The smelly dog stays — the anchorwoman goes.
A Housing Court judge has curbed Soledad O’Brien’s attempt to evict a family from her swanky Chelsea co-op building because their mutt is messy.
O’Brien, a CNN correspondent, was secretary of the West 26th Street co-op board when it claimed in a 20-page affidavit that Steven Lyon’s Neapolitan Mastiff, Ugo, violated the terms of their co-op lease because of his “size, slobbering, shedding, drooling, gassiness and odors.”
She signed a notice ending the Lyons family’s lease and began eviction proceedings in January. Manhattan Housing Court Judge Arlene Hahn dismissed the case Monday, ruling the dog’s owners were not properly served in the suit.
“The board is trying to evict a family, and it can’t even serve the initial papers correctly,” said Michael Schwartz, the lawyer for the family. “Maybe the board should be put on a leash.”
After The Post broke the story in January, the backlash against the TV newswoman was so strong, she was forced to resign from the board.
“After discussions with neighbors and others, [my husband] and I have become increasingly concerned about my personal safety,” O’Brien wrote in a Feb. 16 e-mail to the co-op.
Lyons said neighbors welcomed him after he bought his $3 million apartment in 2003.
But that changed in March 2007, when he obtained Ugo, bred from an award-winning bloodline, in Turin, Italy. By that summer, a new board had begun complaining, despite a co-op agreement allowing pets.
Lyons said he began taking Ugo to a grooming salon three times a month and spritzing him with an orange-scented deodorizer. He also offered to use the freight elevator to walk the dog, but the board was set on eviction.
O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment. Jerry Montag, the co-op’s lawyer, declined to comment.