Homeowner trying to evict squatter

From CBS New York:

Maria Diaz hopes to fix up the house she owns at 2813 Sedgwick Avenue in Kingsbridge and sell it, 1010 WINS’ Al Jones reported.

But when Diaz’s daughter stopped by in May for a building inspection, she found a shirtless man living inside.

“He said nothing,” she said. “He was just walking around, and I said, ‘I’m calling the police,'” Diaz’s daughter, Elizabeth Tineo, told CBS2’s Steve Langford.

The man, Clark Eli Selassie, had been living in the home for months. He also had changed the locks, Diaz said.

Police responded and removed the man immediately, Tineo said. But a Housing Court judge later ruled the 35-year-old cabbie had every right to be there.

The judge’s order read, in part, “it is the finding of this court that the petitioner was illegally locked out of the subject apartment and is entitled to possession of said apartment.”

Selassie said he signed a lease, and he’s not leaving. The judge ruled in his favor after the person Selassie claimed he had known to be the rightful owner did not appear in court, Tineo said.