NYC tenant from hell won’t stop terrorizing young families — owes $88K in rent, wild lawsuit claims
She’s the wicked witch of the East End.
A kid-hating crone has turned a luxury Upper East Side building into a living hell for her upstairs neighbors — driving at least three families out of their apartments all while racking up nearly $88,000 in unpaid rent, a new lawsuit claims.
Anne Stockton, 72, is being sued by the owner of 85 East End Avenue for allegedly tormenting the family of five currently living in the unit directly above her cushy, $1,775-a-month rent-stabilized apartment on the 10th floor.
Stockton has repeatedly screamed “profanities, threats and derogatory racial comments” — such as “you f—ing animals” — at Tara and Riad Abrahams and their three children since they moved in in November 2025, the suit claims.
She’s also been banging on her ceiling with what sounds like a lead pipe “for hours on end” and has called the cops on the family at least 10 times “based upon groundless and unsubstantiated allegations,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court filing from Monday.
The bad behavior “has no other purpose than to drive [the family] out of their home,” the lawsuit contends, “just as [Stockton] has done with the three prior tenants of [the unit].”
Stockton declined repeated requests for comment, but records show she’s lived in the elegant doorman building overlooking the East River — where a four-bedroom apartment is currently listed for over $21,000 a month in rent — since 1992.
Her alleged targeting of tenants in the unit upstairs dates back to at least 2013, however, when Jennifer Gaydos Stephan lived there with her then-husband Scott Hartman and their four children, according to the suit.
“She was a disaster,” Stephan told The Post about Stockton. “She would constantly take a broom and hit the ceiling daily. She would leave nasty notes on my door, saying, ‘tell your kids to be quiet.’”
The mom said she “loved” living at the building, which is right by Carl Schurz Park and boasts a fitness center, children’s playroom and pet spa — but was forced to leave after two years because “we could not take it anymore.”
“We had to move out. She was horrible,” Stephan said.
A 2014 email from her then-husband to their landlord said Stockton had even threatened she would “discipline” the couple’s children herself, according to court papers.
“Also last week, and for the second time, she cornered 2 of our children in the elevator and made threatening overtures,” the email included in the filing states.
“We refuse to continue to live under these unsafe conditions for our children and family,” the missive continued, noting they would be breaking their lease and moving out.
But the next two tenants would face near-identical alleged harassment — that was also so severe they, too, were forced out, according to the suit.
Mitch Jacaruso, who lived in the 11th-floor apartment starting in 2014, wrote in a 2017 email to the landlord that Stockton had screamed at his 11 and 8-year-old kids inside the building’s elevator, calling them “animals and horrible children,” and threatening that “she was going to sue them for everything.”
That incident “finally compelled Mr. Jacaruso to vacate the building,” the lawsuit states.
The following tenant, Mark Weiss, experienced a similar nightmare after he moved in — even though his son and daughter, whom he had partial-custody of, only visited occasionally, according to the suit.
“[It’s] really scaring my daughter who was afraid to leave the apartment last night,” he wrote in one email included in the suit.
“[Stockton] is really scaring my children by banging on the ceiling. My kids are barely there,” he wrote in 2019, adding a few minutes later, “She came up to my apartment again. She is really becoming of great concern.”
Such incidents continued until Weiss moved out in 2024, and the next tenants arrived about a year later — renting the four bedroom apartment listed for nearly $18,000 a month, according to Streeteasy.
Stockton greeted the South Asian and Filipino family by screaming obscenities like “get a f–king rug,” “what the f–k are you doing?” and “you f–king animals,” according to court docs.
In the first week alone, the lawsuit claims that Stockton called the police multiple times on the Abrahamses.
Emails to the landlord claimed Stockton’s “aggressive, threatening and violent behavior” happened at all hours, including late at night — and even when their teenage daughter was home alone quietly eating lunch or doing schoolwork.
Stockton “does not care that her foul-mouthed tirades are heard by our children. In fact, that is the very idea,” Tara Abrahams in a court filing.
“My 10-year-old son now constantly asks me, ‘What did we do wrong? Why does the lady on the 10th floor hate us?’” her husband Riad Abrahams wrote in a sworn affidavit. “I do not know how to answer him.”
“Our children are now scared in their own home and are afraid to be in the apartment alone.”
The scary situation came to a head earlier this month, when the Abrahams family was celebrating their eldest daughter’s 16th birthday.
“We accidentally made the mistake of opening presents for my daughter’s 16th’ birthday at our dinner table” — and Stockton responded by calling the cops, according to an email to the landlord sent by Tara Abrahams and the court docs.
“In addition to calling the police, she began yelling at us and repeatedly referring to our family as ‘animals,’” Riad Abrahams wrote in his own email, included in the suit.
Stockton’s relentless noise complaints routinely amounted to bupkis when investigated by building staff, the filing claims.
When Stockton was confronted about her conduct, she told the building manager that “incredibly… the noise comes from her kitchen cabinet,” a worker wrote in a court document.
Tara Abrahams declined to comment further when reached by The Post.
Just days after the suit was filed, a Manhattan judge signed a temporary restraining order barring Stockton from “making unreasonable noise.. assaulting, menacing, intimidating, or threatening behavior against the tenants, occupants and children” in the above unit.
The building owner’s suit also asks for at least $550,000 in damages and legal fees.
A rent ledger shows Stockton has only been making rent sporadically since 2018, and has made no major payments since 2022 — aside from $24,000 through the state Emergency Rental Assistance Program last spring.
Despite the payout, her rental arrears still sit at nearly $88,000, but Stockton disputes this, according to the ongoing litigation.
“Our residents deserve nothing less than the utmost courtesy from their neighbors,” said a spokesperson for building owner Fetner Properties. “Behavior such as yelling at or berating another resident is contrary to these values and will not be tolerated.”
— Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts