Another Brooklyn Deed Theft? Isn’t This a Felony Now?

Carmella Charrington of Brooklyn has a disturbing story to tell. And New York City’s News 12 reporters listened. In a state where deed theft is now named as grand larceny under the criminal law, some self-declared “new homeowner” broke into her home earlier this month. Then the stranger tried to evict Charrington.

The office of Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez responded to the news reporters. The DA office stated that its Real Estate Fraud Unit has convicted 30+ deed manipulators since 2017. These are sophisticated white-collar criminals, including disbarred lawyers. The office says it has dealt with more than 70 stolen deeds, jailed perpetrators, and recovered homes for the rightful owners when legally possible.

OK. But hundreds of New York City deeds are hijacked every year. From 2014 to 2023, says the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the city racked up about 3,500 deed theft reports. 

“Eviction Crime Syndicate Operating Throughout Brooklyn”

Evangeline Byars, who co-facilitates The People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft, told Our Time Press that deed theft is connected to “an eviction crime syndicate operating throughout Brooklyn.”

The operators pick on older people, Byars explains, with paid-off homes. The typical target, says Byars, is a retired bus driver or police officer. “[S]ome fraudster slaps a note on you from a fraudulent bank saying that you owe them $822,000, and they are foreclosing on you.”

One of the tactics they use is looking up heirs when someone has died. They zero in on descendants and ask them to sign over whatever legal rights to the home they might have.

Once they get their hands on a partial share, the manipulators convince courts to assign them the properties. Then they’re at the door, saying the home belongs to their LLC.

Justice? Or Just Us?

Our Time Press said Byars reported a wealth of information on how New York City deed scammers operate. And how these scammers are treated as credible people by city authorities, including judges:

• There are young adults holding scores of deeds, and grabbing still more from elderly and financially struggling people.

• There are LLC owners going into courts daily to evict homeowners, and the courts are upholding the evictions.

• Banks are enabling “purchaser to purchaser fraud” in which a deed holder’s mortgage is assigned to and then controlled by another party. 

• “Fraud of service” can send a struggling homeowner into an eviction. It happens when the required foreclosure notice is either never sent, or the envelope containing the notice is purposefully misaddressed. Yet on the court’s record, the deed holder got served the notice.

These tactics are designed to cause a default, so the manipulators can take the targeted deed and evict the occupants.

A Type of Treachery That Knows No Bottom

Sometimes, it’s a supposed rescuer who orchestrates the evictions.

Consider the case of Rachel C., who lost the deed to a multi-unit Brooklyn home she bought with her father more than 25 years ago.

After a hard breakup and the financial fallout that ensued, Rachel fell several months behind on mortgage payments. She sought foreclosure rescue assistance from a certain Francklin Etienne. A disbarred attorney had persuaded Rachel to put the deed in Etienne’s name. Only temporary, they assured Rachel. They would get the mortgage straightened out.

Rachel wound up sending $25K worth of payments to Etienne over the better part of a year. Eventually, she wanted out of the arrangement. She stopped sending money. But will she ever get the deed to her property back?  Wooley and Etienne are currently defendants in Rachel’s lawsuit in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court. As of 2025, Rachel has been struggling for 15 years to recover her deed.

A Community Fights Back

When real estate broker Florence Lichmore-Smith challenged the presence of a construction team inside her own Brooklyn home, the scene went viral. At first, police wouldn’t let her in. Carmella Charrington was also witnessed defending her family home. Others are watching. Some are joining the resistance.

So Charrington educates them on the white-collar schemes to hoard and flip Brooklyn homes. If they aren’t aware, other families may fall prey to the same tactics, she says.

Deed theft victims rallied together in November, when disbarred Brooklyn lawyer Sanford Solny received a prison term for taking a slew of Brooklyn deeds, mainly from Black “homeowners in financial distress.”

And now, an organized presence has hit the streets to protect people and their deeds: the rapid response unit of The People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft.  

Parallel to Domestic Violence

Officials have set up deed theft prevention workshops. And state legislator Stefani Zinerman told Our Time Press about forthcoming plans for a statewide system to confront shady property transfers. This includes the Protect Our Homes Act, which would create deed fraud alerts for the counties, and strengthen fraud detection. As for city leadership, a spokesperson for mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani told the publication that the incoming mayor will create an Office of Deed Theft Prevention to derail these schemes.

Deed theft awareness and prevention is one thing, organizers say. But they’re calling for intervention and enforcement of victims’ rights. The People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft is now working with the DA’s Deed Theft and Mortgage Fraud Taskforce, designed to protect victims, much like the Domestic Violence Unit.

The parallels to domestic violence are striking. Carmella Charrington’s family reports feeling terrified earlier this year when people broke into their home even as New York City police officers watched from the curb. The LLC owners told the police the home belonged to them. So the police did not intervene, although Carmella and her father, Allman Charrington, could be heard screaming in the home.

As in some domestic violence situations, it appears that the courts have failed this family. The elder Charrington has a court-appointed conservator, who was allegedly part of the fraudulent transfer. Carmella told the press that her father’s conservator and a group of others signed off on the $1.4 million sale transaction of the home in January 2024. They didn’t have to go to the probate court for permission to sell. And yet they are the named sellers on the recorded deed transfer to their LLC, which is owned by a threesome of infamous home flippers.

Clearly, New York’s work to deactivate its deed manipulators still has a long way to go.

New Yorkers targeted by deed scams can contact the state’s Attorney General’s office at 800-771-7755 or deedtheft@ag.ny.gov.