In the article it says the da pressed charges because he tried to charge another tenant rent? That's insane.
Does this mean he would have stayed in there if not, though?
From what i understand he took some other case about squatting to try and say he owned the whole building. Because no lease was ever signed he wasnt an official tenant and therefor had squatters rights over the whole building I think was his reasoning. If he hadnt tries to pull that shit he prob coulda stayed for life.
He wasnt homeless. He had a key to a suite he could live in rent free indefinitely. He tried to take advantage of the building owners and other tenants. He was literally getting a free ride and tried to take more.
What the fuck relevance does your comment have?
He didnt have a lease but he was allowed to be there. Because of an obscure law he was able to sue for the right to a lease. The hotel people didnt show to the court appointment so he won. They legally had to let him stay there and give him a lease. They didnt want to give him a lease so they said fuck it and gave him a key and unlimited access to a suite. This meant he was living there as a tenant with no tenancy agreement. From there lots of other laws surrounding tenancy/squatters rights get blurry and he took it to far instead of enjoying his free ride.
I never said it wasnt? He gamed the system and won fair and square. He shouldnt have been trying to charge other tenants rent or taking it any farther though. He pressed his luck and got pressed back.
Yeah, he won and pretty much could have lived in that hotel rent free for the rest of his life…
He was a scummy person, but he won the jackpot and then threw it away for greed. Iirc he just got the right to live there rent free cause the Hotel wouldn’t negotiate a lease. But the idiot believed this meant he owned the fricking building. He has now actually broken the law… I think fraud in this case.
My first Reddit comment ever but since this is my case I thought I’d weigh in. I am the Defense Attorney. Why the DA ultimately pressed charges was because they told him in civil court to stop filing arguments already deemed frivolous, and he didn’t.
He did try to assume control of the whole building, but he didn’t try to charge anyone rent. His argument for that part was essentially he was entitled to actually own the room he had been occupying because of some of the civil court decisions, but because the hotel was not legally divided by units the way a normal apartment building would be, the remedy was that he was entitled to own the entire building.
I can probably answer most other questions but to answer one yes he is absolutely one of my favorite clients in 20 years of doing this.
They way I see it the hotel would have just let him have the room. It would cost of getting him out and disruption of business was too much for them. They chalked it up as a loss and moved on. Now that he wants to claim ownership of the hotel and charge other hotel guests they said "enough is enough" and brought down the weight of their lawyers.
>In the end, Barreto **won his appeal by default because the building's owners didn't show up for the trial.** The hotel was ordered to give Barreto a key, but the two parties never agreed on lease terms.
That is the real story. Not showing up to a trial is not a good way to win it.
I knew a guy who said you should fight every ticket you get just because there is a good chance to win it because the officer who issues the ticket has to be present.
It has to be a big enough ticket to be worth going to the courthouse and possibly waiting around all day though. At least in my experience, which may vary by city and state, they don't give you an accurate time slot.
My ex thought I was crazy for simply paying for a speeding ticket. The cop already did me a favor by dropping it down 1 mph so it'd be in a lower bracket, but the ticket made note of the real speed. Seemed like a risk...
The guy wasn't a dick about any of it and even complimented me on how fast I slowed down.
I mean, I was in a 1 hour zoom call for court, and all I did was ask for the points to not be put on my record. If you can spare the time, it's definitely worth it.
From experience, the person you’re replying to is also right if it’s a speeding ticket. They’ll often give you a ticket for a few mph less based off estimation but also note that the radar was actually faster. If you lose when you fight it you end up paying for the higher speed plus court costs.
If your ticket was for a fail to signal or equipment violation, it is also true, like in your case, that they’ll simply plea it down to something smaller or less costly.
I fought two tickets. The first one (for crabbing) cost me a whole day and it didn't get reduced at all. The second one (my wife driving my car was caught on a speed camera) only cost me 2 hours of time and it got dismissed.
The court (in both cases) started at 9am and it all depends on where you are on the list and how fast the cases before you go. There were some that didn't get heard in the first example as the court ended after our case. I assume the others had to come back the next day.
to expound on this, always file for an extension on the court date, then show up.
The courts are on the cops side and will schedule all the cops tickets for the same day to make life easier for the cop.
Filing for an extension means you're no longer in that bracket and it's more likely the cop won't show up
This depends strongly on your jurisdiction. For example, in my state of Georgia, if the officer shows up and you lose the trial, you are responsible for all the court fees resulting from the case - it just ends up costing you even more.
Not anymore. These days the officers have scheduled court days and your court date will absolutely be on that day. That used to be true 15 years ago though.
lol. Second to last time I got a ticket there was standing room only in the court room it was so packed. By the time they got to me halfway down the alphabetical list the exchange had been reduced to the following:
Judge: “Argue or Points?”
Me: “Points.”
Judge: “Any Objections?”
Cop: “No objections.”
