AG James Charges Man With Deed Theft From Elderly Woman

A Queens man has been charged with allegedly stealing the deed to a Brooklyn home from an elderly woman with dementia and renting it out while she lived there, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.

The man, Mark Salkey, allegedly forged documents to transfer ownership of the East Flatbush home to himself and rented it out to several tenants while forcing the woman, Althea Garrick, to live in a small bedroom while receiving dementia care. He allegedly stole about $148,000 from her savings and around $20,000 from her ex-husband’s pension using forged checks.

Salkey was charged with 23 counts, including grand larceny, forgery and possession of stolen property. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

“No one deserves to have their home stolen and their bank account drained,” AG James said in a statement. “Deed theft is a heartless crime, and my office will do everything in our power to return this home to its rightful owner and hold Mark Salkey accountable for his despicable actions.”

Garrick purchased the property at 162 East 95th Street in 1976 with her then-husband Reginald Kelly. When they divorced in 1998, she gained full ownership of the home. After Salkey was introduced to Garrick in 2022, he allegedly forged documents between 2022 and 2024 to transfer ownership of the property to his company, Salkey Salkey & Associates, Inc., and rented the million-dollar home out to several tenants, including his sister, at around $2,000 per month. (Salkey’s girlfriend lived next door to Garrick, her ex-husband told The Real Deal.) James alleged that Salkey collected about $70,000 in rental payments and used the money for personal expenses, including credit card bills, luxury purchases and rental cars.

Since entering office in 2019, AG James has made many significant pushes, including proposing in 2022 that the state add deed theft to its penal code.

After Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation in 2023 that allowed prosecutors to intervene in cases of suspected deed theft, James has announced a string of high-profile prosecutions. In August of last year, she unveiled charges against two New Yorkers for allegedly stealing the home of an elderly woman who was in hospice care, and in June, a jury convicted a real estate salesperson behind a Queens deed theft ring on 18 felony counts.

Local politicians in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant have also been zeroing in on the issues, where the crime disproportionately targets Black and brown families. The topic became central to this week’s race for Assembly District 56, where five-year incumbent Assembly member Stefani Zinerman lost Tuesday’s primary election to democratic socialist Eon Huntley. During her time in the state Assembly, Zinerman put forth legislation to combat deed theft, while Huntley called for a moratorium from the governor on sales and evictions tied to deed theft.

The topic remained hot after New York City Council member Chi Ossé was arrested in April while protesting an eviction tied to an alleged deed theft in Bed-Stuy. Two days after a video of Ossé’s arrest went viral, Mayor Zohran Mamdani established the city’s first Office of Deed Theft Prevention, led by housing attorney Peter White, to investigate deed thefts and educate New Yorkers on the subject.

Salkey’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.