A judge has ordered a tenant accused of terrorizing his black neighbors to stay away from his apartment building. Melissa Russo reports.
An arson suspect accused of terrorizing his Black neighbors inside their Brooklyn apartment building has been ordered to stay away from his own apartment building as he faces new hate crime charges for threatening to kill and burn those who live near him.
Notorious racist tenant Steven Attanasso — suspected of setting a fatal fire in the same Ebbets Field apartment building where neighbors allege they've been terrorized under his watch for more than a year — was charged in a grand jury indictment unsealed Monday at the Supreme Court in Downtown Brooklyn.
The charges include making terroristic threats as a hate crime, which means it’s motivated by racial bias — and comes with stiffer penalties. He also faces harassment, weapon possession and disorderly conduct charges.
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Attanasso pleaded not guilty, smiling throughout much of the arraignment. His attorney argued it’s the neighbors who have been harassing Attanasso, arguing his client is 68 years old, frail, not dangerous and should be sent home pending trial.
"He’d like to go back to his home, he’ll stay away from his neighbors," said attorney Morris Shamuil.
But Judge Danny Chun sided with prosecutor Sharmalee Brooks, who pushed for the judge to set bail and to order Attanasso to stay away from his apartment building.
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"He did say he was going to burn and kill all of the neighbors," Brooks said.
After a brief debate in court over whether the terroristic threat hate crime charge was bail eligible, the judge set bail at $50,000. It was not clear if Attanasso would be able to post bail, but the judge clarified that even if he were able to do so, the order of protection imposed Monday is a "full stay away order," meaning he would only be allowed to return home accompanied by police to retrieve his belongings.
Attanasso's attorney said the order from the judge would render the defendant homeless.
It comes as a relief to those neighbors who have been calling for the man to remain behind bars. Some said they will sleep easier now.
"I slept with a fire extinguisher next to my bed," neighbor Tony Armstrong said. "Who wants to live under threat of violence because of the color of your skin?"
As the I-Team first exposed, Attonasso is the NYPD’s prime suspect in a fatal arson back in April — just days after he was caught on tape threatening to burn his black neighbors. Many say the blood curdling screams caught on camera at all hours of the night were the least of the harassment they experienced.
"We just want him to go. However he goes," Beverly Newsome, a tenants association president, said.
For more than a year, neighbors have been documenting Attanasso waving knives around the hall, slamming their doors with a hammer and spewing racial slurs.
"He’ll scream ‘Ahhh, f--- you n-----s, I’m gonna kill you,’” said a neighbor named Raquel.
A year of calls to 911 about Attanasso's alleged threats and violent behavior produced no long-term relief for the Crown Heights tenants, despite some arrests and trips to a psychiatric hospital. Each time, Attanasso was released.
His neighbors were shocked in April when nothing changed after Attanasso, they said, threatened to burn his Black neighbors.
"Black people, we're gonna burn you. Right now you're really brown, when we get done with you you'll be black," he was caught saying on tape.
Three days later, police said a suspicious fire was set in the hallway using a mattress from inside Attanasso's apartment that killed 66-year-old veteran Roderick Coley. The NYPD has said Attanasso is their only suspect in the fatal arson investigation, but still no arson charges have been filed because there were no eyewitnesses, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
When police officers went to arrest the 67-year-old man on hate crime charges on Sept. 7, the said he was carrying a long kitchen knife on the street. Attanasso already faces other weapons charges, but has repeatedly failed to show up to court hearings.
Neighbors who have been living in fear say there never seemed to be any consequences.
"I'm not holding my breath because is this gonna be like it was the last time, he went in for a couple hours and then comes back out?" Beverly asked.
The building's tenants have voiced their frustration that the arson investigation remained stalled because there were no eyewitnesses.
