Babylon Town to use crack house law to board up 3 homes, evict tenants

A boarded-up home on West 22nd Street in Deer Park on Thursday. The home is one of three in Deer Park and West Babylon that have been declared public nuisances by the Town of Babylon. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Babylon Town is moving forward with the eviction of residents and the boarding up of three homes in Deer Park and West Babylon that have been declared public nuisances.
The town board voted 5-0 on Monday to make the designation. The houses are on West 22nd Street in Deer Park and 14th Street and York Place, both in West Babylon.
Under the town’s “crack house” law, a property where multiple arrests for offenses such as drug possession have taken place within a year can prompt the town to declare the property a public nuisance and board it up.
The three houses have been the site of multiple arrests for possession of a controlled substance and marijuana possession, officials said. The Deer Park home was also the site of a stabbing last month.
Public hearings were held May 13, but only one house was represented by someone at the Zoom meeting. Attorney Timothy Devane of Lindenhurst said he was hired by the Deer Park homeowner, Daniel Bronzino, 54.
Devane said the February arrests of four people for controlled substances at the house stemmed from a “tenant from hell” who invited the individuals. He said Bronzino subsequently tried to evict the tenant.
“A lot of this activity has been going on for at least the last couple of years,” Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said. ”We just haven’t been able to get him within our public nuisance statute, and now all of a sudden … he’s Mr. Concerned Citizen about what’s going on in his house.”
Schaffer told Devane that he received emails from Bronzino’s neighbors, who were afraid to speak out publicly. The emails include accusations of drug dealing and prostitution. “I have been watching with total disgust what has been happening at this address for years,” one person wrote.
Devane said that the tenant is gone so illegal activity “is not an issue anymore” and that he thinks Bronzino “has learned his lesson.” Schaffer then showed a video taken a few days earlier of a vehicle by the house with what he said was a sex act taking place inside involving a woman from the house.
“We’re not putting up with this anymore, the party is over with all the [expletive]!” Schaffer shouted at the attorney. “He shouldn’t be owning a home!”
Schaffer said his goal is to have the property sold because Bronzino has shown he’s “not a responsible adult and does not deserve the right to own property.”
Devane did not respond to a request for comment.
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