Posted: June 2, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
Soledad O’Brien has found herself in the middle of a dog mess at the upscale New York co-op where she lives.
In January, the CNN correspondent, acting as her building’s co-op board secretary, signed a notice attempting to evict a family and their apparently smelly Neapolitan Mastiff.
The notice claimed that resident Steven Lyon’s dog Ugo violated the terms of the family’s co-op lease because of the dog’s “size, slobbering, shedding, drooling, gassiness and odors.”
Manhattan Housing Court Judge Arlene Hahn dismissed the case Monday, ruling the Lyons were not properly served in the suit.
“The board is trying to evict a family, and it can’t even serve the initial papers correctly,” Michael Schwartz, the lawyer for the Lyon family, told the New York Post. “Maybe the board should be put on a leash.”
O’Brien resigned from the co-op board in February after the story was leaked to the press. “After discussions with neighbors and others, [my husband] and I have become increasingly concerned about my personal safety,” O’Brien wrote in a Feb. 16 e-mail to the co-op.
Lyon, who bought his $3 million apartment in 2003, told the newspaper that he began taking Ugo to a grooming salon three times a month and spritzing him with an orange-scented deodorizer after receiving complaints. Lyons also said he offered to use the freight elevator to walk the dog, but the board still moved forward with the eviction process.
O’Brien did not respond to calls for comment.