Photograph by Phil Ritz on Flickr Last month, an out-of-control car jumped the curb outside the State Supreme Court and injured a six people, including coffee vendor Jaweed "Joe" Naseri. Naseri was in his coffee cart at the time and said at the time, "All of a sudden there was a very deep impact and I rolled over two or three times in the cart. At one point I said my prayers. I thought......

Photograph above and gallery by Phil Ritz on Flickr Police have charged the driver who mowed down pedestrians outside the State Supreme Court with "reckless endangerment and aggravated unlicensed operation, for having a suspended license." Though 33-year-old Queens resident Lorenzo Bello had a seizure during yesterday's morning crash, it wasn't his first. Per the Daily News, "His wife told cops he has a history of seizures and shouldn't be behind the wheel." Six people......

Above image from WNBC, below image from WABC An out-of-control car jumped a curb on Centre Street and mowed down three pedestrians outside the State Supreme Court. According to NY1, the car "crashed into a coffee cart and continued up several steps of the courthouse," where one man was pinned under the car. WNBC reports the man, who was "pinned from about the mid-chest down," was removed by emergency workers who used a power......

Two lawsuits currently wending their way through New York courts are forcing judges to grapple with the legal ramifications of “gay divorce.” In one case, State Supreme Court Justice Laura Drager is allowing a Manhattan woman to sue for divorce and custody of children borne by a woman she married in Canada in 2004. The ruling echoes a recent appellate court decision in Rochester that found "out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples must be legally recognized......

Today marks the third annual Informal Presentation on the Art of Dance, a dance event put on by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble. The two troupes converge each year in a most unconventional space: The State Supreme Court of Manhattan! Arthur Mitchell (himself a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet in the '50s and '60s) co-founded DTB after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the......

The fight over the right for school children to bear cell phones in schools moved to the Appellate Court, where lawyers for NYC and public school students' parents appeared before a five-judge panel. This comes after the City Council passed a bill allowing cell phones in schools, which the Mayor vetoed. Many parents believe cell phones are critical for keeping in touch with their children, in case of an emergency or just to check in......

After almost a week of delays, jurors were back in court for the Nixzmary Brown murder case. A expert said that the malnourished 7-year-old's blood was found under the fingernails Brown's stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, as well as on his jeans. Rodriguez faces murder charges for the malnourished 7-year-old's 2006 death. Rodriguez's defense lawyers said the blood was present because he had tried to save her after the girl's mother beat her to death, noting the......

A 38-year-old construction worker from Brooklyn is suing New York Presbyterian Hospital for giving him more medical attention than he cared for, and then having him arrested. Brian Persaud went to the ER at NY Presbyterian after a plank hit him on the head at a work site, causing a head laceration that required eight stitches. Although Persaud walked into the ER and was fully mobile, doctors told him that he should get an anal......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Autumn and Liberty Aves. in Brooklyn, a suspicious fire on Wallace Ave. and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx,and a carjacking on 85th St. in the Bronx. Lawyers for Ted Corliss continue to argue for charges to be dismissed against their client, who attempted to jump off the Empire State Building, even after the State Supreme Court ruled that jumping off tall buildings was a form......

In May of 2006, a bouncer at Opus West 22nd Street was arrested after shooting four clubgoers, killing one of them. Then it turned out that Stephen Sakai was possibly connected to three other murders of associates from when he worked at a strip club in Brooklyn. Yesterday, Sakai took the stand in his trial for the three Brooklyn murders. And, boy, to be on that jury. The Post reports that he used a fake......

State Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has ruled that the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas can and will proceed, despite the theater owner’s attempt to lock out the stagehands. “Grinch” producers dragged Jucamcyn, the third largest owner of Broadway theaters, into court yesterday seeking an injunction to let the show go on. Local One, the stagehands’ union, is on strike until a contract is agreed upon with the producers’ league, of which......

Gov. Spitzer made an abrupt shift from his stance of pushing forward with his plan to issue drivers license to illegal immigrants. He will be appearing with Dept. of Homeland Security officials in DC today to announce a compromise that involves two tiers of drivers licenses. The more secure version will comply with new federal Real ID standards that will be fully instituted in coming years. By 2013, US residents will be required to produce......

After questions about whether Con Ed would be able to maintain objectivity when testing equipment from the area of July 18's Midtown steam pipe explosion, a State Supreme Court judge ruled that the utility could test a steam trap. Earlier, a state regulator suggested there could have been build-up in the trap, caused it to malfunction and causing the explosion. A lawyer representing the person most critically injured from the explosion, 21-year-old Gregory McCullough who......

A judge has banned Toto's "Washlet" cleaning system billboard from a Times Square building. One of the building's tenants happens to be the Times Square Church, which sued to stop the billboard by claiming it was "certainly unsuited for public exposure to children, and antithetical to the values of our congregation and church.” No word if the parishioners feel their bottoms are clean enough already. State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman said, "The court......

Long before people cried out against 50 shots in protest of Sean Bell's death at the hands of the police, they decried 41 shots. We were surprised to hear that Kenneth Boss is still an officer with the NYPD. Seven years ago he fired five of the 41 shots that killed unarmed Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He was acquitted of murder charges by an Albany jury, along with three other officers who subsequently left......

