For five years, a New York City man lived for free in a famous central New York City hotel. He made use of a little-known housing rule to avoid paying.
But government lawyers recently said Mickey Barreto went too far. He turned in paperwork claiming ownership of the whole New Yorker Hotel building. And he also tried to have another person pay him for living there.
Last week, Barreto was arrested and charged with turning in false property records, a criminal offense. The 48-year-old man says he was surprised when police showed up at his boyfriend’s apartment with guns and protective gear.
“I said, ‘Oh, I thought you were doing something for Valentine’s Day to spice up the relationship until I saw the female officers,’” Barreto recalled telling his boyfriend. Valentine’s Day is a holiday where people celebrate love.
The charges against Barreto came after years of legal battles. They began when he and his boyfriend paid about $200 to stay in one of the more than 1,000 rooms in the hotel built in 1930.
Barreto says he had just moved to New York from Los Angeles, California when his boyfriend told him about a little-known part of housing law that permits people who stay in single rooms in buildings built before 1969 to demand a six-month contract.
Barreto claimed that because he had paid for a night in the hotel, he was counted as a tenant. He asked for a contract to stay and the hotel immediately had him leave.
Barreto said he went to court the next day and the judge denied him. But he said, “I appealed to the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal.” But he added that at an important point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners did not show up, which permitted him to win by default.
The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying for his room because the building’s owners did not want to work out a contract with him. But they could not ask him to leave.
New York City prosecutors agree that the housing court gave Barreto “possession” of his room. But they say he did not stop there.
In 2019, he put false paperwork on a city website claiming that the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity had turned over the ownership of the entire building to him. The organization bought the property in 1976. The church was founded in South Korea by the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Barreto then tried to charge different groups as the owner of the building. The prosecutor’s office said they include demanding payments from one of the hotel’s tenants and demanding the hotel put its bank accounts in his name.
The Unification Church took Barreto to court in 2019 over the building’s ownership claim. The case is ongoing, but a judge ruled that Barreto cannot present himself as the owner in the meantime.
A Unification Church spokesperson did not comment on his arrest as there is an ongoing civil case.
In that case, Barreto argued that the judge who gave him “possession” of his room indirectly gave him the entire building because it had never been subdivided.
“I never intended to commit any fraud. I don’t believe I ever committed any fraud,” Barreto said. He said he never made any money out of this.
Barreto said he aims to deny profits to the Unification Church. The church, known for holding large weddings, has been accused of misleading people to gain members and criticized by some over its friendly relationship with North Korea, where Moon was born.
Barreto said he has never paid for a lawyer and has always represented himself in civil cases. Last week, he secured criminal defense legal representation.
I’m Gregory Stachel.
Cedar Attanasio reported this story for The Associated Press. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
Apartment – n. a usually rented room or set of rooms that is part of a building and is used as a place to live
prosecutor – n. a lawyer who represents the side in a court case that accuses a person of a crime and who tries to prove that the person is guilty
spice – v. to add interest or excitement to (something)
fraud – n. the crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable from another person
tenant – n. a person, business, or group that pays to use another person’s property: someone who rents or leases a house, apartment, etc., from a landlord
default – n. used to describe something that happens or is done when nothing else has been done or can be done
intend – v. to plan or want to do (something)
commit – v. to do (something that is illegal or harmful)