Results tagged “drunk”

After a recent drunken driving fatality involving an off-duty NYPD detective, the city detectives union is considering changing the schedule that some say contributes to alcohol abuse. Some 2,000 of the city's 5,500 detectives routinely work two night shifts, then two day shifts, then get two days off. But because the turnover is so short between the end of the night shift at 1 a.m. and the start of the day shift at 8 a.m., most detectives who reside outside the city don't bother going home. Instead, they go out drinking and then sleep at precinct houses.

The off-duty officer who fatally ran over a woman hailing a cab in Brooklyn on a rainy night in September pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and other charges yesterday. Officer Andrew Kelly, a seven-year veteran assigned to the 68th Precinct, was driving with another off-duty officer and three civilians when he struck Vionique Valnord, 32, around 1 a.m. on September 27th.

Though former Fox 5 TV reporter Mike Sheehan originally said "neigh" to charges that he was drunk when he drove into a mounted police officer in March, yesterday he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol. Sheehan drove into the horse and cop on Varick Street in Tribeca, leaving the cop with a bruised leg and the horse with cuts, bruises and scrapes; he refused to take a Breathalyzer test after the accident. In true Fox news style, Sheehan had claimed that the horse was actually to blame for colliding with him.

A Staten Island man died early Sunday morning while trying to back his SUV out of a tight parking space in a pub parking lot. Oleg Kantarovich had gone outside to pull the car around for his wife, who was celebrating her 30th birthday, so that she wouldn't get caught in the rain. Police say he was leaning out of the front door of his 2007 Audi SUV as he backed up because it may have been difficult to see through the tinted side window.

City Hall News reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere has filed a funny account of his futile attempt to attend last night's mayoral debate between Mike Bloomberg and William Thompson. According to Dovere, an officer outside the debate on the corner of 104th and Fifth Avenue promised to have him arrested if he tried to move past him, because Dovere was allegedly late. But Dovere and other ticket holders blocked by the cop insist they were still several minutes early, and the cop's watch was fast. Bickering ensued!

It's understandable for a public school administrator to want a li'l drinky-poo after a hard day's work dealing with the kiddies, but driving to school sloshed? Those kids at IS 217 in the Bronx must be monsters! Assistant principal Melonie Lendor was arrested on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County at around 6:40 a.m. yesterday after other drivers called 911 because she was driving so erratically. Police say she failed a field sobriety test, but refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Worse: Her 10-month-old son was in the car. Still worse: This is her third drunken-driving bust. That means she's (finally) charged with felony driving while intoxicated and child endangerment. A seventh-grader at the school tells the Post, "No wonder we didn't see her today," but students should probably be used to that by now; a teacher tells the Daily News, "She was entirely missing from the school at times. She seems to make bad decisions."

A nun who spent Tuesday afternoon knocking back too much "Jesus juice" was arrested for drunk driving after plowing into a tree on Long Island. Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, is the "spiritual development director" at Wantagh's St. Frances de Chantal Church, which is where she started drinking around 3 p.m. that day. Some three hours later, she was careening through residential streets in the church's 2006 Toyota Corolla, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

It's already illegal to drink in public, smoke in bars, and eat Jalapeno poppers without knowing how many calories you're consuming, and now Nanny Bloomberg wants to make it illegal to pack a piece while drunk. The mayor is proposing a local law that could put sodden gun holders behind bars for up to one year, and fine them up to $10,000. According to WNYC, nineteen states already have laws prohibiting gun possession by intoxicated individuals, and some states go so far as to revoke gun permits from people with drinking problems. But after all that, is there even anyone left who can legally carry a gun? Earlier this year the New York State Assembly floated a bill that would suspend or revoke the firearm license of anyone in possession while drunk; Bloomberg's proposal would use the same definition of intoxicated as the legal limit for driving. The Mayor says, "If you are in a bar and you see somebody intoxicated and think they might have a gun I know what I would do, I'd either leave that bar or call the cops. I don't want to get shot."

The family of Diane Schuler continued their media push, in an attempt to dispute findings that she was drunk and high when she crashed a minivan carrying five children into an SUV carrying three adults on the Taconic State Parkway while driving from a Sullivan County campground back to Long Island two weeks ago. She killed herself, her daughter, three nieces, and the SUV's driver and passengers. Her husband Danny said, "She is not an alcoholic and my heart is rested every night when I go to bed." And today, his lawyer, sister-in-law and a private investigator appeared on the Today show: Lawyer Dominic Barbara said, "We all have to accept certain facts. When she left the campground, she was absolutely sober," while Danny Schuler's sister said, "We just can't explain what happened to Diane," and emphasized her sister-in-law did not drink heavily, only socially.

