Yeshiva Foreclosure Pushed Back

A nonprofit controlled by imprisoned Rabbi Daniel Greer won yet another month before the convicted sex offender’s victim can take ownership of the historic yeshiva building at the corner of Elm Street and Norton Street.

But with that delay, a state judge also ruled that Greer’s nonprofit cannot buy the Edgewood religious school out of foreclosure — even if it is able to scrounge up enough money by the selling off nearby multifamily rental properties.

That was the latest in the long and convoluted legal battle involving the future of the Yeshiva building at 765 Elm St., and — more broadly — Greer’s victim’s persistent efforts to collect on a largely unpaid $22 million sexual-abuse civil judgment. 

This most recent decision was handed down Friday afternoon by state Superior Court Judge John Cirello in the foreclosure case Eliyahu Mirlis v. Yeshiva of New Haven Inc.

In that case, which dates back to July 2017, Mirlis seeks to foreclose on the Edgewood religious school building on Elm Street as part of a larger bid to get Greer and his various nonprofits to cough up millions of dollars owed thanks to a separate 2017 civil judgment.

Greer, meanwhile, remains in prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence for raping Mirlis while the latter was a student at that very same Edgewood Yeshiva. (Greer has appealed the criminal case.)

After yet another round of dense, legalistic wrangling between Mirlis’s and Greer’s companies’ attorneys during a Friday morning virtual court hearing, Cirello handed down a two-page written decision in the foreclosure case. 

In that decision, which can be read in full here, Cirello denied the Yeshiva’s renewed motion to reopen the foreclosure judgment for the purposes of extending the ​“law day” and allowing the nonprofit to substitute a $620,000 cash bond for the judgment lien. 

“The plaintiff has waited long enough,” Cirello wrote on Friday. ​“The equities of this case, taking into account all relevant facts and circumstances, reviewing the pleadings, the arguments of the parties, the written briefs and the appellate record, the court finds that Yeshiva has not met their burden of proof and shown, by a preponderance of evidence, that equity requires an opening of the judgment to obtain a cash bond.

“As such the motion is denied.”

So that is that. 

Actually, there’s more.

First a bit of background and legalistic translation.

Essentially, Greer’s nonprofit seeks to buy the school building out of foreclosure and retain control of the property rather than let Mirlis take ownership and recoup a fraction of the still-unpaid millions owed to him. 

A previous state court judge, Claudia Baio, stated in a February 2020 ruling in this case that Greer’s nonprofit could do just that — but only if it was able to put together enough money to pay Mirlis the equivalent of what that Elm Street property is worth. After reviewing contested appraisals of the property two years ago, Baio set that valuation at $620,000.

In late January, after a federal judge in a separate case said Greer’s separate housing nonprofits could sell off rental properties in order to buy the yeshiva out of foreclosure, the religious nonprofit moved in state court to open the foreclosure judgment, extend the law day, and allow for a cash bond substitution. (Mirlis has subsequently asked the federal judge to reconsider that order.)

And on Jan. 24, Cirello denied that foreclosure-opening motion.

But, in that same decision, he did push back the ​“law day” from Jan. 31 to Feb. 22. (In foreclosure legalese, the law day is the last day that the owner of a foreclosed property can pay off outstanding debts and retain control of a property before losing title to a creditor, or, in this case, the holder of a judgment lien.)

In his Friday afternoon decision, Cirello did exactly the same thing he did last month.

He denied the motion to reopen the foreclosure judgment. And he yet again moved back the law day. 

“Nevertheless, pursuant to practice book §61 – 11(g) the court will set a new law date for March 28, 2022,” he wrote.

Unlike in the January decision, this time, Cirello explicitly stated that the Yeshiva cannot substitute a cash bond — that is, pay Mirlis $620,000 in cash — to keep the property out of foreclosure.

So why extend the law day to March 28? And what’s practice book §61 – 11(g)?

That section of the rules governing Connecticut’s judicial branch has to do with stays resulting from appeals of foreclosure judgments. By referencing it, Cirello appears to anticipate an appeal by Yeshiva — and the resulting amount of time for that appeal to be worked out before the property can actually change ownership.

During the Friday morning court hearing, meanwhile, the Yeshiva’s attorney — Jeffrey Sklarz — asked Cirello for one more month to put together the $620,000 necessary to substitute a cash bond for the judgment lien.

Sklarz said the Yeshiva needed that extra time because one of Greer’s local housing nonprofits, Edgewood Village Inc., had recently found a buyer — Rescomm Investments LLC, which is controlled by Rosario Debrizzi of Shelton — that is willing to purchase two of its Edgewood rental properties for a total of $570,000.

The proceeds from that sale combined with the $65,000 that yet another one of Greer’s housing nonprofits (F.O.H. Inc.) currently has in the bank should provide more than enough money to meet the $620,000 cash bond amount.

“We’re only asking for one month extension of the law day to conclude the sale, substitute the bond, and proceed in that fashion,” Sklarz said.

“This demonstrates that there is sufficient funds to provide the bond.”

Mirlis’s attorney, John Cesaroni, urged the court to deny the motion and to not move back the law day for a number of reasons, including that Baio’s initial ruling permitting a cash bond substitution of $620,000 is now two years old.

“Courts recognize that, if you’re going to determine at a point in time what is sufficient, you have to have a value that’s not aged,” Cesaroni said during the virtual court hearing. ​“And this value is two and a half years old.”