Coffee cups, fast food wrappers, dirty diapers, sagging cardboard. Ripped clothes, broken toys, heaping bags of trash. Flies buzzing from front doors left ajar.
Weeds and vines climbing railings and snaking onto porches. Spray-painted profanities and abstract art, visible inside and out. Rotting plywood bolted to window frames; smashed glass panels. Months-old eviction notices tacked up alongside a brochure for community housing resources.
These are the properties at issue in one Binghamton property owner’s pending lawsuit against the city.
Isaac Anzaroot, the Broome County property owner dubbed “Binghamton’s most notorious slumlord” by Binghamton Mayor Jared Kraham, has signaled his intent to sue the city, the mayor and several officials he said have contributed to his “selective prosecution” in an ongoing series of court cases over housing code violations.
Anzaroot, a Brooklyn resident who owns hundreds of properties throughout Broome County, filed a notice of claim – a precursor to a lawsuit – in May in Broome County Supreme Court, alleging Binghamton city officials unlawfully retaliated against him for speaking out against what he believes to be unequal enforcement of local ordinances – a violation of his First Amendment right to petition the government, according to his attorney, Ron Benjamin.
He is seeking more than half a billion dollars in damages.
City, Anzaroot both say each other’s claims are ‘frivolous’
The notice alleges, following Benjamin’s introduction of a theory at a March court appearance, that city officials have been “selectively enforcing” various sections of Binghamton’s housing code against Anzaroot while failing to enforce the same statutes against other property owners. It also claims the city doubled down on its efforts to prosecute Anzaroot by serving him with dozens more code violations, including for properties he no longer owned or had control over.
Landlord in court:Mayor says Binghamton is in ‘first inning’ vs….
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