Results tagged “suffolk”

A Suffolk County man was awaken from his sleep yesterday morning when an SUV came crashing through his house—flying airborne into the second floor! 58-year-old John Sarli was sleeping on a couch in his den at the back of his East Moriches home around 12:25 when the Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 20-year-old Adam Clark came flying into his foyer and landed headlights-up. Clark had run a stop sign and then hit a berm that sent him into the air for about 85 feet according to Sarli.

A Long Island math teacher, who was arrested in July for having sex with a 15-year-old girl in an elementary school parking lot, is being charged with yet another sex crime. Daniel Rothbard, 28, was out on bail for the first alleged statutory rape when he was arrested again yesterday. Police say that two weeks before the parking lot incident, Rothbard allegedly lured a 13-year-old girl and her 14-year-old friend to his house, where he resided with his pregnant wife. Prosecutors tell Newsday the 14-year-old walked in on him having sex with the younger girl. None of the victims were his students; Rothbard met them on MySpace posing as a 17-year-old with the screen name "DJ" or "D to the J." According to CBS2, the house is now empty and for sale, and Rothbard's lawyer says his client is on suicide watch and pleading not guilty. But Nassau County Police Lt. John Allen expects to find more victims, and the Valley Stream school district has barred Rothbard from school property and prohibited him from having any contact with children or their parents. He's currently behind bars in lieu of $600,000 bail, an amount his lawyer called excessive.

Police are investigating whether a robbery in the town of Patchogue over the weekend was another instance of a hate crime in the town where an Ecuadorian immigrant was allegedly murdered by a group of teenagers last November. The Hispanic man was walking on a street in the Long Island town just before midnight on Friday night when he was approached by three young white men. As they knocked him to the ground while stealing cash and other items, police say that "disparaging remarks were made about the victim's ancestry." Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri told reporters, "It's distressing that it happened at all. Who knows why and who knows the circumstances? I don't know yet." After a group of teens were charged in the beating death of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero (pictured), the Justice Department launched an investigation into accusations that Hispanic immigrants were being terrorized in the town for months. Some said that the victims' pleas had originally fallen on deaf ears with Suffolk County police.

We've all heard nightmare tales reminding us of why you shouldn't date your boss, but a Long Island woman learned an even tougher lesson when things went sour with her boyfriend, who also happened to be her landlord. Kim Hookey wanted a full 30 days notice when things went sour with boyfriend Robert Drost—because what's better than living together with your ex for the first month after everything goes haywire? Drost insisted that he wasn't trying to play Hookey; he merely was following the letter of the law which said he only had to give her ten days to pack up her things and leave his Northport house. A judge agreed with Drost that she did not have rights as a "tenant-at-will." Drost's lawyer believed the case could be summed up succinctly by saying, "He owns the house. He asked her to leave. She said she wouldn't." The Suffolk judge said the it's the first time an appellate court "has directly addressed the paramour licensee issue." A Hofstra law professor told Newsday, "It doesn't mean that when all relationships go sour that a boyfriend can evict his partner lickety-split."

Officials in Babylon have announced that the town will become the first on the Atlantic seaboard to offer free WiFi at beaches, parks and pools. The Suffolk County town will be opening four separate internet cafes at its various beaches over the next few weeks, the first one debuting this weekend at Overlook Beach. The cafes will also offer three free laptops as loaners and the signal will be strong enough to reach nearby boaters. Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone told the Post, "For the first time you'll be able to surf the Internet. It is very cool. We're very excited. You can take it down to the water, you can go into the water, if you want to." Less cool news recently came out of nearby Robert Moses State Park, where the only signal beach goers were getting was from Park officials telling them to head elsewhere since large portions of the shore had to be closed off due to erosion.

A complaint to child services led police to a home in Mastic Beach where seven children were being raised in conditions of utter squalor and prompted the arrests five adults who lived there. Newsday reports that the house had no heat along with "no running water, feces on the floor and bottles of urine around the house, with rotted food in the refrigerator." On top of that, "appliances and lights that were being run off a generator, a television was being charged with a car battery and cooking was being done indoors with propane." The seven children ranged from ages two to thirteen and are now in foster care with an order of protection from their former caretakers. One of the five adults was also charged with animal cruelty after the SPCA discovered two dogs and 14 cats. One neighbor told the paper that she refused to open windows in the side of her house that faced their home. A Suffolk County official said redundantly, "It was obviously a health hazard."

Not generally known for its scenic views, drivers along the Long Island Expressway over the last two weeks have been getting an eyeful from a man who has been walking naked along the side of the road in Suffolk County. After reports of his nudity had poured in on eight of the previous nine days, police finally caught up with Joseph Galigano coming out of the woods near Exit 57 on the LIE in Yaphank on Thursday night. Galigano rushed to get away and drove his jeep onto the wrong side of the road, but quickly surrendered to cops. The 39-year-old butcher was charged with public lewdness, disorderly conduct, reckless driving and several vehicle and traffic violations. Newsday reports that Galigano has a previous charge of public lewdness along with endangering the welfare of a child back in 1997. After being arrested, he told police that he had personal problems and that his streaking was "some kind of rush for him."

"I opened my bedroom door and right in front of me there was a tire spinning at eye level," Long Island homeowner Jim Cordo told Newsday after a crazy car crash delivered a totaled Ford Mustang into the front of his house. After falling asleep at the wheel around 6:30 this morning, the driver struck a pile of firewood, sending his vehicle airborne and up over the hood of Cordo's car in the driveway. According to Cordo: "He went over my car and embedded himself into my house. It had to be airborne when it hit my car." Miraculously, no one was seriously injured, though the family's two orange tabbies are now missing. The driver reportedly apologized to Cordo and was not arrested or charged.

A 14-year-old boy was shot last night outside a basketball game in Mastic Beach. As awards were being given out after a tournament at William Floyd High School in Suffolk County, shots were heard between the gym and the parking lot. A freshman was then rushed inside to be treated for a gunshot wound to his calf. The boy was a student, but not one of the players and there has been no word yet on the identity of the shooter or if it was another student as well. The athletic director described the chaotic scene saying, "We went into immediate lockdown mode...The cheerleaders were moved into a visiting locker room area, and the spectators from (visiting high school) Mercy were put in a hallway away from the crime scene. No one was allowed to leave for 20 minutes while we waited for emergency personnel and the police."

A Long Island woman was arraigned yesterday on manslaughter charges after beating up her 75-year-old mother and leaving her to die, incapacitated and unable to get help in her Islip home. The altercation took place after the victim, Marlene Young, chastised her daughter for purchasing too many groceries. After turning around, Young was kicked from behind by her daughter Laurie and then dragged across the floor and onto the bed. Laurie Young first told police the next day that she had discovered her mother dead in bed, only to later expound upon the incident that took place. An officer involved with the case informed Newsday, "One of the things Laurie Young told us was that she put her mother back into her bed and would not call the police because she was afraid of being arrested for her actions."

A hit-and-run driver was struck by another vehicle minutes after he struck another car and left the scene of the first accident. 21-year-old Mark Durfee was driving his SUV on Conklin St. when his Explorer rear-ended a Nissan shortly after midnight Saturday. The driver of the Nissan wasn't hurt, but Durfee sped off. Later, Durfee left his car on Route 110 and attempted to cross the highway on foot. At that point, a red Dodge...