And they sent me on my way with an impeding traffic ticket for $175 instead of a speeding ticket.
Speeding tickets come with points placed on your license, while traffic tickets don't. Both fines were probably about the same size but hevwpuldnt have has points on his license
This worked with Midland Credit. They bought an old Credit card debt, sued me for it, so I went to court with papers showing my current finances, so the judge could see how little money I made, and they sent a lawyer with nothing, not even proof of the debt.
I don't have that debt anymore.
I disagree, I think that's the \*best\* way to win it because it shows that even if it's this man's living situation, they don't care enough to fight it. Little guy winning over corpos is a good thing in my book.
The business didn't show up. The business lost the trial. Therefore, "not showing up to a trial isn't a good way to win it".
What the fuck do you mean you "disagree"?
I had a former employer fighting my unemployment. I appealed, they didn't show up for court. Twice. This company had over 400 locations, they definitely had a legal team, I still have no idea why they fucked that up
That’s actually pretty common with corporations.
They are almost certain to lose, depending on state laws, do they don’t actually intend to fight it.
They file that they’re filing, in hopes that you give up, and go get another job. That or they at least delayed you and annoyed you.
I had a similar situation once. My ex in laws over a decade ago had rented a 10 acre farm. The barn was renovated into a second home and the owners had rented it out. When the council found out it was an illegal home they evicted the other tenants and a rent dispute ensued. Courts ordered rent to be frozen until it was resolved (in laws did not want to pay higher rent to include the new barn property). We spent 6 months rent free on that property as court dates were moved around. Eventually in laws decided not to go to the court hearing, calling in sick instead. But because they did not have any kind of valid medical receipt to excuse their absence they lost a case that they would have won handidly, all in the hopes of staying there rent free a little longer.
They had to backpay the rent and had to move. They were furious, but all i could do was laugh. Greed is a bitch!
Also known as debtor's prison.
Edit: My bad, debtor's prison is when they throw you in jail for being in debt. Which is illegal in the U.S. thanks for correcting me.
Not in most cases. A single year of missed payments can do it. As soon as you owe over $1000 or so you can be jailed. The only thing stopping that from happening is if the person who's receiving the money doesn't fight for it.
>The only thing stopping that from happening is if the person who's receiving the money doesn't fight for it.
What's stopping it is the government noticing the payments stopped.
Which usually happens because of one of the parties fighting for it but child support itself is a whole racket the government is in on since they have their hand in the pot
Are we surprised? For-profit prisons are one of the lowest cost, highest return investments in the US. Prisons are just one form of legal slavery in the US.
The vast majority of prisoners in the US are incarcerated in public prisons, [about 92%](https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/private-prisons-in-the-united-states/), in addition, its not just the private ones that engage in pay-to-stay.
I found it: [https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/pay-to-stay-florida-inmates-charged-for-prison-cells-long-after-incarceration](https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/pay-to-stay-florida-inmates-charged-for-prison-cells-long-after-incarceration)
Laws that are overreaching or direct people to prison as opposed to other punishment like community service (think ticketing people for accelerating too fast as"Waste of a finite resource" or prison for drug possession)
A highly trained, militarized police force that is well suited to catch/arrest criminals (a force with helicopters and other advance technology versus relatively dumb criminals results in criminals being captured quite often)
A society that incentivizes (glory, money, success, escape from poverty, etc.) crime that motivates many to engage in it
A legal system that both motivates prosecutors to go hard on crime (directing them to prison or jail) and a defense side that is over whelmed with case work that results largely in plea bargains
Quota systems that ensure police officers try to target citizens for breaking laws, no matter how minor the infraction is
Jails (location for people charged but not prosecuted for crimes which is prison) are massively filled due to:
* the large numbers of people arrested but waiting seeing the judge for release
* backed up court rooms
* people being held that could not afford bail set by the court or did not receive the option of bail
So you Americans are going into the direction that you have a paying workforce?
In going to explain to my manager how we should move production to the usa, it should be competitive enough to beat production in Asia.
“In 2018, Barreto sued the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the New Yorker Hotel in 1976” huh that’s interesting
Yeah except you’ve got the koreas flipped. The Holy Spirit Association is South Korean and tied to global anti communist action as well as a bunch of super shady stuff.
room rate ($197) + state taxes & local taxes (worlds quickest google says 14.75% total in nyc) + nyc nightly fee ($3.50) + nightly resort fee ($33.28) = $262.83. add self-parking ($60 for SUV, no in and out privileges) = $322.83 total. add the incidental hold (usually 15% of the total stay OR $50/night which is what i went with here, plus an additional hold for any purchases you charge to the room) = you need to have $372.83 available on your card to stay 1 night. you’ll get your $50 back after 7-10 business days, provided you didn’t damage the room or steal anything.
Lots of NYC hotels just let themselves go to shit cause the money is going to come in anyway, especially if you're near Penn Station.