With news that Diane Schuler was intoxicated while driving a minivan on the wrong side of the Taconic State Parkway and crashed into an SUV, killing its three passengers, relatives of the SUV's driver and a passengers are planning to file a civil suit against Schuler's family. Attorney Irving Anolik, representing the family of Guy Bastardi and his father Michael Bastardi, said that there's a "strong fragrance of criminality" and said anyone who knew of Diane Schuler's impaired condition may "possibly be an accomplice... Any person who was aware that she was drinking is an accomplice... It's hard for me to believe that the family did not know that this woman had an alcohol problem or a drug problem."

A Queens man says cops roughed him up in a holding cell at the 103rd precinct earlier this month, following a late night DWI arrest. 21-year-old Imran Ali was intoxicated when police allegedly slammed him into a brick wall and cell bars—which is the last thing he remembers before waking up at Jamaica Hospital handcuffed to a bed, with multiple staples and stitches on his forehead. He was arrested on July 17th around 4:54 a.m. after crashing his vehicle head-on into a parked car in Jamaica. But Ali insists he wasn't even the one driving the car (was it Harvey?) and his attorneys are demanding the Queens DA review video from the holding cell cameras. The NYPD maintains that Ali became combative and either fell or jumped from a cell bench. In a statement, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says, "Contrary to his lawyer's assertion that Ali was a passenger in a car driven by someone else who was also arrested, Ali was alone and he was the only individual arrested." Well, somebody's fibbing, but regardless, you probably shouldn't click on this link to the 1010 Wins story unless you enjoy close-up photos of stapled skull wounds.

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender.

In what may be the least shocking news item of the day, a group of drunk off-duty firefighters got a little rowdy and hit on women yesterday afternoon. But at least one NYC resident refused to accept the status quo and complained to the department after witnessing the debauchery. Rebeca Izquierdo, a former inspector with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, says a party bus "blasting hip-hop and reggaeton" pulled up at Allen and Stanton streets around 2 p.m. and released 30 firefighters, who had come from the department's annual Medal Day ceremony. She tells the Post, "They were all in uniform with open containers and they were soliciting young girls to get on the bus." When she called the FDNY to complain about their behavior, she says one firefighter told her, "It's Medal Day, there's nothing I can do." And the owner of a nearby deli reports, "They bought 20 six packs of Coors Light and Bud Light. They were drunk already." But come on, it's Medal Day, and that's only four beers each! Nevertheless, an FDNY spokesman promised to look into the matter.

More revolting details emerged on the rape charges against two NYPD officers during their arraignment yesterday, and Commissioner Ray Kelly held a special press conference to publicly condemn the men. Officer Kenneth Moreno—a 17-year veteran on the force and 41-year-old married father of two—pleaded not guilty to allegations that he illegally entered an unidentified woman's East Village apartment and, according to Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau, "had sexual intercourse with the physically helpless victim as she lay face down on her bed, having previously vomited multiple times."

When it causes injury or death, the answer is obviously yes. But some New York cyclists are finding fault with this morning's City Room article about pedaling under the influence. (PUI?) Brian Fried at Streetsblog says the article, which suggests an anti-drunk biking P.S.A. might be in order, is wrong to equate the dangers of drunk driving with drunk cycling:

Drinking and biking puts cyclists at risk because impairment makes them more likely to be killed by a motorist. Drinking and driving puts everyone in the vehicle's path at risk of being killed by that motorist. In 2007, nearly 13,000 people died in crashes involving drunk drivers on American roads. More than 4,300 of those killed were people other than the impaired perpetrator behind the wheel [PDF]. Meanwhile, how many people died at the hands of a drunk cyclist?

A letter from Edgar Allen Poe apologizing for his drunken behavior in New York City is being made public for the first time. In the letter, sent in 1842, Poe attempts to explain the reasons for his unspecified "queer" behavior to publishers J. and H.G. Langley: "Will you be so kind enough to put the best possible interpretation upon my behavior while in N-York? You must have conceived a queer idea of me - but the simple truth is that Wallace would insist upon the juleps, and I knew not what I was either doing or saying." The explanation comes amidst Poe's attempt to sell an article to the Langleys (they passed), and his pitch is prefaced by the confession that he's "desperately pushed for money." (Those juleps don't come cheap, even by 19th century standards.) Now The University of Virginia has acquired the letter, which until last week had been in private hands, and will include it in an exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of the author’s birth. (Poe attended U.Va. in 1826, where his beer pong skills are still legendary.) [Via Maud Newton.]

