The former limo driver who was accused of raping an NYU law student, and then of trying to hire a hit man to kill her, plead guilty yesterday after decade-old DNA evidence proved a match with him. Queens resident Rajeev Kumar was sentenced to 15 to 21 years in prison for rape, sodomy and conspiracy. more ›

A Brooklyn man was charged yesterday with hiring two ex-cons to carry out a hit on a former suburban cop and his nephew. And by Brooklyn man, we mean an overweight, gun-toting Rabbi who claims to suffer from seizures. Basically, the whole thing sounds highly unkosher. more ›

As every great mobster knows, the surefire way to prove your innocence is by silencing your prime witness. Preferably via pay-off, intimidation, or, if all else fails, calling a hit on them. So if former Queens limo driver Rajeev Kumar wanted us to think he was innocent of raping a grad student, he's doing an exemplary job of it by trying (and failing) to hire a hit man to kill her. And the whole endeavor was allegedly aided by a photo of the accuser he received from his perfectly-named defense lawyer, Nelson Schmukler. more ›

Police got a tip from a Brooklyn cab driver that the MS-13 gang may be planning an attack on the NYPD. The driver's friend allegedly over heard gang member talk about a murder contract on police in the back seat of a cab, mentioning how he would kill an officer in every command. NYPD spokesman Sgt. Kevin Hayes told the Daily News, "At this time, there's nothing to indicate there's a city-wide threat," but cops are taking the tip seriously and trying to gather intel. more ›

The Long Island mom who tried to engage an undercover cop to kill her husband couldn’t afford a full-priced hit, but she could throw down for a day at the spa. Susan Williams spent the hours before her arrest primping for her mug shot. The beautician who cut and colored her hair and did her eyebrows says she “got a lot of compliments” when the photo went public. During the prolonged appointment Jessica Zinman says the murderous mom talked about her kids and “dating, how hard it is to date." The hairdresser added that "we didn't ever talk about her husband” more ›

A 32-year-old man died on Saturday when he was struck by two cars on the Grand Central Parkway near the Jewel Avenue exit in Flushing, according to the Daily News. The victim — whose name has not yet been released — was struck at around 4:40 am by a 2002 Buick. "I was driving along...then all of a sudden I had a bump on the car," one of the drivers told the tabloid. "And I thought, 'Oh, my God! That looked looked like a body.'" Moments later, the victim was run over by a 2002 Dodge. "I thought it was a mannequin," said the driver of the Dodge. "[He] was already...on the ground when I hit him. What could I do?" Both of the drivers remained at the scene and were not charged. more ›

A member of the notorious MS-13 gang told police that the gang's El Salvadorian leaders put a hit out on a federal agent meddling in the gang's NYC activities. Walter "Dukes" Torres was arrested along with four others for hassling passersby in Queens last month and said he was in New York "for the specific purpose of participating in the planning and execution of the murder plot...Gang members were trying to get their hands on a high-powered assault rifle, like an M-16. to penetrate the agent's bulletproof vest." Another gang member said bosses were "exceedingly angry" at the unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. more ›

There are conflicting reports about the cause of a taxi-on-pedestrian accident at 112th Street and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem yesterday afternoon, but this much is certain: 8-year-old Axel Pablo is dead, and the driver of the cab, Akim Saiful Alam, was released without charges. Witnesses and police tell the Daily News that Alam, turning left from Lex onto 112th, slammed into Pablo as he stopped to pick up his mother's cell phone while crossing the street. The impact knocked Pablo out of his shoes. more ›

Reports are filtering in about a bad accident this morning between a pedicab and yellow taxi in Williamsburg. According to CBS2, the pedicab driver was heading eastbound off the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkway when he crashed into the taxi on Bedford Avenue shortly after 7:30 a.m. The unconscious pedicab driver was taken to Bellevue Hospital with head injuries, and the Post reports that his two passengers are also listed in critical condition with head injuries. But CBS2 says the male passenger was not injured, while a 22-year-old female passenger was hospitalized with neck and back injuries. Apparently, the pedicab "snapped in half" upon impact! Those familiar with the Williamsburg Bridge pedestrian walkways might be surprised by the accident's location; of the two ramps leading off the bridge in Brooklyn, the one that abruptly empties onto Bedford Avenue is significantly more steep and narrow. It's unclear at this point why the pedicab driver exited down that ramp, or if excessive speed was a factor. more ›

