The New York man arrested in the Queens terror plot, Ahmad Wais Afzali, had been serving—cooperatively, at least according to his lawyer—as an FBI informant. The 37-year-old Afzali, who served as an imam in a mosque in Flushing and lived in the house pictured, had been passing along to the FBI information on Mohammed Zazi and his son Najibullah, who have also been arrested, according to WCBS 2.
After a recent end-to-end walk through the newly renovated Washington Square Park, there was a certain ring missing from the din— had anyone polled us to see if we smoke (smoke). To make sure that the new-look park stays on the up-and-up, there's word that a local community group is planning to hire additional security that the Post says "will soon be booting druggies and lowlifes" out of the square.
Lawyers for Natavia Lowery, the personal assistant accused of killing Linda Stein, are arguing in the press that a recently released forensics report practically exonerates their client from the crime. Police and the DA's office said that they'll wait until the trial to address the evidence, but that it was not as significant as Ron Kuby and David Pressman were describing.
In an extremely embarrassing incident for the Brooklyn DA's office, an audio technician taped over a statement made by a cop killer while in custody. The DA's office will now have to rely on a detective's notes taken during that statement and the videotape recorded during a follow-up interview with suspect Robert Ellis.
Some new details from the ME's office about slain realtor to the stars Linda Stein. Toxicology tests on Stein, who was brutally bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment in October, show that there were "no traces of marijuana in her system," according to the NY Post.
After a public scrutiny over police procedure when dozens of youths were arrested on their way to a gang members' wake, the Brooklyn DA's office has decided to drop the charges of 22 of the arrestees. Ten others will face charges.
A judge has decided not to grant murder suspect Natavia Lowery bail. Lowery is accused of killing her boss, broker to the stars Linda Stein, by bludgeoning her to death.
The young woman accused of killing real estate broker to the stars Linda Stein pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday. Natavia Lowery was denied bail, and her new defense lawyer, Ron Kuby, made a few points:First, he said Lowery's confession was coerced by the police detectives because, having been interrogated for hours on end without access to a phone or her lawyer "She had to make something up to get out of that...
The New York Times examines the practice of handcuffing prisoners who have been shot by the police, just a few days after the death of Khiel Coppin. The mentally disturbed Brooklyn 18-year-old was handcuffed by cops after they shot him ten times, thinking he was armed with a gun. It turns out, Coppin was armed only with a hairbrush. According to the Times, the practice of handcuffing someone who is already prone and wounded is...
Now that WABC-AM has announced the return of Don Imus to radio airwaves starting December 3, their morning programming is shifting. In fact, Ron Kuby, who with Curtis Sliwa, co-hosted the station's morning drive program, was asked not to come to work starting today in anticipation of Imus' arrival!
Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro placed a full page ad in the Staten Island Advance blasting Staten Island D.A. Daniel Donovan. Molinaro called the trial and the sentencing of his 18-year-old grandson Steven to 5 years in jail a "miscarriage of justice."
The same day that Don Imus settled his breach of contract lawsuit with CBS, he was slapped with a lawsuit by a member of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Initial reports yesterday put Don Imus' settlement figures with CBS as high as $20 million, but reports today say that figure is actually much lower. In addition to the settlement, The Post says the two sides agreed to a "non-disparaging" clause, forbidding the sides from criticizing the other. The Daily News talked to industry insiders who believe Imus' settlement was in the $10 million range.
Possibly the only thing more reassuring than marijuana possession charges being dropped against a 71-year-old is the Daily News's determination to make her into a kind of folk hero by calling her "Ganja Granny." Barbara Jackson, who had been smoking pot during a bout with colorectal cancer, credited marijuana with helping her appetite (her weight was under 100 pounds before the MJ, now it's at 124 pounds). But that excuse wasn't enough for undercover police in her Bronx neighborhood, who arrested her when she bought some pot in March.
The law can be very cruel, even to cancer-stricken 71-year-olds. The Daily News has a feature on Barbara Jackson, who was arrested last month after she bought some bags of pot in her Bronx neighborhood. Jackson was diagnosed with colorectal cancer eight years ago, and tells the News she's been smoking for the past seven to restore her appetite.
"The marijuana calmed me down and gave me back my appetite. My taste buds are gone, but the marijuana helps me get the food down."Continue reading "Cops Arrest Granny For Pot - "I Smoke It To Live" "
As we all expected, the Hells Angels member who was arrested during a police raid of the motorcycle gang's headquarters plans to sue the city. The police were investigating the beating of a 52 year old woman found on the sidewalk outside the Hells Angels' location on East 3rd Street in the East Village. The police prepared to raid the establishment and brought out snipers, a hostage negotiation truck, and more, and arrested Richard West in the process.
