Owner, house manager plead guilty in East Hampton Town code violation case, fined $21G

The homeowner and house manager of an overcrowded single-family home in East Hampton Town, where a July 2018 code enforcement raid found 32 people living in unsafe conditions, will pay $21,000 in fines after pleading guilty Monday in Town Justice Court.

Owner Evan L. Davis, of Jamaica, Queens, was fined $11,000 and Elorda Braham, a resident of the Railroad Avenue home, was fined $10,000. They faced a total of 69 charges. Davis was charged with 34 counts and pleaded guilty to a single count of violating town code, and Braham pleaded guilty to a dozen of the 35 charges against her.

The court also ordered that the one-story home can only be rented to up to nine people, who must be related to one another, and that the owner submit to seven inspections, according to a town news release.

“The Town of East Hampton will remain vigilant in our efforts to address cases like this of overcrowding and misuse of single-family houses in residential neighborhoods,” Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said in a statement. “This type of situation not only poses a risk to the occupants of a house, but impacts public safety, the environment and neighborhood residents by overtaxing septic systems and diminishing the quality of life.”

The most concerning matter, investigators said last year, was the gas generator and gasoline stored in the basement, where most of the home's occupants slept.

Overcrowded single-family homes have long been a problem on the South Fork, where exorbitant real estate prices make it difficult for the workforce to find affordable housing. There are limited options for legal seasonal housing. A 2018 town proposal to build seasonal, temporary housing for workers in Montauk received no bids.

The tenants were not local residents, according to the news release, but seasonal workers staying on the South Fork to work. They told investigators they paid between $100 and $150 per week in cash to live there.

Tina Piette, the East Hampton attorney representing the property’s owner, declined to comment on the case’s resolution, but rebuked town officials for failing to develop seasonal workforce housing in the town.

“These fines are not going to go very far to create the seasonal workforce housing that is needed," she said. 

 It's not the first time a town overcrowding case resulted in a five-figure fine.

In 2017, state and Nassau County Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs paid $12,500 to the town to drop charges in a zoning case involving a residence for camp counselors.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.