Mother fights Brooklyn landlord who threatened to evict over dying son's dog

BROWNSVILLE, Brooklyn -- A mother's fight to keep a dog that comforted her young son in the final months of his life is now going to court.

She says the landlord tried to evict her over the dog, even while her son was dying.

"This is how we are every day. He waits for me," said Monique James, dog owner.

James adopted King for her 8-year-old son Jelani, during the last months of his life.

"They told me he had two years to live," James said.

Jelani was 8 and dying from an inoperable brain tumor. The dog was all Jelani had as therapy to help him through his final days.

And it was then, as her son lay dying, that the management company of her building began the process of evicting her and her son because of the dog. In court, they relented...a bit.

"They would drop the case, but as soon as my son dies the dog has to go. I almost passed out. Uncontrollable, the judge even tried to console me off the bench, it just broke my heart," James said.

By the way, there are other dogs in the building, lots of other dogs. But, they were evicting Monique and Jelani and several times she had to leave her son's bedside to defend herself in court.

"It just broke my heart even more," James said.

Jelani died in March. They're still trying to evict Ms. James, but she's not giving up King.

"When I cry, wherever he is he hears me and he comes running, he actually makes me stop crying," James said.

The management company, Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development Corporation refused Eyewitness News' request for an interview and did not respond to our request for a comment.

They have now offered to allow her to stay in the building, but only if she will drop her lawsuit against the company. She has refused to do so.