A grand jury indicted a former landlord in New Jersey last week on more than three dozen sexual allegations and accused him of soliciting sex from tenants facing eviction or having financial problems, authorities said Wednesday.
Joseph Centanni, 75, of Mountainside, is charged in a joint statement by Union County Attorney William A. Daniel, Elizabeth Police Director Earl Graves and Elizabeth Police Chief Giacomo Sacca in a joint statement by Union County Attorney William A. Daniel, Elizabeth Police Director Earl Graves and Elizabeth Police Chief Giacomo Sacca.
The alleged crimes occurred between 2013 and 2020 and included male and female victims aged between 22 and 61, the statement said.
Centanni, the former owner of hundreds of rental units across 18 residential properties, “targeted tenants or potential tenants who were homeless, on the brink of eviction, or otherwise struggling financially,” authorities said.
March 2021: New Jersey landlord arrested in connection with federal sexual harassment lawsuit
“The defendant allegedly asked his victims for the sexual acts in return and agreed to offer them rent reductions, a delay in an eviction, or other forms of financial assistance in return,” the statement said. “He is also said to have threatened tenants who hesitated or rejected his advances with eviction measures or other retaliatory measures.”
Centanni, who was arrested in June 2021, remains at large as part of court-ordered pre-trial surveillance until his case is closed, officials said.
Centanni’s lawyer Raymond Londa declined to comment on Thursday. Centanni could not be reached immediately.
In December 2021, the Department of Justice announced that Centanni agreed to pay a historic $4.5 million settlement to settle a lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act aimed at protecting tenants from harassment and discrimination.
The lawsuit alleged that Centanni sexually harassed vulnerable tenants for more than 15 years.
The settlement, which has yet to be approved by the US District Court for New Jersey at this stage, according to federal prosecutors, “is the largest financial settlement ever reached by the Department in an apartment sexual harassment case.”
On Thursday, it was not immediately clear whether the settlement had been approved.
Centanni sold all of its properties as part of the settlement, the statement said. He was also permanently prohibited from “owning and managing rental apartments in the future.”
The documents relating to the settlement show that, according to its own statements, Centanni does not own any rental property and does not carry out any real estate management tasks either directly or indirectly.
Under the terms of the proposed consent decree, Centanni would pay $4,392,950 in damages to tenants and potential tenants who were “harmed by his harassment,” authorities said.