Walter Kissinger, older brother of Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s controversial secretary of state, has filed a lawsuit against a couple he says trashed his Long Island mansion.
Kissinger is being sued by Kevin and Elizabeth Cogan for $3 million in unpaid wages and damages incurred during their stay at his five-bedroom Huntington Bay mansion. But Kissinger has now filed a countersuit claiming that the couple wrecked the house, slept in his bed when he was away and even, as the New York Post puts it, “intentionally befouled the million-dollar home in a way too unseemly to print in a family newspaper.” Sure.
The Cogans began working for Kissinger in 2007, when he offered them a deal to stay rent-free in a guest cottage in return for keeping up the property. Kissinger’s lawyers call the Cogan’s lawsuit for back pay, overtime and damages an attempt to exploit their aging former employer because of personal financial troubles.
Kissinger claims that the Cogans destroyed his property’s value and he is seeking damages in the countersuit. He claims that when he tried to sell the property in 2011, the Cogans refused to let potential buyers into the guesthouse in order to hide the damage.
The Cogans did not respond to request for comment from the Post. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron