Results tagged “imettest”

Untitled photo of Monster Segway, by JCN on flickr

The Brooklyn judge presiding over the case of Darryl Littlejohn, the suspected murderer of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, wants the trial to start as early as next January, even as Littlejohn is facing unrelated charges of kidnapping in a Queens courtroom. Judge Cheryl Chambers ordered another pretrial hearing for October 11 and wants both the defense and prosecution to come to a mutually agreeable date upon which they can get the murder trial moving.

Cellphone records won out in court over the testimony of an eyewitness to murder and charges. The New York Times reports that prosecutors dismissed murder charges against 36-year-old Eric Wright in large part because his cellphone indicated he was nowhere near the killing and conceded that there was reasonable doubt he was not guilty.

The New York Post reports that concerns have been raised about a possible lack of strength in the murder case against former bar bouncer Darryl Littlejohn, who was indicted for the abduction and killing of grad student Imette St. Guillen 18 months ago. The victim disappeared from the SoHo bar The Falls after a night of drinking, and her body was found the next day dumped alongside a road in Brooklyn. Police say that she had been brutally raped and suffocated to death with a tube sock stuffed down her throat. Littlejohn was arrested and indicted after carpet fibers found on the packing tape that bound St. Guillen matched carpeting in Littlejohn's home.

Since cellphone technology is just about commonplace there days, the police and prosecutors are relying on cellphone data to help build cases against suspected criminals. The NY Times looks at how more and more cases seems to involve cellphone data.

The family of Imette St. Guillen spoke to the Daily News as tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of her death. St. Guillen, whose bound body was found dumped near the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, was last seen at the Falls restaurant and bar in SoHo. The gruesome nature of her death - raped, stripped naked, and tied with duct tape - worried some that she was killed by a serial murderer, but then suspicion fell on an ex-con bouncer at the Falls, who was later charged with her murder.

The first lawsuit has been filed by the family of Imette St. Guillen, the graduate student who was brutally murdered last February. The Post reports that St. Guillen's family believes "her death resulted directly from negligence of the owner of the now-shuttered Falls Bar and the brutality of its employee, [Darryl] Littlejohn, a paroled violent felon."

They say New York is home to a million stories, and so far this year, we've published 7021 of them here on Gothamist. So in case you missed any of those, let's take a little stroll back in time, and review the most significant stories the past 12 months, shall we? Here's part one of a semi-chronological look at 2006; part two will go up tomorrow:

If you've ever wondered how some big-name lawyers get attached to high-profile defendants without money, check out the NY Times article about lawyers jockeying to defend Darryl Littlejohn. Littlejohn, the bouncer of former SoHo bar and restaurant The Fall, is accused of murdering John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, whose body was found late February off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, bound and wrapped in a blanket.

+ Red Auerbach, who coached the Boston Celtics to 16 championships, died at 89. He grew up in Williamsburg, learned how to play basketball at PS 122 and almost coached the Knicks.

Today, the City Council is having a "nightlife summit" to discuss bar and nightclub safety. Yesterday, the City Council introduced new bills that would require clubs to: 1) Install ID scanners and security cameras; 2) Give nightlife employees more training (safety and spotting drunk customers...) and 3) Hire monitors is laws are repeatedly broken at their venues. amNew York noted that the leglislation would have video recording "kept in a secure area and made available only for law enforcement purposes" and would be destroyed after 15 days, perhaps in an effort to stave off privacy concerns. The New York Nightlife Association says that only "bad operators should be required to install these cameras and I.D. scanners." But, after the deaths of Imette St. Guillen and Jennifer Moore, plus various fatal incidents involving bouncers and/or customer brawls (for instance, this past weekend there was a fatal fight in Staten Island), officials are eager to do something. The Post reports other things that will be discussed at the summit include "changing the current law that allows 16-year-olds to enter nightclubs, and banning bottle service, a trend that requires patrons to buy a minimum amount of liquor to get a seat at a club."

After realizing bouncers need regulating, will the city crack down on clubs serving underage patrons? The NY Post reports that a NJ teen is missing after partying at Guest House on West 27th Street. Eighteen year old Jennifer Moore of Harrington Park, NJ and a friend left Guest House at 2:30AM, only to find that Moore's car was towed.

The teens ended up at an NYPD impound lot on West 38th Street and 12th Avenue at about 4 a.m., authorities said.

Continue reading "Clubbing, Underaged Drinking, Towed Car, Missing Teen"

As the city examines how to regulate bouncers, the NYPD revealed that it found 41 "unlicensed security guards" working at 42 bars last weekend. And some of the bouncers had "previous arrest records for everything from rape to illegal gun possession and drug charges," according to the Post. The City Council has been holding hearings about tougher regulation, and bar owners are cooperative, but want regulations to apply to security personnel only (so a server or bartender could have a criminal record?). The legislation would give the police and Department of Consumer Affairs the power to shut down an establishment with unlicensed bouncers or bouncers with records; the NYPD is also looking to define a guard as "anyone who might be called upon to break up a fight, such as a host or hostess, and making bar owners keep detailed records of who is on duty at any given time."

No more false alarms: The Falls bar has been shuttered for good. Probable scene of at least part of the infamous Imette St. Guillen murder, the bar had been under-fire from the NYPD, State Liquor Authority, and various city agencies. The Daily News is reporting that the NYPD finally locked the gates yesterday, citing a lengthy investigation and nuisance abatement laws. The Post details some of the violations-- selling booze after hours and to minors, and more than 40 complaints from neighbors.

