Retaliation

To Whom It May Concern,

This was originally going to be an email in response to the wife of my residential landlord. I decided to turn it into part of my story instead, as well as a letter of sorts to send anyone willing to help me. I also have many text messages, recordings, etc., that may be needed. I cannot deal with what my landlord has put me through anymore, I need help or I am going to end up being hospitalized. 

Landlord: Stephen Jones

Wife of Landlord: Heidi Cochrane 

My current residential landlord, Stephen Jones, is one of the many people in the town of Saugerties who has turned my life into a nightmare. He recreates stories and spins things to fit whatever narrative happens to suit him at the time.             

He is retaliating against me by attempting to evict me. ¹

I first moved into apartment 5 in the building located at 218 Main St., Saugerties, NY. I am now in apartment 4, which is right next door. 

From the moment what you are about to read occurred, Stephen has chosen to call into question my character as well as my intentions as a tenant and human being. Before the day I stopped paying rent, I never missed a month - sometimes I paid Stephen in advance for more than a month. I helped him with the building. I made sure it was being taken care of; I still vacuum and clean the shared space as well as the washing machine - which doesn’t work properly and he has been notified of this repeatedly by previous tenants. When there was a CO2 leak in the building every tenant in that building turned off the alarms and went back to sleep. I called 911 and was told I was the only tenant with a brain in my head for doing so. 

The shower door in my bathroom wasn’t attached properly when I moved in. Stephen was well aware of this. His handyman, Ivan, was supposed to come and fix it one night. I was unable to get there to meet Ivan at my apartment that night because I had a horrific migraine and was an hour away. I asked Ivan if we could reschedule. I also reached out to Stephen and told him that I needed to reschedule - he replied pissed off because it “takes a long time to get an appointment with Ivan” due to his schedule. I felt awful and didn’t want to ask him about it again. And, I don’t know, perhaps he could’ve gotten someone else to come in and do it? It was not a difficult or time consuming task. In fact, the parts needed to fix it had been sitting in my pantry since I moved in.  No one ever followed up with me, and on New Years Eve of 2021 my friend stayed at my apartment; she went to take a shower and the shower door fell off, dislocated her shoulder and smashed the mirror in the bathroom. I have her x-rays. 

THE NOISE HAS MADE IT UNLIVABLE.

I begged him to do something about the noise situation in my apartment for well over a year.  I expressed, very clearly, the effect it was having on my ability to sleep and the toll it was taking on my health. My health is not good, and sleep is one of the most, if not the most, important thing for me. I will gladly provide medical records from my many, many doctors over the last decade. It’s impossible 

for me to sleep in my apartment. I told Stephen he was more than welcome to go to my apartment and try to sleep there for a week and then let me know how it went. Instead, he thought it would be a good idea to go there when I was at work and have the neighbors “do what they do” so he could try to hear what I was hearing. I did not sleep at my apartment more than a handful of times for over a year; my apartment was basically a very nice, very expensive, storage unit. Instead, I stayed at my ex-boyfriend’s tiny house where there is no electricity or plumbing - i.e. heat, lights or running water - I stayed there through the winter. 

Stephen harassed me at my store. He got into a screaming match with me that was loud enough for a fellow business owner to hear, come to the store, and pretend to be shopping because she was concerned and worried about me. (This is all recorded.) He was told by my attorney not to step foot into or near my store again. Did that stop him from doing so? No. Because Stephen does not believe that he has to follow laws, he makes up his own and lives by them. Even something as simple as being lawfully required to provide garbage for the building - he won’t do it. I’m going to assume that’s why there’s a problem with fruit flies and tiny moths (birthed from maggots) that fly everywhere. 

Stephen also stalks me. I was at my store one day when it was closed - I had been in the back and when I went out to the front I saw him standing in front of the door looking inside. Just standing there. He truly looked psychotic, and it terrified me. My legs were shaking so much I couldn’t stand up. I hid behind my cash wrap and waited for him to leave. Once he left (I held a mirror to be able to see outside) I got up, went to look out the window and saw him pacing back and forth across the street. I couldn’t leave my store. I was too scared to.