Results tagged “charged”

One day in June 2007, maintenance man Robert Lopez was taking out the trash at the Cadman Towers in Brooklyn Heights when he found some fake dynamite sticks attached to a clock. "I thought it was cool," he tells the Times, and so he took it home to make a piggy bank out of it. That idea landed him in Riker's Island (where inmates called him the "Mad Bomber") and an indictment on charges of "placing a false bomb or hazardous substance," a felony that carries up to four years in prison. A transit worker had spotted him carrying the fake dynamite and called police, who arrested him outside his Fort Greene apartment. Which he no longer rents; he lost his job and he's been homeless for a month. Sometimes he cleans a McDonald's in Brooklyn. Sad enough yet? In a teary interview with the Times, he explains, "On 9/11, from my roof of my building I could see the top of the towers smoking... I’m not a terrorist. I wouldn’t hurt nobody like that. Never." The Brooklyn D.A. isn't convinced, and Lopez is due back in court on Wednesday.

After two and a half months sharing a seven-and-a-half-by-eight-foot concrete cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, accused con man Raffaello Follieri will plead guilty tomorrow to federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering, the AP reports. The Italian entrepreneur was supposedly dumped by Anne Hathaway the night before his arrest; friends of his have since suggested that Hathaway—who had been involved with Follieri's foundation—may have lured Follieri back to New York from Italy to get the feds off her own back. With the plea deal, Follieri faces up to six and a half years in prison. Next month's Vanity Fair has a long juicy article about his nose-dive, and by the end you just might catch yourself feeling a tiny bit sorry for the guy. Crazy, right?

Turns out Lorne Michaels has a stalker (no, not Jimmy Fallon), and he was just in court. Reportedly a Manhattan Criminal Court judge "has upheld charges against a Long Island man accused of stalking" the Saturday Night Live producer. The 31-year-old, Evans Pidhajecky, had claimed Michaels stole his ideas after overhearing his conversations and hearing him sing (sounds like a slight case of Truman Show Delusion).

A former FedEx worker turned state trooper is accused of writing phony speeding tickets to get back at a man he had an argument with over a parking spot. The ticketing revenge allegedly began after office Lester Hooper (pictured), an East Flatbush resident who patrols Westchester, and his wife became outraged at a neighbor, Derrick Perry, for not moving his truck back in January.

Scandalous details have emerged from yesterday’s arrest of Italian socialite Raffaello Follieri, who was dragged into federal court on a 12-count complaint that includes charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering. The allegations could net him nine years in jail, and because of that bail was set at $21 million, “to be secured by $16 million in cash and property and guaranteed by five financially responsible persons,” according to the Times. Follieri was also compelled to turn over all travel documents and will have to wear a tracking anklet when he leaves his apartment, but there must be a way to get it cast in gold and engraved with his monogram.

We know from reading our Daily Mail that Hollywood starlet Anne Hathaway broke up with disgraced Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri last week, and not a moment too soon: Follieri has just been arrested (again!) on wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges. Earlier this month, the state attorney general’s office acknowledged an investigation into Follieri and his foundation; there is speculation that he misappropriated funds from charity in order to subsidize a lavish lifestyle with Hathaway.

DOS police lieutenant John Fitzgerald is a 24-year vet who's better known as the guy who ended up carrying Naomi Campbell's bag when she reported for day two of her community service last year. And now he's stepping out of the model's shadow.

Snoop Dogg, in town shooting BET interviews last week, was caught green-handed with the drug he claimed to give up at age 30: pot. The rapper was busted outside of hotspot Lotus last Wednesday for marijuana possession, and was issued a desk appearance ticket. The Post reports that didn't stop Snoop from partying the very next night, with his 25-strong posse, at Serafina and the tapas lounge Lollipop (somewhere in between they ordered 15 pizzas, so we're guessing there may have been some weed around that night, too!). During one of the BET interviews, he claimed the accusation was "bogus".