[BREAKING] Man arrested, charged with hiding skeletal body under piled-up junk on NYC couch: cops, DA

Last week, a man was arrested and charged with allegedly hiding a skeletal body in his apartment under trash piled on a Brooklyn couch, police and prosecutors said.

Jose Rivera, 53, was arrested Friday and charged with concealing a human corpse in connection with the disturbing discovery Thursday morning inside the building on Union Street near Utica Avenue in Crown Heights, police said.

The man's body had been reduced to just bones when a cleanup crew chanced to find him buried under clothing and other debris, including picture frames, according to prosecutors and law enforcement sources.

He reported the disgusting discovery to the police.

Rivera initially did not want to let the cleaning crew in, despite complaints from neighbors about the bad smell, according to sources and a criminal complaint.

The man's identity remained unknown Wednesday and his body is so decomposed that the city medical examiner's office has not yet been able to determine how he died, according to the complaint.

The building where the body was found houses mentally ill and disabled residents, according to sources.

Rivera pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance during his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Sunday, records show.

He has four prior arrests, most recently in 2018 for criminal possession of a weapon (a knife) in Manhattan, police said.

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