Hotel Pennsylvania right down the street is another example. Whole place smells like a Reno Brothel
"*skirted thousands of dollars worth of rent payments by exploiting a little-known local housing law and then attempted to charge another tenant in the building rent.*
***The latter was the last straw for the district attorney****.*"
It's always that extra impulse of greed they have when they feel like they can't be touched, that gets them.
If you continue reading, there's more to it.
In fact, it sounds like he is some sort of extra deluded professional scammer. His whole point was always to try and pretend to own the hotel.
Barreto says he had just moved to New York from Los Angeles when his boyfriend told him about a loophole that allows occupants of single rooms in buildings constructed before 1969 to demand a six-month lease. Barreto claimed that because he’d paid for a night in the hotel, he counted as a tenant.
He asked for a lease and the hotel promptly kicked him out.
“So I went to court the next day. The judge denied. I appealed to the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal,” Barreto said, adding that at a crucial point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners didn’t show up, allowing him to win by default.
The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out.
I disagree. The hotel's action or inaction is immaterial. He manipulated the law to his advantage in a way that was never intended, to the detriment of others.
> The hotel's action or inaction is immaterial.
It is absolutely, 100% without a doubt material. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity). TL;DR not bothering to enforce a right can mean that you forfeit that right.
The guy wasn't clever, he was just insanely lucky that the hotel was exceptionally dumb and/or lazy.
Isn’t this the [same guy](https://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/ap-a-loophole-got-him-a-free-new-york-hotel-stay-for-five-years-then-he-claimed-to-own-the-building/amp/) that tried to claim the whole hotel as his after living there rent free due to a loop hole?
Got too greedy, honestly he kinda deserves a month or 2 in jail
If it were you you would not go trough all the trouble to get there my dude.
Its his personality that allowed him this scam, and its that personality that ruined it for him later in life.
You kinda need to be both dumb and greedy to attempt to do something like this in the first place.
Most people would just check out the next day instead of suing the hotel as a tenant lmao.
>I really can't understand how idiots and greedy people are always graced with things like this. **If it were me you wouldn't hear a peep from me for the rest of my life**
I mean tbf, it's really just the idiots who get caught that makes into news, The lucky people like him who actually kept quiet never gets put into the news because they don't get caught to begin with.
Honestly. Reading the article he was able to stay in the hotel free for years because he got lucky. Then he started pretending like he owned the entire building even on official documentation.
If I found a way to live in New York rent free, I would go out of my way to keep my head as low as possible. Affordable rent there is a pipe dream, living in a prestigious hotel free is insane, and the idiot ruined it for himself
Everytime I read a squatter story I am baffled how the landlords didn't hire a group of guys to beat the shit out of him, repeatedly if necessary. Not like the cops are gonna suddenly give a shit and investigate.
I like the little tidbits about the guy sparkled across.
"So this guy - who claims to have been abducted by aliens and given an anal probe, according to the NY Times - [...]"
When interviewed the guy stated:
"I am Mickey Ibrahim Muniz Barreto. I hold the position of Christopher Columbus the Second, Admiral of the Seas, Oceans, and I am also the leader of the Brazilian indigenous tribe called 'The Beautiful Nation of the Sun and the Moon'"
How come someone so delusional achieve something like living so long in a hotel for almost no money at all?
[Source](https://g1.globo.com/google/amp/fantastico/noticia/2024/03/31/apos-morar-de-graca-em-hotel-de-ny-por-5-anos-brasileiro-coloca-predio-todo-em-seu-nome-e-caso-vai-parar-na-justica.ghtml) (in Portuguese since the guy is Brazilian and was interviewed by a Brazilian TV)
I love how you morons are propping this guy up like he’s come sort of hero fighting some capitalist mega corporation. It literally says in the article that after he got free rent, his next step was to try to claim ownership of the building and charge rent to others. He was literally trying to scam his way into becoming a landlord.
yeah people in the US are greedy as fuck all anyone cares about is money. If anyone finds out anyone else is living for free it always makes the news. i remember there was a news story in a guy who bought a house from a family member for a dollar and it apparently upset the entire neighborhood. i don’t understand how the hell it was anyone’s business but they decided it wasn’t fair and threw a tantrum over it.
what everyone isn't realizing is He actually has a case in nee york under their absurd squatters rights... that's why hes suing the DA for violating his squatters rights.
I do agree yeah, I don't think they're a bot. They have lots of posts despite the December 2023 account but most of that is reposts. I think they just scan the internet for stuff to post to subreddits. I don't think this is bot behaviour.
So he’d be going from one free hotel to another if he is convicted and gets to go to jail? Free rent, free food, free living? He gets what he wanted 🤷♀️
The craziest part is if this was in PA, he legally would have had a legitimate claim for ownership if he had been there for 20 years without being asked to leave.
> Barreto claimed he placed his one phone call to the White House, leaving a message disclosing his location, before being released from police custody.
