Subjects

(for the time being, please view on a computer for the best layout and, depending on device, the only truly organized layout)

Subject 1

Are Hamdi & Shpend Nezaj Heading a Criminal Enterprise as Defined by NY Penal Law § 460?

— Or, Will the Manhattan DA Finally Investigate and Prosecute, Especially Given at least 5 Felony Perjuries by the Nezajs in NY Supreme Court in Jan 2025, or Continue to let Statute of Limitations Expire and to give carte blanche to the Nezaj Clan?

— Or, How Easy it is for an Albanian Clan to Gain Wealth, Power and a Foothold in America.

by Dr. Gregory L. Scott

Keywords: Kosova Properties, Gregory Scott, Hamdi Shpend Joey Nezaj, Lazer Plumaj, False arrest, Malicious prosecution, Aggravated Assault, Harassment, New York Supreme Court, DHCR, Tenants’ association union, 83 Park Terrace West, 83PeTA, Caitlyn Napolitano, Jane Yan, Jocelyn Goldstein Ali, corrupt 34th Precinct, CCRB, Robert Basil, Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Preface

NYC has indubitably some of the finest artists, academics, business professionals, engineers, architects and builders in the world, to mention just a few professions. Yet if the experience of the author over the last ten years is representative, too often there are deplorable and dysfunctional if not outright corrupt parts of the legal system. Because of a variety of criminal actions, including various felonies, by his landlord Hamdi Nezaj and the landlord's clan against himself and other tenants in the 38-unit rent-stabilized building at 83 Park Terrace West in Manhattan, NY, the author has experienced:

  • long on-going illicit activity by the 34th and in general the NYPD;

  • rank incompetence in the DA and Criminal Court;

  • dismaying if not illegal conduct by officials in Housing Court, New York Supreme Court (“NYSC”), the name for Civil Court in NY, and the DHCR, which is the agency responsible for administering rent-regulated apartments in NY and which has judges for trials that can run parallel to, or instead of, the Housing Court.

The primary goal in publicizing some of the author’s history, and ultimately offering solutions, is, in the short term, to persuade the DA to investigate and at least monitor, if not prosecute, the Nezaj clan and, in the long term, to make the NYC legal subculture as fine as the other subcultures, no matter how long it takes.

That is, are the Nezajs and their agents not a Criminal Enterprise according to the NY Penal Code definition, given the history of their felonies, misdemeanors, violations and harassments, ongoing since at least 2015, three of which were reported to the DA in 2016, 2019 and 2024, and five recent perjuries in NY Supreme Court in 2025, at least three of which seem to be First Degree, punishable by up to 7 years in jail?:

https://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article460.php#p460.10

The Plan

The current plan is to explain the topics and to post the hard evidence in this order of importance, not in the numerical order of “Topics” below:

Preliminary: Topic 0--Summary of felonies, misdemeanors, violations and harassments against various tenants of Kosova Properties, from 2009 to at least 2025;

  1. Evidence of felony perjuries by the Nezajs in the trial of Jan-Mar 2025;

  2. Corruption at the 34th Precinct;

  3. Unwillingness of the DA to investigate and then prosecute a clan for whom they have received complaints (with evidence) since 2016;

  4. How the clan (and other landlords) can use Housing Court as a cudgel against tenants and the oddities of this part of civil court that the clan (and others) exploit;

  5. The similarities and differences of the DHCR and Housing Court, and the DHCR’s own weaknesses, with examples of seeming incompetence, if not rank corruption;

  6. The misconduct, some egregious, of lawyers associated with the Nezaj clan and with the court cases or other legal matters since 2016;

  7. The remaining two suits against the Nezajs, one in NY Supreme Court and the other in Housing Court;

  8. Miscellaneous incidents or considerations pertaining to the topics above.

Preliminary: Topic 0

Click here to see a list of many of the crimes, violations and harassments, along with hard evidence, by the Nezaj clan and its agents at Kosova Properties (“Kosova”), 83 Park Terrace West, NY, NY 10034, from 2009 to 2025 (and this list may well be updated in the future).

