A New York City man living rent-free at an iconic Manhattan hotel for the past five years was arrested on criminal fraud charges after he filed an ownership claim to the building and attempted to collect rent from another tenant, according to authorities.
Mickey Barreto, 48, faces eviction from his free room after he allegedly filed phony paperwork that put him as the new owner of the New Yorker Hotel, leading to his Feb. 14 arrest on charges of filing false property records.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office indicted Barreto on fraud and criminal contempt charges as part of an alleged squatting scheme that began in 2019 when Barreto first arrived at the 94-year-old building and paid $200 for a room.
Five years later, Barreto was charged even though there is an ongoing civil trial to resolve the dispute, leaving him stunned when officers in riot gear showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment on Valentine’s Day and arrested him at gunpoint.
Barreto, who moved to New York from Los Angeles in 2019, said his boyfriend made him aware of a legal loophole that allowed occupants of hotel rooms in buildings constructed before 1969 to demand a six-month lease.
Because Barreto paid for a one-night stay, legally, he could declare himself a tenant.
But the hotel refused to give a lease to Barreto and ordered him to get out.
“So I went to court the next day,” Barreto told The Associated Press. “The judge denied. I appealed to the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal.”
As it turned out, attorneys for the property owners failed to show up to the hearing, and Barreto ended up winning the case by default.
At the time, the judge ruled that the hotel must provide Barreto with a key, leading to Barreto’s free stay at the hotel until July 2023, as the building’s owners were unable to legally evict him.
Barreto was granted possession of the hotel room by the court in 2019, but prosecutors allege he wanted more,…
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