NYC NOW - May 4, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

The NYC medical examiner's office confirms a subway rider's chokehold caused Jordan Neely's death. New Jersey comptroller finds most police departments are not meeting misconduct reporting guidelines. Also, deed theft is increasingly targeting Black and Latino homeowners in New York City, particularly in Brooklyn; WNYC's David Brand shares one man's fight to reclaim his family home. And finally, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk collaborates with the nonprofit Street Lab to spotlight stories from diverse NYC neighborhoods, such as a recent visit to P.S. 32 in Belmont, Bronx, where a street closure provided a safe play space for kids.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, May 4th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office says a subway rider's chokehold caused Jordan Neely's death this week. Nearly was an F-trained passenger who, some witnesses say, was going through a mental health crisis. No charges have been filed. The case is drawing comparison.

sends to bodega worker Jose Alba stabbing and killing a man attacking him last year. Prosecutors later dropped murder charges against Alba. Alba's attorney Imran Ansari says Neely's situation is different. The law doesn't allow for just anyone based on, you know, someone who may be emotionally disturbed or acting out to say, you know what, I'm going to put this guy in a headlock to the extent that it may result in his death. There has to be a good reason to do so. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating the case seeking witnesses and videos and photos.

Before the incident, the City Council had begun focusing on improving access to mental health care with the suite of bills. One bill introduced today would mandate each borough has at least two crisis centers open to walk-ins. The New Jersey Comptroller's Office says most municipal police departments in the state are not meeting guidelines meant to encourage people to report police misconduct. If found most failed to meet or make a standardized internal affairs report form available on their websites, Hoboken is among five that do meet those requirements. About a third of departments had warnings posted about penalties for false reporting. That's in violation of state standards. 52 with clouds and showers right now.

Mostly cloudy today, scattered showers and 58 for a high. Tomorrow morning shower chances and then partly sunny and 61 warmer this weekend in the city. Across New York City, some real estate speculators are targeting black and Latino homeowners to con them out of their valuable properties. It's called deed theft, and it's most common in Brooklyn. WNYC's David Brand describes one man's fight to reclaim his family's home. When Michael Baker's father died in 2014, he inherited the first.

family's four-unit home in Brownsville, a place his parents bought more than five decades earlier. I've been there since 1963, but it's a nice block, it's a decent block. I mean, people's friendly, they keep block parties every year. But with the house came $44,000 in back taxes. Baker turned to his friends, asking if they knew of anyone who could help him secure a loan. The reason why I felt into this trap is because of trust. He says one friend offered to connect him with a real estate speculator to set up financing. The duo told Baker they could get a mortgage for the property to pay off the debt

if he transferred the deed to a company they set up. Baker says the speculators pledged to return the deed after he made a year of payments. But six months later, they sold the home. And last summer, he and his family were evicted. My mom's worked all the life for this, for somebody else's scammers out of it. And then I'm supposed to sit back and don't do nothing. He sued to reclaim the home, but ended up losing the case. He says his lawyer at the time filed documents full of errors and missed key appearances.

Attorneys and lawmakers we spoke with say Baker's experience highlights the dangers of real estate deals that leave inexperienced homeowners negotiating with professional operators, with minimal representation and hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake. And wrongdoing can be hard to prove, says Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. He described common schemes at an event last year. They tell you, I don't know where I'm going to sell it back to you. But of course, that's not in writing or you don't have your own lawyer and you're using their lawyers and you've been defrauding. Attorney General Letitia James and state lawmakers are now backing measures that would make deed theft a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison and extend the statute of limitations. The AG's office says that since 2014, there have been 3,500 deed theft complaints, with most coming from Brooklyn and Queens.

For his part, Baker says he is still committed to fighting. and speaking out. On Tuesday, he got his first break. A Brooklyn judge ruled he could re-argue his case based on a video from the day of the eviction. It shows the new owner standing on the stoop and telling Baker he told the speculators to give him back his place.

The new owner and his lawyer did not respond to multiple calls, emails, and messages. Others who set up the sale declined to comment. Baker says the whole ordeal still haunts him. It's hard for me to pass through here and look at my house and I can't go on my house. He hopes other New Yorkers can learn from his experience.

David Brand, WNYC News. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk regularly teams up with the nonprofit street lab to collect and share stories from neighborhoods across the five boroughs. We recently stationed ourselves outside PS32 in the Belmont section of the Bronx. The street was closed to traffic to give kids a safe place to play for the afternoon. My name is Ruth Chow, and I live in Belmont neighborhood. her in the Bronx. We moved from Harlem because right before the pandemic, we were worried with the kids coming. I was pregnant and all that. We wanted to be sure that everything was covered. We'll be

able to afford everything. So our rent in Harlem was going up. So this was the place that we could find that was more affordable. We can do it every month and we can be fine. I like it that is kid center. There is a lot of little areas for the kids to play, even though, you know, it's not the safest either. Here, the truth is like even when you are at the park, you are like on alert checking what is going on, what is happening. But, you know, I have some sense of community. I like to go to the store. It's always the same places. We say hi and buy to each other. And it gives you like a sense of community. My name is Michael Covertton. The school's here. They're lovely with the avenue, you know, the streets, you know, the streets is going to the streets.

This is not a bad area. Don't get me wrong. It's not. But, you know, you're in a place that stuff happened, you know, There's too many kids out here, and I'm trying to tell a lot of people to stop doing the nonsense. The nonsense is that they shoot in these little kids for no reason or shooting period. Don't know who they're shooting at. They're hitting on these little kids. That's seven years old, three years old, four years old, five years old. And they're not even seeing their life yet, you know. What we need to do is get all the parents and everybody together and sit down and figure setting out together.

You know, because you got some kids that don't have families, don't have fathers, don't have mothers. and they still live by the street code. And I want all my kids out here that's here to go to college. My name is Kai Kalimo. I'm 8-year-old. I go to PS-32. I have quite a lot of friends. A lot of them, we just hang out,

and when it's long time, we'll just sit together and just eat. One thing that I learned is that meth could actually be fun. I want to be a ballerina when I grow up. My name is Doris Porto, and I'm a reading and writing support teacher here at PS-32. It's very interesting that I wound up here after a long career all over the state and different teaching capacities because I actually grew up not that far from here when there were a lot of Italians who lived in this area. And I went to school right here behind this school.

But since I was so young, I never came up this far, although my family would shop. on Arthur Avenue and my grandmother actually worked in St. Barnable's Hospital for a few years after my grandfather died. We have a real mix of ethnicities in our school. We have some English language learners, but they're not just Hispanic. One, students, family I think speaks Chinese. We have students who speak Arabic and Albanian in their homes. I think when I was growing up, there were gangs,

but we weren't really as kids aware of them. I think there wasn't as much gun violence. In some ways, it feels quite the same. The big difference is you don't see children on the street because it's not safe. We played on the street when we were kids on 181st Street. Having this open street, just giving kids to be free yet protected is really necessary.

It's really great that we can do this. I live in 182nd. and Prospect, and my name is Diana Torres. I've been in the neighborhood for 32 years. There's really no place for the kids to play and stuff like that because half of the time it's not safe. And what they're doing now, and the kids playing right now, is like safe haven.

I rarely come out. When I come out to do, you know, like shopping, food shopping and stuff like that, but then I come home. What keeps me? My grandkids. They keep me going and stuff like that. You got no choice, right? You better live.

You got to live from where or another. I hope it gets better. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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