Results tagged “brooklynda”

Bored, itinerant law interns are the latest side effect of the recession. The NY Times takes a look today inside the summer internship programs at Brooklyn's district attorney's office and finds packs of unpaid law students roaming the hallways, struggling to find desks, chairs, and jobs. As an anonymous intern tells the Times, "It’s much harder for them to find stuff for us to do...Definitely some people feel they haven’t done anything." At least they're getting a chance to brush up on their puzzle skills, though, as the Times notes "other interns pass the hours doing crossword puzzles or playing games on the computer." (To be fair, that happens with interns regardless of the economic climate.) What's causing this epidemic of lawyerly lassitude? The reduction in summer hires by private firms, which has shifted swarms of students into a public sector that can barely absorb them. As a result, competition increases for everything from assignments to eventual job offers to even intramurals—in the one of the few bright spots to a down economy, the Brooklyn DA office softball league now has plenty of intern talent to pick from.

The Brooklyn DA's office charged a Staten Island doctor with illegally providing steroids to bodybuilders and weightlifters. Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says that Dr. Richard Lucente, who has a clinic on S.I.,"wrote prescriptions to patients who had no medical need for them, then steered them to a pharmacy in return for $30,000 in kickbacks." That pharmacy is Lowen's in Bay Ridge; its pharmacist Joseph Rossi killed himself last year during the probe. Lucente ultimately made $500,000 from 220 clients. The Staten Island Advance notes that the death of bodybuilder Joseph Baglio is at the center of the case. Baglio was also heart transplant recipient and his heart gave out during a competition; "Prosecutors charge Lucente began prescribing Baglio steroids and human growth hormone in 2005, and continued to do so after Baglio's heart transplant in late 2006."

Detectives from the Brooklyn DA's office must have felt like they were in an episode of Cribs when they went through the belongings of an MTA supervisor suspected of taking kickbacks. When they arrived at the Flatlands home of Jacqueline Jackson, the agency's director of legal support, they found five flat screen televisions, five fur coats and a Mercedes parked in the driveway (for when her Lincoln Navigator is in the shop). In case she ever got bored in the tub, one of those flat screens was in the bathroom. Jackson, whose annual salary is $83,000, is suspended as the DA and the MTA inspector general look into whether she inflated bills submitted by a Brooklyn company and made off with the difference. Her lawyer told the News, "Time will prove her vindication," while a neighbor offered, "She's living large."

Whether or not a jury finds NYPD officer Richard Kern guilty of sodomizing tattoo artist Michael Mineo with a baton after he resisted arrest in the Prospect Park subway station in October, the incident could cost tax payers as much as $200 million. Aside from the criminal case being prosecuted against Kern and two other officers, Mineo is pursuing compensation for his injuries in civil court, where his lawyers have filed a notice of claim seeking $200 million in damages from the city, the NYPD, and the officers involved. In an exclusive, NY1 reports that officials are currently evaluating the legal papers... and wondering how they're going to come up with that kind of money.

     

Here's a lede you don't see every day, courtesy the NY Times: "A New York City patrolman used his baton to sodomize a man in a subway station, and two complicit colleagues helped him cover it up, the Brooklyn district attorney charged on Tuesday as he unsealed indictments against three police officers. Using graphic detail, the district attorney described an attack that he said left the man, Michael Mineo, with a gashed anus and blood on his hands." (We'll miss you when you're gone, paper of record.)

Early this morning, the three police officers facing charges related to allegations that they beat and sodomized a man on a subway platform turned themselves in to the Brooklyn DA's office. The three will be arraigned this afternoon. DA Charles Hynes detailed the indictments against the cops: Police Officer Richard Kern was indicted on charges including "aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree, assault in the first degree, and hindering an investigation" while "Andrew Morales and Alex Cruz were also charged with hindering the investigation."

Last week, Doreen Giuliano revealed that, after transforming herself from 46-year-old Brooklyn mother to a sexy and single 30-something transplant from California, she recorded conversations with a juror who helped convict her son John Giuca of murder--and that the juror implied he should never have been on the case! Now those conversations are the basis for a motion to overturn the verdict filed by Giuca's lawyer yesterday. The NY Times reports that the motion says juror Jason "Allo failed to reveal to the court that he knew members of the so-called Ghetto Mafia, a gang that figured prominently in the trial...The court papers also accuse Mr. Allo of reading newspaper accounts during the trial, and of being 'the first one on the jury' to vote guilty, because of information he had gathered outside the courtroom." Allo has denied the claims and the Brooklyn DA's office, whose prosecution Giuliano and even the murder victim's family have criticized, says it "will carefully review the papers and will have nothing to say until that process is completed.”

