Crook landlord gets probation for mail threats

A Long Island landlord in poor health avoided jail Thursday after pleading guilty to charges that she stiffed tenants on their rental deposits and sent them envelopes with black powder, metal shavings and rat feces instead.

Federal prosecutors said Sheila Friedman, 75, tried to “intimidate and terrorize” tenants of her West Hampton Dunes house with mailings that twice triggered responses from police hazardous material teams.

The prosecutors sought a sentence of 10 to 16 months in jail, but because Friedman has myriad medical problems, U.S. District Judge Carol Amon sentenced her to five years probation with five months of GPS-monitored supervised release.

She was also ordered to pay nearly $75,000 in restitution and a $30,000 fine.

Friedman (inset), who appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court in a wheelchair and neck brace, said in court papers she is a breast cancer survivor suffering from thyroid, back and spinal pain.

“Sending threatening letters through the mail is a very serious offense,” Amon said. “It’s clear to me that she intended no real physical harm to her victims, but she clearly intended psychological harm.

“Were it not for her health problems and her advanced age, I think the seriousness of the offense would dictate that some term of imprisonment would be called for.”

But one of Friedman’s victims said the sentence was too lenient. Phyllis Ferrantello did not get one of the menacing envelopes, but she said she was unable to get her money back after she was scammed on an Airbnb rental.

“I don’t care that she’s 75 years old,” Ferrantello said. “What she did was wrong. She violated the law over and over and over again. She should go to jail.”