The house was maintained basically as a sanctuary to my family," stated Jennifer Merin.
Jennifer Merin, 70, stated that her grandparents moved into the new home on 141st Ave in Queens New York in 1931 and raised her mother and her mother's two siblings there. The home has been in her family ever since and was filled with treasures from around the world that they had collected. She inherited the home when her mother died several decades ago. She kept the home as a sanctuary for the family, to escape life in the the city where she maintains an apartment.
The first clue that she may have had trouble at the property was when she received the February water bill in May 27 2014 and she saw that the water usage had spiked very high. She has never rented the property out and it was unusual to have a bill that high with a vacant property. Merin called the police to investigate whether the home had suffered a water leak or if there was someone using the water there. She was informed that the house was fine but that there was a legal resident within.
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| Jennifer and mother outside the home |
Merin knew that this was not correct and went out to the home herself to check. She found that the locks had been changed, her 1992 Subaru Outback was missing from the garage and and most of the furnishings in the home were either missing or tossed into a pile in the garage. Merin then called the police again to report that someone had indeed illegally moved into the home but because no one would come to the door, she had to deal with it through court.
Marin has done just that......... she has been trying to evict Darrell Beatty, 49 and his two sons and their pit bull from her home. Neighbors have reported that they saw trucks arrive at the home in February and furniture was being removed. Beatty, his sons and the pit bull arrived about the same time and became a quiet fixture on the street.
The attorney for Marin has unearthed a deed transfer that had been filed by Beatty and it states that he had received the home from "Edith Moore" in March 2013. That deed does not list either Merin or her grandparents and the address for Moore does not exist. Beatty evidently stated that he had leased the house for $10,000 with an option to purchase it from a man named Khalid Moore. The phone number that was listed on the deed transfer for Beatty goes to the voice mail of a "Tony" and messages are not returned. It has been found that there is an Edith Moore but she died two weeks before the lease agreement that Beatty claims gives him the right to live in the home.
Beatty was arrested in early October and charged with seven counts which include grand larceny and possession of stolen property. He was held on $29,000 bail, which he posted fairly rapidly and went right back to Marin's home. Even if Beatty had been kept in jail, she still had to manage to evict the two sons and their dog. On November 6 2014, a judge finally ruled that the Beatty clan has just ten days to move out of the home Marin still owns. Beatty had filed a complaint that he had health issues and could not move out but the judge was not going to listen. Beatty had claimed that he had paid to rent it but he offered no proof of that payment.
Marin is happy to finally get her home back but she stated that she felt victimized by the courts because it had taken so long to evict a squatter. I think we will have to wait and see if he moves out or continues to fight. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted on the charges but he had no comment today as he rushed out of court and into a waiting BMW.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-ordered-queens-house-allegedly-stole-article-1.2000392
http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/woman-fights-to-take-back-house-stolen-in-deed-fraud-scam/
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/14/man-accused-of-squatting-in-queens-home-arrested-charged/
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/10/13/woman-claims-squatters-filed-fake-deed-to-family-home/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790502/elderly-woman-says-father-sons-stole-new-york-city-home-faking-deed.html
http://nypost.com/2014/10/15/ex-con-arrested-for-filing-fake-deed-to-steal-womans-home/
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