In Aug 2015, Dr. Scott created a tenants’ union for 83 Park Terrace West, a corporate building “Kosova Properties” aka “Kosova,” in large part because the landlord-owner Hamdi Nezaj through his son Shpend aka Joey Nezaj, had changed the building entrance lock to one with non-duplicable keys and given Scott, his wife and their legal adult roommate only two keys. This led to legal action by Scott but it took almost two years to get the key, although the DHCR punished the Nezajs by giving Scott rent reduction which he has been on until the date of this writing. Worse, three weeks after creating the union with a few other tenants, in what is known by experts as “Presumption of Retaliation” in NY Real Estate code, and as Scott alleged under oath, Joey (in person) and his employee superintendent (“super”) Lazer Plumaj framed him for breaking a window in the public stairwell, causing a false arrest, after which they allowed a malicious prosecution for almost five months before the DA dropped all charges.
During the trial, Hamdi was found to have perjured himself twice. Plumaj himself had been in official default since about 2018 and never appeared to defend himself, with the relevant jury instructions allowing the jury to accept the Plaintiff's account regarding him. In 2024 Scott discovered he had seemingly changed his name to “Lazeer Pllumaj,” and a former FBI investigator uncovered that he was living on Research Ave in the Bronx with a seemingly fake SSN from a woman, alive or dead, in Brooklyn, in an “unregistered dwelling” not far from some of the other properties of the Nezaj clan. However, despite Pllumaj having a ConEd bill for the address, the dwelling’s owner claimed he did not know Pllumaj and the search for him was ended.
In the trial, Joey lied repeatedly about being with the police when the arrest occurred and about Scott being, in effect, the tenant-neighbor from hell. Shockingly, and for no good cause, consistent with being bribed by the clan, Scott’s attorney Robert Basil never introduced any of Scott’s Exhibits to corroborate the testimony of Scott and his neighbor-witness, Dr. James Noyes, who had direct knowledge of Joey’s statements in the immediate aftermath of the arrest on Sept 2015. Nor did Basil introduce Exhibits, some of which are displayed here, to impeach the egregious sworn falsehoods of Joey on the stand. As a result, the case became a “S said, J said” for the jury deliberations, with Scott having the burden of proof as the Plaintiff. As a result, despite Scott’s implications that Hamdi had ordered Joey and Plumaj to frame Scott, or that Joey took the initiative himself, as the manager of the building and Plumaj's co-boss with Hamdi, the jury only held the long-gone Plumaj responsible, with Hamdi & Joey pinning all the blame on him in order to evade any financial accountability.
Here, because Joey was the only credible witness by the time of jury deliberations, the Exhibits and hard evidence primarily related to him is presented to demonstrate three of the many perjuries he uttered, which, again, because of Basil’s actions, the jury never took into consideration. Those perjuries, if recognized, obviously would changed the outcome of the trial, because jury instructions would have been different, and like for Hamdi, the jury would have been instructed that if a litigant is found to have lied once under oath, they can assume, although they are not required to assume, he lied always. As a result of changing the outcome, Joey’s perjuries would, and should, be classed as a 1st Degree Felony according to NY Penal Law 210.15, with potential punishment that can include a prison term of up to 7 years, a probation term of 5 years, and payment of a substantial fine.
Official Trial Testimonies - 5 pdf files
(click on the underlined days to download the respective pdf trial testimonies)
29 Jan 2025 Testimony of Dr. Noyes and Shpend aka Joey Nezaj
Joey's First Two perjuries are shown here, in downloadable file JoeyFirst2Perjuries.pdf
A Third Perjury: As demonstrated in the previous pdf, the letter 27 July 2015 revealed how Joey perjured himself about a roommate existing in July 2015. Another exhibit (inexplicably also never introduced in the trial by Scott's attorney), namely, a video taken the day before, on 26 July, by Scott's wife--has Joey at one point refusing to give Scott a third key while Joey also refuses to take the ID of the new roommate. This confirms that he swore falsely about a roommate existing in that month. More than that, the video reveals Joey praising Scott at 2:27ff: “You’re a great tenant; we like you; you pay your rent on time;… you don’t give us issues.” The video is too large for this site, but the audio portion has been extracted:
His own words of praise, then, utterly contradict his sworn statements ranging over many pages during trial testimony claiming that Scott was, in effect, a nasty tenant, harassing the super, etc. Note especially:
p. 79, line 23ff;
p. 80, l. 22ff;
p. 81, l. 22ff;
p. 95, l. 13 to p. 96, l. 6;
p. 96, l. 22-23;
p. 97, l. 24 to p. 92, l. 10; and
p. 99, l. 12.
Also, at 00:45 and following Joey says Scott should always ask for permission for a roommate, which misrepresents Real Estate code:
https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/resources/faqs/roommates/#rules
Misrepresenting Real Estate code can be grounds for Harassment:
“If a landlord lies or deliberately misrepresents the law to a tenant, this may also constitute harassment. Severe harassing conduct may constitute unlawful eviction and landlords may be subject to both civil and criminal penalties, in the form of a class A misdemeanor for harassment under Real Property Law § 768.” From: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/tenants_rights.pdf
Indeed, the various ways in which the Nezajs have misrepresented the law over years is part of the upcoming trial in Landlord-Tenant Court, as covered in Topic 6 in the main “Subject” page.