More details have emerged about why the police raided the Hells Angels Headquarters on East 3rd Street yesterday. It turns out that 52 year old Roberta Shalaby was beaten into a coma when, as the Daily News puts it, she "tried to push her way into the Hells Angels clubhouse" Sunday night. Shalaby had gotten into an argument with a female Hells Angel biker at The Edge, and then followed them to their headquarters. Witnesses say she yelled, "You motherf----r! Let me in!" as well as "Come down here and say it like a man!" when someone from the club told her to shut up. Then someone came out and beat her up, according to police.
A strange fight has broken out between the FDNY and the firefighters' union. The union, Uniformed Firefighters Association, says that the FDNY won't allow firefighters to put up stickers of American flags, photographs of family or colleagues lost on September 11, mass cards or other seemingly innocuous items on their lockers. The FDNY says that firefighters are actually allowed to put up flag stickers or other "inoffensive material" and that the debate - which now involves lawyer Ron Kuby fighting for the union's rights - was unnecessary. Of course the FDNY would think that - it's not good when the press and public hears things like this from Kuby: "We entrust New York City firefighters with our lives and the lives of those most precious to us, and we don't trust them to properly decorate a locker?"
The two police officers accused of sexually assaulting a Brooklyn woman they initially stopped for a traffic violation two and a half weeks ago were indicted for sexual abuse yesterday by the Brooklyn DA. It turns out that four more women stepped forward to say that police officers Fernand Clerge and Charles McGeean had abused them as well (the DA's office has only charged the two for one assault). Earlier reports that the victim knew the police officers before are cleared up in the report: Apparently she had been pulled over before by the pair and they asked for her phone number. She did so willing, "believing it would free her from citation," and received two calls from them, according to the Times. During the November 20 assault, the police officers had followed the victim home after a traffic stop and molested her in her apartment; the DA says Clerge's DNA was found in the apartment.
The protestor who stripped down in Washington Square Park, with the words "Stop the War" painted all over her body, had her case of "public indecency" thrown out by a judge. Haila Faisal was in Criminal Court yesterday, armed with lawyer Ron Kuby, to argue her case, but Judge Stanley Katz said the complaint was too vague (or as the NY Times put it, "too scantily described to warrant prosecution") and therefore threw out the case. Also contributing to the situation: Neither the arresting officer nor someone from the DA's office was present. D'oh! Or perhaps that was their passive-aggressive way of realizing the charges were dumb.
"I understand that there is a detective on the premises who has some reason to believe that he ought to arrest you...I resent the fact that a detective came to this court under the ruse of wanting to ask you questions when, in fact, he had it in his head that he wanted to arrest you. If there is a basis for him arresting you, he will have to present that in the form of a warrant. I'm not trying to keep you from being arrested. I'm trying to keep you from being arrested today in my courtroom based on obvious misrepresentation on the part of the detective."And then she allowed the suspect to leave through a side door (he was arrested the next day). That just seems...nutty. But we think we see the judge's point. Then again, we do feel the police were trying to do their job, so we don't know! The police union, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, the detectives' union, court officer's union, all had a fit, asking for her to removed and for an investigation to occur, and yesterday, Justice Blackburne agreed to be transferred to from criminal court to civil court. The judge, though, has many supporters, including Lt. Eric Adams from 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and Ron Kuby, who feel that the judge is simply doing her job and not cowing to the police. Kuby also points out "This is a complete failure of the judiciary to preserve its own independence in the face of an attack by the police union and the court officers' union. Typically, my clients are first charged, then tried, then punished if found guilty. Apparently there's a new system for judges, where they get punished first as long as the P.B.A. is demanding it." Ah, Ron Kuby - he's one tenth the man William Kunstler was, but Gothamist still enjoys his flamboyance.
I keep telling Jen that we need to do posts with more nudity- posting about Anil Dash and Pete Rojas can only boost traffic so much. With that thought in mind, I knew I had to post about the decision in the naked mermaid case. It seems that at last year's Coney Island Mermaid Parade, 31 year-old Brooklyn resident Amy Gunderson was arrested for going topless. Arresting a naked mermaid at the mermaid parade is like arresting a fish for swimming, so Amy did what any arrested naked mermaid would do and called Ron Kuby, Gothamist's favorite seedy celebrity leftist lawyer (and former partner of Bill Kunstler). He got the city to back down and give her 10k, which is more that Gothamist got the last time we went naked in the name of art. I couldn't find any naked pictures of Gunderson, but some good mermaid shots can be found here and here and here. My personal favorite (via nosebleed.com):
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