Results tagged “guilty”

Former NYPD Commissioner and Giuliani crony Bernard Kerik could not hold back the tears during his court appearance yesterday to plead guilty to eight felonies. According to the Daily News, "As the judge spoke, Kerik seemed to take measure of the magnitude of his fall. He bowed his head and repeatedly wiped his eyes with his fingers... Kerik kept daubing his eyes, his face going red as if with the strain of all he was trying to hold in. He did not seem to be weeping so much as seeping." Wow, we felt zero sympathy for Kerik yesterday, and now we feel twice as much!

As expected, former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted a plea bargain and has pleaded guilty to a variety of corruption charges which could land him in prison for 27 to 33 months, according to the deal. Today Kerik pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including lying on his application to be the director of Homeland Security, cheating the IRS, helping to prepare false tax returns and making other false statements to the federal government.

Ah, remember the Chase bank "fraud broad," who was busted back in July for siphoning over $100K from a millionaire's private account, then blowing it on shopping, partying, and rent? We kind of did forget, then the photo brought us right back. Yesterday, 26-year-old Robin Katz pleaded guilty to grand larceny committed during her time as a financial adviser at JPMorgan Chase. So will they throw the book at the buxom embezzler?

About a year ago rapper Lil Wayne was in Manhattan court claiming his tour bus was totally pot free after he performed at the Beacon Theater... a venue where surely the Allman Brothers have smoked a little grass on occasion. Anyway, the rapper allegedly tossed a Louis Vuitton bag with a gun inside when the NYPD approached the bus, which got him charged with "attempted weapon possession."

After State Senator Hiram Monserrate was found guilty of a misdemeanor related to assaulting his girlfriend (he was acquitted on two felonies; he and his girlfriend have also insisted it was an accident), some of his State Senate colleagues demanded he step down. Now, others are joining in the call for Monserrate to step down—including Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was found guilty of misdemeanor assault, but he was acquitted of more serious felony assault charges after slashing his girlfriend's face during a Dec. 9 dispute. In a bench trial, Monserrate was found guilty of "recklessly causing physical injury to his companion, Karla Giraldo, by dragging her though his lobby after she was cut," the New York Times reports. If he had been found guilty of the felony charges — which each carried up to seven years in prison — he would have been forced to step down from his Senate seat.

A Hunter college student who worked as a self-described "boy-savvy" babysitter pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy. Jonathan Then, 20, was dragged out of class by police in May and charged with molesting four boys, ages 8 to 13. But prosecutors cut a deal to spare the children from testifying, and Then faces up to 12 years in prison on a single count of first-degree criminal sexual act.

Former rookie NYC transit officer Christian Torres has pleaded guilty to twice robbing a Sovereign branch on the Lower East Side in 2007. The robberies netted $116,000 and were almost completely successful, thanks in part to his 20-year-old girlfriend Christina Dasrath, who worked as a teller at the bank. (She still claims Torres tricked her into helping him, and describes him as her first love.) Torres, 23, only got busted for those jobs when cops pulled him over after robbing $113,000 from a Sovereign branch in Pennsylvania last April. Dasrath is currently serving a two and a half year sentence, and Torres is doing a ten year bid in the Keystone State. While pleading guilty yesterday, Torres blamed the crime spree on the low salaries allotted rookie cops.

Court papers reveal that Frank DiPascali, who said was the right hand man of $65 billion Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff (pictured), will plead guilty. DiPascali, the chief financial officer of Madoff Investment Securities, waived his right to an indictment and will plead guilty to to criminal charges on Tuesday. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Hruska tells Bloomberg News, "It would be reasonable for him to cooperate. The evidence against Madoff was strong enough for Madoff to go down without a fight. That would make it very difficult for someone in DiPascali’s position to fight the charges," and notes that DiPascali has his usefulness, "He seems to have been the key player in executing the decisions that Madoff made." A source tells Newsday that DiPascali "was in charge of all the ladies who sent out [trading] confirmations. He had contact with the [hedge] funds." A spokeswoman for the law firm representing DiPascali—Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (yes, that Giuliani—had no comment.

A son of state Senator Pedro Espada Jr. has pleaded guilty to harassment against 76-year-old blogger Rafael Martínez Alequin at a campaign rally last September. According to Martínez Alequin, several people, including Alejandro, began shoving him and trying to grab his camera as he approached Espada. And when he begged Pedro to call off his son, he answered, "He's trying to teach you manners papa. He's trying to teach you manners." (Here's video.) Alejandro, who's the director of one of his father's controversial health clinics, agreed to a restraining order and must pay $432 for the broken camera. But Martínez Alequin wants a stiffer punishment and tells the Daily News, "I was attacked because I was asking questions. I asked [Sen. Espada] to stop [his son]. I said they were hurting me. I was traumatized and I fear for my life." In other Espada dynasty news, our new state Senate Majority Leader is getting "dramatically" larger office space! Espada's spokesman tells the Post, "We have more responsibilities so we'll have more employees and we need more space." As Martinez Alequin can tell you, Espada really needs his space.

A jury convicted Janet Redmond-Mercereau of murdering her fire marshal husband. Douglas Mercereau was found dead, shot in their bed, in December 2007; Remond-Mercereau called 911 to say her husband was shot. Prosecutors had claimed she was a cold-blooded killer, doing a load of laundry and suggesting she put the gun through the dishwasher (which witnesses later refuted), while the defense suggested Mercereau, a fire marshal who investigated suspicious fires, had other enemies and called the focus on Remand-Mercereau a witch hunt. Jurors had been deadlocked yesterday, but the judge urged them to continue deliberating. Redmond-Mercereau now faces 25 years in prison; she has two young daughters.

