NEW YORK -- A Brooklyn man and his three sons, accused of terrorizing their elderly tenants in an effort to force them from an apartment building, have been arrested on charges of threatening to kill a tenant's lawyer.
The four were arrested Wednesday after shotgun-toting police broke into a meeting in which the tenant's lawyer -- who agreed to record the meeting for the Brooklyn district attorney -- was reportedly threatened with a knife, a hammer and a crowbar.
Authorities said, however, that despite their knowledge of the terror campaign, no charges have been lodged because tenants are afraid to file complaints.
The suspects were identified as Salvatore Latora, 54, and his sons John, 24, Vincent, 23, and Robert, 20. The four lived in an apartment building in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn.
Authorities said the building was the scene of an eight-month terror campaign waged by the Latoras, who wanted tenants to leave so the rents could be raised.
Two elderly tenants have been found dead in their apartments since the Latoras bought the building in January, and one tenant suffered a heart attack during an argument with the landlord and died later that day, authorities said.
'They were told to stay in their apartments, not to talk to each other in the hallways, and that they couldn't gather on the porch,' said Ronda Nager, a spokeswoman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eugene Gold.
'Fear kept them in. There was a concentration camp atmosphere. Some were burglarized or had their doors kicked in. One tenant who was a diabetic had her nurse refused admittance when she came to give an insulin shot.'
Miss Nager said Gold's office was investigating the deaths of the two tenants who were found in their apartments.
She also said Robert Latora allegedly choked and sexually abused the wife of the tenant represented by the attorney, Susan Laufer.
When the woman fled to a next door neighbor, the neighbor was also threatened.
The latest incident occurred Wednesday night, Miss Nager said, when Miss Laufer met with the four men in the building.
The meeting was arranged after Salvatore Latora offered Miss Laufer $1,000 to 'throw' the case, authorities said. He also said he would hire her as his lawyer -- a post worth about $30,000 annually, they said.
At Gold's request, Miss Laufer wore a recording device to the meeting, where Latora's sons told her she could 'go out feet first in a cement overcoat' if she did not drop the case.
When Salvatore Latora discovered the recorder in her purse, one son pulled a knife, and the others threatened her with a hammer and a crowbar, Miss Nager said.
Police listening outside broke into the meeting, authorities said, and one of the Latoras allegedly tried to wrest a shotgun from an officer. The gun distharged.
No one was injured and the Latoras were subdued, Miss Nager said.
