Dec. 23 (UPI) — A New Jersey landlord in faces a 42-charge indictment for alleged sex crimes committed against 30 of his tenants.
Joseph Centanni, 75, allegedly carried out criminal sex acts between 2013 and 2020 in the city of Elizabeth, according to a press release from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.
He allegedly owns hundreds of rental units scattered across 18 properties in Elizabeth, New Jersey’s fourth-most populated city located across Newark Bay from New York City.
Centanni, of Mountainside, is alleged to have taken advantage of tenants who were struggling with rent or financially in general, facing eviction and people who were homeless by soliciting “sex acts” from them in exchange for a place to live.
Victims were allegedly offered reduced rent, delayed eviction or general financial assistance.
“He also purportedly threatened tenants who hesitated or refused his advances with eviction or other retaliatory measures,” prosecutors said in the press release.
Victims varied in age between 22 and 61 years old and were male and female.
Prosecutors say Centanni owns hundreds of units across 18 properties.
The landlord faces 23 counts of second-degree sexual assault and 19 counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.
According to the prosecutor, convictions for second-degree crimes are “commonly punishable by terms of 5 to 10 years in state prison on each count,” while fourth-degree crimes are subject to 18 months in prison per count.
Centanni was arrested in June 2021 and indicted last Thursday. In December 2021, he agreed to pay $4.5 million in damages and penalties for sexually harassing tenants and applicants for tenancy for more than 15 years.
“The need for housing is a basic human need,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig of the District of New Jersey.
“Joseph Centanni exploited that need, and the important federal programs that attempt to meet it, by threatening to deny his victims a roof over their heads if they did not submit to his demands for sexual acts.”
He is free on monitored release, according to NBC News.