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds of New Yorkers took to Fifth Avenue and participated in the first annual Dance Parade. From whirling dervishes to salsa dancers, from break dancers to hula hoopers, not even the rain could stop the two-hour celebration that started near Herald Square and ended in Wasington Square Park. Here's a brief description from the organizers about the parade's vision:To honor Dance's historical roots: New York has never celebrated the forms of dance......

On November 23, 1990 a bouncer outside of the Palladium nightclub (now an NYU dorm on 14th St.) was shot and killed when a fistfight escalated to gunplay. A year later, David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo were convicted of the killing and sent to prison, despite their defense that they were not even at the Palladium that night. Hidalgo's conviction was later overturned and Lemus was released from prison after 14 years, only to face......

The instigator of the 2005 murder of Nicole duFresne on the Lower East Side was sentenced to six years in jail yesterday in State Supreme Court. Audrey Evans, who is 18, pleaded to first-degree robbery for her role in the shooting. Evans' boyfriend, Rudy Flemming was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole, late last year for killing duFresne, 28. One of the things that apparently prompted the shooting was the happiness of duFresne......

Now that he's been found medically fit to stand trial, jury selection has started in the trial of Peter Braunstein, the journalist who allegedly posed as a firefighter and molested a former co-worker on Halloween in 2005. The thing is 70% of the jurors questioned yesterday had heard about the trial and left, thanks to the moment-to-moment coverage of the case (exhibit A, B, C). But the NY Times said 30 prospective jurors who would......

The organizers at Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn are planning a protest for this upcoming Monday in reaction to a judge's ruling that allows Forest City Ratner to proceed with its demolition plans, refusing a group of 26 co-plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order. The protest will begin at 8 a.m. in front of 191 Flatbush Ave. between 5th Ave. and Dean St. The state lawsuit maintains that an environmental impact study of the......

A Manhattan jury found four women guilty of gang assault for attacking a man outside the IFC Center last summer. The man, Dwayne Buckle of Queens, said that the group of lesbians attacked him because he was straight, while the women contended Buckle had used slurs and threw a cigarette at them - and that another man stabbed him. Patreese Johnson, who claimed Buckle said, "I'll f--- you straight" to her, was found not......

BusinessWeek assistant managing editor and blogger Bruce Nussbaum may have been one of the 40 most powerful people in design (back in 2005), but he was no match for State Supreme Court Justice Edward J. McLaughlin. In coverage of a group of lesbians on trial for allegedly beating up a straight man outside the IFC Center (best trial ever?), the Post mentioned that Nussbaum was removed from the jury. Apparently Nussbaum upset Justice McLaughlin for......

A State Supreme Court judge sentenced 27-year-old Paul Cortez to 25 years to life in prison. Cortez had been found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend Catherine Woods last month. His defense team continued to maintain that Cortez was innocent and asked for a lesser sentence. Cortez was silent during the sentencing, apparently based on advice from his appeals lawyer. His trial lawyer Dawn Florio said, "He would like the family to know he did not......

A Long Island couple is suing a Manhattan fertility clinic for using the wrong sperm during in-vitro fertilization. Nancy and Thomas Andrews were having trouble conceiving a second child, so they went to the New York Medical Services for Reproductive Medicine to have Nancy's eggs fertilized with Thomas's sperm. But when baby Jessica was born in 2004 to the couple, they suspected something was wrong. From the Daily News:Thomas Andrews is white and his wife......

A NY State Supreme Court judge ruled that Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner must return two properties after deciding that the properties' tenant had improperly given them to the developer. You ask, how can a mere tenant sign over properties he doesn't even own to a developer for demolition? So do we! The properties in question are at 762-766 Pacific Street and 535 Carlton Avenue, an office building and a parking lot, owned by......

The $1.3 billion deal for Brooklyn developer Berkshire LLC to buy federally subsidized Brooklyn housing complex Starrett City may be blocked by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cuomo announced that his office will enforce an injunction barring the lead investor David Bistricer from completing "certain real estate for life and will not permit the conversion of any of the property to cooperative apartments." Cuomo's statement......

The Village Voice's Wayne Barrett has the scoop on a big case Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is working on: How disgraced former Brooklyn Democratic party boss Clarence Norman managed to buy a State Supreme Court judgeship for $56,000. Fifty thousand in cash and then $6,000 in stamps ("$3,000 wheels of stamps on sprockets that could be purchased at a General Post Office"). Barrett writes, "When the disturbing details become fully known, Hynes's stunning prosecution may......

The Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation hauled Mayor Bloomberg to New York State Supreme Court today for failing to reappoint or replace eight of eleven commissioners to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The commissioners’ terms have expired, which, the Committee alleges, violates the Administrative Code and the City Charter. The Writ of Mandamus seeks to force Mayor Bloomberg to reappoint or replace commissioners whose terms have lapsed. “Mayor Bloomberg has failed to honor is own......

The New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled that same-sex same-sex civil unions are constituational, and therefore "must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes.” But the court said that the NJ government will decide whether it's "marriage," taking a stance similar to Vermont. The court's 4-3 ruling stated, "The issue is not about the transformation of the traditional definition of marriage, but about......

And with a whimper, not a bang, the schadenfreude saga over the care of Brooke Astor has come to an end. In an attempt to get the story out of the public eye as quickly as possible, Mrs. Astor's son Anthony D. Marshall has agreed to give up his role as caretaker and steward of his mother's estate and to return $1.35 million of stuff as collateral for any potential claims against him after......