Results tagged “hempstead”

The man who was accused of being involved in a gang rape of a Hofstra University student, only for the student to recant her claim and admit the sex was consensual because there was a video of the encounter, is on the cover of the Post today. While Arvin Rivera, an 18-year-old senior at Harry S. Truman HS in The Bronx, was not arrested, he tells the paper, "I was so afraid. Words cannot even begin to describe how I was feeling inside. Thank God I was there. And thank God I filmed it."

Hofstra University has suspended the 18-year-old freshman student who falsely accused five men—four of whom were arrested and jailed—of gang raping her in a Hofstra dorm after an on-campus party Sunday morning. Now the student, identified by the Post and WCBS 2 as Danmell Ndonye, may face criminal charges as Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice said, "I have launched an immediate criminal investigation into the statements and reports given by the woman in connection with this incident."

Whoa: The Hofstra student who claimed five men had gang raped her in a dormitory bathroom stall—resulting in four suspects being arrested and a manhunt for the fifth—apparently lied about the story. Newsday reports, "After hearing the news, prosecutors convened a late night court hearing at First District Court in Hempstead where Judge Robert Bruno signed an order dismissing the charges against the four men in the case."

[Update: Now the Nassau County DA says the student lied about the rape.]

Nassau County Police say four of five suspects accused of gang raping a Hofstra University student are in custody. Apparently an 18-year-old woman was assaulted on campus around 3 a.m. on Sunday. One of the suspects is a fellow student, Rondell Bedward, 21, of the Bronx, who was charged with five counts of first-degree rape. Bronx residents Stan Felipe, 19, and Jesus Ortiz, 19, were charged with five counts of first-degree rape and first-degree attempted criminal sexual act; Ortiz was also charged with fourth-degree larceny. Kevin Taveras of Brent was charged with five counts of first-degree rape; Bedward and Ortiz were arraigned yesterday while Felipe and Taveras are being arraigned today. Police are still looking for the fifth suspect.

Nassau County police and prosecutor offered grim details behind a 24-year-old woman's abandonment of her days old baby. According to Newsday, Xiomara Gamez "has six other children, ages 8 and younger, and admitted to being addicted to cocaine during her latest pregnancy." Detective Lt. Ray Cote said that Gamez gave birth to the baby girl in the basement of an abandoned building, cared for her for two days, and then decided to leave the baby—wrapped in a blanket and tucked into a shoebox— in a Hempstead apartment building because she knew other Hispanic families lived there. He added, "She was down on her luck. She supported herself by selling herself." A relative called the police with a tip about Gamez, an illegal immigrant, who previously worked in a factory; her lawyer said the other children with her with ex-husband. A judge ordered her held on $250,000 cash bail/$500,000 bond on "first-degree reckless endangerment, abandonment of a child and endangering the welfare of a child."

Nassau County police have found the mother of the baby abandoned in a Hempstead building lobby; Newsday reports the police arrested Xiomara Gamez, 25, "on charges of reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and abandonment of a child." The baby girl was found by a building resident on Sunday night and appeared to be less than a day old. She was wrapped in a blanket and left in a Timberland shoebox, with dental floss tied around her umbilical cord. Gamez will be arraigned today. NY State does have a Safe Haven law that allows parents of unwanted babies to leave them in safe places; safe havens are hospitals, police stations and firehouses.

On Sunday night, a man returning to his Hempstead, Long Island apartment building found a newborn baby in the lobby. According to Newsday, the baby was swaddled in a blanket and left in a shoebox, "She appeared to be less than a day old, police said, her umbilical cord tied off with dental floss, her skin light in color." A building resident said, "She was big and full, with chubby cheeks. Poor thing, she didn't have a diaper and she was all wet." Nassau County Det. Lt. Raymond Cote said, "We'd like to reach out to [the mother] and find out her motive, what the problem was that caused her to take such a drastic action to abandon her young child in the doorway of an apartment building at night." While the mother will face child abandonment charges, a police technician told the Daily News, "She must have been concerned about this child. [The baby] was left to be found. She was prepared properly." NY State has a Safe Haven law which allows parents of unwanted newborns to leave babies at safe places, such as hospitals, police stations and firehouses, without facing prosecution.

A little over two weeks after he was inaugurated president, Barack Obama already has a school named after him. Yesterday Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead officially changed its name to Barack Obama Elementary. The students in the school made a push for the name change soon after Obama's victory in a movement the school's superintendent called "a lesson in democracy." Yesterday they held a ceremony to reveal the new sign at what's thought to be the first school named after the new president. Students were hoping that Obama may have made a surprise visit, but understood that the president is busy. Fifth-grader Esta Thomas told Newsday, "Now that the sign is up we are now officially stars in the sky. We are leaders today."

Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead did not even wait until the inauguration to go ahead and rename themselves Barack Obama Elementary School last night. Like the election of Obama himself, the push to rename the school came in large part from a youth movement--this time of preteens in the largely African-American and Hispanic community. District Superintendent Dr. Joseph Laria praised the students' exuberance saying, "You want to talk about "Yes We Can!"? That was a lesson in democracy." In a very different scene elsewhere on the Island, police have arrested three Shirley men on charges of criminal mischief for the sexual and racist graffiti they left on cars in Mastic last week. Since some of the slurs threatened Obama, the Secret Service is still involved with the investigation of the three men, all in their early twenties.

A NYC correction officer is facing DWI and vehicular manslaughter charges after a crash that killed a 61-year-old driver. WABC 7 reports that Junior Jordan, 45, "was driving his Ford Explorer" in Uniondale yesterday morning "when he collided with Hyundai driven by Maria Balan." Balan later died at Nassau University Medical Center. Jordan, who was not injured, will be arraigned in a Hempstead court today.

Nassau County audited the Leadership Training Institute, which Newsday describes as an "agency that housed troubled teens," and found it had overcharged counties by $834,000. And the Hempstead non-profit used the money on "beer and violent video games" and "$47,865 in bonuses to its workers in violation of its contract with the county." Okay, maybe it's only $27 for a case of beer, but they did spend $2,807 on an X-Box and games. LTI says the beer may have been purchased accidentally and told Newsday that the video games "were no more violent than what is seen on television in the evening."

Nassau County police asked the public for more information about the baby girl left in a gym bag on a Hemptead street corner. The 6-pound, 12-ounce baby, which authorities named Hope, is in "excellent condition" at Winthrop-University Hospital; she was found wrapped in t-shirts, with her umbilical cord still attached (police say it was cut off roughly). While the person(s) who abandoned the baby could face charges, the police want to question him/her/them because "She may be aware of this infant abandonment act, and may have thought she was acting in compliance with that law." The Safe Haven Act allow people to anonymously abandon newborns 5 days or younger at safe locations, like police and fire departments and hospitals.

A man who fatally hit a bicyclist and dragged him while he drunkenly crashed into other cars in Hempstead was charged with murder, as well as vehicular manslaughter and DWI. Lorenzo Tobar was allegedly upset his ex-girlfriend (and mother of his child) was dating the bicyclist Ludwin Marcia. A Hempstead resident, who heard the crash and ran out of his house, took the keys from Tobar's car and kept him at the scene until police arrived. Nassau police said, "When we told [Tobar] he had someone under the car ... he kept trying to move the car."

in the car. Yet this is exactly what a Roosevelt man did in Hempstead last night.