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A Bridgehampton artist who struggled for more than a year to oust a house guest-turned-squatter finally has her home back.
Lynn Matsuoka, 75, says the man who had been occupying her spare bedroom for 15 months without permission finally packed up and left earlier this month without saying a word.
Gregg Solomon rolled up with U-Haul Nov. 18, taking about 25 minutes to pack up as Southhampton cops looked on, she said.
“He had called the cops to protect him against me,” an incredulous Matsuoka told The Post.
A painter and author who was once married to a sumo wrestler, Matsuoka let Solomon stay in her spare bedroom for what was supposed to be a month last summer as he was allegedly in between apartments.
He squatted more than a year, claiming to be a tenant, demanding money to leave, allegedly threatening her with violent outbursts and forcing Matsuoka to cancel a desperately needed knee surgery because he was occupying the first-floor bedroom she needed for her recuperation, she claimed.
She credits public outcry in Southampton and Sag Harbor, where demonstrators appeared outside of her home calling for Solomon to leave, with getting him out.
“Literally hundreds of people came out of the woodwork furious about what he was doing and rallied around me,” she said. “I had three lawyers. What got him out was the public saying, ‘No way! We’re not putting up with you!’ They shamed him, and that’s what got him out.”
Solomon, who has not responded to Matsuoka’s allegations, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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