Topic 1

What follows below is some immediate proof of the first of two crimes, a misdemeanor and a felony, but we start even before that with some background of Shpend aka Joey Nezaj, son of, and managing agent for, the landlord-owner Hamdi Nezaj of 83 Park Terrace West ("83 PTW"), who with the superintendent Lazer Plumaj in 2015 had me falsely arrested for breaking a window. The DA dropped the charges in Feb 2016 and I filed suit for False Arrest and Malicious Prosecution (Index #155225/2016).

While this was progressing at a snail's pace in the NY Supreme Court system, Joey then initiated an assault in the lobby of the same building in Nov 2018 and, when I tried to defend myself, immediately knocked me unconscious, requiring an emergency room treatment for serious physical damage caused by me hitting my head on the marble floor. As the landlord, Joey (and his brother Fatos aka Lucky) somehow convinced the police that I was responsible, and only I was arrested, even though the security cameras were not working and only Joey knew that. Despite being 68 at the time, I was prosecuted for assaulting the larger Joey, 34, for nine months before the DA dropped all charges, at which point I filed suit for False Arrest, Malicious Prosecution and Aggravated Assault (Index #160924/2019).

Details, including the three 1st-degree perjuries by Joey on the stand during the just-adjudicated trial (6 March 2025) are provided in Topic 1, below.

First, though, some more background: The above photo (in a computer browser, because a phone may force the image to the very bottom of the page) is of Joey at a Bronx Rent Guidelines in 2014; see also the article in the NY Daily News. He asks for a minimum 3% increase, despite his clan owning about 20 buildings and not fulfilling duties at 83 Park Terrace West ("83 PTW"), like:

  • installing lights in stairways that are dangerously black at night (and in 2025 there is still no illumination at nights for the stairs between the 4th-6th floors);

  • keeping the trash cans free from pigeon feces, forcing me to bring out the Health Department to resolve it around 2010 (and the problem has returned by 2020, with the problem still not resolved by 2025);

  • having scaffolding on the front of the building for long after the permit expired on 2021-2-21, until about 2023, when guidelines are that it be removed after 90 days;

  • not providing renewal leases to some tenants;

  • using certain tenants to harass other tenants who insist on their rights, even if they must file actions at DHCR or Housing Court;

  • Not posting water-out notices when there is no emergency (like renovating an apartment or having a scheduled boiler service);

  • threatening and harassing personally multiple tenants, sometimes with the help of his massive brother Fatos aka Lucky Nezaj, after Joey moved into 83 PTW with his wife Kelly Borbon and two children around Jan 2015, changing the dynamic in the building that according to not only myself but another tenant Caitlyn Napolitano, had been very peaceful for years before Joey appeared on the scene;

  • and much more, as shown now on this site and as will be introduced in these pages in the days or months to come.

Two false arrests of Scott by the Nezaj clan

(i) Gregory Scott v. Kosova Properties, Hamdi Nezaj, Shpend aka Joey Nezaj, and Lazer Plumaj, Index #155225/2016, in NY Supreme Court, for False Arrest & Malicious Prosecution.

The explanation and assets highlight not only the false arrest of Scott by at least one employee of Kosova, as just established by jury on 6 March 2025, but the importance of the following topics:

How little perjury means in New York Supreme Court (“NYSC”);

How Hamdi’s two recognized perjuries during trial had no impact on the jury’s verdict;

Why Joey’s three Class D 1st-degree felony perjuries were ignored by the court & jury (hint: Scott's lawyer Robert Basil never introduced the hard evidence to disprove Joey's fabrications);

How easy it is, or would be, for a criminal enterprise to track down a juror and induce him or her to influence the deliberations;

Why it took 8+ years to get to trial after the suit was filed;

How Scott’s attorney, for seemingly no good cause, helped the landlord and son evade accountability; both of them pinned all of the blame on their employee Lazer Plumaj, a superintendent of the 38-unit building, who:

  • was never on the books for almost three years (Jan 2015 - approx. Sept 2017);

  • disappeared by 2018;

  • was in official default;

  • and in 2024 apparently was living with a changed name, Lazeer Pllumaj, and fake SSN in an “unregistered” dwelling not far from the other property of the landlord. (See below, Topic 7, for more details of this issue.)

