Accused Bayside Squatters Arrested in Home Stuck in Estate Since 2018

Vernon Glass and Lusascha Taylor were arrested and arraigned Thursday on burglary, grand larceny and trespassing charges after Queens prosecutors said they were living in a Bayside home that has sat in legal limbo since its owner died in 2018, according to ABC7 New York. The arrests came weeks after a 7 On Your Side investigation first exposed the occupation at 23-40 205th Street, a one-family house whose owner, Richard Klibschon, died with no children or immediate heirs. Both defendants pleaded not guilty. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said of the case, “you cannot take people’s property, you don’t have a legal right to be there just because you say so.”

Why it matters

City property records confirm the vacancy that made the alleged scheme possible. NYC Department of Finance’s own assessment roll still carries the house under “Klibschon, Richard” through the tentative 2027 tax year, and ACRIS shows no deed has recorded on the parcel since a nominal $10 conveyance in February 2014, years before Klibschon’s death. Title never moved, not to an estate representative, not to a buyer, in the more than two years Glass allegedly occupied the address starting around March 2024. For New York investors who track heir-property inventory, a house frozen this long in Surrogate’s Court is exactly the asset that sits off-market until a Public Administrator steps in, similar to the title tangle at Elmhurst’s contested burial ground site. Glass has done this before: Nassau County police said he took over a vacant North Woodmere home in 2018, changed the locks and collected rent posing as its landlord, a case that ended in five years of probation.

The numbers

The house is a 1950-built, one-family home on a 4,320-square-foot lot, per city tax records. Its taxable assessed value has held essentially flat at the state’s homestead cap, moving from $60,960 for tax year 2023 to a tentative $61,500 for 2027, even as the underlying market value estimate ran near $1 million to $1.15 million over the same years. Glass was held on $25,000 bail and Taylor on $15,000. Prosecutors cited a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top burglary count.

What’s next

A Public Administrator was appointed to Klibschon’s estate in April, reportedly after Rep. Tom Suozzi’s office helped push the appointment forward, clearing a path toward the criminal case and, eventually, a sale. Both defendants must stay away from the property and are due back in court next month. The case follows New York’s 2024 budget law, which added language to the Real Property Law stating a tenant “shall not include a squatter,” a change pushed by northeast Queens legislators to speed removals like this one; whether it shortens the civil side of this dispute is not yet reported.