If there is one thing when it comes to staying out in the Hamptons the principle tenet is the adherence to etiquette and for those of you who are not too familiar with the outer reaches of NY’s prestigious Long Island community, etiquette goes a very long way. The lack of it on the other hand will take you where it has taken 25 year old Lee Hnetinka and his sleazy partner Leslie Jennemann, a disgraced Hampton real estate broker.
dailymail.co.uk: This is the man accused of making tens of thousands of dollar renting multi-million dollar mansions out for wild post-prom parties – after he sublet them from owners pretending the homes would be used for a family vacation.
Lee Hnetinka, 25, of Jericho, New York, turned lavish Hamptons properties into crash pads for up to 100 teenagers, netting him around $34,000 in a single weekend.
Crash pads netting him $34 000 a weekend? It does seem Mr Hnentinka is a very savvy businessman. Of course the question is to make all that money, did he knowingly mislead home owner’s whose houses he rented for the sole purpose of further cutting up (as a matter of speech) to unsuspecting party goers who he would in turn illegally rent at elevated levels.
As evidence has amassed its’ also been realized according to the NY Post that Hnetinka allegedly teamed up with Leslie Jennemann, a Hamptons real-estate agent who in 2002 was convicted of running over and killing a migrant potato picker on her way home from a party. Nice work if you can get it.
Offered Southampton Town Attorney Tiffany Scarlato: “Ms. Jennemann is in business with Mr. Hnetinka.”
The misgivings of the pair soon became apparent when one owner, Joan Mackall (other duped home owners include Lucy Sachs and Eli Braha, in total up to 5 homeowners) whom Hentinka had paid $30,000 to lease her property for the month of June, claimed that she was called by a neighbor at 5am and told that a ‘party bus with a disco ball had arrived.’
A party bus with a disco ball had arrived? Is that what our lad Hnentinka had in mind when he had told the home owner that he was renting the house out for a family reunion? Then again maybe there are families with lots of teenagers who like to celebrate with disco balls. But at 5am?
When she arrived she found the front door flanked by security guards while the teenage prom-goers drank, smoked marijuana and danced inside the century-old, 17-bedroom home that had been built by her great-grandfather.
‘This was so amazing. I mean it was so over-the-top, mind boggling that someone could do this,‘ Joan Mackall, one of the six family members that owns the home, told MailOnline.
‘It’s so incriminating. It’s so unbelievable,’ Ms Mackall said of the manual. He was running a commercial entity out of a private home.’
A commercial entity out of a private home? Really Mr Hnentinka. That’s rather audacious of you and Leslie Jennemann. Did it ever occur to you both that if the home owners wanted to bring back a cacophony of teenagers and price gouge them they could have done it for themselves. Or at the very least they could have hired you to be their agent where one imagines you would have been paid some sort of tidy commission.
But it gets better…
Upon rummaging through her house whilst teenagers cavorted in all the bedrooms, she suddenly came across a 20 page manual titled, ‘party rules.’
Come again? A 20 page manual for party rules? Is this Club Mediterranean or a private house with the occasional house guest canoodling off in the porch in a drunken stupor?
The manual went on to list her home amongst 5 other homes that were being appropriated (one house alone he had rented that weekend in South Hampton involved him netting $516 off 31 teenagers) a bevy of rules of conduct as well as how to behave in the event police should come round. Mr Hnentinka, I must say I am thoroughly impressed with you dear. I only hope when you make it out of civil court that you have a few dollars left to take us all out and show us how partying is really done. Of course I’ll be sure to follow you golden rule in the event the police ever coming knocking on our house of fun, I’ll quietly turn down the music and pretend to play dumb and not even know that I am even there.
After the teenagers left, Joan Mackall and her family discovered broken chairs, spilled beer throughout the house and other damages that took a week to repair. This then led to Mr Hnentinka then finding himself being evicted for breaking the terms of the lease. But Mr Hneninka had other plans.
Instead of relinquishing the house he later returned and attempted to change the locks. What though is not immediately understood is whether Mr Hnentinka has any rights as a renter and whether in essence he can be immediately locked out of his house especially if he chooses to contest the eviction.’
Caught attempting to change the locks police were called which resulted in a 4 and half hour stand off. At one point Joan Mackall recalls that Mr Hnentinka attempted to force his ways through one of the doors. He recanted, left and then unbelievably returned again days later with 2 lawyers, security guards and another locksmith.
The second incident went on for three and a half hours, Ms Mackall said.
‘We were basically barricading the door,’ she said.
The family hired security to guard the home 24 hours a day.
Ms Mackall said it is unlikely the family will try to pursue any legal action against Hnetinka.
‘I don’t know what we could get out of him if we did pursue’ legal action, she said. ‘Our goal is not to have anyone else go through this.’
During one of the incidents, the man tried to ‘break the door in,’ Ms Mackall told MailOnline.
He was, however, mostly calm and had multiple cell phones that rang throughout the situation.
Police were called to the scene on both occasions and Hnetinka was not allowed into the home.
Multiple cell phones going off? Can you guess why? Who else were Lee Hnentinka and Leslie Jennemann trying to take advantage over? Is this what one calls for morals and outstanding behavior? Isn’t there any sense of proprietary in how these two choose to behave? Or to put it another way, if you the reader found out that the $516 you were paying Mr Hnentinka and his crony to stay at his ‘supposed’ home over the weekend was behaving this way would you still fork over the money to them?
Hnetinka and Jennemann are scheduled to be arraigned this Friday on seven violations relating to the parties at Southampton’s Justice Court.
Oh dear! Hampton residents upset that immigrant laborers have cheapened their haven.
Meet the Gatsbabies: Manhattan socialites or just dudes with shady auras?
The art of getting yourself invited back to the Hamptons, share or no share.
The ins and outs of getting laid in the Hamptons.
Why I’m dreading the Hamptons.
Comments are closed.