Click here to see Summaries, Exhibits and their Explanations, including proof of the 5 perjuries by the Nezajs

(ii) Gregory Scott v. Kosova Properties, Hamdi Nezaj, Shpend aka Joey Nezaj, and Fatos aka Lucky Nezaj, Index #160924/2019, in NY Supreme Court, for False Arrest, Malicious Prosecution and Aggravated Assault

This is still ongoing, with Scott alleging that Joey initiated an assault. Scott, who had written on previous occasions that Joey had threatened to kill him, tried to fight back and the bigger Joey immediately knocked him out in the lobby of the building, putting Scott into the emergency room with serious damage. Joey and his brother Lucky, who must have been waiting nearby outside because he appeared long before the police, told the police that he and Joey were the landlord and convinced them somehow to arrest only Scott (see also Topic 2 below). As noted, after 9 months of being prosecuted, the DA dropped the charges, and Scott filed suit in civil court. The DA refused to consider in any meaningful way Scott's evidence (e.g., his iPhone recording in his pocket when the interaction in the lobby occurred): See Topic 3 below.

Joey had an obvious scratch on his face from the keys that Scott was holding when he (Scott) instinctively defended himself, and Joey filed a seemingly frivolous countersuit, claiming that Scott initiated the violence. As of the date of this writing, Scott and his witness had finished their depositions over two years ago, by summer 2023, but the Nezaj clan have yet to do any of their own depositions, continually stalling with various tactics.

Exhibits: URLs forthcoming

Topic 2

Corruption at the 34th Precinct and NYPD in general, including the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB).

As explained with the evidence below, the 34th has:

  • allowed a car repair shop on Broadway between 215th and 216th Streets to triple park since at least 2011, taking over the sidewalk, the curb (parking) lane and the first travel lane going north, creating a bottleneck for traffic from Monday to Saturday, 9:00-18:00 if not longer (see link under other topic showing some photos;)

  • after I repeatedly complained in 2012-2013 (because I was working for IBM at the time and sometimes would have to drive my Lexus to companies in New Jersey, returning mid-afternoon to my parking garage, which forced me to cope with the bottleneck) I finally wrote a letter to former Police Chief Bratton.; the NYPD forwarded my letter to the 34th so they could investigate themselves;

  • the 34th cleared the problem for about 4 months but in early 2014, it started again and if anything, it has gotten worse, with bus drivers caught on tape saying drivers get discounted or free repairs for not reporting the problem and police cars being photographed caught up in the triple parking with no change in the long-standing situation;

  • I clearly became a persona non grata because the 34th had my letter, my name and address;

  • in 2015, the 34th falsely arrested me in conjunction with Joey Nezaj and Lazer Plumaj, even though it was my word against theirs;

  • in 2016, after the DA dropped the charges against me on 2 February 2016 for breaking the window (as explained amply elsewhere in these webpages), my wife and I took to the 34th my evidence, which neither the NYPD nor the DA had ever seen, showing that Nezaj and Plumaj had lied to the police to get me arrested. However, Sgt. Marx refused to examine it, claiming he had "exculpatory evidence" that revealed I had indeed broken the window. However, as the trial in Jan-Mar 2025 revealed, there was no such exculpatory evidence, so Marx either lied or protected the Nezajs or mistakenly interpreted what had been told to him by others;

  • I then spent months trying to get the relevant ADA (Assistant District Attorney) to examine my evidence, as discussed below in Topic 3 (with details and evidence to be uploaded by about Oct 20, 2025). In a nutshell, in Nov 2016 two ADAs promised to arrest Plumaj or Nezaj or both but then reneged after one spoke with the 34th, who dissuaded them somehow from prosecuting the two. As the trial in 2025 reveals, this was clearly a mistake by the DA.

  • As also explained in the History of illegal activity of the Nezajs and their agents, the police swept under the rug the viciously obscene and scary message from Plumaj to Jocelyn Goldstein Ali in 2016;

  • the 34th swept under the rug the Attempted Grand Larceny by Hamdi Nezaj of $5326 in July 2017, which the San Francisco Police Department had found credible and forwarded to NYPD Fraud, which forwarded the charge to the 34th: Hamdi had tried to double-deposit three rent checks and Chase Bank Fraud had caught it. Because I was in San Francisco visiting my wife, who had left NYC in great fear after the death threat by Joey, the false arrest, and the DA not following through with their promise to arrest the agents of Kosova, and because I had sublet the apartment until August of 2018, I had to report the attempted theft to the SFPD. Eventually the 34th said the detective to whom the case had been assigned had retired; hence the case went away!

  • To be continued (5 Oct 2025).

The limited role of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB);

The CCRB substantiating all eleven of my charges against the 34th in 2022, ruling that two officers had lied during the investigation regarding the 34th sweeping under the rug Hamdi vandalizing my Ring Cam and putting one on internal trial in 2023;

Special protections that (crooked) cops get in New York.

Exhibits: URLs forthcoming

Topic 3

Rank incompetence or worse?, -- and other issues at the Manhattan District Attorney (“DA”).

First false arrest:

Scott being framed for breaking a window in the one building stairway

Scott’s criminal arrest and an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal;

The odd policy of the police (if honest) and the DA not looking at exculpatory evidence of the target of a prosecution;

The two ADAs—Marissa Carro and Jeff Levinson—reneging on their promise in Nov 2016 to arrest Plumaj or Joey Nezaj or both;

The ADAs relying on the 34th after their promise to arrest the perpetrators;

How the trial finishing in March 2025 showed either the ADAs incompetence or mistake and the ridiculousness of their eventual explanation for not prosecuting Plumaj or Joey Nezaj or both as “it [the false arrest] was a misunderstanding.”

Second false arrest:

Scott allegedly, out of the blue, punching in the lobby the much younger and bigger son of the landlord, who was at the time still an adversary in the first false arrest case

Neither the police nor the DA being willing to look at Scott’s recordings, one of which was going in his pocket when the assault happened;

The difficulty in getting them to look at evidence even after charges were dropped;

The incompetence of, or unwillingness to go against the police by, two other ADAs—Kimberly Grinberg and Kathyrn Taylor, and their ludicrous reasons, captured on Scott’s recordings and emails.

More recent:

The "new" Tenant Protection Unit created in Oct 2022, but the odd policies that do not protect a single tenant brutalized by a landlord.

https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-announces-creation-of-the-offices-first-housing-tenant-protection-unit/

How the ADAs were thrown off by a devious tenant operating in league with the landlord.

Exhibits: URLs forthcoming, including emails and audio recordings of the meetings with the ADAs.

Topic 4

Housing Court and its Dangers for Tenants

The initial hearings in 2015 and 2016 and the postponed trial in Housing Court (“HC”);

the rulings by DHCR in July 2016 giving Scott rent reduction, punishing Kosova;

Scott starting a third case in 2020, being a sitting and caged duck in the landlord’s building as they continued committing crimes against him as the pandemic forced everyone to quarantine, with no ability to travel, much less change one’s residence to escape danger (see Topic 6 below).

Stayed case: 28 charges of Harassment;

The peril of HC (judges selected by lawyers who might appear in front of them), etc;

Harassment charge(s): tenant takes the risk and expense and the fines go to NY State with no guarantee whatsoever lawyer’s fees will be reimbursed even if successful;

How landlords have a great advantage.

Exhibits: URLs forthcoming

Topic 5

The DHCR and its own Dangers

How DHCR controls rent-regulated apartments;

Advantages and disadvantages of DHCR versus HC;

Variable practices and standards: differences between Coletti’s and Shade’s hearings (see the Appendix in forthcoming or existing link:

RozenConductInHousingCourtTrial

in Subject 2 of this page).

