As a former Queens ADA and a principal law clerk to Queens Supreme justices sitting in the Criminal Term, I had a great deal of experience in the area of criminal law before ascending the bench as a Housing Court judge. Some of the cases that interested me the most, and I enjoyed writing about, by way of both published decisions and articles, were the holdover proceedings that were intertwined with the criminal law.

More often than not, they involved the sale and/or possession of drugs or prostitution and were brought under Real Property and Proceeding Law (RPAPL) §715(1) [known as the “Bawdy House” law] in conjunction with §711(5) and Real Property Law (RPL) §231(1). Recently, in, East Midtown Plaza Hous. Co. v. Gamble, 2018 NY Slip Op 28164 (AT 1st Dept, 6/1/18), the landlord’s motion for summary judgment was granted by the trial court and affirmed because the record “conclusively established that the apartment premises were used for prostitution on an ongoing basis, that the tenant knew of and acquiesced in this illegal activity, and, indeed, received a portion of the proceeds from such activity.”