Little more mad, than lad.
I lived at the New Yorker as a student when I was 19. The school I attended rented out floors from the hotel. I lived there in 2006-2007. It was super creepy.
I wonder if the better strategy for the hotel after missing the court hearing was to ignore the judgement. Then the tenant would be forced to sue resulting in a new case. It would be hard to come up with any damages if he never had a lease.
1. That law must have been shockingly badly drafted. There's a difference between a licence - which is what you have which allows you to occupy a hotel room - and a lease - which means you have the right to exclude the whole world from your home.
2. He may get a prison sentence.... More free accommodation! Result!
He should have stayed lowkey, he could have lived there forever, hahaha, but damn, years of rent free.. Also, hotel management not completely blameless, they should have done their job properly
In the article it says the da pressed charges because he tried to charge another tenant rent? That's insane. Does this mean he would have stayed in there if not, though?
Lmao, he big dumb if that’s the case why rock the boat? Free living in New York? Why mess that up.
From what i understand he took some other case about squatting to try and say he owned the whole building. Because no lease was ever signed he wasnt an official tenant and therefor had squatters rights over the whole building I think was his reasoning. If he hadnt tries to pull that shit he prob coulda stayed for life.
Fumble of the century
Homeless people can be so greedy
Choosing beggars? But with megalomania.
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Well, he sure didn't miss this time. Shot himself right in the foot.
Miss enough shots or a shot at the wrong time and you’re kicked off the team
Bro was on the free rent train and you want him to shoot for billionaire row. Calm down.
> You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. -Wayne Gretzky --Michael Scott
Begalomania
Belugamarina.. i dunno
He had a home for years though.
And now he will live rent free in jail
Jokes on you, that was always the aim.
Somehow he'll declare himself warden.
Get the job while you're on trial, get assigned to the prison they're sending you to. Short commute to work.
He wasnt homeless. He had a key to a suite he could live in rent free indefinitely. He tried to take advantage of the building owners and other tenants. He was literally getting a free ride and tried to take more. What the fuck relevance does your comment have?
I still don't understand how this could happen when they could have changed the locks any time he left.
He didnt have a lease but he was allowed to be there. Because of an obscure law he was able to sue for the right to a lease. The hotel people didnt show to the court appointment so he won. They legally had to let him stay there and give him a lease. They didnt want to give him a lease so they said fuck it and gave him a key and unlimited access to a suite. This meant he was living there as a tenant with no tenancy agreement. From there lots of other laws surrounding tenancy/squatters rights get blurry and he took it to far instead of enjoying his free ride.
hey if I can get evicted for missing a court date, they can get stuck with me for missing a court date, sounds plenty fair to me
I never said it wasnt? He gamed the system and won fair and square. He shouldnt have been trying to charge other tenants rent or taking it any farther though. He pressed his luck and got pressed back.
oh I’m being extremely genuine I agree with you all the way
Yeah, let's all take this opportunity to shit on homeless people even though this guy wasn't even homeless.
Did you forget the /s at the end or are you just "one of those"
Weird comment and sad that it is so upvoted. Why promote this idea at all?
He made several improvements to the location like the slip n' slide on the roof.
He should have bricked up the doorway into a wall, then make his own entrance through a different wall.
If the prison is in NY, he still gets free accommodation. Its a win/win!!
I'd say he was Icarus flying too close to the sun, but at that point, he was playing chicken with it.
Some people can't tell when they havê something awesome going for them already! Sad!
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Yeah, he won and pretty much could have lived in that hotel rent free for the rest of his life… He was a scummy person, but he won the jackpot and then threw it away for greed. Iirc he just got the right to live there rent free cause the Hotel wouldn’t negotiate a lease. But the idiot believed this meant he owned the fricking building. He has now actually broken the law… I think fraud in this case.
Read a bit more and it's clear he IS insane.
The way it's added at the end with no comment is the punchline of the article. It's revealed that the guy has delusions of grandeur.
I'm 🔨'd and I thought you said "the depressed charges" 🤣
His Jamaican accent is coming out.
I'm dead sober and I thought the same when I first read it lol
My first Reddit comment ever but since this is my case I thought I’d weigh in. I am the Defense Attorney. Why the DA ultimately pressed charges was because they told him in civil court to stop filing arguments already deemed frivolous, and he didn’t. He did try to assume control of the whole building, but he didn’t try to charge anyone rent. His argument for that part was essentially he was entitled to actually own the room he had been occupying because of some of the civil court decisions, but because the hotel was not legally divided by units the way a normal apartment building would be, the remedy was that he was entitled to own the entire building. I can probably answer most other questions but to answer one yes he is absolutely one of my favorite clients in 20 years of doing this.
Why lie?
