A man who lived rent-free in a well-known Manhattan hotel for five years admitted this week to forging property records in what prosecutors said was a criminal scheme to claim ownership of the building.
Mickey Barreto, 50, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a felony count of filing a false instrument, court records show. He entered the plea before Justice Cori Weston of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who sentenced him to six months in jail and five years of post-release probation, records show.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Mr. Barreto declined to comment and referred questions to his lawyer, Brian Hutchinson.
Mr. Hutchinson said that the time Mr. Barreto had spent in custody as the case proceeded meant he would not be locked up any longer as a result of the plea, which Mr. Hutchinson called “a favorable resolution.”
“Mickey is anxious to get on with his life,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “This helps him do that.”
The events that led to the criminal case began in June 2018, when Mr. Barreto and his boyfriend checked into a small room at the New Yorker Hotel on Eighth Avenue at 34th Street.
After paying $200 for one night, Mr. Barreto requested a lease, citing an obscure New York City housing law that applies to single-room occupants of properties built before 1969. His argument succeeded in court, allowing him to extend his stay at the hotel for five years without paying another penny.
In 2019, he took over the entire property, at least on paper, with relative ease after the city accepted a deed he filed showing that the hotel had been transferred into his name. He asked the owner of a diner attached to the hotel’s lobby to send rent payments to his room and told the hotel’s lender to put all accounts in his name. (Neither happened.)
Lawyers for the hotel, which is actually owned by the Unification Church, sued Mr. Barreto in civil and housing court, urging judges to have him evicted from the property and demanding that he stop pretending to be its owner.
When the deed was eventually returned to the church’s name, Mr. Barreto moved it back into his name again.
A spokeswoman for the church did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In interviews and civil court hearings, Mr. Barreto defended himself by arguing that he had been trying to disrupt what he believed was the flow of money from the church to North Korea in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States.
The Unification Church’s founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, was born in what is now North Korea, but the group’s current ties to the country are unclear.
Mr. Barreto was eventually evicted in July 2023, and in February 2024, Manhattan prosecutors charged him with 24 counts, including 14 of felony fraud. He faced several years if convicted and pleaded not guilty.
Several months later, he was deemed unfit for trial after a court-ordered psychiatric exam overseen by two doctors concluded that he did not fully understand the criminal proceedings against him and that he had two mental illnesses and a drug addiction.
Mr. Barreto began attending outpatient mental health and addiction treatment at a hospital in the city. Mr. Hutchinson, his lawyer, said the treatment had resulted in Mr. Barreto’s being declared competent for trial in spring 2025, paving the way for the negotiations that led to the guilty plea.
Matthew Haag contributed reporting.
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk.
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