Lawyers representing the Bronx teen who was seen being beaten by cops in a widely circulated video are demanding a special investigator take over the probe. more ›

"Snitches Get Stitches," so the saying goes. But the undercover NYPD officer whose work was largely responsible for the department's ticket-fixing woes has just been promoted. The Wall Street Journal reports that he has been bumped up a rank by Commissioner Ray Kelly at a "private ceremony." The now first-class detective had cut hair before becoming a cop, and was able to get a job at one of Jose Ramos' barbershops, where he was party to many an illicit conversation. more ›

Though just 16 police officers were indicted in the ticket-fixing sting, the names of 160 NYPD officers were implicated, and some will be asked by the Bronx DA to testify against those who face charges. Given the climate outside the Bronx courthouse on Friday, it's understandable why many will be hesitant to do so. "You can forgive guys for going into the grand jury, because they were [caught on wiretaps]" one cop tells the Daily News. "But how can you help a DA who attacked your profession win these cases?" more ›

Police are currently investigating an apparent suicide that took place early this morning at the Bronx District Attorney's office. Details of the death are still scarce but it appears that a 45-year-old armed security guard took his life somewhere in the DA's office building just after midnight. more ›

Last week, it was revealed that when a prosecutor in the Bronx DA's office facing a 2010 DWI charge was actually also stopped in 2009 for possible drunk driving. But Jennifer Troiano allegedly used her position to get out of the potential arrest. Now it turns out that she's working on over 70 cases, which pisses off some cops; one told the Post, "We don't even have to be arrested to be put on administrative leave or modified duty. Anybody can make an allegation against us and they take away your gun and badge so fast you won't believe it." more ›

Just two weeks ago, the Brooklyn DA's office admitted it had a bedbug issue. Today, we received this tip: "The Bronx DA's office had the DCAS and an outside consulting firm going through the offices (the older buildings, not the Hall of Justice... yet) late night this week with a bedbug sniffing dog. Official explanations range from "carpet mites" to "isolated insects."..." more ›

While State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. and Republican senators are researching whether Espada really can seize two votes as Senate president pro tempore, let's look at what else is going on with Espada, shall we? First up: The Bronx DA's office has convened a grand jury to investigate him! more ›

In spite of threats from the Yankees front office, the Bronx DA's office won't prosecute the construction worker who buried a Red Sox jersey in the new Yankee Stadium. more ›

The Bronx DA's office says an 83-year-old engineer lied about using steel in a building that caught fire and collapsed and left two firefighters dead in 2006. Jose Vargas, who pleaded not guilty, was arraigned in court yesterday. more ›

The Daily News reports that a Bronx prostitute was killed by a john. The suspected killer reportedly didn't realize the prostitute was a transgender woman. Talib Stewart, also known as Nesha and Sanesha, was stabbed in a Belmont apartment building, and the 37-year-old killer was apprehended there as well. more ›

Let's go to the audiotape digital recording! A Bronx detective was indicted on perjury charges after claiming in court that he never interrogated a teen shooting suspect - only for the teen to reveal he recorded the interrogation. Back in December 2005, 17-year-old Erik Crespo was accused of shooting a man in a High Bridge apartment building. He was arrested and when Detective Christopher Perino interviewed him, he used an MP3 player to record their... more ›

The Bronx DA's office is investigating Ralph Reyes, a Bronx man who was singled out by the New York Post last week as the center of New York City's dogfighting world. The Post was acting on information provided by the Humane Society of the United States, which has an Animal Fighting Task Force that investigated Reyes and dogfighting in the city, but abandoned its project when it was unable to get much cooperation from local law enforcement. more ›

Can it be? The Sun reports that the Assembly "could pass a medical marijuana bill" this week, and the Senate will do the same. The lead sponsor of the Assembly's bill is Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who said, "There are thousands of New Yorkers who suffer from serious medical conditions who could have a better quality and longer life." more ›

The law can be very cruel, even to cancer-stricken 71-year-olds. The Daily News has a feature on Barbara Jackson, who was arrested last month after she bought some bags of pot in her Bronx neighborhood. Jackson was diagnosed with colorectal cancer eight years ago, and tells the News she's been smoking for the past seven to restore her appetite.