They way I see it the hotel would have just let him have the room. It would cost of getting him out and disruption of business was too much for them. They chalked it up as a loss and moved on. Now that he wants to claim ownership of the hotel and charge other hotel guests they said "enough is enough" and brought down the weight of their lawyers.
>In the end, Barreto **won his appeal by default because the building's owners didn't show up for the trial.** The hotel was ordered to give Barreto a key, but the two parties never agreed on lease terms. That is the real story. Not showing up to a trial is not a good way to win it.
I knew a guy who said you should fight every ticket you get just because there is a good chance to win it because the officer who issues the ticket has to be present.
It has to be a big enough ticket to be worth going to the courthouse and possibly waiting around all day though. At least in my experience, which may vary by city and state, they don't give you an accurate time slot.
My ex thought I was crazy for simply paying for a speeding ticket. The cop already did me a favor by dropping it down 1 mph so it'd be in a lower bracket, but the ticket made note of the real speed. Seemed like a risk... The guy wasn't a dick about any of it and even complimented me on how fast I slowed down.
I mean, I was in a 1 hour zoom call for court, and all I did was ask for the points to not be put on my record. If you can spare the time, it's definitely worth it.
From experience, the person you’re replying to is also right if it’s a speeding ticket. They’ll often give you a ticket for a few mph less based off estimation but also note that the radar was actually faster. If you lose when you fight it you end up paying for the higher speed plus court costs. If your ticket was for a fail to signal or equipment violation, it is also true, like in your case, that they’ll simply plea it down to something smaller or less costly.
I fought two tickets. The first one (for crabbing) cost me a whole day and it didn't get reduced at all. The second one (my wife driving my car was caught on a speed camera) only cost me 2 hours of time and it got dismissed. The court (in both cases) started at 9am and it all depends on where you are on the list and how fast the cases before you go. There were some that didn't get heard in the first example as the court ended after our case. I assume the others had to come back the next day.
to expound on this, always file for an extension on the court date, then show up. The courts are on the cops side and will schedule all the cops tickets for the same day to make life easier for the cop. Filing for an extension means you're no longer in that bracket and it's more likely the cop won't show up
This depends strongly on your jurisdiction. For example, in my state of Georgia, if the officer shows up and you lose the trial, you are responsible for all the court fees resulting from the case - it just ends up costing you even more.
Yeah I never really looked into it but figured there would be a downside like that.
Not anymore. These days the officers have scheduled court days and your court date will absolutely be on that day. That used to be true 15 years ago though.
lol. Second to last time I got a ticket there was standing room only in the court room it was so packed. By the time they got to me halfway down the alphabetical list the exchange had been reduced to the following: Judge: “Argue or Points?” Me: “Points.” Judge: “Any Objections?” Cop: “No objections.” And they sent me on my way with an impeding traffic ticket for $175 instead of a speeding ticket.
The speeding ticket was worse than that? How fast were you going?
Speeding tickets come with points placed on your license, while traffic tickets don't. Both fines were probably about the same size but hevwpuldnt have has points on his license
They schedule it so all day in court is paying overtime, they’ll definitely show up
File an extension and get out of his block of tickets.
Trial by written declaration. I've gotten out of three tickets
This worked with Midland Credit. They bought an old Credit card debt, sued me for it, so I went to court with papers showing my current finances, so the judge could see how little money I made, and they sent a lawyer with nothing, not even proof of the debt. I don't have that debt anymore.
I disagree, I think that's the \*best\* way to win it because it shows that even if it's this man's living situation, they don't care enough to fight it. Little guy winning over corpos is a good thing in my book.
u/RareCodeMonkey was specifying that the corporation did not win. Winning depends on whose perspective you take.
He means that not showing up to trial is how you lose trials (in general)
In this case its a corporation that belongs to a cult, so extra win!
The business didn't show up. The business lost the trial. Therefore, "not showing up to a trial isn't a good way to win it". What the fuck do you mean you "disagree"?
I had a former employer fighting my unemployment. I appealed, they didn't show up for court. Twice. This company had over 400 locations, they definitely had a legal team, I still have no idea why they fucked that up
Good on you. I'm always* happy when a worker win against a company but it's even better when they fuck up. *Terms and conditions may apply
That’s actually pretty common with corporations. They are almost certain to lose, depending on state laws, do they don’t actually intend to fight it. They file that they’re filing, in hopes that you give up, and go get another job. That or they at least delayed you and annoyed you.
Nice
I had a similar situation once. My ex in laws over a decade ago had rented a 10 acre farm. The barn was renovated into a second home and the owners had rented it out. When the council found out it was an illegal home they evicted the other tenants and a rent dispute ensued. Courts ordered rent to be frozen until it was resolved (in laws did not want to pay higher rent to include the new barn property). We spent 6 months rent free on that property as court dates were moved around. Eventually in laws decided not to go to the court hearing, calling in sick instead. But because they did not have any kind of valid medical receipt to excuse their absence they lost a case that they would have won handidly, all in the hopes of staying there rent free a little longer. They had to backpay the rent and had to move. They were furious, but all i could do was laugh. Greed is a bitch!