Dustin Dibble says he was so drunk he doesn't remember being run over by an N train in the Union Square subway station in April of 2006, but his intoxicated condition didn't stop a jury from awarding him $2.3 million last week. Dibble had part of his right leg amputated after the incident, and he says he'll use the money to cover his medical expenses. The jury agreed with lawyer Andrew Smiley's contention that the motorman had plenty of time to stop the train when he spotted Dibble, 25, lying on the tracks 180 feet away, but he kept moving because "he thought it was garbage." Smiley tells the News, "They're not allowed to hit you just because you're drunk and on the track. That doesn't give the Transit Authority a free pass." The payout is double what the MTA had to cough up in 2006, when a Queens man sued after losing his legs below the knees during a drunken romp on the 7 train tracks. And last year a Columbia University study confirmed the obvious: drinking and riding the subway is stupid, unless you're willing to trade your legs for some big cash moneys.

Passengers aboard a flight from Moscow to New York December 28th staged a mini "rebellion" before take-off when they noticed that the pilot was inebriated. How did they come to this conclusion? Because it took him three tries to say the words "duration of flight." Also, as one of the passengers told the Moscow Times (which happened to have a reporter on board!): "I don't think there's anyone in Russia who doesn't know what a drunk person looks like."

Almost a year ago, a drunk driver fatally struck a woman on Water Street in lower Manhattan. George Anderson, who was found to be drunk, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Florence Cioffi, the victim, had been out with friends, and prosecutors had said Anderson was driving 60 MPH (the speed limit is 30 MPH). Now the Post reports that Anderson managed to get a break because Cioffi's blood alcohol content was apparently twice the legal limit. Anderson's lawyer said, "An intensive investigation by the defense and prosecutors revealed she probably stepped out from between two parked cars." Anderson, who could have faced up to 7 years in prison, will get "eight weekends in jail, do 200 hours of community service and pay a $350 fine" in his plea deal.

With New York's obscene real estate market starting to look ever so slightly less obscene, real estate brokers are panicking like jocks on prom night stuck with dates who won't neck. The crack trend spotters at the Times report that brokers are plying their clients with hard liquor and expensive wine so as to wear down their resistance. "Alcohol brings everyone together," declared broker Kipton Davis while showing a group of bankers and traders around a $9.9 million penthouse—as they knocked back Chardonnay, Chinon, and Lagavulin ($77/bottle) whiskey. But no matter how much these brokers promise to respect their clients in the morning, prudes like 28-year-old banker Jeff Nelson are still throwing up the Heisman. Sure, he's happy to take the free drinks, but let's face it: "The way prices are going, there’s no way to know where these prices will be next year." That's right, Nelson; a wealthy young catch like yourself ought to make 'em beg for it.

Holiday traveling season is fast approaching, as are inevitable, soul-sucking delays, and there’s a very good chance you’ll end up by yourself at the airport re-reading about Clay Aiken’s Magic Birthday Miracle or honing your Sudoku skills. But if you're stuck waiting for Jet Blue at JFK, such a fate might actually be a blessing in disguise. Jauntsetter has obtained a copy of the master wine lists at JetBlue’s new Terminal 5. Prices “range from a pragmatic $7.25/glass to $2,400/bottle,” so while Terminal 5’s food offerings might already be experiencing some mild turbulence, know that an extra $20 will help make sure you’re adequately lubricated before facing your family.

The Daily News suggests that when it comes to drugs, drunks, and overall debauchery, it's all happening in the Meatpacking District. With the NYPD's crackdown of West Chelsea ever since notable, violent crimes, apparently the action has moved south. From the News: "One reporter was solicited by three dealers within two hours on a Saturday night. Reporters watched a pair of twentysomething club girls vomit in tandem; a man urinate as he weaved along Washington St.; another man so blitzed he appeared paralyzed on W. 13th St." One resident complained, "It's gotten cool, and not in a good way." (Of course, the decline of MePa has been going on for years now.) Still, it doesn't mean Club Land is totally rehabilitated.

A baseball fan was arrested and charged with criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and harassment after making a regrettable scene at last Saturday's game against the Dodgers at Shea Stadium. 32-year-old Christian Hansen was reportedly inebriated and pushing children out of the way to get some face time with Mr. Met, the team's mascot whose costume head is an enormous smiling baseball.