Homesteads Developer Found

Abandoned In Hartford Parking Garage

By Andrew Gorosko

HARTFORD — The now-physically disabled retired geriatric psychiatrist who developed The Homesteads at Newtown assisted-living housing complex in Hawleyville was found abandoned in a motor vehicle inside a parking garage in downtown Hartford during the extreme daytime heat of August 3, resulting in Hartford police charging his wife with cruelty to persons and with first degree reckless endangerment.

Hartford Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Mulroy said on August 8 that police were summoned to a parking garage at 3 Constitution Plaza at 3:24 pm on August 3 on a report that an elderly man was trapped inside a motor vehicle there. That man was Dr Morton Silberstein, 84, who developed the 100-unit Homesteads at Newtown, a 95,000-square-foot complex for the elderly which opened in April 2001.

Arrested in the case was his wife, Linda Silberstein, 55, of Three Corners Road, Guilford. The police investigation is continuing. Ms Silberstein is scheduled to appear in Hartford Superior Court on the criminal charges.

On their arrival at the garage, police learned from firefighters, who were already there, that Dr Silberstein had been abandoned in the vehicle, Ms Mulroy said.

Dr Silberstein, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was transported by ambulance to Hartford Hospital for treatment, Ms Mulroy said. Dr Silberstein was not listed as a patient at that hospital on August 8.

Ms Silberstein arrived at the parking garage while police were still there, but after the ambulance had transported her husband to the hospital, Ms Mulroy said. Both Ms Silberstein and police went to Hartford Hospital. Police questioned the woman about why she had left her disabled husband alone in the vehicle in the garage for a lengthy period on the extremely hot day.

Ms Mulroy said Ms Silberstein told police that she had left her husband in the vehicle at about 10 am, but had been back to the vehicle to check on him at about 2 pm.

Dr Silberstein’s plight in the vehicle reportedly became apparent after his calls for help were heard by a passerby in the parking garage, who alerted others, after which emergency help was summoned.

The charge known as cruelty to persons may involve willfully or negligently depriving a person of necessary food, clothing, shelter, or proper physical care. It is punishable by up to one year imprisonment and a $500 fine.

First degree reckless endangerment involves extreme indifference to human life, including reckless conduct which creates a risk of serious physical injury to a person.

During the late 1990s, the Silbersteins received multiple Newtown land-use town approvals for The Homesteads at Newtown at 166 Mt Pleasant Road, an envisioned 300-unit age-restricted housing complex, which was planned to include a 100-unit assisted-living building, plus congregate housing, and independent-living condominiums. Only the 100-unit assisted living complex was constructed. The other components of that project never materialized.

The Homesteads later encountered financial problems and the Silbersteins lost ownership of the 100-unit project in a 2005 property foreclosure, after which an Oregon firm acquired that building for $11.8 million.

Through 2005 bankruptcy proceedings, a New York State developer acquired for $8.9 million the adjacent 50-acre site where the congregate housing and independent-living condos were to have been built. In June, that developer received town approvals to construct a total of 178 age-restricted units there, including congregate housing and independent-living condos.