Elliman sales manager Ronald Tardanico

Four days before high-power real estate broker Linda Stein was beaten
to death in her Upper East Side apartment, the personal assistant now
on trial for her murder complained to the Prudential Douglas Elliman
sales manager about the way Stein was treating her and requested
another assignment. Ronald Tardanico, the sales manager in charge of Elliman’s 980 Madison
Avenue office, testified today that on Oct. 26, 2007, Natavia Lowery
approached him and complained that Stein was forcing her to do non-real
estate-related tasks such as applying Stein’s makeup and answering
personal e-mails. When defense attorney Thomas Giovanni asked if Lowery
also complained about Stein yelling and screaming at her, Tardanico
said, “I don’t recall that.” After listening to Lowery’s complaint, Tardanico said he gave her some options about how they could handle it. “I told her that she could resign, we could reposition you in the
company, if such a position exists, or you could work things out,”
Tardanico said on the stand in Lowery’s trial on murder and grand
larceny charges in Manhattan Supreme Court. Tardanico said he told Lowery to, “sleep on it over the weekend. Let me know on Monday what you want to do.” When Monday came and passed without Lowery bringing the subject up
again, Tardanico said he assumed she had dropped it and was going to
try to work things out with Stein. The next day, Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned to death inside her Fifth Avenue high-rise. [more]

Linda Stein and her alleged killer, Natavia Lowery

The two daughters of murdered Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein claim the brokerage was negligent in hiring the woman who was charged with Stein’s 2007 death.

Daughters Samantha Wells and Mandy Stein allege in a new wrongful death lawsuit, which does not specify the amount of money they are seeking, that the city’s largest residential brokerage hired Natavia Lowery, their mother’s personal and work assistant, despite several arrest warrants having been filed against her and should have hired someone from within the company, rather than through a job placement agency.

The brokerage “failed to perform their own background check on Natavia S. Lowery or use better judgment when hiring someone such as this for a professional such as Linda Stein who dealt with celebrity clients and multi-million dollar properties,” the suit says. [more]