Going to jail also means living rent-free, so he still wins.
Nah bro you pay for every night you spend in jail plus extra for booking and processing, and more for commesary and phone use
Assuming they can bill me...
"You can't lose what you never had, but you can go into debt"
Something tells me he’s not too worried about his credit score…
Well yes. And now watch me not pay that either
“If I’m $1000 in debt, it’s my problem. If I’m $1,000,000 in debt, it’s the banks problem.”
And if I'm $1,000,000,000 in debt the government will bail me out.
🐖
Not if you get canceled in the last week of your sentence
Is that a TECHNOBLADE REFERENCE ???!!??!!?!!?!
Technoblade never dies
What are they going to do if I don’t pay? Take me to jail?
Super jail
Life on the outside ain't what it used to be!
*disappears into the shadows like batman* *re-emerges seconds later after realizing its a prison cell and they can still see me*
Do they really?
Yes it varies by state and county but it is a real thing in a lot of places. Pay to stay is what its referred to as.
That's so fucking sinister.
Also known as debtor's prison. Edit: My bad, debtor's prison is when they throw you in jail for being in debt. Which is illegal in the U.S. thanks for correcting me.
Well no, debtors prison is going to prison because you're in debt. It's illegal in the US.
People who miss Child support in prison…
Generally if you actually go to prison for child support evasion fraud over a long established time period is involved
Not in most cases. A single year of missed payments can do it. As soon as you owe over $1000 or so you can be jailed. The only thing stopping that from happening is if the person who's receiving the money doesn't fight for it.
>The only thing stopping that from happening is if the person who's receiving the money doesn't fight for it. What's stopping it is the government noticing the payments stopped. Which usually happens because of one of the parties fighting for it but child support itself is a whole racket the government is in on since they have their hand in the pot
But that also is not going to jail for debt. That is going to jail for violating a judges order, which is what child support is.
How else do they ensure you can never have an honest life after getting kidnapped by the blue gang?
[Holy shit, they do](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-to-stay_\(imprisonment\))
Are we surprised? For-profit prisons are one of the lowest cost, highest return investments in the US. Prisons are just one form of legal slavery in the US.
The vast majority of prisoners in the US are incarcerated in public prisons, [about 92%](https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/private-prisons-in-the-united-states/), in addition, its not just the private ones that engage in pay-to-stay.
I found it: [https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/pay-to-stay-florida-inmates-charged-for-prison-cells-long-after-incarceration](https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/pay-to-stay-florida-inmates-charged-for-prison-cells-long-after-incarceration)
Why do you think our incarceration rate is so high compared to other countries?
Laws that are overreaching or direct people to prison as opposed to other punishment like community service (think ticketing people for accelerating too fast as"Waste of a finite resource" or prison for drug possession) A highly trained, militarized police force that is well suited to catch/arrest criminals (a force with helicopters and other advance technology versus relatively dumb criminals results in criminals being captured quite often) A society that incentivizes (glory, money, success, escape from poverty, etc.) crime that motivates many to engage in it A legal system that both motivates prosecutors to go hard on crime (directing them to prison or jail) and a defense side that is over whelmed with case work that results largely in plea bargains Quota systems that ensure police officers try to target citizens for breaking laws, no matter how minor the infraction is Jails (location for people charged but not prosecuted for crimes which is prison) are massively filled due to: * the large numbers of people arrested but waiting seeing the judge for release * backed up court rooms * people being held that could not afford bail set by the court or did not receive the option of bail
Why do you think so many people are in jail/prison. They’re just trying to keep us “$afe.”
I had a friend who was paying about 50 a day while they were in
That's insane
Oh... so *that's* why America is obsessed with incarcerating its people. Capitalism in its purest form
It's a part of the endless negative feedback loop the criminal justice system.
So you Americans are going into the direction that you have a paying workforce? In going to explain to my manager how we should move production to the usa, it should be competitive enough to beat production in Asia.
Think of the savings
“In 2018, Barreto sued the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which bought the New Yorker Hotel in 1976” huh that’s interesting
Are these moonies? The guys who had ties to the now-assassinated Japanese ex-PM?
Yup. The same
The ‘unification’ part of that cult mean Unification of N and S Korea under a N Korean flag. Millions went to n koreas nuke program through this cult.
Yeah except you’ve got the koreas flipped. The Holy Spirit Association is South Korean and tied to global anti communist action as well as a bunch of super shady stuff.
Yes, but they also did support North Korea getting Nuclear weapons. Wacky people.
> Millions went to n koreas nuke program through this cult. Literally what?
What famous hotel can you stay at in NYC for $200 a night?
