.<\/p>\n

DeJesus ignored a court order to end his \u201cdisruptive behavior.\u201d William Farrington for NY Post<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe began his reign of terror in the building with death threats,\u201d said Paul Coppe, a lawyer for the building owners, in court last month<\/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

Tenants have said DeJesus\u2019s erratic behavior persisted despite the judge first issuing an order that he cease his harassment, forcing some to flee the building in the middle of the night.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawyer David Schwartz, who is not connected to the case, told The Post on Monday, \u201cThe laws in New York City heavily favor the tenant, but here in this particular instance, it\u2019s pretty clear that the building made the strong case here and the judge made the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwartz said while it\u2019s not common for landlords to succeed with de-facto evictions in state Supreme Court, \u201cit does happen where these circumstances are present, like threatening neighbors with a knife, storing gasoline in the hallway \u2014 this is pretty bad stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A notorious \u201csquatter from hell\u201d has finally been banned from the pricey Greenwich Village building he\u2019s been terrorizing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6722,57,9,24,56,63,65,64,14835,58],"class_list":["post-251448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-apartments","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","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\/251448","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=251448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}