Finally (for the moment), about 1:15ff Joey refuses to take the marriage certificate for Scott’s wife, emphasizing that for two years Kosova is aware they are married, and yet two years later, Hamdi Nezaj writes to DHCR that he is not aware of Scott’s wife (he had been crossing her name off of renewal leases, which is illegal, and DHCR forced him to redo the lease without crossing off her name).
See p. 1 of Hamdi’s letter (p. 2 of whole pdf)
30 Jan 2025 Testimony of Hamdi Nezaj and Dr. Scott
Hamdi's first perjury: Hamdi swore on the stand (pp. 175-178) he met Plumaj at a drugstore, contradicting his deposition, where he swore he met him at a strip club.
Hamdi's second perjury: During Hamdi’s Cross Examination by his own attorney, John Cookson, Hamdi was asked “Did you lie again…”, and he replied “No, I did not” (p. 204, ll. 13-14). However, during the Redirect by Cohen, it was shown that Hamdi had indeed lied yet again on the deposition (p. 210, ll. 14 - 25). He denied knowing the first attorney in this suit by Scott (Index # 155225/2016), even though Castro had prepared motions in 2016 until Aug 2017 (about 8 months before Hamdi’s deposition on 1 May 2018), the subject of the “stipulation” between the lawyers immediately referred to in the Trial Testimony on pp. 209-210. That is, the stipulation means all attorneys agree to the truth of the item (the motion being signed by Castro). On the NYSCEF website, anyone can see Castro filed documents #9, #30, and #31.
However, this testimony went so fast that it was difficult for even Scott to follow, and its significance may well have been lost on the jury. Basil was asked by Scott to explain it clearly to the jury, at least at Closing, so they would not believe that Hamdi was the well-intentioned but decrepit old man he was making himself out to be on the stand. However, Basil never brought the matter up again, even though it would show Hamdi had been very willing to falsify seven years earlier, when he was presumably even more alert.
Why would Hamdi deny knowing Castro? One possibility is that Castro was suspended from the practice of law starting in 2017-2018 for having misappropriated a (different) client’s funds, as a quick internet search would confirm. A second possibility, which makes it unbelievable that Hamdi could have forgotten who Castro was, is that Castro had to sue Hamdi for $68,000 in unpaid fees for the work in 2016-2017 (with Hamdi only paying $35,000 of the total bill), with some of the costs stemming also from another case going in parallel in 2016-2017 in Federal Court for racial discrimination. Five black applicants for available apartments were lied to by the Nezajs, and the Fair Housing Justice Center took up their case and won a settlement of $620,000. See:
http://www.fairhousingjustice.org/newsletters/opening-acts-september-25-2017/
It should be noted that Norman Lear, the famous filmmaker/producer, begins to expose Hamdi in A House Divided (2016), from 30:55-42:48:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXIClKpf7k4
That is Hamdi's voice (and face on the computer) during the initial interviews and then Hamdi himself with his face purposefully blurred as he is subsequently confronted with his illegal discrimination (because the case had not gone to trial, scheduled for around Sept 2017). It should also be noted that the Nezajs wished Scott out of the building because he, a white PhD, had had a black roommate in 2009-2010, after seven non-black roommates since 1998. Hamdi insisted that he make her leave and Scott obtained a lawyer to defend his right to have her live in the apartment. The downloadable pdf from his lawyer is here: Letter from Feldman
Scott married a Chinese-American woman in 2013 and they kept a (white) art historian roommate, B. Matthews, with no complaints whatsoever from the Nezajs or neighbors. In April 2015 Mr. & Mrs. Scott accepted as a roommate a top French urban planner on an internship for five months to replace Matthews, who had just left after 2.5 years to get married. The new roommate, L. Monnet, was black, which seemed to be the only reason (because there was no other reasonable explanation) that a few months later Kosova changed the building entrance lock and would only give two keys to Scott, being unaware that Monnet had just headed back to France and that another person, C. Lachina, had moved in. See the downloadable JoeyFirst2Perjuries.pdf, which was already discussed above.
On p. 205, Hamdi says “for 30, 40 years, I would say 30 plus years, I had zero violations in the building, zero.” Maybe the 30 plus years were from 1976 to 2008, but in 2015 there were many violations of different sorts. Here is a DHCR ruling proving that an inspection was done in April 2015, with violations found, and at least two tenants, Caitlyn Napolitano (GR apartment) and Dr. Scott, #3A, were awarded rent reduction to punish Hamdi/Kosova Properties for not fulfilling legal requirements. Hence, Hamdi's statement on p. 206 is arguably another perjury on his part.
Kosova's attorney Cookson might claim he was unaware of Castro’s role and the association with Hamdi, but he must have been aware of other perjuries as shown in this first Subject, given the familiarity he surely had with the depositions and Scott’s Exhibits that had been exchanged in Discovery to Kosova years before. As an attorney, he is bound by Ethical Obligation Rule 3.3 to not allow his client to present false statements under oath, and a complaint will be going to the NY Bar Grievance Committee and probably to his firm McElroy Deutsch producing the evidence that he seems to have sorely neglected his duty. For an explanation of Rule 3.3 see:
https://www.nycourts.gov/legacypdfs/rules/jointappellate/NY-Rules-Prof-Conduct-1200.pdf
Stay tuned for developments, even if they move too often at a snail's pace in New York's legal system, be it civil or criminal.