Man who used legal privilege to live rent-free for years in NYC hotel found incompetent to stand trial

NEW YORK (AP) – A man accused of defrauding a Manhattan high-rise hotel where he has lived for years without work has been found incompetent to stand trial, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Doctors who examined Mickey Barreto determined he was not fit to face criminal charges, and prosecutors confirmed the results during a hearing Wednesday, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office.

Judge Cori Weston gave Barreto until Nov. 13 to receive proper psychiatric care, Bragg's office said.

Barreto had been receiving outpatient treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues, but doctors concluded after a recent evaluation that he did not fully understand the proceedings, the New York Times first reported.

Barreto dismissed allegations that he had a drug problem from others at the “event,” saying prosecutors tried to hospitalize him because they did not have a serious case against him. You can see them looking up.

“It went from being unfriendly, 'You're a criminal,' to oh, they don't talk about crime anymore. Now the main thing, like, 'Oh, poor thing. Finally, we convinced him to seek treatment,'” Barreto told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Brian Hutchinson, Barreto's attorney, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment. But during Wednesday's hearing, he said he planned to ask his client's medical provider to accept him, the Times reported.

In February, prosecutors charged Barreto with 24 counts, including fraud and criminal contempt.

They say he executed a deed for the New Yorker Hotel stating that he would transfer ownership of the entire building to him.

He then tried to charge one of the hotel's tenants rent and said the hotel's bank had sent him its accounts, among other measures.

Barreto began living at the hotel in 2018 after arguing in court that he paid about $200 for a night's stay and therefore had tenant rights, based on city housing laws and the fact that the hotel failed to send a lawyer. at the key hearing.

Barreto said he was living in a hotel without paying rent because the owners of the building, the Unification Church, never wanted to negotiate with him about the lease, but they could not evict him legally.

Now, his criminal case may lead him to some opportunity.

“So if you ask me if it's a better thing, the way it is. Because I am not entrusted like a criminal but I am considered a criminal,” Barreto told AP.

Built in 1930, the swaying Art Deco building and its large red “New Yorker” sign are a frequently photographed landmark in midtown Manhattan.

Muhammad Ali and other famous boxers stayed there when they had fights at nearby Madison Square Garden, about a block away. Inventor Nikola Tesla even lived in one of its more than 1,000 rooms for ten years. And NBC broadcast from the Terrace Room.

But the New Yorker closed as a hotel in 1972 and was used for church purposes for years before part of the building reopened as a hotel in 1994.