LANDLORD ARRESTED FOR ILLEGALLY CONVERTING CORONA HOUSE INTO A BROTHEL. BROTHEL OPERATOR ALSO CHARGED

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the arrest of a Queens landlord on charges of illegally converting a three family house he owned into ten dwelling units and permitting a brothel to operate on the first floor of the house. The woman who ran the brothel has also been charged.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendants Bhupendra Shah, 55, of 100-01 39th Avenue, who is the landlord, charged with permitting prostitution, endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment among other crimes and Maria Holmes, 29, of 99-25 39th Avenue, Corona who is charged with promoting prostitution for operating the house of prostitution at 99-25 39th Avenue.

District Attorney Brown said, "For many years the residential streets surrounding Roosevelt Avenue have been blighted by a proliferation of houses of prostitution, some of them illegally fashioned from existing residential and commercial premises. Over the past several years the Roosevelt Avenue Task Force, which was coordinated in the early years by my Office, has succeeded in closing over 200 brothels. Last Spring, we renewed our efforts together with the New York City Police Department's 115th Precinct, under the command of Inspector Anthony Izzo, focusing on the same general area. So far there have been 130 prostitution arrests and 14 premises have been closed since the spring.

District Attorney Brown also said, "In the past, we have brought criminal charges against the brothel operations and prostitutes and pursued civil actions against landlords in order to close the premises. Today, however, in addition to civil proceedings, we have brought criminal charges against the landlord for knowingly permitting the prostitution activity to take place on his premises and in so doing endangering those who lived in the house, including a teenage girl.

The District Attorney described the house as a wood frame structure that was chopped up into three tiny apartments in the basement, six single occupancy rooms on the first floor, where the brothel allegedly operated, and an apartment on the uppermost floor. One family lived on the top floor and according to the charges, members of the family including the teenage girl were required to pass the brothel's waiting area where male customers and prostitutes routinely sat, in order to get to their apartment".

"The existence of a brothel in the house made living there intolerable for the decent people who lived inside and intolerable for the whole neighborhood which included two elementary schools within a few blocks. Structurally the house was also in a dangerous condition and was a safety hazard." In August, we obtained a search warrant for the premises and on August 20th conducted an inspection," said the District Attorney. The inspection of the building showed inadequate lighting and ventilation and only one means of egress from the basement stairway to the first floor. There is no other means of escape in the event of a fire that blocked the stairway. A further hazard was created by an unauthorized gas line and numerous electrical outlets installed in the cellar without proper inspections, a situation that could have sparked and then fed a fire and possible explosion, according to the charges.

The defendant Shah was arrested this morning by He will be arraigned later today in Queens Criminal Court. The defendant Holmes will be arraigned on the indictment on September 25, 1998 in Queens Supreme Court before Justice Seymour Rotker. She was arrested on May 29.

The investigation was carried out by detectives assigned to the Queens District Attorney's Squad, which is under the supervision of Capt. Harold J. Knorr, and of the 115th Precinct Squad.

Assistant District Attorneys Anthony Communiello and Oscar Ruiz of the District Attorney's Civil Enforcement Bureau are in charge of prosecuting both the criminal and the civil cases.

The District Attorney also thanked the members of the New York City Department of Buildings and Commissioner Gaston Silver of that Department for their cooperation and assistance.

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.