Queens property manager who displayed images of Hitler in building charged with hate crime
A former Queens building manager who allegedly terrorized tenants and proudly displayed Nazi propaganda in the lobby has been charged with scrawling “Kill Hamas Condo Board” all over the property, prosecutors said Thursday.
Surveillance cameras allegedly caught Neal Milano, 76, using a black permanent marker to scrawl out the nasty message — as well as homophobic and sexist slurs — across eight walls on four separate floors of the Sunnyside building on Nov. 2, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
Milano was released without bail at his Thursday arraignment in Queens Supreme Court on a 10-count indictment, including for hate crime charges.
The accused creep, who at one point was the property manager of the 39th Place building, has long caused tensions there.
“He always seems intoxicated. He’s a real problem,” one of the residents, a man who asked to remain anonymous, told The Post on Thursday.
Milano allegedly spray-painted the vile missive about Hamas on every floor of the building, including in the stairwell, said the neighbor.
“Everybody pretty much feels the same. Everybody in the building wants him to leave,” he said.
In 2017, when Milano was the condo’s property manager, he filled the space with a strange mix of hyper-patriotic posters and images of Hitler and Mussolini, and tenants told The Post at the time that he ruled the building with an iron fist.
A year later, Milano was acquitted by a Queens judge of all counts after he was accused of repeatedly harassing a 43-year-old tenant, including grabbing her by the neck and arm, calling her slurs and threatening to “burn the building down.”
Before the ruling, he defended hanging Nazi and other imagery in the building lobby, saying, “It’s history! You can’t change history!”
“There was a picture of Hitler and the Nazi flag next to a bigger picture of Churchill and the British flag! It’s history, it’s WWII!” he said at the time.
The current super said that Milano was no longer the manager of the building, which was free of the eclectic decorations when The Post visited Thursday.
He and every other member of the condo-board have a restraining order out against Milano, the super said.
“He lives here but all he can do is come in and go out,” the super said.
“He was told by the judge he can go straight in and he can go to his apartment and when he leaves he has to come straight out, no stops. No, if he sees one of us he has to lower his gaze, look at the floor and continue out.”
Neighbors described Milano as a terrifying and frequently drunk animal who constantly causes issues for the rest of the building.
A woman who lives on Milano’s floor said she and her husband are “terrified” of him before pointing out his massive red pick-up that has every single window, including the windshield, blacked out, that was creepily idling within earshot from where she spoke to The Post.
“The red pickup truck with the engine running across the street. That’s him, he’s watching you right now,” she said.
The nervous neighbor said that Milano was “usually very drunk” and “getting in an argument with people.”
“He also writes ‘kill the super’ inside the trash chutes. He’s always screaming and cursing at the super,” she added.
The super, who said he was the one who called 911 on Milano over the vile graffiti, said the building received a fresh coat of paint to cover the missives after the police investigation concluded.
Milano was charged with one count of criminal mischief in the third degree as a hate crime, one count of criminal mischief in the third degree and eight counts of making graffiti.
He faces up to seven years behind bars if convicted.
Milano’s defense attorney Kevin O’Donnell said that his client entered a not-guilty plea earlier Thursday.
“He looks forward to defending the charges,” O’Donnell said.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz slammed Milano’s alleged actions, saying, “Hateful and bias-motivated attacks have no place in our communities and this shameful aggression will not be tolerated.”
“The defendant will be held accountable for the serious charges against him,” Katz said in a statement.
Milano is scheduled to appear in court next on Jan. 30.
