Results tagged “soundview”

State Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. has, the Post reports, "advis[ed] staffers at his health-care charity to check with his lawyers before speaking to state investigators probing allegations of financial misconduct -- a move some see as an effort to silence them." One employee at Soundview HealthCare Network, which paid Espada $450,000 one year, says, "It feels like they want to have too much control over what we say." Espada tells the Post, "Employees are entitled to in-house legal counsel... The letter was a formality to remind them."

Besides offering affordable health care for constituents in the Bronx, the non-profit community health care center run by State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. also provides lots of jobs for the community... of people related to Espada. The Post's Isabel Vincent has donned her Hazmat suit to take a closer look at Espada's Soundview HealthCare Network, which stays afloat thanks to millions of taxpayer dollars. What she found may not surprise you. (It even comes with a handy graphic charting the family money tree.) For instance, two employees previously convicted of fraud for using Soundview money to promote Espada's political campaign are back on staff, and the charity still owes some $347,000 in income tax withheld from employees. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been investigating the shady shenanigans, but the Post has already found plenty of questionable conduct, such as Espada paying himself over than $450,000 a year, some $80,000 more than the standard for a charity its size. Then there's Soundview's not-illegal-but-still-sleazy employment of all Espada's sons with near six-figure jobs. Oh, and the charity's board is packed with Espada's friends and relatives, including his grandfather Victor, who's over 90 years old, lives in Puerto Rico, and "votes" via conference call!

A McDonald's in The Bronx had a real McDowell's-like situation on its hand when an employee intervened with a gun-toting mugging going on. But in this Soundview altercation, the action took place outside of the fast food joint when the guard of the Golden Arches spotted a couple attacking a man filling up his tank at a nearby gas station. And luckily for the McDonald's security guard who spotted the altercation and decided to get involved, he didn't have to rely on Prince Akeem's martial arts skills with a mop stick—he opened fire with his own weapon. The guard had a little background with using a firearm to chase down perps—he's a former cop. He was able to shoot one of the muggers in the leg, but the man's girlfriend was able to round up her partner in crime and drive off before the two could be apprehended. An 18-year-old fellow employee of the guard's at the restaurant said, "He shot first and he pistol-whipped [the driver]. His head was bleeding a lot. [Then] the security guard went out shooting. It's crazy. You don't expect this. I mean, I only work at McDonald's."

A teenager who walked into a Papa John's and opened fire was shot by police overnight in the Bronx. The 18-year-old suspect shot three people inside the Soundview restaurant, one of whom police said appeared to be his intended target. An investigation is underway, but there was no indication of the shooting being part of an attempted robbery. Police intervened when they heard the gunfire while patrolling nearby on Westchester Avenue, just off the 6 train. After the shooting, the cops cordoned off two blocks of the avenue. They report finding a semi-automatic weapon at the scene. All four who were shot, the gunman included, are in Jacobi Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The manager of the store told the Times, “It’s not a good neighborhood; it’s a rough neighborhood. But I didn’t think that anything like this would happen in the store.”