"The marijuana calmed me down and gave me back my appetite. My taste buds are gone, but the marijuana helps me get the food down." more ›

The suspension of Bronx precinct commander Michael DeBellis has made Commissioner Ray Kelly concerned. DeBellis was taken off the job after a subordinate cop alleged he made lewd comments and propositioned her. The Post reports that Commissioner Kelly "reminded borough commanders to avoid any appearances of impropriety with their subordinates." more ›

We know a lot of things have changed at Sesame Street since it ruled our world completely. You know, there's this segment called Elmo's World that focuses on the breakout monster Elmo, his goldfish Dorothy, and things like rhyming in his apartment. But it's a different world when smack is being smuggled in boxs of "Sing with Elmo" (an Elmo Boom Box!). The Bronx DA's office announced that authorities had busted a drug ring smuggling heroin, cocaine, and marijuana across the country. The drugs originated from Puerto Rico, and 103 grams of black tar heroin was found in a "Sing with Elmo" box that was shipped via UPS. more ›

Today, after Alan Newton was declared innocent, after serving 21 years for a Bronx rape he did not commit. The Innocence Project, which works on cases "where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence" at Cardozo Law School, helped find police evidence that the police had claimed was lost years ago. The NY Times' story headlines it as "New York Fail at Finding Evidence to Help the Wrongfully Convicted" and writes:

With more people and more crime than any other American city, New York also stores more evidence — over 1 million pieces in a central warehouse in Queens, and more in satellite facilities in each borough — and until recently, its inventory system consisted of handwritten ledgers and index cards. Besides storerooms run by the Police Department, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner also keeps some biological evidence. more ›

The defense attorney of one of the men accused of beating up an off-duty police officer says his client will be cleared. Police Officer Eric Hernandez so badly injured when a group of men beat him at a White Castle that he was seemingly unable to hear an on-duty police officer's request for him to lower his gun, only the other officer to shoot him. The Bronx DA released footage of an interview with the three men who were allegedly harrassing a White Castle employee, only for Hernandez to intervene and a fight to start. Edwin Rivera said that Hernandez never identified himself as a police officer, and then showed he had a gun:

“He’s looking around, and he’s eating his french fries, looking around like he’s about to do something. So that’s when I came and I hit him, and then I threw him to the side — and I didn’t think that all my friends was going to jump in and start kicking.”

Witnesses were able to pick Nicholas Morris out of a lineup related to the Easter shooting death of 2 year old David Pacheco Jr. yesterday, and Morris was charged with two counts of murder. Police are still looking for Ronneil "Burger" Gilliam, who they believe was with Morris when they got into a fight with another group of young people in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx. The NY Times has two sides of Morris, who turned himself in on Monday for the accidental crime: Friends and neighbors were shocked by the crime, noting that he worked with kids in an after school program while the Bronx DA sees Morris' history of arrests, though for petty offenses. At any rate, police had to escort Morris to the station under high security, as onlookers yelled at him angrily.
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Even though the Fire Department had been under scrutiny over the kind of ropes firefighters were supplied after the two on-the-job deaths and other injuries during a 2005 call in the Bronx (like the fact that the FDNY didn't supply escape ropes, leaving fire hydrants frozen and unusable or enough training), it seems that the Bronx DA feels that the people whose apartments were on fire are at fault. The tenants who lived at 236 East 178th Street was indicted for the deaths, along with the building's owner. Tenants Rafael Castillo and Caridad Coste had illegally subdivided their three-bedroom apartments into five bedrooms, and Castillo's third floor apartment also had an overloaded electrical outlet and plasterboard partitions that apparently blocked the firefighters' exits. Castillo, a livery cabdriver, had rented out the rooms; his lawyer said Castillo shouldn't be at fault, claiming that the fire did not start in his apartment and because the firefighters didn't jump from his apartment - plus the fact that the firefighters were underprepared. more ›

Only eight days after a funeral for police officer Dillon Stewart who was killed during a traffic stop, the NYPD, elected officials, and New Yorkers attended another funeral, one for police officer Daniel Enchautegui who was killed while trying to stop a burglary. About 20,000 people attended the Bronx funeral, and like Stewart, Enchautegui was posthumously promoted to first-grade detective. The Bronx DA's office said the two suspects in Enchautegui's death who have been recovering in a hospital from the shots the officer managed to get off before dying would be arraigned in their recovery rooms this morning. And the Post reported that Governor Pataki was negotiating tougher gun trafficking laws, in light of an increase in shootings. more ›

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