Former Representative Vito Fossella has pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges. Fossella, who was arrested for the DUI in Alexandria, VA last year, was originally going to appeal his conviction, but instead will face the mandatory sentence of five days in jail.

Yesterday, it was revealed that inmate No. 61727-054 Metropolitan Correctional Center—a.k.a. Bernard Madoff—was worth around $823-826 million. His lawyers filed an appeal to get Madoff out of jail and listed his assets.

A Queens jury found a doctor guilty for the 2007 death of her estranged husband. Both Mazultov Borukhova and her relative Mikhail Mallayev, who prosecutors say fired the fatal shots, were found guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy.

One of the young men accused of participating in a violent election night rampage against black people on Staten Island pleaded guilty today. NY1 reports that 21-year-old Brian Carranza admitted to joining two friends, who styled themselves as a gang called the "Rosebank Krew," in a series of assaults that left one man with brain damage and in a coma for over a month. That victim, 38-year-old Ronald Forte, is white; Carranza and his cohorts allegedly drove over him after mistaking him for a black man. The group is also accused of beating a teenage Liberian immigrant with a metal pipe and shoving another black man to the ground, all in response to President Obama's victory. Carranza faces up to 10 years in prison; two other suspects remain free on bail after pleading not guilty. According to SI Live, a fourth suspect, 18-year-old Bryan Garaventa, pleaded guilty three weeks ago to the same charge of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights.

A Pakistani man residing on Staten Island has pleaded guilty to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization by broadcasting a Hezbollah television channel to New York customers. Reuters reports that 45-year-old Javed Iqbal, who moved to the U.S. more than 25 years ago, faces up to 15 years in prison, but according to the Post Iqbal agreed to serve a six and a half year bid as part of a plea deal. The FBI busted Iqbal in August 2006 and accused him of providing customers with a satellite TV package that included Al Manar (pictured), which the feds call "a terrorist organization masquerading as a TV channel." The NYCLU had argued that Iqbal was being wrongfully prosecuted under a statute that "includes a First Amendment exemption that prevents the government from punishing people for importing news communications."

While climbers #2 and 3, Renaldo Clarke and David Malone, were indicted for scaling the New York Times building earlier this year and currently face up to a year in prison, climber #1, Alain Robert, has received a slap on the wrist. With a grand jury rejecting criminal charges this summer, he pleaded guilty yesterday to disorderly conduct (which has no criminal record attached), and was fined $250 and three days community service.

Representative Vito Fossella, NYC's only Republican in the House, was found guilty of drunk driving in Alexandria, VA in May. The judge said, "The court finds the commonwealth has met its burden of proof and finds the defendant guilty." He will be sentenced in December and could face up to five days in jail. The arrest also led to curiosity about the friend who picked up Fossella from the police station and his statement to the police that he ran the red light because his daughter was sick--the friend turned out to be his mistress and the mother of his love child. The Post noted that Fossella was not wearing his wedding ring and that his parents were there, though not his wife or mistress.

Billionaire investor Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to charges that he paid girls for sex (as the Smoking Gun put it, "if investigators are to be believed, Epstein has a thing for teenagers, vibrators, and assorted massage lotions") in Florida. Profiled in 2002 as an "International Moneyman of Mystery" in New York magazine, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in a Palm Beach County jail and a year of house arrest. Besides being designated as a sex offender, Epstein and his legal team must deal with the many lawsuits filed by women who claim they were molested by him.

Robert Williams, accused of raping and torturing a Columbia University graduate student, was found guilty on 44 of 46 counts, including attempted murder, arson, torture and assault. Williams had tried to blind his victim, forced her to overdose on aspirin, and later set fire to the futon he tied her to. He could face up to life in prison.

After doing time for violating probation and assaulting a manicurist, Rapper Foxy Brown found herself in court again yesterday. This time it was for attacking a neighbor with her Blackberry phone, causing the victim a bruised eye and chipped tooth.

Last year Grammy-nominated Bronx rapper Remy Ma got herself into some trouble when she allegedly shot a woman (Makeda Barnes-Joseph) who she thought stole $3,000 from her. This all occurred after the two, along with a large party, were enjoying a night at Pizza Bar in the Meatpacking District.

In exchange for guilty pleas on a number of charges including assault of a fan, assault of his chauffer, driving with a suspended license and DUI, rap star Busta Rhymes avoided jail time and was sentenced yesterday to 10 days of community service. Sadly, we’ll be denied the publicity circus that swirled around Boy George and Naomi Campbell during their very public community services; Rhymes will have the privilege of choosing his own method of service at a “private, court-approved location.” (Will there be an after-party?) He’ll also pay fines and court costs amounting to – yes this figure you're about to read is correct – $1,510.

Steven Sakai, the bouncer who went on a shooting rampage in front of Opus 22 in Chelsea last year, was found guilty of two other murders yesterday and acquitted in a third killing. From the accounts we've read, Sakai was his own worst enemy throughout the legal process, beginning with implicating himself in three killings as police questioned him about his role in the May 2006 shooting of four patrons outside the club where he...