See also the rigorous study done showing grave problems with DHCR:

State Senator Kreuger's Recommendations to Ameliorate DHCR

and in my experience from 2015 to 2024, very little, if any, of Kreuger's recommendations has been done.

Like HC, the landlords and their lawyers have great experience at times and thus solid advantage over a tenant who comes in completely ignorant of the workings of DHCR;

How has the wife, Kelly Borbon, of Joey Nezaj, been allowed to work within the DHCR, gaining potential access to either cases pertaining to the many buildings they own or to individuals working on those cases? Although she is supposedly required to recuse herself, can that reasonably be expected or what mechanism is in place to ensure her lack of interference, direct or indirect, or even her ability to obtain valuable information about the tenants’ plans or strategies or evidence?

Partial Exhibits: More (URLs) forthcoming--

2016-2017

First DHCR Ruling (for Napolitano Hearing) by Senior Attorney J. Coletti, 21 Mar 2016

My Original Filing of Harassment 31 Aug 2016

Second DHCR Ruling (for my hearing of 2 Nov 2016) by Senior Attorney K. Shade

-- As shown by Hamdi Nezaj paying $620,000 in Federal Court in or around Sept 2017 in the suit for racial discrimination and by the jury verdict in Mar 2025, Shade clearly had atrocious judgment and in effect gave the Nezaj clan carte blanche to continue their harassments and crimes for years to come.

2024, given additional Harassments

DHCR disallows even a new hearing 16 May 2024

Proof of mailings to the Director and Commissioner of DHCR

Letter in 2024 to Gov. Hochul

Topic 6

Gregory Scott v. Kosova Properties, Hamdi Nezaj et al, Index # LT-301175-20/NY

Approximately 28 charges in Housing Court for Harassment

(date unknown for completion of trial, “stayed” in Jan 2023 until after the NYSC cases are finalized)

Summary and Exhibits forthcoming

Topic 7

The Gaming of the System and Clients by Lawyers — five cases revealing misconduct by attorneys for the Nezaj clan and even by two of Scott’s attorneys, who, with no good cause, help the clan more than Scott at crucial times

Summary and Exhibits forthcoming

Topic 8

Miscellaneous: Other Viciousness by the Nezajs, with Hard Evidence

Summary and Exhibits forthcoming

Subject 3

Restaurant Noise campaign

Dear Editor,

Thank you for your offer to help with our Restaurant Noise campaign and petition. A little history: In the fall of last year I finally had enough of going to restaurants, paying high prices for dinner and then sitting for two hours without being able to hear the conversation. At that moment, I decided to do something about it and came up with the idea of having the NYC Council amend the NYC Noise Law to compel all NYC restaurants to have a decibel reading by a NYC-approved acoustical engineer and then have the results posted on the front window of the restaurant and publicized by the NYC Health Department so that restaurant patrons can "Know Before They Go."

I prepared a petition to solve the noise problem and had the petition published on Change.org on November 16, 2024. The response was quite good. We have been interviewed by WPIX, Channel 11, which showed the interview 4 times as part of the news of the day. Thereafter, the story was picked up by the NY Post which published almost a full-page article on January 3, 2025 on page 3. A copy of the interview and NY Post article are below. We also gave a ZOOM lecture to the Center For Learning and Living.

In addition, at the moment, the petition has been viewed approximately 19,000 times and we have received 519 signatures supporting our idea to change the NYC Noise Law. And that's where you come in. I would gratefully ask that you sign the petition (copy below) and have your family and friends do so as well. Also, please ask your family and friends to send the petition to their family and friends. The link to sign the petition is:

https://www.change.org/p/restaurant-noise

Once we reach 1000 signatures I am going to ask the NYC Council to speak to them.

