Midtown Brothel Run By Townhouse Squatters, Lawsuit Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Tenants at a fancy Midtown townhouse opened up a "members-only club" featuring drug use and prostitution, according to a lawsuit and news reports.

The suit was filed by owner Mitche Spaiser in an effort to regain control of the townhouse he owns at 104 East 36th St., between Park and Lexington avenues.

According to the suit, problems first arose in November 2020 when the existing tenant, Patricia Taub, sublet her four-bedroom, $20,000-per-month triplex to Ashley Jurman. Not long after, Jurman and two business partners hatched an idea to turn the townhouse into a club, according to an affidavit — quickly spurring noise complaints from neighbors.

"It appears that they are using [an] apartment as a club," reads one Dec. 16, 2020 complaint filed with the Department of Buildings, also describing "loud music, marijuana smell" and two bouncers stationed outside.

The suit was filed back in August, though it was not publicly reported until this week, when the New York Post published many of the lurid details.

They include parties stretching into the early-morning hours, poker games, gambling and even "sex trafficking," according to the court documents.

Jurman, in her own affidavit, contends that her former business partners engaged in drug use, prostitution and "operating of a strip club" in an effort to drive her out of the townhouse.

By April 2021, police told Spaiser about the "potential illegal activities" happening at his townhouse. But when Taub asked Jurman to leave the following month, Jurman demanded "tens of thousands of dollars," and pointed to pandemic eviction bans that she said allowed her to remain in place, the suit claims.

An attorney for Jurman told the Post that she has "always denied having any part in any alleged drug use or prostitution."