UWS sex offender super target of lawsuit

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office has filed a civil lawsuit against an Upper West Side residential property owner and the convicted child rapist he hired as superintendent of his buildings. Stanley Katz, the landlord, and William Barnason, the super, have both been accused of allegedly violating the federal Fair Housing Act, according to the New York Post, which bars sexual discrimination in rental properties. The complaint cites Barnason’s allegedly repeated sexual harassment of female tenants, which includes withholding mail and denying apartment repairs to residents who did not respond favorably to his sexual advances. Barnason also allegedly entered some tenants’ units while intoxicated and threatened others verbally. Barnason had spent 14 years in prison for the rape and sexual abuse of three girls between the ages of five and seven.