Posted on January 5, 2022

‘Squatter’ Turns $7m NYC Townhouse Into Brothel

Melissa Klein, New York Post, January 1, 2021

Squatters have turned a $6.9 million Murray Hill townhouse into a depraved den of iniquity with poker games, prostitution and after-hours parties, legal papers allege.

The papers claim the stately East 36th Street abode, which houses two apartments, turned seedy after tenant Patricia Taub sublet her five-bedroom unit and it ended up becoming a bawdy “members only” club.

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The partying started after Taub, an interior designer from Brazil, sublet the 3,000-square-foot $16,000-a-month triplex in November 2020 to Ashley Jurman, court papers say.

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Mitch Spaiser, who bought the townhouse in 2012 as an investment, said he was inundated with complaints about the partying.

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Spaiser tried to evict Jurman who, in turn, demanded tens of thousands of dollars to leave, according to a lawsuit Spaiser filed through his LLC in state Supreme Court in August. Taub, Jurman and “John Does” are named as defendants.

One of the John Does was later identified in legal papers as Kenyatti Adams, who moved in with Jurman in April 2021, “strong arming” his way into the property, legal papers allege.

Kenyatti Adams

Kenyatti Adams

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A video posted to the Instagram account of a party promoter showed a poker table inside the apartment, its walls painted black.

A social media post from June said one of the alleged squatters, known as “BigBodyYatti,” would be holding a poker game with a $1,000 minimum to play and the event would feature drinks and “talent.”

Adams acknowledges in court papers that he plays poker, but denied doing anything illegal and said Jurman moved out of the house when he accused of her planning “improper” activities there.

He continues to live in the townhouse and claimed a COVID-19 hardship, saying he was unable to pay the rent because of the pandemic.

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