Former federal prosecutor turned defense lawyer to the stars Paul Bergrin, who represented Lil' Kim as well as members of street gangs, would say, "No witness, no case." And Bergrin apparently took that to heart, because he's been charged with plotting the murder of a federal witness set to testify against his client. Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra said, "He employed every illegal tool available to disrupt our system of justice and keep murderers, drug dealers and gang leaders on the street." The indictment mentioned another instance of Bergrin trying to plot a witness's murder—"Paul Bergrin met with the hit man and instructed the hit man to make the murder of Junior the Panamanian appear as if it were part of a home invasion robbery rather than the execution of a witness"—and accuses him of paying off witnesses. The NY Times says, "[Feds] noticed what appeared to be a pattern; in at least four other cases, his clients had been cleared after witnesses were either killed or changed their stories." Bergrin has been on probation after pleading guilty to running a former client's prostitution ring (the one run by Jason "King of All Pimps" Itzler). more ›

Bizarre: A book claims that a hitman was actually dispatched to the Hamptons home interviewer Charlie Rose, who shares the same name as a prosecutor with the same name. The Post has that scoop from Friends of the Family, a book about convicted "Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who were sentenced to life for helping the mob carry out hits while working for the NYPD. Eppolito and Caracappa allegedly "gave bad information to their benefactor, Luchese underboss Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso...[who] was furious with Mafia-busting prosecutor Charles Rose, believing that Rose embarrassed him by leaking a story about Casso having killed his former architect for having an affair with the mobster's wife." The hitman apparently left because TV's Rose never showed up and Casso was arrested before he could off Rose the prosecutor (Rose died in 1998 of cancer). When the Post told the talk show host, Rose, whose close calls involve self-inflicted injuries from saving his gadgets, said, "It's a surprise it's all new to me." more ›

The death of 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse, who was cycling with his father in Downtown Brooklyn on September 6th when a mail truck struck him while turning on Livingston Street, didn't come as a surprise to those familiar with the area, the Daily News reports. Michelle Dougherty, a Brooklyn Heights mother of three, calls the intersection "extremely dangerous. Last year I saw a boy who was hit by two cars." Transportation Alternatives spokesman Wiley Norvell agrees that it's "a bad corridor - it's a recipe for crashes and injuries unless something is done to reengineer the street." A DOT rep promises that engineers will now reevaluate the safety conditions there. And more details have emerged on the 50-year-old man who was killed by a school bus while riding his bike in Park Slope days after Toulouse's death: Jonathan Millstein was a lifelong New Yorker and father of two who ran a silkscreen shop with his wife in the East Village. more ›

50-year-old Jonathan Milstein was struck and killed by a school bus in Park Slope yesterday morning, the second cyclist fatality in Brooklyn in less than a week. (On Saturday, 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse was fatally struck by a mail truck downtown.) The Brooklyn Paper reports that Milstein was riding west on President Street and was trying to make the light at Eighth Avenue, a block from Prospect Park, when the collision occurred. No passengers were on the bus, and no charges filed against the driver, who is reportedly "extremely shaken." Milstein was pronounced DOA at nearby New York Methodist Hospital. A spokesman for Transportation Alternatives told the Brooklyn Eagle that Eighth Avenue is “problematic” because of its proximity to the park and because its one-way traffic and infrequent stop lights seem to encourage speeding. more ›

Queens Councilman Tony Avella has introduced a bill that would ban the existence of carriage horses in NYC. Another Queens Councilman, James Gennaro, is looking to preserve the practice of equine cabbies that populate the streets of and around Central Park. Manhattan council members are perhaps showing some political horse sense from bowing out of this particular fight. While wanting to preserve the tradition of the horse-drawn carriage trade, Gennaro is also suggesting a... more ›