A paraplegic man formerly living in NYCHA housing now has a swanky apartment and allegedly bought a Mercedes thanks to cash from settlements in lawsuits defendants claim amount to a citywide “shakedown.”
Wheelchair-bound Jocelyn Pierre has filed 113 federal lawsuits against restaurants, pharmacies, clothing stores and even a charity in Brooklyn and Manhattan since 2018 for their alleged failure to provide handicap access to their establishments.
In each case he cites the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to the filings reviewed by The Post. Once the lawsuits are filed, his lawyers move in and offer to settle if the businesses pay thousands of dollars, according to those who have received them.
All of Pierre’s lawsuits have been brought by Manhattan-based attorneys Bradly and Darren Marks and have targeted everyone from high-end clothing store Paul Stuart on Madison Avenue and a Duane Reade to Electric Lotus Tattoo, a tattoo studio in Fort Greene.
Lucali, the famed pizza restaurant in Carroll Gardens which is a favorite of celebrities including Taylor Swift, David Beckham and Beyonce and Jay-Z, was also sued.
The pizza joint is one of the few to fight back through the courts — most cases are settled and 35 are ongoing, according to court records.
Lucali have filed a lawsuit in response to the federal case against Pierre and his lawyers, who are brothers, in which they blasted the “malicious prosecution” and “fraudulent action” against the buzzy pizza parlor.
“In order to justify his absurd requests for attorney’s fees, the defendant lawyer uses and abuses the disabled defendant Pierre to pretend that he enters every single New York City restaurant on a random block so that he can recover for ‘lack of ADA compliance’ and makes sure to ask these restaurants for his own exorbitant attorney’s fees,” Lucali alleged in a lawsuit filed last month in Brooklyn State Supreme Court.
According to the original claim Pierre had filed against Lucali, he was “a desolate man living in publicly owned NYCHA buildings for most of his life.”
However, since he started launching lawsuits seven years ago, Pierre purchased a red Mercedes, according to court papers. He now lives in a high-end, new development in Brooklyn where a one-bedroom apartment lists for more than $4,000 per month. The building features a fitness center, yoga studio and “cocktail herb garden,” according to its website. [This is our reporting]
The Lucali lawsuit alleges that Pierre is “a vector for the defendant lawyer to make money off harassing small businesses… using every frivolous and unethical tactic.” In Pierre’s suit against the restaurant, he even names the owner’s dead parents as defendants, court papers show.
In addition, the federal complaint against Lucali was filed nearly two years after Pierre allegedly tried to access the premises on November 14, 2022.
“The defendant lawyer purposely filed complaints against any restaurant with video cameras years after the complaint to ensure the tape would be deleted to deprive such parties of any defense,” Lucali claim in their case.
Many smaller businesses don’t have the same resources. Under the ADA and local laws, small businesses are required to provide customers with disabilities the same equal access to their goods and services as able bodied customers.
How exactly that is done depends on myriad factors and the disability involved, but businesses Pierre has filed against claim they’re not even even given a chance to demonstrate how they would accommodate him.
Jae Connor, who runs Electric Lotus Tattoo, told The Post he did not recall Pierre trying to gain access to his shop on June 22, 2024, the date alleged in the lawsuit, which was filed in Brooklyn federal court in January.
He said he was the only person working that day and would have rushed to help him if he had shown up.
At Lucali, if a patron arrives in a wheelchair, “the hostess immediately notifies the staff to open Lucali’s portable ramp which is permitted by ADA,” according to legal papers. “Lucali has many disabled patrons, including the owner’s biological brother who frequents the restaurant on a daily basis.”
In a later filing in that suit, Pierre denied he owns a Mercedes and moved to dismiss the case, claiming it was “baseless.”
Pierre refused comment to The Post last week. His lawyer Darren Marks said: “We do not comment about active litigation.”
In Brooklyn, Pierre settled for an undisclosed amount with Emma’s Torch, a cafe that trains refugees in culinary arts last year. The owners told The Post they are worried about losing their livelihoods after having to fork out for attorneys’ fees and other legal costs.
Pierre sued the charity and 345 Realty LLC, which owns the building in 2023, months after he claimed he tried to enter the property on April 27, 2022. The parties settled six months later, court records show.
The charity, which took in more than $2.3 million in donations in 2023 did not return a request for comment last week. [2.3m listed on its 1099]
“I went around and interviewed people, and most of them said they had never seen this person,” said a defendant who did not want to be identified because they were in talks to settle their own lawsuit brought by Pierre.
“The dates and times don’t align. I heard from one store owner who got the legal demand letter in the mail, and immediately called the lawyers to ask how much it would be to make it all go away. The answer was $5,000 and she put it on her credit card.”
One of Lucali’s attorneys, Luis Umana, lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Pierre has launched many of his lawsuits, and called them “vicious actions” against vulnerable small businesses in the community.
“Often lacking the financial means to mount a defense, absorb opposing counsel’s fees, and implement mandated remediations, they find themselves in an unenviable position,” Umana and her co-counsel Elizabeth Johannesen said in a statement.
“While we firmly advocate for universal accessibility as defined in the ADA, a sense of fairness compels us to question a system that seemingly permits a single individual to initiate a barrage of lawsuits.
“[They] potentially jeopardize the livelihoods and dedicated efforts of small business owners, with little evidence this person actually suffered an injury, or has an intent to return to the business as required by the law.”