BAYSIDE, Queens (WABC) — A couple has filed a lawsuit against a real estate brokerage, an agent and several property owners after they say a broker sent a text message referencing their race while they were seeking to rent an apartment in Queens.
Lisa Renee Olaso and her fiancée, Cyril Christopher, said they were excited to move to 26th Avenue in Flushing in June after relocating from Delaware because Olaso had a new job. They said a broker from Douglas Elliman was scheduled to meet them to show them a rental apartment.
According to the couple, the broker never met them in person and instead saw them from a distance. Olaso said she was accidentally included on a text message intended for the property owner.
"As we were getting out of the car, I received the text message that said, 'Ugh. They are Black,'" Olaso said.
Olaso said she immediately told Christopher to get back in the car. She then explained to the broker why.
"When she looked at her phone, she started to explain that there were previous, Black tenants in the neighborhood and that they had caused a lot of trouble," Olaso said.
The couple is suing Douglas Elliman Realty, Tzelios and several people listed as owners of the property. Their attorney, Kenneth Mollins, argued that the text message did not occur in isolation.
"Unless the person receiving the text gets it in some context to know, why she's sending that. So, we believe the homeowner was in some way responsible here," Mollins said.
In a statement provided Wednesday, a Douglas Elliman spokesperson said: "Douglas Elliman has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind, and the agent is no longer with the company."
Messages were also left for the homeowners and the broker.
Christopher said the experience was painful.
"It's like judging a book by its cover. You haven't even read the book, and you already made a judgement call," he said.
Olaso said the broker apologized, but the incident continues to affect her.
"But it doesn't change the pain. It doesn't take away the pain that you caused us that day," Olaso said.
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