A Manhattan judge said Monday he will issue a new arrest warrant for a notorious New York City landlord for failing to make hundreds of court-ordered repairs at two crumbling apartment buildings he owns in Washington Heights.
Judge Jack Stoller said in an afternoon court conference he will order Daniel Ohebshalom, who is listed as No. 1 on the public advocate’s annual ‘worst landlord’ watchlist, back to Rikers Island for not making sufficient progress on a long list of needed repairs at the buildings.
“Fixing leak damage without fixing the source of the leak is really not solving the problem,” Stoller said, adding that the order would come either Monday or Tuesday.
Ohebshalom’s attorney Vladimir Mironenko urged Stoller not to order the arrest. He said the landlord, who previously was jailed for 60 days for failing to make repairs on the same buildings, and his associates had hired contractors to fix the building roof, facade and apartments.
“Work is being done every single day,” Mironenko said. “Someone’s freedom is at stake, someone who has already served 60 days in jail.”
The action would mark an escalation in the court’s efforts to hold Ohebshalom to account for the problem properties – at 705 and 709 W. 170th St.
Ohebshalom is also facing separate criminal charges for allegedly harassing tenants and endangering the welfare of a child in buildings marred by collapsed ceilings, chronic heat outages and unrepaired leaks.
Stoller had issued an arrest warrant for Ohebshalom last month but said he would not order the city sheriff’s office to enforce it until Monday’s hearing, giving the landlord and his associates time to make more repairs.
But attorneys for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and the organization Manhattan Legal Services said the work completed at the two properties was merely cosmetic and meant to give the appearance of improvements without addressing underlying problems, like chronic hot water outages and crumbling walls.
“Tenants in 705 (West 170th) don’t have hot water as of today,” said Manhattan Legal Services lawyer Ashley Viruet, who represents the tenants. “It’s a continual slap of paint, a continual filing of papers that don’t change our clients’ lives.”
Ohebshalom has yet to resolve 320 open violations at the properties, according to HPD data.
Michael Paul Gdanski, a lawyer for the city, said the jail sentence ordered by the judge earlier this year seemed to motivate Ohebshalom to make actual upgrades at the pair of properties.
Gdanski had previously asked Stoller to extend the jail sentence or order Ohebshalom to live in one of his own buildings, which would be a rare form of house arrest, to compel him to continue making repairs.
An HPD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the judge’s decision.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also charged Ohebshalom earlier this year with various criminal offenses for allegedly harassing tenants in rent-stabilized apartments, falsifying business records and endangering the welfare of a child.
Ohebshalom, who lives in Southern California, did not attend Monday’s proceeding. He also did not answer questions while walking through the criminal courthouse in handcuffs in May.
He was assaulted shortly after arriving at Rikers Island to serve his sentence in March.
Mironenko, his attorney, left the courtroom quickly Monday and did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Ahead of the hearing, tenants and some elected officials rallied to demand Ohebshalom and his associates make repairs, and to urge the city to transfer the properties to the residents, or a responsible third-party operator.
Several sat in the courtroom later in the afternoon and said they were pleased with the decision.
“He needs to be held accountable,” said Gilbert Butcher, who lives on West 170th Street. “This is going to get him to make the repairs.”