Serving Port Washington, Manorhaven, Flower Hill, Baxter Estates, Port Washington North and Sands Point
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Friday, December 11, 2020
Vol. 5, No. 50
Port WashingtonTimes HOLIDAY DINING, A FAMILY’S PAST, A GIFT GUIDE MUSEUM’S PRESENT
ELECTION RESULTS CERTIFIED
PAGES 23-32
PAGE 8
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Late F. Hill mayor named in Trump suit
V I E W F R O M A FA R
Estate of John Walter sued in rent fraud case involving president BY R O S E W E L D ON The late Flower Hill Mayor John Walter has been named in a case against his cousin, President Donald Trump, as the Trump Organization faces a class-action lawsuit saying that tenants of over 14,000 apartments in Trumpowned buildings across New York City in the 1990s were overcharged on rent. Walter, the son of Fred Trump Sr.’s sister Elizabeth Trump Walter and first cousin to the president, lived in Flower Hill’s Manhasset area for most of his life and served as mayor of the village from 1988 to 1996. He died in January 2018. The case alleges a long-running scheme in which a Trumpcontrolled company, All County Building Supply, artificially increased the cost of appliances and other materials, which led to raised rents. The scheme was first reported in a 2018 New York
Times investigative article. Twenty plaintiffs are named, representing a class of victims who formerly were tenants of 30 of the Trump Organization’s rentregulated buildings in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in the 1990s. The buildings were sold in 2004, but the plaintiffs claim that the inflated rents persisted. The suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, and the plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Jerrold S. Parker and Raymond Silverman of Port Washington-based Parker Waichman LLP. “This is a massive fraud spanning 28 years, victimizing several hundred thousand tenants in Trump regulated apartments and needs to be addressed,” Parker said in a statement to The Washington Post. “These regulated tenants, many of whom struggle just to pay the rent and put food on the Continued on Page 45
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PORT WASHINGTON CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING COMMITTEE
Port Washington residents watched the lighting of the Blumenfeld Family Park Christmas tree from afar this year due to COVID-19 concerns.
Over 100 students test positive in one week BY R OB E RT PELAEZ The number of students who have tested positive for the coronavirus in public schools across the North Shore
has risen to nearly 350, according to state Health Department figures. As of Tuesday, 340 students on the North Shore had tested positive since the beginning of the school year. The increase
of 94 confirmed student cases is the most over a one-week period since schools began, according to state data. Public school districts that were analyzed included the Continued on Page 36
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