Suspected drug dealer occupies New York City house after tenant overdoses

A suspected drug dealer took over an apartment in Queens after the owner died of an overdose. He then occupied the premises for months and sold narcotics from there, neighbors and police report.

Joseph Pisano, 53, allegedly snuck into the Jamaica Estates home of Anneliese King, a retired former administrative assistant, after the two met at a senior center near her building, King's neighbors and landlord told The Post.

King, 64, described by a neighbor and ex-boyfriend as a longtime heroin addict, let Pisano into her fifth-floor one-bedroom apartment on Ava Place, for which she paid $1,451.40 a month, according to Queens Housing Court records and residents who said the alleged drug seller was seen using a walker near the development site.

“[Pisano] took advantage of her,” a 53-year-old neighbor told the Post. “Some people have a sense of weakness. He recognized that she was weak.”

Drug sales have dropped off in the middle of the night, the neighbor said, adding that addicts have mistakenly rung her doorbell to look for Pisano at King's apartment in the six-story, 52-unit building.

“The audacity of this man… [his alleged drug dealing] “So visible and all of our lives in danger,” complained the neighbor.

King was found dead in her apartment on May 20. According to a coroner's report obtained by The Post, she had overdosed on heroin and fentanyl.

Hours after authorities removed King's body, Pisano returned to the apartment with another woman and continued to live there, according to Queens Housing Court records.

“She died and they went on with their business,” said Robert Miller, an attorney for landlord Herb Donner.

Pisano and the woman had lived rent-free in King's apartment for over two months, the frustrated landlord claimed in the lawsuit before the housing court.

After King's death, the quiet middle-class building became a hotbed of drug use and trafficking, destroying the sense of security and peace felt by many residents in the otherwise upscale neighborhood.

“Over the past few weeks, squatters have moved into the 5th floor of our building (apartment 5B) and are attracting individuals who appear to be drug users. These individuals conduct drug deals on a daily basis right on the sidewalk in front of our building,” one outraged neighbor wrote in a June 28 letter to the building's management, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

“We no longer feel safe in our own homes and are increasingly concerned about our safety and our property,” they added.

An NYPD spokesman said there have been no drug-related emergency calls to the building this year.

According to housing court documents, the New York Police Department was initially “reluctant to take action” despite new state laws passed earlier this year that would allow police to more easily intervene in squatting incidents.

Donner issued an eviction notice against Pisano and his companion in June before asking a Queens Housing Court judge to evict the illegal residents, according to housing court records

Pisano was finally arrested in a 6 a.m. raid on July 31. On the dining room table, police found a scale covered in cocaine residue, 32 vials of coke, 21 glassine envelopes of heroin, a ledger with names and cash amounts and other paraphernalia, according to a criminal complaint.

A woman named Kelly King was also arrested and charged with a number of drug offenses, including possession and intent to sell. It is unclear whether King, 52, is related to the deceased tenant.

Surveillance video obtained by The Post shows Pisano being slowly led out the door on his walker while King is led away in handcuffs.

Pisano pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a controlled substance on Aug. 20 and was sentenced to nine months in Rikers, according to the office of Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

King was sentenced to nine months probation after pleading guilty to second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia, officials said.

Meanwhile, the apartment is empty and locked, and Donner is waiting for a housing court judge to issue him an eviction order that would allow him to legally move back into the apartment.