Results tagged “thebrooklynda”

If a bank teller told you had an unknown bank account with $5.8 million in it and the bank insisted it's yours, wouldn't you spend it? That's what Brooklyn resident Benjamin Lovell did - and now he's paying.

A city medical examiner spent two days testifying in the trial of Cesar Rodriguez, who face murder charges over his 7-year-old stepdaughter Nixzmary Brown's death. Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson revealed two things: That the girl only gained one pound in two and a half years and that she was dead for seven hours before 911 was called.

Prosecutors having intimate relationships with defense lawyers happens on TV shows all the time, but a real life drama is playing out in Brooklyn. Former prosecutor Sandra Fernandez, accused of using her position in the Brooklyn DA's office to give information to her defense lawyer fiance, was arraigned on 12 counts of criminal charges. Fernandez allegedly ran criminal history and motor vehicle checks on three prosecution witnesses in cases handled by fiance - and now...

Over a week ago, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against ex-FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio after their star witness's credibility came into question. DeVecchio's trial was as high-profile as they come, as the Brooklyn DA's office charged him with tipping off mobster-turned-FBI information Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa Jr. with information that led to four murders, and their case hinged on the testimony of Scarpa's mistress, Linda Schiro. In late October, Schiro had testified...

Blockbuster trial no more: Former FBI Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio escaped four murder charges when the Brooklyn DA's office decided to dismiss its case accusing him of helping a mobster kill his rivals. The move became clear after Village Voice reporter Tom Robbins realized that the prosecution's star witness had told him very different things in a 1997 interview.

Supreme Court Justice Jill Konviser has ruled that the three men charged in the murder of Michael Sandy can be charged with murder as a hate crime. Last October, Anthony Fortunato, John Fox, and Ilya Shurov had lured Michael Sandy through a gay chat room to meet them near the Belt Parkway. When Sandy arrived, they robbed and beat him, causing him to flee into the highway and get hit by a car. Sandy was critically injured and after many days, his family decided to turn take him off life support.

The Brooklyn DA's office arrested four NYC Transit Authority workers for trying to bilk the Workers' Compensation system of thousands of dollars for "injuries they either never sustained or grossly exaggerated." For instance, there's Valerie Scroggins, a bus driver who said that she suffered a shoulder injury last September. Between September and January of this year, she received $13,348.98 in checks for her injury. But in November, she took a fateful trip to Europe.

The Queens DA's office has charged a man in the murder of 20-year-old Natasha Ramen. And it turns out that Hemant Megnath had raped Ramen in 2005; police believe the Megnath slashed Ramen's throat last Thursday to keep her from testifying about the rape.

Who's that? Why, it's Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson, taped by the Brooklyn DA's office. Garson is on trial for accepting bribes from lawyers while presiding over divorce cases - and the accusations are incredible. The 74-year-old jurist, who is now suspended, allegedly accepted cash, cigars, meals and more from lawyers who wanted their clients to win. And how was Garson's side business discovered? When a woman wanted to get a "fixer" to bribe the judge because she wanted to win her divorce and child custody case... only to find out that her husband's lawyer already bribed Garson!

Last week, a drunk driver - whose license was suspended since 2003 - sped through a red light, hit two cars and injured six people, including a 12 year old boy walking to school. Now it turns out driver Jiankai Huang was not only drunk and driving without a license but he was "slapping his 18 year old female companion" - who was sitting the backseat. The companion was seriously injured in the accident, and the Brooklyn DA will be using a new vehicular assault charge for the first time.

What happens when young assistant district attorney sees a brick he can't resist? The Post reports that 27 year old Matthew Knouff, a prosecutor in the Brooklyn DA's office, was arrested after throwing a brick through the window of the Water Street Restaurant & Lounge in DUMBO. During the office holiday party, no less.

Last weekend, a 24 year old Pakistani immigrant was beaten up by a group of Orthodox Jewish teens. Shahid Amber had been outside a Dunkin' Donuts in Midwood when one of the teens asked him if he was Muslim. When Amber said he was, the group attacked him. Witnesses called 911 to say 10-12 men had jumped him and Amber told the Daily News, "They hit me in the face with brass knuckles four or five times while somebody held my hands. Then they all beat and kicked me. They were screaming 'Muslim m-f-r. You m-f-g Muslim terrorists. Go back to your country.'"

