NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Brooklyn pastor was behind bars late Thursday, charged with manslaughter in a fire that left a man dead.
As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported, the fire happened two years ago. But police just caught up with the Rev. Luckner Lorient in Florida Tuesday night, and he was in Brooklyn Criminal Court in New York Thursday afternoon for his arraignment.
Prosecutors alleged that Lorient illegally subdivided apartments in his building, putting tenants at risk.
It was a fall from grace for the highly-regarded Brooklyn pastor. The 78-year-old landlord held his head high in court on Thursday, pleading not guilty to the charges stemming from the devastating electrical fire that killed one man and injured 14 others in November 2014.
The city had previously issued dozens of violations to the building’s owner.
A family spokesman said the pastor is innocent.
“We do feel that there is some sort of bias with this situation, because he’s a very respectable member of this society; of the Flatbush community,” said spokesman Luc Pierre. “Everybody knows him.”
At the time of the fire, 23 people were living in Lorient’s Flatbush Avenue building that he allegedly converted into 11 illegal apartments, while illegally running his church on the first floor.
Investigators said the deadly fire was caused by an overloaded electrical circuit – an issue that prosecutors said Lorient failed to fix.
Prosecutors said the pastor intentionally overlooked several safety issues, ignoring multiple building violations and vacate orders from the city.
Prosecutors further said the problems stretched over more than a decade.
“The most egregious of these violations included not having a working fire escape in the rear of the building, while continuously illegally converting the second and third floors into SROs,” Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Samantha Magnani said in court.
Lorient claimed his tenants divided the apartments themselves and subleased them to make more money.
“He was trying to evict those people for so many years, and he was very unsuccessful in doing so,” Pierre said.
If Lorient is found is found guilty of the most serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, he could end up spending 15 years in prison. The judge said given the pastor’s age, that could be a death sentence.
Lorient is also facing civil lawsuits in connection with the fire. He was being held on $1 million bail late Thursday.
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