Results tagged “clarencenorman”

Former Brooklyn political boss Clarence Norman Jr. and former Justice Gerald Garson appeared separately in a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday, but both left in handcuffs and headed off to prison after sentencing on corruption charges. Actually, Garson received a stay on his imprisonment while he appeals his conviction. The two disgraced public officials were sentenced in successive hearings, but both cases are related and part of the Brooklyn DA's office five year investigation into governmental corruption.

Lawyers for the detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper, the three police officers indicted in the fatal November shooting of Sean Bell, demanded that prosecutors turn over evidence in the case. The NY Times reports their lawyers feel that the prosecutors are withholding evidence:

“It’s like having the fox guarding the chicken coop,” [Karasyk] said.

Continue reading "Detectives in Bell Shooting Want More Evidence"

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Broadway in Queens, a water rescue from the Bronx River, and a retaining wall collapse on Waterview Ct. on Staten Island.
• A judge awarded equal custody of a 17-month-old infant to the child's father, the boyfriend of Jennifer Rubell. She is the daughter niece of the late club impressario Steve Rubell, and previously claimed her boyfriend was a stoner mooch, who refused to leave her apartment or get a job.
• The former head of the Brooklyn Democratic party, Clarence Norman, Jr., is heading off to prison for 1-3 years, for what amounts to a shakedown of a judicial candidate.
• Al Sharpton is turning his attention from Imus to the Hip-Hop industry, and demanding the end of racist and sexist content. We're feeling good about his recent increase in police protection following Imus-related death threats.
• Some students at Columbia want to return to the days of 1968-style radicalism, but without all the bra-burnings, free love, and drug use. Sticks and carrots, kids.
• We hope East Village Idiot tipped this waitress well for her subtle observation
• Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind wants to know why there's such great disparity in what NYC hospitals charge for identical or similar procedures, because the differences can be pretty outrageous.
• The Anarchist Book Fair was held this Saturday at the Judson Memorial Church, but there's no word yet as to whether the Dewey Decimal System is oppression or not.
• Finally confirmed: Hipsters love vinyl records

In less than a year and a half, former Brooklyn Assemblyman and Democratic party boss Clarence Norman was found guilty on corruption charges. This time, a jury found Norman guilty of five counts of coercion, grand larceny by extortion, and attempted grand larceny by extortion related to, as the Daily News put it, "shaking down court candidate Karen Yellen for $10,000" back in 2002. Norman's threat was that she would lose his support if she didn't use certain campaign consultants. Norman was acquitted of five other similar charges related to extorting another candidate, Marcia Sikowitz.

The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett has the scoop on a big case Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is working on: How disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic party boss Clarence Norman managed to buy a State Supreme Court judgeship for $56,000. Fifty thousand in cash and then $6,000 in stamps ("$3,000 wheels of stamps on sprockets that could be purchased at a General Post Office"). Barrett writes, "When the disturbing details become fully known, Hynes's stunning prosecution may at last force the state legislature to junk the peculiar way New York State nominates the 14-year-term, $136,700-a-year judges who preside at all felony and major civil trials, as a federal court has already concluded we should."

Oh, City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke. You get a big dose of attention from the NY Times on Wednesday about your run for Major Owen's Congressional Seat, but then it turns out you never graduated from Oberlin, the way your campaign literature in 2004 and 2005 claimed you did. Clarke was a few credits short of a degree, and her aides said that she had finished them up at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. The problem? Oberlin never got those transcripts. Oops! Yesterday, the Daily News had a statement from Clarke about the incident, where she claimed she thought she had "fulfilled the requirements for a bachelor's degree," but then "discovered" that she never actually finished those classes. What? Clarke is 41 - that's not old and no reason to forget taking a class that would give you a college degree.

The Daily Politics uploaded video of Assemblywoman Diane Gordon "appearing to solicit a bribe." After compiling evidence that Gordon was asking for bribes from a developer interested in land in the 40th District, the Brooklyn DA's office offered her a deal that would let her off if she quit. But then Gordon announced she was running for reelection.

- If you hear loud noises, see flashes of light or a lot of emergency vehicles in Queens on Sunday don't panic, the City is just testing terror responses.