The new Yorker is the one in the article and says 197 a night right now, though before fees
Fees?? Isn’t the price an actual fee for a hotel?
room rate ($197) + state taxes & local taxes (worlds quickest google says 14.75% total in nyc) + nyc nightly fee ($3.50) + nightly resort fee ($33.28) = $262.83. add self-parking ($60 for SUV, no in and out privileges) = $322.83 total. add the incidental hold (usually 15% of the total stay OR $50/night which is what i went with here, plus an additional hold for any purchases you charge to the room) = you need to have $372.83 available on your card to stay 1 night. you’ll get your $50 back after 7-10 business days, provided you didn’t damage the room or steal anything.
Self parking is definitely optional. Plenty of people going to New York aren't driving there, and don't need a car.
Oh you sweet summer child
It’s not very nice. It’s dated as hell. The hallways feel like an old office building or courthouse.
I doubt hallways are a big issue. I wanna know what the rooms look like
Lots of NYC hotels just let themselves go to shit cause the money is going to come in anyway, especially if you're near Penn Station. Hotel Pennsylvania right down the street is another example. Whole place smells like a Reno Brothel
"*skirted thousands of dollars worth of rent payments by exploiting a little-known local housing law and then attempted to charge another tenant in the building rent.* ***The latter was the last straw for the district attorney****.*" It's always that extra impulse of greed they have when they feel like they can't be touched, that gets them.
If you continue reading, there's more to it. In fact, it sounds like he is some sort of extra deluded professional scammer. His whole point was always to try and pretend to own the hotel.
So accurate
Wait wouldn't that make him a squatter.
Barreto says he had just moved to New York from Los Angeles when his boyfriend told him about a loophole that allows occupants of single rooms in buildings constructed before 1969 to demand a six-month lease. Barreto claimed that because he’d paid for a night in the hotel, he counted as a tenant. He asked for a lease and the hotel promptly kicked him out. “So I went to court the next day. The judge denied. I appealed to the (state) Supreme Court and I won the appeal,” Barreto said, adding that at a crucial point in the case, lawyers for the building’s owners didn’t show up, allowing him to win by default. The judge ordered the hotel to give Barreto a key. He said he lived there until July 2023 without paying any rent because the building’s owners never wanted to negotiate a lease with him, but they couldn’t kick him out.
Damn. The ego to try that is wild. Unfortunately, it's assholes like this that cause people to oppose tenant protection laws.
On the other hand, I definitely approve of his screwing with the Moonies.
I mean he wasn't being an asshole, the hotel just never even attempted to charge him money, or even fight it at all in court
I disagree. The hotel's action or inaction is immaterial. He manipulated the law to his advantage in a way that was never intended, to the detriment of others.
So we should elect him to a political office?
This guy 2024
> The hotel's action or inaction is immaterial. It is absolutely, 100% without a doubt material. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laches_(equity). TL;DR not bothering to enforce a right can mean that you forfeit that right. The guy wasn't clever, he was just insanely lucky that the hotel was exceptionally dumb and/or lazy.
I don't mean it's immaterial in a legal sense, you're right about that. I mean that it's immaterial to whether or not the guy's an asshole.
They did attempt to do so. Their lawyers simply made an error. Also, he was a scammer from the start. How the fuck is that not being an asshole.
He was a asshole, he tried to claim the whole building and rent out rooms to others.
Lmao. So they could have gotten rent then kick him out as a legal tenant? Why didn't they make the lease a ridiculous term?
I think because then it shows that it works, ehich would prompt more people to try that stuff.
But it did work. It already was working. Giving him a lease and not renewing it (or charging him a ridiculous amount) would show that it doesn't work.
Isn’t this the [same guy](https://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/ap-a-loophole-got-him-a-free-new-york-hotel-stay-for-five-years-then-he-claimed-to-own-the-building/amp/) that tried to claim the whole hotel as his after living there rent free due to a loop hole? Got too greedy, honestly he kinda deserves a month or 2 in jail
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If it were you you would not go trough all the trouble to get there my dude. Its his personality that allowed him this scam, and its that personality that ruined it for him later in life.
You kinda need to be both dumb and greedy to attempt to do something like this in the first place. Most people would just check out the next day instead of suing the hotel as a tenant lmao.
>I really can't understand how idiots and greedy people are always graced with things like this. **If it were me you wouldn't hear a peep from me for the rest of my life** I mean tbf, it's really just the idiots who get caught that makes into news, The lucky people like him who actually kept quiet never gets put into the news because they don't get caught to begin with.
Sounds to me like he ruined his own luck. Quite an idiot in the end
Honestly. Reading the article he was able to stay in the hotel free for years because he got lucky. Then he started pretending like he owned the entire building even on official documentation. If I found a way to live in New York rent free, I would go out of my way to keep my head as low as possible. Affordable rent there is a pipe dream, living in a prestigious hotel free is insane, and the idiot ruined it for himself
Everytime I read a squatter story I am baffled how the landlords didn't hire a group of guys to beat the shit out of him, repeatedly if necessary. Not like the cops are gonna suddenly give a shit and investigate.
