An Upper West Side condo is seeking to force a former \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d band member from the building \u2014 and, no, not for playing jazz too loud.<\/p>\n
An explosive new lawsuit details a frightening late-night outburst in May by the veteran musician \u2014 one allegedly so severe that board members are seeking to force him out, The Post has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lawrence Feldman, 75, an accomplished alto saxophonist, has owned apartment 3C at the Admaston condominium on West 89th Street since 1986, when records show he purchased the unit for $146,500 \u2014 about $450,000 today. Similar apartments in the building now trade for between roughly $1.6 million and $4 million, records show.<\/p>\n
A Manhattan condo board is suing one of its own unit owners \u2014 and asking a court to force him to sell his apartment \u2014 after he allegedly went on a violent rampage that brought the NYPD to the Upper West Side building last month. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
Lawrence Feldman, who owns a unit at 251 W. 89th St., allegedly pounded on a neighbor\u2019s door in the middle of the night and threatened her with sexual and physical violence, physically attacked building staff, smashed a doorman\u2019s monitor, hurled the resident manager\u2019s scooter and screamed obscenities through the lobby.<\/p>\n
The 251 Condominium\u2019s board filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court this month, accusing Feldman of violating building rules and creating what it describes as a dangerous nuisance for residents and staff. The complaint seeks a permanent injunction and asks the court to require Feldman to sell his apartment. <\/p>\n
However, a family member claims it was a one-time occurrence stemming from an epidural gone wrong.<\/p>\n
According to court filings obtained by The Post, the dispute stems from a series of incidents that allegedly unfolded on May 14 and May 15.<\/p>\n
The building\u2019s management company claims in court documents that Feldman \u201cwent on a violent, drug fueled rampage, threatening to kill two people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The filing claims he attempted to enter a neighbor\u2019s apartment, pursued the resident manager to his home, struck a building employee and was ultimately removed from the property by police in handcuffs.<\/p>\n
One doorman, Rasim Paljevic, told the court that Feldman spent hours roaming through the lobby area, where he was \u201csometimes muttering and sometimes screaming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police handcuffed him and took him to a hospital on May 15; he was back the next day. <\/p>\n
Paljevic said in docs Feldman repeatedly shouted \u2026 \u201cF\u2013k [the board president].\u201d The doorman further alleged that he witnessed Feldman \u201csmack\u201d a porter during the confrontation. Paljevic wrote that he was \u201cscared\u201d and had \u201cnever had something like this happen in all of my years working in buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second doorman, Smail Ramusevic, described another confrontation hours later. Ramusevic told the court that Feldman was \u201cyelling and screaming\u201d and complained that a neighbor owed him money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the filing, Feldman called the woman \u201ca b\u2014ch and said he would kill her.\u201d Ramusevic also alleged that Feldman threatened him directly, saying \u201cHe said he would kill me,\u201d before grabbing him by the thigh.<\/p>\n
The most serious allegations come from neighbor Bridget Gilbertson, also known by her married name Bridget Russo, who lives across the hall from Feldman.<\/p>\n
Bridget Gilbertson Russo alongside husband Christopher Russo. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Gilbertson told the court she was asleep and home alone while her husband, Christopher Russo, was out of town, when around 2 a.m. a loud pounding erupted outside her apartment door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard defendant outside my door screaming and menacing: \u2018Bridget Russo. F\u2013k you. You c\u2014nt. I am going to kill you, Bridget Russo,\u2019\u201d she wrote. She further alleged that Feldman yelled, \u2018I\u2019m going to f\u2013k your brains out Bridget Russo.\u2019\u201d Gilbertson said she immediately checked that her door was locked and called 911.<\/p>\n
She later described seeing Feldman in the lobby after police arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was laying on the floor repeatedly screaming \u2018F\u2013k you\u2019 to a police officer,\u201d Gilbertson alleges. She claims he kicked furniture, said he had a knife and continued directing vulgar remarks toward her, including \u201cLook at me you f\u2013king scared b\u2014ch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilbertson said she and her husband have since left their apartment and are \u201cliving out of a suitcase in a hotel,\u201d because they no longer feel safe returning home.<\/p>\n
The board \u2014 represented by Fox Rothschild \u2014 is now seeking a permanent injunction barring him from the property, a $250,000 surety bond, damages, attorneys\u2019 fees, and, in what may be the most dramatic remedy in its arsenal, a court order compelling Feldman to sell his unit. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
Resident manager Almir Feratovic, who lives in the building\u2019s basement apartment with his wife and three children, told the court that he had never experienced anything similar in more than two decades working in residential buildings.<\/p>\n
Feratovic added that he also received reports that Feldman had been telling staff members, \u201cI am going to kill Almir.\u201d<\/p>\n
The condominium\u2019s attorney, who declined The Post\u2019s requests for comment, argued in documents that residents and employees remain fearful because Feldman returned to the building the next day after police took him to the hospital that night. Court filings state that staff members who claim they were assaulted or threatened continue to encounter him while working, while neighbors say they remain concerned for their safety.<\/p>\n
Feldman\u2019s wife, Sandra Lee Church, disputed the broader characterization of the dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually asleep when this happened,\u201d Church told The Post.<\/p>\n
Feldman has owned a unit there since 1986. <\/p>\n
Church said the controversy stems from a long-running conflict with Gilbertson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, our neighbor \u2026 we have many, many years of not being on good terms with her, not terrible terms, but she\u2019s very difficult,\u201d Church said. \u201cAnd in this incident, I just don\u2019t think that Lawrence was in his right mind. He was worried about an epidural that had effects on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Church maintained that \u201cit was no one else in the building that had a problem with them\u201d and said the issues centered on the dispute with the neighbor. She added this was an isolated incident. <\/p>\n
Feldman did not return The Post\u2019s request for comment. Gilbertson declined to comment. And Russo, Gilbertson\u2019s husband, declined to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The legal fight stands in stark contrast to Feldman\u2019s long career in music.<\/p>\n
According to his professional biography, Feldman has recorded and toured with artists including Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Liza Minnelli and Steely Dan. He was a member of both the \u201cSaturday Night Live Band\u201d and The National Jazz Ensemble, performed with the New York Philharmonic and has played on hundreds of recordings, film scores and Broadway productions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Upper West Side condo is seeking to force a former \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d band member from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68,5013,53965,24225,3100,2850,1023,14492,9,56,63,65,64,1491,3006,2039,2040,7978,62],"class_list":["post-264958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-exclusive","tag-homeowners","tag-landlord-tenant-dispute","tag-landlord-tenant-disputes","tag-lawsuit","tag-lawsuits","tag-luxury-real-estate","tag-neighbors","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-snl","tag-tenants","tag-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264958","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=264958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}