Three men were indicted yesterday for murder and attempted robbery as hate crimes in the Belt Parkway death of Michael Sandy. Ilya Shurov, Anthony Fortunato, and John Fox are accused of going to a gay chat room and asking Sandy to meet them at Plum Beach off the Belt Parkway. There, the three men are suspected of robbing and beating Sandy, who then ran to the highway and was hit by a car. Sandy lay brain dead in a coma for a few days until his family decided to take him off the life support. The Brooklyn DA's office explained how the incident could be classified as a hate crime:

Typically, according to state law, Hate Crimes are charged when prosecutors believe the defendants acted out of bias against the victims’ race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. But the less used section of the law calls for Hate Crimes to be charged when the defendant “intentionally selects the person against whom the offense is committed or intended to be committed based on a belief about those same factors.

Continue reading "Three Charged with Murder as Hate Crime "

The Brooklyn DA's office has expanded its indictment of the men involved in an illegal tissue harvesting scheme. While the criminal counts stay, the new indictment says the men took bodies, cut them up and harvested organs, bones, and more from funeral homes in Manhattan, the Bronx, and upstate (the original charge was just in Brooklyn). Selling tissue or body parts is illegal, unless there is consent from the donor or next of kin, but the defendants in this case just seized the bodies and would sell parts. They used PVC pipes to replace bones so no one would notice at funerals and falsely claiming that tissue and organs had come from healthy bodies when the some of the deceased actually had cancer (one of the bodies harvested was that of Alistaire Cooke!). A harvested body can bring in $250,000 for that various tissue and organs.

The Daily Politics uploaded video of Assemblywoman Diane Gordon "appearing to solicit a bribe." After compiling evidence that Gordon was asking for bribes from a developer interested in land in the 40th District, the Brooklyn DA's office offered her a deal that would let her off if she quit. But then Gordon announced she was running for reelection.

As expected Darryl Littlejohn has been indicted for first-degree murder in the killing of Imette St. Guillen.

While the police touted the DNA evidence found on plastic ties (originally used on computer equipment) links Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn to the murder of Imette St. Guillen, the police's case may not be that strong. The NY Times reports that the police are still gathering evidence for the case where most of the evidence is circumstantial - even though there has been a lot of to examine. The Post looks at how the blood left on the ties was "invisible." Of course, Littlejohn's lawyer is upset that the police didn't disclose the information to him, going to the media instead and says that it'll be hard to "find twelve impartial jurors." The Brooklyn DA's office, though, is forging ahead, going to present evidence to a sitting grand jury today. And the State Liquor Authority has stopped its investigation of the Falls (over hiring ex-con Littlejohn, which is against the law) while the NYPD is still investigating the murder.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly decided to put a rest to many leaks and give the news himself: Blood found on ties that were in binding the hands of murdered graduate student Imette St. Guillen matches the DNA of Falls bouncer Darryl Littlejohn. The Brooklyn DA's office is going for a grand jury indictment this week, and Littlejohn has been in police custody for almost a week for parole violation, which is why the NYPD hasn't pressed charges against him yet - he's "not going anywhere." St. Guillen's family, though, isn't commenting until Littlejohn is formally charged.

The Brooklyn DA's office went on the offense after a grand jury indicted four men on 122 counts associated with running an illegal body parts snatching and selling scheme. The DAs assembled for a press conference where they showed X-rays of bodies where bones had been replaced by PVC piping, gloves and aprons, and we have to say, that is some crazy look stuff. Not only is it illegal to falsify records and plunder bodies without their families consent, a big issue is how the bodies weren't tested for various diseases or were falsified as being younger when their parts were cut and sent all over the place. The issues related to the health implications are much thornier and have some federal consequences as well. For instance, one woman's sister died of ovarian cancer, but her records were changed to say she died of "multiple blunt trauma" - not to mention the fact that she was never cremated, as her family had requested.

- The Brooklyn DA's office totally overpays its employees - wonder what Morgy thinks!

Fifteen members of the drug ring, including the priestess, were charged on 133 counts of dealing drugs (cocaine, crack, heroin, Ecstasy) to residents in Bay Ridge and Park Slope. Deana Rodriguez, head of the DA's office gang bureau, said, "She's not a very good Santeria, is she? They're all in jail!" Oh, snap, drug dealers - you got served! Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, noting the arrests of 10 of the drug ring's clients, said, "This is a message to people who think it's cute to buy drugs on the weekend and go to their summer homes to shoot up and to snort up." [Via Matte]