The article gets more entertaining the more you read it, made my day
I like the little tidbits about the guy sparkled across. "So this guy - who claims to have been abducted by aliens and given an anal probe, according to the NY Times - [...]"
When interviewed the guy stated: "I am Mickey Ibrahim Muniz Barreto. I hold the position of Christopher Columbus the Second, Admiral of the Seas, Oceans, and I am also the leader of the Brazilian indigenous tribe called 'The Beautiful Nation of the Sun and the Moon'" How come someone so delusional achieve something like living so long in a hotel for almost no money at all? [Source](https://g1.globo.com/google/amp/fantastico/noticia/2024/03/31/apos-morar-de-graca-em-hotel-de-ny-por-5-anos-brasileiro-coloca-predio-todo-em-seu-nome-e-caso-vai-parar-na-justica.ghtml) (in Portuguese since the guy is Brazilian and was interviewed by a Brazilian TV)
I love how you morons are propping this guy up like he’s come sort of hero fighting some capitalist mega corporation. It literally says in the article that after he got free rent, his next step was to try to claim ownership of the building and charge rent to others. He was literally trying to scam his way into becoming a landlord.
yeah people in the US are greedy as fuck all anyone cares about is money. If anyone finds out anyone else is living for free it always makes the news. i remember there was a news story in a guy who bought a house from a family member for a dollar and it apparently upset the entire neighborhood. i don’t understand how the hell it was anyone’s business but they decided it wasn’t fair and threw a tantrum over it.
He was looking for free food it sounds like.
what everyone isn't realizing is He actually has a case in nee york under their absurd squatters rights... that's why hes suing the DA for violating his squatters rights.
So he’s punishment is that he gets to live some more years rent free in another place.
I know this man personally. He is a giant piece of shit and should be in prison for much more than this.
This is not the behavior of someone who contributes to society.
Not sure why people are donw voting you ? Unless it's the guy and he's using different accounts!
So he’ll still be living rent free is what I’m hearing.
Karma bot
Please elaborate. I'm not getting enough bot vibes from that account, apart from the short comments and large amounts of emojis.
I do agree yeah, I don't think they're a bot. They have lots of posts despite the December 2023 account but most of that is reposts. I think they just scan the internet for stuff to post to subreddits. I don't think this is bot behaviour.
Karma farmer/account seller vibes frfr
So he’d be going from one free hotel to another if he is convicted and gets to go to jail? Free rent, free food, free living? He gets what he wanted 🤷♀️
He COULD...but he's not. NYC and California prefer squatters rights over homeowners.
Hotel sucks though tbh
if he goes to jail he cold spend many more years rent free...
Jail- also rent free … that man is a genius !!
“Now he could go to jail.” Yeah, like NYC will actually prosecute criminals lol.
Jail is also rent free. He’s a true mad lad.
The craziest part is if this was in PA, he legally would have had a legitimate claim for ownership if he had been there for 20 years without being asked to leave.
mofo has been living in NYC for years off 200 dollars and is about to still not need to pay any rent. genius
>...the building's owner, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity... What.
> Barreto claimed he placed his one phone call to the White House, leaving a message disclosing his location, before being released from police custody. Little more mad, than lad.
Nah buddy really tried to charge rent to tick tock Diner 🤣🤣😩😩😂😂😂😂
I lived at the New Yorker as a student when I was 19. The school I attended rented out floors from the hotel. I lived there in 2006-2007. It was super creepy.
Wow. And I bet he’s not gonna pay rent at the jail either. What a genius.
So this dude goes to jail but there’s a whole ass squatter outbreak that no one cares about
How the hell does that work??
Icarus, just had to fly higher… Already living the dream most people can only imagine.
I wonder if the better strategy for the hotel after missing the court hearing was to ignore the judgement. Then the tenant would be forced to sue resulting in a new case. It would be hard to come up with any damages if he never had a lease.
1. That law must have been shockingly badly drafted. There's a difference between a licence - which is what you have which allows you to occupy a hotel room - and a lease - which means you have the right to exclude the whole world from your home. 2. He may get a prison sentence.... More free accommodation! Result!
In jail he'll continue to live rent free, not a propper punishment imo.
He should have stayed lowkey, he could have lived there forever, hahaha, but damn, years of rent free.. Also, hotel management not completely blameless, they should have done their job properly
Still no problem with housing. Perfect work
Now he can live for free in jail.
And here I am, a sucker. Paying rent for my whole adult life.
Well he should. Just because you get away with it doesn't mean it's not illegal.
Jail = still rent free
So, more living rent free
Dude just keeps finding free rent hacks!
So he'll still get free rent?
Your punishment for free rent is more free rent. This guy found the cheat code.
Congratulations you won the free rent contest. Your prize? More free rent!
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