Father and son sued for harassing Mamaroneck Hispanics

Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim is suing two former Mamaroneck men for allegedly carrying on a 7-year campaign to harass Hispanics in their neighborhood.

Douglas Dunaway and his son, Michael Dunaway, were accused of violating the federal Fair Housing Act in a Jan. 10 complaint filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains.

“Some Hispanic residents moved away because they could no longer endure the Dunaways’ racial harassment campaign,” the complaint states. Others “felt unsafe in their own homes because of the Dunaways.”

The alleged harassment occurred from 2015 to 2023 on Staub Court, a cul-de-sac with five homes, a block away from the Metro-North commuter train station in downtown Mamaroneck, where the Dunaways lived for many years.

Hispanics were threatened with being shot, bright lights were shined into their homes at night, garbage and urine were thrown on properties, vehicles were blocked from coming or going, and they were repeatedly called out as “spics,” a contemptuous term for Spanish-speaking people from Latin America.

Jason DeLeon, of Puerto Rico, and his fiancé, Ana, of Portugal, moved to Staub Court in 2016. When she was pregnant and when their daughter was born, according to the complaint, Michael Dunaway placed rotten apples, eggs, and feces on their property.

Their daughter told a preschool teacher in 2022 that a man, believed to be Michael Dunaway, had followed her and videotaped her. That year, Michael Dunaway pleaded guilty to violating a protection order that Ana DeLeon had obtained against him. He admitted that he had thrown a cup of urine in front of the DeLeon’s house.

Daniel Pena, a Dominican, moved to Staub Court in 2016, and his girlfriend and now fiancé, a Cuban, moved there in 2019. Michael Dunaway allegedly threatened to shoot them, the government says, and repeatedly filmed them. The Dunaways, the government says, threw garbage and batteries on their property and clogged a nearby storm drain with plastic, newspapers, sand, and clothing.

Daniel and his girlfriend moved out in 2022, “in large part because of the Dunaways’ harassment.”

Segio Guzman, a Dominican, and Leah Guzman, a Puerto Rican, lived on Staub Court from 2016 to 2021. The government claims that Michael Dunaway regularly filmed the couple as they walked on the street and the Dunaways threw hypodermic needles and other garbage on their property.

Ariel Gehring, a Peruvian, and her husband Walt, a non-Hispanic, bought a house on Staub Court in 2020. When they renovated their home, the Dunaways allegedly deposited screws and nails on their property, blocked workers from entering and leaving Staub Court, and followed workers and recorded them.

Ariela stopped working because of the stress and felt unsafe in her home, according to the government. In 2024, the Gehrings moved out.

Michael Dunaway allegedly harassed a Guatemalan family, that is not named in the complaint, who rented a place on Staub Court in 2020. Their daughter claimed that Michael Dunaway shined a light into their home while holding a Taser gun, in 2022. She did not go to school on many days because of her fear of Michael Dunaway, the complaint states, and she quit her high school basketball team because she was afraid to walk home from practice at night.

The prosecutor claims that the Dunaways were motivated by racial animus, and that they violated the federal Fair Housing Act by coercing, intimidating, threatening and interfering with Hispanic families. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages and civil penalties.

Now Michael Dunaway lives in Port Chester, according to the government, and Douglas Dunaway’s current address is unknown. Michael did not reply to an email that asked for his response to the accusations. Attempts to find contact information for Douglas were unsuccessful.