An NYPD officer has been suspended without pay after being charged with roughing up his girlfriend earlier this week. 24-year-old Roberto Pagan was arraigned yesterday after the altercation took place Wednesday night at Hylan Boulevard and Tysens Lane in the New Dorp section of Staten Island. A source tells the SI Advance that at around 8:30, Pagan and his girlfriend "exchanged heated words over what he was texting" before he then allegedly began choking her and punched her in the eye. Pagan is relatively new to the force, having been on for around 18 months. At his arraignment for misdemeanor charges of assault and attempted assault, a judge ordered that the Graniteville native turn over all firearms—including his his police weapon. His girlfriend was treated for bruises at Staten Island Hospital before being released more ›

Four middle schoolers on Staten Island are going to be suspended after they were caught drunk at school yesterday. Two boys and two girls drank rum outside a nearby Burger King before heading into Markham Intermediate School in Graniteville. A parent of another classmate told the SI Advance, "My daughter went to the bathroom and she saw them falling all over the place and throwing up on the hallway floor. It looked like they took one girl to the hospital because she fell on her face and busted her lip." A spokeswoman for the DOE questioned New York's allowance of prominent alcohol advertising throughout the city saying, "Really, what it's about is changing the environment youths grow up in." Just last month, Gossip Girl was spotted filming on the island. more ›