Today, John Jay College of Criminal Justice masters student Johanna King Vespe will receive the first Imette St. Guillen Scholarship. The fund was created in honor of St. Guillen after her February murder. According to the Daily News, which donated money to the fund, more than $250,000 has been raised. Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at The Falls (the bar and restaurant where St. Guillen was last seen alive), was indicted for St. Guillen's murder.

A bouncer at Opus 22 on West 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues, shot four clubgoers, killing one of them, late last night. Bouncer Stephen Sakai is now in police custody, and is being questioned in the strange, violent incident. Witnesses say that a drunk patron was refusing to leave or refusing to pay a cover and got into an argument with Sakai. Sakai then shot him "point-blank in the chest," causing one of the man's friends to yell "Why did you shoot my friend?" Sakai allegedly replied, "You want some, too" and shot that friend and others before running away. The police, who came to the club in riot gear and then used helicopters and police dogs to search for the shooter, apprehended Sakai in Brooklyn a few hours later.

Looks like the rumors were true: The Falls Bar is no more. We walked by last night, and the neon sign was gone. A small group of protesters stood outside, but the bar was empty. Looks like the Imette St. Guillen case finally caught up with the Dorian family. Hard to feel all that upset. [Related: WCBS is reporting that the State Liquor Authority is revoking the Falls' license-- although that might be a foregone move at this point.]

- Strange murder at 14th Street and 10th Avenue - man was shot in his car, and a passenger drove all the way to Brooklyn for a hospital, even though there's St. Vincent's right on 7th Avenue and 12th Street, not to mention other Manhattan hospitals, on the way

Yesterday, the Queens DA's office arraigned Darryl Littlejohn, the ex-con bouncer suspected of mudering grad student Imette St. Guillen in February, in the kidnapping and assault of a 19 year old in Queens last October (the woman got away). Littlejohn pleaded not guilty in the crime (the Post says he scowled), in which the handcuffs he allegedly used still had traces of his DNA. However, his lawyer questions why it took so long to trace the handcuff DNA to Littlejohn's DNA which had been in the system for years. The Daily News details the victim's ordeal (suggesting she could have been the first Imette) and how the Queens DA built the case.

The NYPD has some bad news for Darryl Littlejohn, it seems. A month ago Littlejohn, who has been charged with the murder off Imette St. Guillen, was put in a line-up for a rape case in Queens. When he was not identified, it looked like that part of the story might've been left aside.

- The Villager reports there were only 4 arrests in last weeks Critical Mass

Whoa! Someone has created a website to support Darryl Littlejohn, the chief suspect in the Imette St. Guillen rape and murder case. It's up at DarrylLittlejohn.com, and includes a list of reasons why Littlejohn might be innocent, a poll, and clock recording the number of days of his "false imprisonment."

As expected Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted for first-degree murder in the killing of Imette St. Guillen.

This just in off the wires-- Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted by a Brooklyn Grand Jury in the murder of grad student Imette St. Guillen. The grand jury met for a week before issuing the indictment.

The Brooklyn grand jury is still hearing evidence for the Imette St. Guillen murder, with prosecutors looking for an indictment against Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at the Falls, which is the last place St. Guillen was seen. The Post says that the DNA evidence that links Littlejohn to ties found around St. Guillen's hands will be presented today. Gothamist found it interesting that the Post described that evidence as cracking the case "wide open," since most of the other evidence is circumstantial. Littlejohn's lawyer, Kevin O'Donnell, has been very vocal about how he does not think his client will get a fair trial - as well as how the police evidence is not very strong.

There's a good look at how cellphone triangulation works in the Daily News today, in relation to how police were able to determine that the Imette St. Guillen murder's "prime suspect" Darryl Littlejohn was in the vicinity of where her body was eventually found. We'd been curious about how the technology works (sure, we'd seen it "used" in TV shows or mentioned and got the basic idea), but we didn't realize locations can be determined even without phone calls being made. And that seems to be the difference with Littlejohn's cellphone information - the NYPD hasn't outright said he made calls in that area because they may have pulled his whereabouts by overalls pings to cell towers. We wonder if the police used that technology in the murder of Catherine Woods, the Upper East dancer-stripper, in which her boyfriend was arrested (he had made multiple cellphone calls to her before her death and, then, suddenly nothing).

While the police touted the DNA evidence found on plastic ties (originally used on computer equipment) links Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn to the murder of Imette St. Guillen, the police's case may not be that strong. The NY Times reports that the police are still gathering evidence for the case where most of the evidence is circumstantial - even though there has been a lot of to examine. The Post looks at how the blood left on the ties was "invisible." Of course, Littlejohn's lawyer is upset that the police didn't disclose the information to him, going to the media instead and says that it'll be hard to "find twelve impartial jurors." The Brooklyn DA's office, though, is forging ahead, going to present evidence to a sitting grand jury today. And the State Liquor Authority has stopped its investigation of the Falls (over hiring ex-con Littlejohn, which is against the law) while the NYPD is still investigating the murder.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly decided to put a rest to many leaks and give the news himself: Blood found on ties that were in binding the hands of murdered graduate student Imette St. Guillen matches the DNA of Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn. The Brooklyn DA's office is going for a grand jury indictment this week, and Littlejohn has been in police custody for almost a week for parole violation, which is why the NYPD hasn't pressed charges against him yet - he's "not going anywhere." St. Guillen's family, though, isn't commenting until Littlejohn is formally charged.

He's not getting arrested yet, he's already in custody for parole violations after all, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly just gave a news conference where he called Darryl Littlejohn, in no uncertain terms, the prime suspect in the murder of Imette St. Guillen. Littlejohn's DNA seems to have turned up on some of the ties that were found on her body. This evidence, and more, is being brought before a Grand Jury this week after which we'll see what will happen.