Ocean Owner Gets A Second Chance

Megalandlord Shmuel Aizenberg took a second stab at scrubbing his potential criminal record clean — and won a second chance.

Aizenberg appeared inside the housing court at 121 Elm St. Tuesday to make his second plea since September for acceptance into the state’s accelerated rehabilitation program, which allows first-time offenders with minor charges to avoid criminal convictions going on their permanent records. 

The hearing took place after the landlord was charged with a criminal misdemeanor for failing to fix water damage in a Hamden apartment complex, along with five other housing-code-violation infractions for Ocean rental properties in New Haven. Read in more detail about those here.

The company now has plans to ​“turn a new leaf,” attorney Gerry Giaimo told state Superior Court Judge Walter Spader, Jr. ​“We have no intention of ever being here again.”

After a brief back and forth, Spader granted Aizenberg accelerated rehabilitation. The offense will be removed from his record if he pays a $7,250 fine due for past housing code violations, makes it through a full year without any new arrests or violations, and sticks to a new ​“process” alluded to by Giaimo which Spader said was developed in collaboration with the Livable City Initiative to better conditions at Aizenberg’s apartments. Aizenberg must also pay an additional $100 to participate in the process of accelerated rehab itself. 

Aizenberg is the head of Ocean Management, a property management company. Through its affiliates, Ocean controls over 1,000 mostly low-income apartments across the city. Ocean has been selling and selling and selling off its local rental portfolio in recent months, as tenants unions form citywide to protest conditions at their properties.

Aizenberg had previously applied to participate in the accelerated rehabilitation diversionary program regarding one of six cases pending against him. In that case the landlord was charged with a Class C misdemeanor for a water-damaged kitchen ceiling and walls in a first-floor apartment inside a 12-unit complex on 11 Gorham Ave. in Hamden that violated the town’s public health code.

Judge Spader denied that request back in September on the basis that Aizenberg would likely be a repeat offender. 

“This is a two-prong finding,” Spader repeated on Jan. 16. concerning the decision of whether or not to grant someone accelerated rehab. 

“Legislation has specifically made this case eligible for accelerated rehab,” Spader said Tuesday of the Class C misdemeanor, given that the charge ​“is not so serious.” But that rule, Spader said, comes with a ​“caveat,” which is that the judge must determine whether or not the defendant is likely to offend again.

“We keep seeing you on the docket,” Spader stated, noting that Aizenberg faces 29 housing violations, including the misdemeanor at hand.

“The state stands by its previous argument” that Aizenberg, who has been a regular on the criminal housing docket in recent years, will return to court down the line for perpetuating dangerous living conditions — from ceiling leaks to rodent infestations — across his properties, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Donna Parker said.

However, this time around, Judge Spader said he was willing to reconsider Aizenberg’s application since no new charges have been levied against the landlord since the summer. 

Whatever Aizenberg has changed to improve Ocean Management’s operations, Spader said, ​“it’s been successful” and the defendant has been found ​“not likely to offend again.” 

Aizenberg is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 7, 2025, Spader ruled, to determine whether or not the landlord has made it through a year without breaking any housing codes. 

“Whatever it took to get to this point,” Spader said, ​“it’s working.”