Howard Davis

Former Attorney, New York City

May 24, 2025

pix11.com story:

https://pix11.com/news/local-news/manhattan/i-have-to-keep-shouting-are-restaurants-too-noisy/

New York Post:

https://nypost.com/2025/01/02/lifestyle/nyc-restaurants-are-too-loud-so-this-new-yorker-is-trying-to-make-decibel-levels-public/

Petition to Reduce Restaurant Noise

What??

I can't hear you. This restaurant is SO loud!!

Have you ever been in a restaurant and not been able to participate in conversation? Wouldn't it be nice to know how loud a restaurant is before you decide if you want to eat there, especially since loud noise can cause hearing loss? We are asking that the decibel level be measured by an expert and publicly posted so that people can decide in advance where they want to eat.

Let's " HEAR" from you!

Please click on this link:

https://www.change.org/p/restaurant-noise

Or use this QR code:

-------

The Editor adds:

The NY Post's seeming attempt to add objectivity to the petition by claiming that reducing noise would denigrate the vibrancy of the night-life scene completely misses the point. The decibel requirement would only involve posting the decibel level (perhaps for various hours). It would not require restaurants to lower their noise. One wonders where the journalist who published such an "objective" response, probably desiring to appear "balanced," received their training in critical thinking. There are certainly questions to be posed, but this was not one of them, and we support this petition.

Noise in restaurants New York
Noise in restaurants New York
Subject 2
Would You Retain This Lawyer?: Jennifer Rozen

A Specialist in Housing Court, New York, NY, at Rozen Law Group, 48 Wall Street, Suite 1100, New York, NY 10005

Or, Should She Even Be Practicing Law?

by Dr. Gregory L. Scott

Keywords: Rozen, Housing Court, New York, Kosova Properties, Gregory Scott, Hamdi Shpend Joey Nezaj, Lazer Plumaj, Carlos Perez-Hall, Zachary Cohen, Borah Goldstein Altschuler Nahins Goidel, NYSCEF Index LT-301175-20/NY, False arrest, Malicious prosecution, Harassment, DHCR, Tenants’ association union, 83 Park Terrace West, 83PeTA, Caitlyn Napolitano, Jane Yan, Jocelyn Goldstein Ali, corrupt 34th Precinct, CCRB, Breach of Contract, Fraud, Theft, Breach of Fiduciary Duty

This is a gateway to, first, the history and assets (including documents, transcripts, videos and the like) of Rozen representing me as Plaintiff in a NY Housing Court case and aiding the defendants Kosova Properties, Hamdi and Shpend aka Joey Nezaj in ways that seem very improper if not criminal. After helping Kosova obtain a mistrial, Rozen lied to me about our attorney/client relationship, withdrew from the case, and kept the $33,400+ she had been paid over two years.

The second section is a brief summary of some of the consequences of the mistrial, and the third section a prelude of my upcoming legal actions, which include a complaint to the NY Bar Grievance Committee, not only against her but the lawyers for Kosova, Carlos Perez-Hall and Zachary Cohen of Borah Goldstein Altschuler Nahins & Goidel, P.C., because of their improper conduct during the litigation from 2020-2022, now officially "stayed" until after the two NY Supreme Court cases (explained in Subject 1 of this webpage) are decided.

The fourth section provides advice to those considering a Civil Suit in NY. It is not legal advice, because I am not a lawyer but rather a philosopher who has taught Ethics and Business Ethics at universities in the USA and Canada. An attorney will offer better recommendations for a potential suit. Rather, the section intends to help someone prepare for obtaining legal representation and for dealing with them and the legal system, based on my personal experience since 2015 against the Nezaj clan, including Housing Court, NY Supreme Court and the DHCR, which can involve a trial with an administrative judge after a hearing by a DHCR lawyer.

The basic explanation of all four sections can be downloaded here (as a pdf file):

Rozen Conduct During Suit, etc.

The trial transcripts are downloadable (as pdf files) at the following links:

FirstDayTrial8Feb2022

SecondDayOfTrial10Feb2022

RozenWithdrawing22Sept2022

This page is ongoing, if very slowly, and will be updated, depending on legal developments.