A woman who owns an apartment at The Regatta in Mamaroneck claims that the condominium is “rife with misogyny.”
“You own one unit,” Anjoli Jagoda claims the superintendent, Amet “Alex” Vucetovic, once threatened her, “but I own the building and the hallways in it, and if you keep acting this way, it”™s not going to end up well for you.”
Jagoda accused The Regatta board of managers and its management company, RMR Residential Realty of Elmsford of discriminatory housing practices in a complaint filed Oct. 19 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“We offer no comment at this time,” RMR agent Wesley Woodlief said in an email, while noting that the request for comment was the first notice any of the defendants had received.
James Glatthaar, the Regatta”™s attorney, said he had not seen the complaint and would have to review it and see how the condominium wants to proceed, before commenting on the accusations.
The Regatta, 123 Mamaroneck Ave., is across the street from Harbor Island Park in the heart of the village. The 114-unit condo opened around 1999.
Jagoda is described in the complaint as a 34-year-old, petite single woman of Sri Lankan descent. She has a law degree and a master”™s in business administration and she is the director of a Montessori school.
Most of her accusations are based on statements she attributes to the board president, Andrew J. Maggio, Vucetovic, neighbors and unidentified witnesses.
She claims that hostile conditions began almost immediately, in 2018, after she bought her unit. She was meeting in her apartment with a contractor to discuss renovations, and Vucetovic allegedly got past the locked door, unannounced, “and started pitching work that he could do.”
The contractor left, and Vucetovic pressured her to take a tour of apartments he had renovated, according to the complaint. He entered apartments without knocking or announcing himself and using a credit card to unlock the doors.
Jagoda reluctantly agreed to let him do the renovations, the complaint states, feeling “she had no choice.”
She claims that Vucetovic touched her inappropriately, made sexual advances and questioned her about her sexual life.
When she complained about his conduct to Maggio, he allegedly trivialized the conduct as, “He”™s just being a guy. At least he didn”™t slap your ass.”
Another time, she claims, Maggio advised her to just sleep with Vucetovic “and get it over with.”
He allegedly told her that Vucetovic had been a rock star in Albania and still has a rock star mentality about getting girls.
“Albanians are primitive, tribal people” he purportedly said another time, who “respond to hierarchy.” And “just like a dog, Vucetovic needed that knock on the nose.”
On another occasion, she claims Maggio expressed a desire to get rid of the “Bronx bombers,” owners of subsidized apartments who are originally from the Bronx, who “don”™t know how to act.”
She claims Maggio said Vucetovic is indispensable, and he asked, “What do you want me to do? Fire him and hire a Mexican who can”™t speak English?”
In 21 months at The Regatta, the complaint states, Jagoda complained to board members and RMR at least 20 times and “pleaded for help.”
Jagoda does not feel safe in her apartment or in going to her car in the garage at night, according to the complaint.
On June 22, she photographed Vucetovic from her balcony, giving her “the middle finger.” She forwarded it to board members and the management company.
“This man has threatened me before,” she stated in the message. “It”™s only a matter of time before he does something that goes beyond words.”
She accuses The Regatta board, RMR and Vucetovic of creating a hostile housing environment, and she charges The Regatta and RMR with negligent supervision. She accuses Vucetovic of engaging “in extreme and outrageous conduct” that has caused her to “suffer severe emotional distress.”
She is asking the court to enjoin the defendants from engaging in the unlawful practices and she is asking for unspecified damages.
Jagoda is represented by White Plains attorneys Brian S. Cohen and Lia E. Fierro.
