Councilman has her pal cuffed after being pestered to pay visit
CITY COUNCILMAN Ben Kallos’ clash with his ailing mother left her longtime friend in handcuffs.
June Kallos’ caretaker, Elliott Tash, was arrested Sept. 1 for menacing, stalking and harassment after approaching the Upper East Side politician outside his E. 93rd St. district office.
Kallos bolted after Tash approached, and cops took the 69-year-old man into custody. Kallos’ mother decided to speak out after learning her only child was still pressing charges against Tash.
“I got so upset that he had Elliott arrested that I just felt I have to protect (Tash),” June Kallos told the Daily News. “I had hoped that Benjamin would come to his senses.”
A retired behavioral therapist, June Kallos, 73, suffers from Parkinson’s disease, which has left her with severe tremors and needing a wheelchair.
As her condition has deteriorated, her son has became more distant, according to June Kallos and Tash.
According to Tash, his intent on the night of his arrest was to cajole Kallos into mending his strained relationship with his sickly mom and coming by to visit her.
A recording made as Kallos left the office caught Tash raising his voice as he follows the councilman along Second Ave.
“Benjamin, your mother is having emergency surgery today,” said Tash. “She needs you there. Did you hear what I said?
“Your mother may die! She wants you there! . . . Stop that guy!”
A terrified June Kallos was awaiting a heart catheterization procedure on the day Tash tracked down her son.
According to a criminal complaint, Tash also approached Kallos at a June 2016 rally at Queensboro Oval park on the East Side and again four months later on E. 67th St.
Both times, Tash wanted to know why Kallos wouldn’t speak with him.
In the most bizarre allegation, Kallos claimed Tash tried to lure him to his death as the two men kept a 2011 vigil at June Kallos’ bedside in Lenox Hill Hospital.
Kallos said he believed an invite from Tash to go outside was “a threat by the defendant to throw me off the balcony,” the complaint reads.
Kallos was then 30 and Tash was 63.
Tash and June Kallos call her son’s allegation bogus, but acknowledge that Ben has never approved of their close friendship.
“He doesn’t have to be my best friend,” said Tash. “I’d like him to at least be a mensch with his mother . . . . I’m a messenger. You don’t kill the messenger.”
Tash said June Kallos was scared for her life going into her heart procedure in September, when her son blew him off.
A spokesman for the councilman said very little about the ongoing enmity.
“It’s a very personal family issue that the Council member cares about deeply,” said spokesman Josh Jamieson. “But there’s also an ongoing investigation and an ongoing case here.”
A lawyer for Tash said no crime was committed.
“They are false charges, and the district attorney has an obligation to understand that there was no basis at all to arrest (Tash),” attorney Robert Gottlieb said.