UES Building Sues Elderly Woman For Swimming Pool Yelling, Defecating

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side condo building is suing one of its residents, saying the elderly woman has caused disruptions and sanitary problems at the building's pool — but the resident says she's being unfairly targeted.

The board of The Rio, a 39-story condominium tower on East 65th Street near Second Avenue, filed the suit on Wednesday against the woman, who purchased her third-floor apartment in 2020.

Patch is not identifying the 82-year-old woman, due to the sensitive nature of the lawsuit.

Starting around 2020, the woman began causing problems at the building's fitness area, including "scream[ing] and mak[ing] loud noises while using the gym and pool," flooding and damaging the locker room, refusing to leave when her designated time slot was over, and crossing into other lanes and spitting in the pool while swimming, the building's lawsuit claims.

On one occasion last August, the woman defecated in the pool and the nearby showers, forcing the area to be shut down and sanitized, the suit claims.

Reached by phone on Thursday, however, the woman called the lawsuit "ridiculous," saying she is confined to a wheelchair and has no ability to fight the claims.

"I’m not well," she said. "I’m living alone, I’m disabled."

The building says it suspended the woman's access to the fitness center between August and October. When she was allowed to come back, her disruptive behavior continued, according to the lawsuit — prompting landlords to suspend her access again on Feb. 14.

Since then, however, the woman has continued to "intrude" into the fitness center, called a building manager asking to be let in, and even entered a condo board member's apartment to "harass them about getting access," according to the building — leading to this week's lawsuit.

The condo board is now asking a judge to bar her from using the fitness center — and also pay back the building for attorney's fees and other expenses relating to her behavior. (The Daily Beast first reported on the lawsuit).

The woman, who admits to using the pool but said it is usually empty, told Patch that she suffers from depression, and sounded perplexed by the legal campaign being waged against her.

"I don't know what to do," she said. "They’re pushing me to the edge — nobody defends me."