Exclusive | Murder-suicide NJ dad moved family to Princeton for special-needs daughter, then sued realtor over tainted mansion
Years before authorities say he gunned down his wife and daughter inside their New Jersey mansion, David Grodnick went to court claiming a real estate agent stashed his family’s $33,800 deposit in her own bank account after luring them into a hazardous rental.The insurance executive and his wife, Lora, said they chose the Princeton area because of “the benefits of its school system for their daughter, who has special needs,” according to a lawsuit they filed in 2018 and obtained by The Post.The complaint does not give her name or age.The house they rented had arsenic in the well, electricity that “continuously shorted out” and a living room fireplace that “emitted carbon monoxide fumes,” the couple alleged.Specifically, the Grodnicks sued real estate franchise giant Keller Williams, franchisee Adele DeMoro LLC and agent Hong Jing in Mercer County Superior Court under the state Consumer Fraud Act, seeking triple damages.
The landlord, Xiaoying Wang, was not named.The dispute dates to 2016, when the family settled on 28 Morris Drive, a 4,257-square-foot house with four bedrooms on just over half an acre.According to the complaint, Jing held herself out as the property manager and said a certificate of occupancy and a fire inspection had been applied for, smoke detectors and extinguishers had been bought and well testing was underway.The suit claims those assurances proved false.The couple signed a lease on June 3, 2016 and gave Jing two checks made out to the landlord.
One was a $26,000 “initial deposit” equal to five months of rent.The other was $7,800 in security.
New Jersey caps deposits at a month and a half of rent, the filing says.The money belonged in a brokerage trust account, the Grodnicks alleged.They claimed Jing instead deposited it in her personal checking account, “comingling the funds with her personal money.”The well was tested on June 30, 2016 after the couple demanded it.“Astonishingly, the results revealed that the well w...