Politics
Man Who Lived Rent-Free in Hotel for Years Is Found Unfit to Stand Trial
A hearing has been scheduled for next week for a judge to decide whether Mickey Barreto, who stayed at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, should be held in a hospital for psychiatric care.
For five years, Mickey Barreto lived in Room 2565 at the storied New Yorker Hotel without paying a dime.
But the free ride ended when he was not only evicted, but also charged earlier this year with a criminal scheme to claim ownership of the Midtown Manhattan hotel.
Now, two doctors and prosecutors have said that he is not mentally competent to stand trial, and a judge has given him seven days to find inpatient psychiatric care.
If he does not, he will be forced into treatment at a hearing scheduled for next week.
Mr. Barreto was charged in February with 24 counts, including 14 felony fraud counts, in what the Manhattan district attorney’s office said was a yearslong criminal scheme to claim ownership of the New Yorker Hotel. He pleaded not guilty.
After Mr. Barreto was arrested in February and his passport confiscated, he was released on his own recognizance.
But over the summer, the court ordered Mr. Barreto to take a psychiatric exam overseen by two doctors, who concluded that he did not fully understand the criminal proceedings against him and that he had two mental illnesses and a drug addiction.