The Brooklyn DA's office played a videotaped interview with the mother on trial of killing her abused daughter, saying the video implicated her in the death. Nixzaliz Santiago spoke to police and prosecutors after her 7-year-old daughter Nixzmary Brown was found dead in January 2006, saying that she didn't "call for help because Nixzmary"--who was brutally beaten by Santiago's husband--was "moaning, breathing." Prosecutors, who say that Santiago's inaction led to the child's death, pointed to how one moment she's crying, the next she's composed, suggesting Santiago was acting when she eventually called 911. The jury may start deliberating next week.

Yesterday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango stopped the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to question a juror. A letter suggested the 35-year-old male schoolteacher indicated he could not be fair during jury selection by raising his hand, but "the judge and the lawyers did not notice," according to the Daily News. However, the juror said he could be fair in the emotional trial, where Nixzaliz Santiago is accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter. Earlier this week, the AP looked at how the trial " raised the question of whether mothers should be held to a higher standard than fathers at a time when traditional gender roles in the home are changing." The Brooklyn DA's point is that Santiago left Nixzmary to die after her husband administered a brutal beating.

Prosecutor Ama Dwimoh told jurors what 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's final words were, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" "after being beaten, battered, broken and thrown naked onto a cold wooden floor." Brown's mother Nixzaliz Santiago is on trial for the girl's murder, as the Brooklyn DA's office contends Santiago did nothing to prevent her husband Cesar Rodriguez from delivering a fatal beating in January 2006. Dwimoh added, "She left her to die. Nixzaliz Santiago simply did not care."

Jurors were warned by prosecutors that the trial would be "emotional" as jury selection began in for a second trial related to 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown's death. This time, the child's mother Nixzaliz Santiago faces murder charges.

After a jury found her stepfather guilty of manslaughter, the Brooklyn DA's office is readying for a second trial in the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. This time, her mother Nixzaliz Santiago will be in court, and the Daily News reports reports prosecutors may suggest Santiago was "jealous because she believed her husband having sex with the 7-year-old" and therefore allowed her daughter to be tortured. A prosecutor said, "Motive is always relevant. If she believed her husband was doing that ... whether the allegations are true or not, it goes to her state of mind." Stepfather Cesar Rodriguez's defense had been that Santiago directly caused the child's death.

Court papers obtained by the NY Post reveal that two Brooklyn Legal Aid defense attorneys were involved in a physical altercation outside Boat Bar in Cobble Hill after one of them urinated on the floor inside the bar. The incident occurred earlier this summer after Legal Aids Brendan Relyea and Michael Pate went outside the bar after Relyea relieved himself on the floor rather than wait on a long bathroom line. When they were encouraged to leave by former prosecutor Matthew Knouff, their response was to punch Knouff out and fling him into a roll-down gate. Knouff is no stranger to drunken mischief himself, having been suspended since 2006 after he threw a brick through a car windshield following the DA's office Christmas party. Pate and Relyea were charged with assault, menacing and harassment and Relyea with public urination.

On Saturday, the NYPD collected illegal, working guns at six Brooklyn churches in hopes of making the streets safer. The Brooklyn DA's office was offering a $200 cash card per weapon (limit of three), and DA Charles Hynes said, "I think we're going to run out of money today, that's my hope. And if we do, then I'm going to ask the police commissioner to do it again." NY1 reported they took in nearly 700 weapons, including 12 assault weapons. Though some people reported complained about how long the exchange took (cops had to check the weapons), the NY Times says "most praised the program."

In an extremely embarrassing incident for the Brooklyn DA's office, an audio technician taped over a statement made by a cop killer while in custody. The DA's office will now have to rely on a detective's notes taken during that statement and the videotape recorded during a follow-up interview with suspect Robert Ellis.

If a bank teller told you had an unknown bank account with $5.8 million in it and the bank insisted it's yours, wouldn't you spend it? That's what Brooklyn resident Benjamin Lovell did - and now he's paying.

A city medical examiner spent two days testifying in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez, who face murder charges over his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown's death. Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson revealed two things: That the girl only gained one pound in two and a half years and that she was dead for seven hours before 911 was called.

After a public scrutiny over police procedure when dozens of youths were arrested on their way to a gang members' wake, the Brooklyn DA's office has decided to drop the charges of 22 of the arrestees. Ten others will face charges.

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities.

An ongoing investigation of corruption and illegal practices in the Brooklyn South Narcotics Unit could jeopardize dozens, if not hundreds, of successful prosecutions of drug dealers. The possibility has arisen days after a sergeant and a detective were arrested for paying an informant with drugs and cash that they themselves had robbed from the addict. Another sergeant in the unit was also arrested for using NYPD resources to investigate the vehicle IDs of a drug dealer's suspected rivals.

