A man who paid $200.57 for a night at a famous NYC hotel and then lived there rent-free for years is unfit to stand trial, court says

• Mickey Barreto lived in the New Yorker Hotel for free for years before his recent arrest.
• Barreto faces 24 charges, including felony fraud.
• Doctors found Barreto unfit for trial. A judge ordered him to undergo treatment.

Doctors say a man who had lived inside the iconic New Yorker Hotel for free for more than half a decade is unfit to stand trial.

Mickey Barreto lived in the New Yorker Hotel for years without paying a single cent in rent. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Barreto claimed ownership of the hotel building and even attempted to charge rent to another tenant. In February, police charged Barreto with filing fraudulent property records.

Barreto now faces 24 charges, including 14 felony fraud counts.

Over the summer, two doctors concluded that Barreto did not understand the criminal proceedings against him, and the court ordered him into outpatient mental health and addiction treatment to see if his mental condition would improve, The New York Times reported.

Story continues