Results tagged “kidnapping”

Peter Braunstein loves keeping in touch. The former journalist was convicted of attacking and assaulting a former colleague—while kidnapping her in her own apartment for 13 hours by pretending to be a firefighter (he set a fire in her building's stairwell) —in 2005 and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 2007. There was also a manhunt and capture after suicide attempt in Memphis. Now, he writes letters to the Post and Daily News, detailing his love for CW shows and his ultimately achieved goal of fame (or infamy).

A woman leaving a Chelsea nightclub escaped a kidnapping that could have gotten a lot worse by jumping out of the moving car she had been pulled into as it sped away down Ninth Avenue. The 21-year-old who had been partying at Club Velour on 10th Avenue is not revealing her identity, but allowed her picture to be published in the Post.

A 21-year-old Brooklyn man convicted of kidnapping a young girl was sentenced today to 10 years in prison despite his pleas for "mercy and leniency." Bernard Mutterperl wept before a judge, pleading that he needed help "outside of jail" as punishment for the Mother's Day 2007 incident in Midwood where he followed Xochil Garcia home and grabbed the girl, who was then 11. But the judge fell on the more stringent side of sentencing that could have fallen anywhere from 3 1/2 to 15 years. Garcia, now 13, testified at the trial this spring and spoke again in court today, recounting how she has suffered panic attacks and feared going out alone. She looked at Mutterperl and said, "You messed up my life. Some people want to fight me for no reason. Some people want to be my friend so they can be on TV ... I do not have any real friends now because of this."

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender.

Yesterday, NY Times reporter David Rohde returned to the NY Times newsroom, a week and a half after escaping seven months of captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Taliban kidnappers. He appeared with his fellow kidnap victim, Tahir Ludin, a reporter who worked as his translator and guide; the Times' Clyde Haberman wrote, "In an intensely emotional moment, the two men walked into the Times newsroom to enormous waves of applause from scores of reporters and editors... As the long ovation continued, Mr. Ludin wiped away tears. Some in the newsroom seemed near tears themselves."

The Afghan reporter who was kidnapped by the Talban, alongside NY Times reporter David Rohde, in Afghanistan last November described how he and Rohde escaped the compound where they were being held. According to the NY Times, it was a "desperate attempt by two severely demoralized reporters who believed that the Taliban were not seriously negotiating and would hold them indefinitely." Tahir Ludin says he and Rohde planned their escape on a day when the electricity was on, because the air-conditioning would mask sounds of their getaway. After their guards fell asleep, the men "made their way to the second floor" and cleared a five-foot wall, but then Ludin "was greeted by an unnerving view: a 20-foot drop." Ludin climbed down a rope that Rohde found (and hidden away), but injured his foot in the fall; Rohde managed without injury. When they arrived at a Pakistani militia camp, guards initially suspected they might be suicide bombers. However, once their identities as journalists were confirmed, "they were treated well." Times executive editor Bill Keller explained that Rohde's kidnapping was not reported on because "All along, we were told by people that probably the wisest course for David's safety was to keep it quiet."

Yesterday, the NY Times revealed that its reporter David Rohde "escaped Friday night and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan...Mr. Rohde told his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, that [fellow kidnapped reporter Tahir] Ludin joined him in climbing over the wall of a compound... They made their way to a nearby Pakistani Frontier Corps base and on Saturday they were flown to the American military base in Bagram, Afghanistan." Rohde, who was previously kidnapped in Bosnia, appears to be in good health, while Ludin injured his foot. The Times and Rohde's family "declined to discuss details of the efforts to free the captives, except to say that no ransom money was paid and no Taliban or other prisoners were released," with Times executive editor Bill Keller explaining, "As other victims have told us, discussing your strategy just offers guidance for future kidnappers." Mulvihill who expressed her gratitude to the Times, U.S. government and other agencies, said, "They just walked over the wall of the compound...We’ve been married nine months. And seven of those, David has been in captivity."

After DNA testing from the FBI proved that a Michigan resident was not 1955 kidnapping victim Steven Damman, his family and the Damman family are reeling from the whirlwind of publicity and questions. John Barnes truly believed he was the Long Island toddler who had been kidnapped at age two—partly because he never thought he fit in—and even appeared with Damman's sister Pamela Sue Horne, who was seven months old during the kidnapping, on the Today show hours before the DNA results were revealed. Horne was contacted by Barnes last fall, and she submitted to a DNA test that did not rule out that they could be related. She told Newsday this morning, "It's been a very long night," and was later seen in a wheelchair. And Cheryl Barnes, who was raised alongside John Barnes, told the Times, "This is all out of nowhere. He’s always saying something, and now it’s this? Is he saying our dad is a kidnapper?"

Two years ago, Xochil Garcia, then 11, made the cover of the Daily News after escaping a man who grabbed her in her Midwood apartment building. The girl rang all the intercom buzzers and got the attention of neighbors and her brother who caught Bernard Mutterperl, who allegedly told police, "when he sees young girls, he has to go after them." Yesterday, Xochil testified at Mutterperl's trial, with tears in her eyes, "He caught me from behind, he grabbed me. He told me not to scream. Then he grabbed my waist and he walked me down to the lobby." The Daily News reports that 21-year-old Mutterperl "said he took the girl's hand because he wanted to become friends" while his lawyer Joyce David argued, "He may not have acted appropriately, but he did not act criminally." Back in 2007, Xochil told the Post, "Before a robbery happens, I always think of a plan to do. But sometimes when I'm nervous or scared, I forget my ideas. I only came up with half a plan when I got caught," making us sad that kids have to have plans for when they are robbed.