Prosecutors having intimate relationships with defense lawyers happens on TV shows all the time, but a real life drama is playing out in Brooklyn. Former prosecutor Sandra Fernandez, accused of using her position in the Brooklyn DA's office to give information to her defense lawyer fiance, was arraigned on 12 counts of criminal charges. Fernandez allegedly ran criminal history and motor vehicle checks on three prosecution witnesses in cases handled by fiance - and now...

Over a week ago, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio after their star witness's credibility came into question. DeVecchio's trial was as high-profile as they come, as the Brooklyn DA's office charged him with tipping off mobster-turned-FBI information Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa Jr. with information that led to four murders, and their case hinged on the testimony of Scarpa's mistress, Linda Schiro. In late October, Schiro had testified...

Blockbuster trial no more: Former FBI Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio escaped four murder charges when the Brooklyn DA's office decided to dismiss its case accusing him of helping a mobster kill his rivals. The move became clear after Village Voice reporter Tom Robbins realized that the prosecution's star witness had told him very different things in a 1997 interview.

The Brooklyn judge presiding over the case of Darryl Littlejohn, the suspected murderer of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, wants the trial to start as early as next January, even as Littlejohn is facing unrelated charges of kidnapping in a Queens courtroom. Judge Cheryl Chambers ordered another pretrial hearing for October 11 and wants both the defense and prosecution to come to a mutually agreeable date upon which they can get the murder trial moving.

The death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown shocked the city in January of last year. The child was beaten to death in her family's Brooklyn apartment and a history of abuse, including being tied up to a chair and showing up to school with bruises (when she would appear in school on rare occasions), had been noted by the Administration for Children's Services who seemingly did nothing to intervene.

Supreme Court Justice Jill Konviser has ruled that the three men charged in the murder of Michael Sandy can be charged with murder as a hate crime. Last October, Anthony Fortunato, John Fox, and Ilya Shurov had lured Michael Sandy through a gay chat room to meet them near the Belt Parkway. When Sandy arrived, they robbed and beat him, causing him to flee into the highway and get hit by a car. Sandy was critically injured and after many days, his family decided to turn take him off life support.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A steam leak at 39th Street and Lexington in Manhattan, a car vs. building on Hoyt Avenue in Staten Island and an oil slick on Park Lane and 85th Road in Queens
• An unorthodox robbery in Brooklyn: a burly Hasidic Jewish man brandished a knife and threatened a woman in South Williamsburg.
• Defense lawyers for the men charged with shooting police officer Russel Timoshenko are wondering why Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes described their clients as "scum" in an interview
• Freak-out in brownstone Brooklyn: Someone is painting a brownstone white!
• Does Rudy hate video sharing? Former mayor Giuliani is skipping the YouTube debate
• Yet another reason to slow down when you're driving around in Douglaston: There have been deer spottings.
• The police officer indicted for reckless endangerment in the Sean Bell shooting is asking for his own trial. Earlier this week, Bell's fiancee filed a wrongful death suit against the city, NYPD and five officers involved; her lawyer says the lawsuit will be pursued after the trial.
• And the State Legislature finally voted to approve a commission to study congestion pricing.

Yesterday, the three men charged with first-degree murder of police officer Russel Timoshenko all pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn court. However, Dexter Bostick, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, who were also charged with a number of other crimes related to the July 9 traffic stop shooting, did not ask for bail. The Post and Daily News had the varying statements the men gave investigators:

Woods, 29, told detectives "I ain't going to jail for something I didn't do. I didn't shoot no cops, I was only driving. Fat boy [Bostic] was in the passenger seat and that faggot Roger [Ellis] was behind me."

Continue reading "Brooklyn Cop Shootings: Guns and Not Guilty Pleas"

One of the saddest images from yesterday were the parents of slain police officer Russel Timoshenko, weeping at Brooklyn criminal court after the arraignment of the three men accused of Timoshenko's murder. The suspects, Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis, and Lee Woods, were arraigned last week on charges including attempted murder. It is believed that Bostic, firing from the front passenger seat, shot 23-year-old Timoshenko in the face and neck during a July 9 traffic stop (Ellis allegedly fired at police officer Herman Yan; Woods was the driver). Timoshenko had been on life support since the shooting and was declared dead on Saturday.

Twenty-three-year-old police officer Russel Timoshenko died yesterday at King County Hospital, five days after being shot twice in the face during a Monday traffic stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. Doctors took him off life support after finding he had no brain activity yesterday afternoon. KCH director of trauma service and surgical critical care, Dr. Robert Kurtz, was visibly upset as he reported Timoshenko's death. From Newsday:

Kurtz, who choked up, said the case "affected us emotionally as well as professionally."

Continue reading "Cop Shot During Brooklyn Traffic Stop Dies,
Suspects Now Face Murder Charges"