Quit yer squawking!
Long-running co-op battle over tenant’s noisy birds sparks a federal lawsuit
Polly wants a federal intervention?
Birdbrained prosecutors blew it when they sued on behalf of a Gramercy Park woman with three annoying emotional support parrots, her neighbor tells the Daily News.
Manhattan federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit Monday over the attempted eviction of Meril Lesser due to noise complaints about the birds, named Layla, Ginger and Curtis. The feds say the landlord of the Gramercy Park co-op should have accommodated the chatty parrots.
But Lesser’s neighbor, Charlotte Kullen, was squawking mad at prosecutors for intervening on behalf of the birds that she says made life in the co-op building “a living hell.”
“They should do a more thorough investigation of the situation and live with the parrots for a few years themselves!” said Kullen, who for years shared a wall with Lesser in the building on E. 15th St. between Second and Third Aves.
She found it hard to believe the parrots provide emotional support. “It never came up until years into the situation. She would go away for a week at a time and they wouldn’t go with her,” Kullen said.
The Rutherford co-op brought eviction proceedings against Lesser in 2016 over the cacophonous cockatoos — but Lesser flew the co-op on her own after dozens of noise complaints about the rowdy parrots. She says she’s continued to pay fees for the apartment while trying to sell it. The long-running eviction proceeding is now on pause due to the new federal case.
Lesser and Kullen moved into the 175-unit, 13-story co-op and became shareholders within weeks of each other in 1999. Lesser brought two birds with her, according to court papers.
The next 16 years passed in relative harmony, Kullen said. It wasn’t until the arrival of a third bird, Curtis, in 2015 that the parrots’ chatter took an unbearable turn, according to the neighbor.
The new bird was “traumatized” and “would just scream all day and all night,” Kullen said. Irritated by the relentless sounds typically heard in a South American jungle, Kullen refused to continue caring for the parrots when Lesser was away.
“Oh God, I wake up still with nightmares of them screaming in my head. There’s no question of whether these are soothing animals,” Kullen said.
“I went over one day when the birds were screaming and she slammed the door in my face.”
Over a five-month period in 2015 and 2016, 26 anonymous noise complaints were filed about the parrots, but no violations were ever issued, prosecutors say. During 15 inspections, city investigators found that “though the parrot sounds could be heard, there were no loud, unreasonable or excessive noises.”
In March 2016, a psychiatrist wrote a letter to the building telling them the birds helped Lesser cope with anxiety, depression and panic attacks.
“Their presence helps to mitigate the mental health symptoms she experiences. All three birds must be present as they are long-term companions of each other and cannot be separated without negative consequences,” the doctor wrote in the letter cited by prosecutors.
The Rutherford began eviction proceedings against Lesser in June 2016 for failing to fix the noise problem. The landlord wrote in court papers that she’d failed to show how “screeching parrots” addressed her “purported disability.”
She moved out the next month, though she continued to pay her monthly maintenance fees and battle the building in court.
The feds now accuse the Rutherford of violating the Fair Housing Act and discriminating against Lesser on the basis of her disability. The Rutherford is also accused of interfering with Lesser’s attempt to sell her co-op studio in retaliation for “living with emotional support animals.”
The co-op president denies discrimination.
“It’s a tempest in a teapot,” said James Ramadei, a named defendant in the case, adding that “it’s a very New York story with plenty of little tidbits in it.”
“The details of this story border on the ridiculous,” he said.
Lesser’s parquet-floored studio apartment overlooking the building’s courtyard is on the market for around $520,000.
Despite complaints about the loud birds and audio recordings shared with The News, the feds and Lesser’s psychiatrist say that her “interactions with the parrots soothe and comfort her” and they provide a “calming environment.”
Kullen, however, said the birds’ shrieks were so relentless that she broke her molars while grinding her teeth at night.
When reached on phone, Lesser called a Daily News reporter “green.”
“Get your facts straight!” she said before hanging up.
Lesser’s attorney said it was too early to comment on the suit.
Attorneys for Rutherford Tenants Corp. did not respond to a request for comment.