Yesterday, a young woman told a Brooklyn jury that seeing media coverage of a man suspected of killing Imette St. Guillen helped her realize it was the same man who tried to kidnap her months earlier. Shanai Woodard said, "I was watching the news with my mother and I saw a picture of the van come across the screen. I started freaking out really bad. 'Mom, that was the van I was in. I know it is.'" Littlejohn is on trial for St. Guillen's murder, which took place in February 2006, but earlier this year, Darryl Littlejohn was convicted and sentenced for 25 years for trying to kidnap Woodard in October 2005. Littlejohn had grabbed Woodard off a Queens street, threw her into his van, and "punched [her] in the head two to three times." Woodard, who was also bound, eventually escaped the moving van and managed to find help. The Daily News explains that the judge allowed Woodard's testimony was allowed because the "similarities - a young woman abducted, hands bound behind, hit in the head and her eyes covered - were striking enough to let the jurors hear."

A man who was reported kidnapped on Saturday was found in a car trunk on Decatur Street in Brooklyn yesterday. He was apparently grabbed on Saturday at R&R Deli near the Pacific Avenue and Albany Street; the 53-year-old victim was left, tied up in the Nissan Maxima's trunk, for many hours and was taken to a hospital. The police had also chased some suspects before finding the victim. As one resident told WCBS 2, "It was weird [when] you see the guy. Why would somebody put him inside a trunk?" Good question, but the Daily News reports, "the man had been arrested at least 13 times during the past few years." And two suspects have been arrested.

Queens Supreme Court Judge Gregory Lasak called Darryl Littlejohn a "typical, classic sociopath," and told him, "You act one way here and another way on the street. That makes you a very dangerous man," ultimately sentencing him to 25 years to life in prison. Littlejohn, who is awaiting trial for the 2006 murder of John Jay graduate student Imette St. Guillen, was found guilty for the 2005 kidnapping of a young woman. Lasak said of the crime, "It was every little girl's nightmare in this city. It was every parent's nightmare - walking home from York College and winding up on the floor of a van." Littlejohn's attorney said his client was, in fact, a victim, since his name was already associated with the St. Guillen murder.

Remember the last week's story about a man who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl from Washington Heights and took her to a Bronx motel, where she was luckily able to escape? Now a suspect has been arrested. WABC 7 says that the police found 28-year-old Johan Garcia by using a surveillance photo (he was filmed by the motel's camera). The girl had told WABC 7 the kidnapper approached her when she was walking home from school to her home, "He turns around unexpecting and then he moves me to the wall of the hallway and he just tells me, 'if you want to live, just answer my question and that's it don't scream, don't do anything." Garcia faces charges of kidnapping and "acting in a manner injurious to a child."

The police released a video of a man who kidnapped a girl from her Washington Heights apartment building and took her to a motel in the Bronx. The Daily News reports that, fortunately, the "quick-thinking 14-year-old girl escaped the clutches of a pervert after he left her alone in the parking lot of a Bronx motel while he went inside to book a room." Cops say she was dragged from the lobby of her apartment (the girls adds that she tried to "catch people's eyes, but every person I walked by was listening to music") into a livery cab and taken to the River Road Motor Inn in Woodlawn. When in the parking lot, the girl had called to the cab driver for help (he did call 911) and ran into a room being cleaned by maids, who then "closed the door and called 911." More details about the suspect here.

Darryl Littlejohn, who will be on trial for the 2006 murder of graduate student Imette St. Guillen later this year, was found guilty in an unrelated kidnapping case. In October 2005, Littlejohn apparently "posed as a police officer and handcuffed [a] York College student," according to the NY Times. The victim, Shanai Woodward, was forced into a van but she escaped; she later testified that she was afraid he would kill her. Investigators revealed her DNA was found in his van, which apparently convinced jurors. Littlejohn's defense is planning an appeal, claiming the St. Guillen case may have influenced jurors.

Sandra Boss, the mother of missing 7-year-old Reigh Boss, made a police-filmed video statement, pleading with her ex-husband to return their daughter. The child was snatched by Clark Rockefeller during a social worker-supervised visit in Boston on Sunday, and the paid were driven to NYC's Grand Central. Boss said, "Clark, although many things have changed, you will always be Reigh's father and I will always be Reigh's mother. We both love her dearly and have only her best interests and well-being in our hearts." It's believed that Rockefeller, described as a con man who had exchanged hundreds of thousands in cash into gold, cut Reigh's hair short to make her pass for a boy; authorities are currently investigating sightings of the pair in the Caribbean.

As authorities continue to look for Clark Rockefeller and his 7-year-old daughter Reigh Boss, who he abducted during a social worker-supervised visit in Boston on Sunday, the woman who drove the pair from Boston to NYC said she had no idea she helped in the kidnapping. Aileen Ang was offered $500 to drive Rockefeller to NYC; she told a radio station, "I actually thought it was just going to be him. And when I got where I was going to pick him up ... his daughter was there." She said Reigh, who lives in London with her mother, seemed happy, saying, "I love you too much Daddy." But after dropping them off at Grand Central Terminal, Ang heard that the child was missing and went to the police. Authorities have been looking for the pair in NYC and Long Island (Rockefeller, described as a "con man" with four aliases, apparently bought a $300,000 yacht with gold bars), but a person said she saw them in Delaware.

A missing 7-year-old Queens boy arrived back in NYC this week after a successful enterprise that involved the NYPD, FBI, American Embassy, a charity to track kidnapped children, and a tip to his mother's MySpace account.

Peter Braunstein really loves the New York Post. The fashion industry reporter-turned-prison inmate, after being recently convicted of the kidnapping, sex assault, armed robbery and burglary of a former co-worker on Halloween in 2005, gives his first interview since being locked up this past summer to the tabloid.