82 newyork| february1–14, 2021appeal; she lost. She filed a Federal Court
case against me and my co-defendant,
Hon. Lawrence K. Marks, Chief Admin-
istrative Judge; she quickly withdrew it.”
Klein dropped his custody attempts last
year, he says, because he has been finan-
cially ruined by the cost of attorneys and
by the pandemic’s effect on the film
industry. Now he is sleeping on the
couches of friends, effectively homeless.
Russell already speaks in the past
tense about her two-bedroom on Barrow
Street. Though she has found another
part-time assistant job, she andBajada
owe $40,000 in legal fees. The balance
on the loan they took out, still accruing
interest, has ballooned to over $800,000.Whenthey sell,they willbeunableto
makeany money, whichBajadahadbeen
countingonforretirement—thatis,if
theyarenotforeclosedonbytheirlender
orevictedbytheirco-opforthousandsof
dollarsinunpaidmaintenancefees.
“It’s onethingif youdon’t havemoney but
you have shelter, right?”Russell said
recentlyona frigidday, whichshespent
almostentirelyoutside.“Oryoudon’t have
shelterbutyouhavemoney. That’swhat Val
alwaysusedtosay—aslongasyouhaveone
ortheother, a goodjoboranapartment,
you’reokay.”Theycouldlosetheapartment
beforeGladstonedoes,whichhelpsexplain
whyRussellwastakeninbyGladstonein
thefirstplace.Barelyabletomake rentbut
makingit work,betweenpaychecks,trying
tohangontoa placeinNewYorkCity—
whatcouldbea morebelievablestory? ■tice. He wrote, “This seems to be Ms.
Russell’s 15 minutes of fame.”)
It is difficult to know just how far back
Gladstone’s tactics go. An eviction case
was brought against her by a Washington,
D.C., management company in 2004. In
New York, the hustle was all the more
effective because of how familiar her pre-
carity seemed. She camouflaged herself in
a morass of insecure New Yorkers teetering
on the brink.
When she won her lockout case, Glad-
stone settled back into Russell’s apart-
ment with renewed fervor. She blasted
plucky guitar music and began spraying
cleaning chemicals again, as Russell
recorded her, pleading with her to stop.
(“You’ve gotta get your mental stuff
under control,” Gladstone tells Russell in
one of her recordings.) She put up a sign
in the kitchen: it’s always darkest
before the dawn. Written under it, on
the wall, was tell the truth heidi.
Gladstone left a note on the counter with
a dramatic list of “Missing/Damaged/
Poisoned/Ruined” items that she accused
Russell of tampering with. As for the flyers,
she texted Russell to immediately cease
and desist the “campaign of defamation.”
“And apologize,” she wrote, “for all the
harm you’ve intentionally caused so many
in this terrible & deceitful game you’re
playing with people’s lives.”
In October, a friend of Russell’s offered
to let her stay at their place in order to
help her recover from an operation.
Russell has been mostly sleeping there
since, visiting the apartment a few times
a week.I wenttherewithherinDecember.
AsRussellshowedmearound,Gladstone
followedustothekitchenandaccused
Russell of being a “covid-denier”
(thoughRussellenteredtheapartment
inamask).Gladstonewasinsistent
abouttellingmehersideofthestorythat
day: Shesaidshehadgivenevidencein
courtthat she’dpaidrentthroughApril
(shehadn’t),that shewasawarded“treble
damages”(shewasn’t),andthat therewas
a warrantoutforRussell’sarrest (there
wasn’t).Shealluded toa conspiracy,
insinuatingthat Russellwasbeingpaid
forher“campaign,” butshewouldnotsay
bywhom.“Thatwasthestory—andI was
abouttowriteit,” shesaid,thoughshe
wouldn’t say where.“Thisis bizarre,” she
toldRussell.“Youreallyfuckedourlives.
Wearereallyafraidallthetime.” Her
daughterstoodnearby.
Askedtocommentandrespondtothe
50-plusaccountsinthisarticle,Glad-
stonerepliedasfollows:“Thisrecitation
belowisfalseanddefamatory.I brought
a HousingCourt caseagainst HeidiRus-
sell;shelost.Shefiledanemergencyshe would leave for $24,000. The amount
almost made Russell laugh. During a three-
day trial held via Skype, Gladstone claimed
she had paid rent; at one point, she said
that she and Russell had worked out an
exchange in which she would clean in lieu
of paying rent—a reference to a text she had
sent regarding her cleaning up after Abby
during her very first stay. Under cross-
examination, Gladstone eventually admit-
ted to the judge that, in his words, “no rent
payments were subsequently made.”
Regardless, the judge felt that Glad-
stone did not pose a sufficient “immi-
nent and substantial threat or danger”
to Russell to allow him to overrule the
moratorium (though he did find that she
could have treated Russell with “greater
kindness”). Arthur Schwartz, another
attorney helping Russell, tried a different
tactic: He filed a federal lawsuit against
New York State’s chief judge, who refused
to process evictions like Russell’s even
after the governor had allowed them to be
exempted from the moratorium. It didn’t
work—but the lawsuit made Russell’s
case go public. It was picked up by the
New York Post, with a large photo of
Gladstone and the headline resident
evil. The saga provided a counter-
narrative to the city’s wave of eviction-
related stories over the summer, as more
than a million of New York’s tenants
begged for rent relief. Russell joined
other small landlords, from Harlem to
the Hamptons, in seeking exceptions to
the moratorium. An anonymous group
calling itself the West Village Guardian
AngelsspranguponTwitter, posting
photosofflyersthat wereplasteredwest
ofHudsonStreet withGladstone’sphoto
anda hashtag:#WestVillageGrifter.
Thescandalsoontraveledacrossthe
neighborhoodandquicklyreachedP.S. 3.
“Shepreyedonusasmoms,” oneformer
friendsaid.“Ican’tbelieveitwasthe
samepersonsittingonthebenchwith
us.”It seemedtoconfirmrumorsabout
Gladstonethat someparentshadheard
inFebruary,whenoneofRussell’sfriends
postedaboutheronthesiteNextdoor.One
vociferousdefenseofGladstonecame
fromAlbertoMoris,a P.S.3 parentwith
a lawofficeinMiami(hewastheone
whohadsentGladstonethemoney to
pay RussellinJune 20 19).“So your
defenseisthecity isfullofscammers,
henceshemust BEone?”hewrote.“The
cityISfullofscammersandmany are
landlords.”(InanemailtoNewYork,
MorissaidhehadknownGladstonefor
sixyearsandthat theirrelationshipwas
bothpersonalandprofessional.Shehad
hiredhiminformallytoreviewcontracts
andhadassistedhiminhislegalprac-A flyer put up by the West Village
Guardian Angels on the corner of
Washington and Barrow.PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY HEIDI RUSSELL (FLYER)