Landlord, 2 Contractors Charged For Gutting East Harlem 'Deathtrap' as Family of 7 Lived Inside

EAST HARLEM, NY — A landlord and two contractors are facing charges for trying to force a family with five young children out of their rent-stabilized apartment by demolishing the building as they lived inside, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said during a Tuesday press conference.

Landlord Ephraim Vashovsky, 48, and contractors Adam Cohen, 32, and Shaoul Ohana, 48, were arrested Tuesday morning and all have been charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, a felony, officials said. Vashovsky and Cohen were charged with two additional felonies, first-degree coercion and third-degree grand larceny, according to officials. The DA's office also distributed a smattering of misdemeanors among the three including grand larceny, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy charges, officials said.

"As alleged in these indictments in order to renovate and charge higher rents at this location it's alleged that these defendants harassed and threatened the family, filed false documents with city agencies and most distressing conducted ongoing demolition and construction that removed in this building the fireproofing, the fire escapes, the key structural elements," Vance said Tuesday. "All of which left the family with no heat or hot water for significant periods of time during that frigid [2014] winter, and rendered the building on the verge of collapse making it wholly unsafe for human inhabitation — literally a deathtrap. All the while collecting rent."

Vashovsky acquired 21 E. 115th St. in May 2014 and almost immediately began pressuring the tenants to move out, officials said. Several tenants accepted buyouts, but the tenants of apartment 5E — a family of undocumented Mexican immigrants with five children ranging in age from 1 to 12 years old — decided they would stay in their apartment because of ties they made in the community, officials said during Tuesday's press conference.

Vashovsky began to coerce the family, sending a man identified as "Sean" to harass them at night and threatening to report them as undocumented immigrants, officials said. In the process of evicting the tenants, Cohen filed construction permits with the Department of Buildings to begin renovations, falsely claiming the building was unoccupied, reads the indictment.

"There's obvious irony right there," Vance said. "As alleged in the indictment, at the same time that these defendants were fighting to evict this family on claims of overcrowding they were asserting in signed documents filed with the city that the building was unoccupied."

In January 2015 the defendants began construction on the building as the tenants still lived in apartment 5E, Vance said. The renovation was not minor either, but instead a "systematic demolition down to the studs and the bones," Vance said. The family lived in the building as it was being torn down around them until March 5, 2015, when the DOB ordered the building be evacuated. The DOB also ordered a work stoppage and shuttered the building. The family currently lives in temporary housing, Vance said.

During the demolition, the family endured extreme conditions, their quality of living suffered and their lives were put in danger, officials said. The family was even forced to deice the interior of their own home and use public restrooms when their toilet bowl froze over, officials said.

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Even after the family was vacated from the building, Vashovsky continued to collect more than $1,000 in rent subsidies issued to the family, officials alleged Tuesday. Vashovsky cashed a check from the New York City Department of Social Services on May 2015, months after the family evacuated, officials said.

As of today, 21 E. 115th St. remains shuttered, said DOB commissioner Rick Chandler.

Tuesday's press conference announcing the 20-count indictment was attended by multiple city officials including Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters, DOB Commissioner Chandler and New York City Public Advocate Letitia James.

"Today's indictment should be a message that anyone who hurts tenants in our city will get more than a slap on the wrist," James said. "Ephraim Vashovsky, one of New York City's worst landlords, forced tenants to live in inhumane and life-threatening conditions, prioritizing his bottom line before the lives of children and families."