An ongoing fight to keep a Brooklyn grandmother in her family home escalated on Wednesday morning when the police arrested Councilmember Chi Ossé as he protested the move.
Ossé (D-Brooklyn) was in front of the Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone with community supporters to prevent longtime resident Carmella Charrington from being evicted when officers from the New York Police Department pulled the Council member to the ground and cuffed him, face down, video shows.
New York City marshals were at the home to evict Charrington and to look for her father, who is under a conservatorship in the state of Georgia. Over two dozen protestors were also on the scene. The marshals called the NYPD for backup, as the protestors were blocking access to the house, and ended up making four arrests, including Ossé, according to an NYPD spokesperson.
NYPD officers took Ossé to the local precinct, according to a statement from his office, and released him in the early afternoon. He was taken to a local hospital for evaluation shortly afterwards. Ossé and those arrested were charged with obstruction of governmental administration and disorderly conduct, NYPD said.
Charrington spoke with THE CITY Wednesday at the brownstone, just after she said she spent five days on Rikers Island, held in contempt for the conservatorship case involving her father and linked to the property.
“I swear I feel like I’m in ‘Get Out,’” she said, referring to the 2017 horror film. If she and her family lose the house, she said: “It’d be devastating. It’s four generations of irreparable harm.”
Charrington’s son, William McFadden, said his 6-year-old daughter was rattled by the police action taken Wednesday. McFadden, the daughter and his 7-month-old son were among the family members in the home when the police, marshals and members of the sheriff’s office arrived.
“No child should have to ask, ‘Daddy, why are they taking our house right now? Daddy, why are they changing the locks?’” McFadden said.
Councilmember Chi Ossé being moved into an ambulance and taken to a local hospital after his arrest in Bedford-Stuyvesant, April 22, 2026. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The family and their allies, including Ossé, are adamant the situation is deed theft. But officials and records point to a more complicated story.
Charrington’s home on a tree-lined block of Jefferson Avenue has been the subject of a fraught saga that goes back several years. Charrington said her family has owned the home for decades, but an LLC that claims to have purchased the home has tried to evict her for the past two years.
Speaking outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant precinct where he was held and before he went to the hospital, Ossé said it was a “very violent, fast, traumatic experience.”
“I was just there to stand for my neighbor who I didn’t want to see her and her family removed from her home,” Ossé said outside the precinct. “To be met with violence from the NYPD for doing my job has been really disheartening and truly traumatic.”
He said he would file a misconduct report, and he advocated for resources and funds to help homeowners fight deed theft.
Deed theft — made through schemes related to forged documents, short-sale, foreclosure-rescue scams and other mechanisms — can strip families of generational wealth, separating them from a valuable asset.
The family home on Jefferson Avenue Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The office of Attorney General Letitia James also indicated it had determined in April 2025 that the situation at Charrington’s home was not a deed theft matter, but instead a property dispute owing to competing claims from the property’s former owners, including Charrington’s father.
In a social media post, James said her office has “been in contact with the resident of this home for over a year to offer guidance and advice on her legal battle.”
The history of the property is complex.
In 2021, a company called Brooklyn Gates LLC signed an agreement with a family member who had a stake in the property at 212 Jefferson Ave.
Brooklyn Gates LLC was run by brothers Elliot and Joseph Ambalo and their partner Etai Vardi, whose dealings THE CITY uncovered in a previous investigation. The trio was among the groups of speculators targeting homes in gentrifying, historically Black and Latino neighborhoods whose owners died and left a network of dispersed inheritors. The three men would buy partial deeds from the heirs — often well below the value of the multi-million-dollar homes — and leverage their new partial ownership to force out longtime residents.
By 2023, the LLC had terminated the agreement with the person who claimed to have a stake in the property. Vardi told THE CITY he canceled the contract because he didn’t want to take on such a risky matter. “We saw it’s very complicated with the family. Not for us. It’s too much problems,” he said.
In 2024, another company called 227 Group LLC purchased the home for $1.4 million from several alleged family members as part of an estate of the former owner. Some property records show 227 Group LLC and Brooklyn Gates LLC share the same address in Long Island City. Vardi chalked up that detail to a paperwork mistake, and emphasized his group is not involved with the property.
An agent behind 227 Group LLC, Simon Blitz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment and another, Daniel Gazal, could not be reached.
In an email, a spokesperson for the 227 Group LLC called the deed theft allegations false.
What’s in dispute has to do with whether those family members and the estate had the authority to sell the property to 227 Group LLC.
Allman Charrington, Carmella’s father, is in a conservatorship based in Georgia. A conservator is appointed to manage the finances, assets and property of a “ward” who is not competent to manage those affairs, and Allman Charrington’s conservator signed the deed on his behalf.
Georgia attorney Luanne Bonnie, who is listed as Allman’s conservator on property records, signed the deed on his behalf. Carmella and other family members have said the people who signed the deed over to 227 Group LLC did not have the right to do that. (Bonnie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
A more recent deed, from January 2026, shows Allman Charrington transferring the property to Carmella, his daughter.
A judge sent Charrington to Rikers Island on April 16 after she did not bring her father to court as part of a case related to the conservatorship. Charrington and her family at the brownstone had been caring for him, they said. The city sheriff’s office and marshals who went to the home this morning had been looking for the father.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who made fighting deed theft a priority in his mayoral campaign, on Wednesday morning had not seen the video of Ossé’s arrest, but responded when a reporter described it to him.
“That’s exactly something that we’re going to follow up on, not just on the nature of this arrest, but also what was the underlying issue that was being protested,” Mamdani said at an unrelated event in Queens. “I know [Ossé’s] been on the front lines of fighting deed theft. It’s especially prevalent in his Council district, and I appreciate, frankly, the efforts that he’s led in the past on ensuring that this is front of mind for all of us.”
Mamdani later posted to social media saying he had “seen the concerning footage of Council Member Chi Ossé’s arrest earlier today and am in touch with [NYPD] Commissioner Tisch about the nature of the arrest.”
Additional reporting from Claudia Irizarry Aponte and Katie Honan.
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