Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:31:16 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Aaron Smith :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Aaron+Smith istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/former-nypd-brass-prosecutor-take-crime-fight/8450/ Mon, 31 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Top police officials and a prosecutor who played key roles in New York City's crackdown on crime in the 1990s have taken their law enforcement skills to lead departments at Los Angeles, Miami, Providence, and Sarasota. During their tenure, all four cities have recorded decreases in crime beyond the national average. The lawmen cut their teeth on the Compstat system of crime statistics and the quality-of-life style of policing at a time when New York was synonymous with urban blight. While the... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/gambling-ring-members-charged/7686/ Fri, 14 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST A Mafia-connected online gambling ring placed $200 million in illegal horse-racing bets over the last five years and "doped" thoroughbreds for enhanced performance, according to federal prosecutors. Seventeen defendants were indicted at Manhattan federal court yesterday. Members of the Uvari and Appelbaum families are accused of leading the ring and using threats of violence to collect gambling debts. Police and prosecutor say the ring was connected to the Genovese and Gambino crime families... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/convicted-killer-arrested-in-stabbings/7417/ Mon, 10 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST A homeless man who did time for manslaughter was back behind bars this weekend after he was arrested in connection with three stabbings at Penn Station. Police are investigating whether he is connected to a stabbing at Times Square. Jesse Nettles, 58, a homeless man whose address was given at Bellevue Hospital, was arrested by Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers for allegedly stabbing two employees of TGI Friday's at the train station at 9:40 p.m. Saturday, according to police and... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ex-con-doorman-charged-in-upper-east-side-jewelry/7344/ Fri, 7 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST A popular doorman who won the trust and the house keys of residents at an East Side co-op helped himself to a quarter-million dollars in jewelry and even walked off with a resident's safe, prosecutors said. Edgardo Rodriguez, 39, of Brooklyn, who landed a job as a doorman at the Southgate co-op at East 52nd Street despite his status as a convicted felon, was arraigned yesterday at Manhattan Criminal Court for stealing $250,000 worth of property, including antique custom-designed jewelry. "He is... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/criminal-charges-filed-in-fatal-crash/7140/ Tue, 4 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST A Queens man was charged yesterday with deliberately causing a car crash on the Whitestone Expressway that led to the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and another woman. Neng Piao Zhang, 43, of Flushing, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the deaths of Xin-Zi Zhang, 37, and Chun-Zi Zin, 42. Mr. Zhang, who was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court yesterday, is not related to the women, though police said he is the former boyfriend of one of them. Mr. Zhang... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/brooklyn-arson-kills-four-called-murder-suicide/7067/ Mon, 3 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST A Brooklyn fire that killed four people, including two children, and injured three others was the work of an arsonist who died in the New Year's Day conflagration, according to officials. "I don't know what devil would do this, especially with three children sleeping in the room," an in-law of one of the survivors, Jane Constantine, 70, said. "It had to be somebody crazy." Police identified the dead as Ribule Lemorin, 43, Nadege Viaud, 31, and her two children, Jeffrey, 5, and Bernard, 2. The... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-backup-in-chelsea-hostlers-farriers/6825/ Tue, 28 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The hostler stuck his fingers in the mouth of the police horse and peeled back its top lip, revealing a number tattooed across the pink flesh. The tattoo divulged the gelding's history as a former racehorse. The supple, well-groomed chestnut ran the tracks before it joined the force. Given the excitable nature of thoroughbreds, it takes an experienced handler to look one in the mouth. "The racehorses are excited, jumping all the time," Jaime Cedeno, a civilian hostler for the New York Police... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/kerik-love-nest-landlord-ran-over-homeless-woman/6699/ Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST In an early-morning accident more than four years ago, a homeless woman was run over and crushed by a sport utility vehicle as she slept on the entrance ramp of an Upper East Side parking garage. The woman has not been identified. The driver, however, is a prominent real-estate executive and law-enforcement philanthropist, Anthony Bergamo. Mr. Bergamo, now 58, is vice chairman of Milstein Properties and founder of the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. After the September 11 attacks, it was he... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/second-suspect-arrested-in-2003-murder/6640/ Wed, 22 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST John Guica arrived at his Brooklyn home Monday night, his arms laden with Christmas gifts he had just purchased in Manhattan. He never made it through the door: Detectives who had waited more than a year to arrest him staked out his home and pounced on Mr. Guica, who will be spending Christmas in jail. Mr. Guica, 20, was charged in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday with providing a semiautomatic handgun to Antonio Russo, who was charged last month with the murder of New Jersey native... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ghost-employees-born-in-9-11-cleanup/6428/ Fri, 17 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST In exchange for theater tickets and limousine-chauffeured dinner dates, employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey granted no-show jobs to contractors who were supposed to be clearing wreckage from the World Trade Center, according to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. "We were providing checks for employees that did not exist," the Port Authority's inspector general, Robert Van Etten, said. Seventeen men, including four Port Authority employees and contractors from... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/narcotics-detective-shot-19-year-old-killed/6370/ Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST A detective was wounded and a teenage gunman was killed when they struggled and then shot each other at close range inside a Bronx apartment building yesterday afternoon, police and city officials said. Detective Romeo Baloy, 42, a decorated 18-year veteran, was shot in the right hand and thigh at 2:35 p.m. at Wakefield. He was taken to Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Gayle Duran, 19, was shot in the face and other parts of his body. He was pronounced dead... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/crime-is-down-in-lower-manhattan/6169/ Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The city's 1st Precinct, which includes the Financial District and ground zero, had the largest crime drop in Manhattan this year, and the concentration of counterterrorism police in the area could be a factor. Crime dropped 10.9 % at the 1st Precinct through December 5, largely because of declines in felony assault, burglary, and grand larceny, according to Compstat, a system used by the police department to track the seven major FBI crime categories. The crime decline for Manhattan's... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/argument-ends-with-stabbing-at-a-mosque/6171/ Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST A Saturday night spat among teenage girls at a Brooklyn mosque only got worse after their parents stepped in, and the mother of one girl stabbed the father of another, police said. Jacquelyn Binyon, 55, of Philadelphia, was charged with stabbing a 46-year-old man in the neck at Al Farooq Mosque at Boerum Hill, police said. The victim, who was not identified, was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. The mosque's president, 66-year-old Amin Awad, said the two girls... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fire-at-high-rise-forces-evacuation-of-its/6093/ Fri, 10 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST A 91-year-old blind woman, Judith Druck, awoke to the smell of smoke early yesterday morning in her Queens high-rise apartment. Ms. Druck got up and opened all the windows, called the doorman, and stayed in her apartment, not realizing that the source of the flames was in the apartment next door. "This is my Chanukah miracle," Ms. Druck told her granddaughter, after the firefighters evacuated her and doused the flames at North Shore Towers. Ms. Druck lives on the third floor of the 33-story... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/morgenthau-reform-ny-drug-laws/5868/ Tue, 7 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, called for a reform of Rockefeller-era drug laws yesterday, as state legislators renew talks this week on changing laws that carry some of the harshest penalties in the country. "I raise these issues now, in the hope that lawmakers, who will be back in Albany this week, will use the time to consider both changes in the law and more resources for treatment and prevention," Mr. Morgenthau said, referring to the 1973 law that imposes mandatory... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/rise-in-homicides-shatters-success-of-broken/5790/ Mon, 6 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST NEWARK, N.J. - When Eliza DeAlmeida heard gunshots on her Newark block the morning after Thanksgiving, she didn't bother to call police because she assumed it had been fireworks. The 17-year-old thought real gunfire was rapid-fire, like the spate of gunshots she heard last year from the nearby Seth Boyden housing project. The four or five shots she heard last Friday were more distinct. "It wasn't in quick succession," said Ms. DeAlmeida, who was in her bedroom when she heard the shots sometime... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/parolee-arrested-after-deadly-queens-home-invasion/5717/ Fri, 3 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The dapper suspect who adopted as an alias the name of a famous basketball player was on his way to a parole office when he barged into the house of an Ozone Park man and stabbed him to death, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday in announcing the man's arrest. "We were assisted in identifying him when he dropped an envelope at the crime scene, which included his ID and parole papers," Mr. Kelly said. The suspect, Albert Massie of Brooklyn, showed up for a scheduled meeting with his... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-to-return-jewelry-to-9-11-survivors/5720/ Fri, 3 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was absolute, and family members of many victims were left with no remains to bury, but the Police Department has launched a Web site to try and reunite hundreds of survivors with unclaimed pieces of jewelry. "They all have their own particular story, and they're all of sentimental significance to the families who are waiting for some word of their relatives," said the commanding officer of the Property Clerk Division, Jack... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/firefighter-killed-another-wounded-fighting/5587/ Wed, 1 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST A Bronx firefighter and National Guardsman who was honored four years ago for helping to rescue two people from a fire was killed in Iraq when his vehicle came under enemy attack. Another city firefighter was wounded in the attack. Sergeant Christian Engeldrum, 39, a five-year Fire Department veteran and former police officer who served with Ladder Company 61 at Co-op City, was killed Monday near Baghdad, according to Mayor Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. "As a firefighter... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-arrest-suspect-in-year-old-killing/5305/ Wed, 24 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST More than a year after the body of a Fairfield University sophomore was ditched on a Brooklyn street, investigators yesterday finally tracked down the suspected gunman, charged with killing his victim for $20. "People do strange things for money," Brooklyn's district attorney, Charles Hynes, said. "Twenty dollars doesn't seem like a hell of a lot, but maybe that's what set it off." Antonio Russo, 18, of Brooklyn, was arrested for fatally shooting Mark Fisher, 19, of Andover, N.J., on October... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/federal-prosecutors-take-case-making-death/5227/ Tue, 23 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Federal prosecutors yesterday took over a state case in the Staten Island murders of two detectives in what critics are calling the latest attempt to federalize a criminal case to make it eligible for the death penalty. Ronell Wilson, 22, was arraigned at Brooklyn federal court yesterday for the execution-style slaying of undercover detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin on March 10, 2003, as well as a slew of charges including robbery, conspiracy, and racketeering. Four accomplices are... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/suspect-sought-after-man-found-dead-at-midtown/5178/ Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Midtown police are seeking a man who allegedly clubbed to death a carpenter at a Single Room Occupancy hotel. "When Giuliani cleaned up the city, he forgot about his building," said a five-year resident who knew the killer and the victim. "We're living worse than in a Third World country." Robert McLaughlin, 54, described by his neighbors as decent and well liked, had moved into the building six months ago. He was killed at 2 a.m. after getting into a dispute with a neighbor. The accused... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/two-are-arrested-after-brazen-bank-robbery/4931/ Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Police collared a Bonnie and Clyde duo accused of a brazen lunchtime bank robbery yesterday when their stolen getaway car crashed into vehicles at an Upper East Side intersection, injuring police officers and scattering cash in the street. Taxicab driver Surinder Kumar, 38, said he feared being carjacked when the getaway car crashed into the front of his cab while he waited at a traffic light at East 85th Street and First Avenue. "The robber, he was trying to open the door," said Mr. Kumar. "I... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/in-court-prosecutors-and-defense-offer-diverging/4863/ Tue, 16 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Manhattan federal prosecutors yesterday labeled Peter Gotti and Thomas Carbonaro - alleged Gambino crime family boss and soldier, respectively - as extorters and loan sharks who conspired to murder Salvatore Gravano, whose testimony helped send the former Gambino boss, John Gotti, to spend the last 10 years of his life behind bars. Peter Gotti, who is serving a nine-year sentence on an extortion conviction, spent his 65th birthday sitting in a courtroom while prosecutors accused him of shaking... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/complaints-against-nypd-are-up-by-14/4559/ Wed, 10 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Civilian complaints filed against the New York Police Department showed a double-digit jump in the first half of the year, the Civilian Complaint Review Board said in a report. According to the Police Department, that reflects the growing ease of filing complaints, not an increase in misconduct. "The CCRB received more complaints during the period covered in this report than in any six-month period in its history as an agency independent of the NYPD," the board's chairman, Hector Gonzalez... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/teen-slugs-officer-and-escapes/4480/ Tue, 9 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Brooklyn police were searching yesterday for a teenager who they said slugged a sergeant with her handcuffs and escaped custody with the manacles hanging from her wrist. The 15-year-old, whom police would not identify because she is a juvenile, was arrested yesterday morning on a warrant for marijuana possession at her home on Surf Avenue. Detectives from the Kings County Juvenile Crimes Squad handcuffed the girl with her hands behind her back, put her in an unmarked gray van, and drove her to... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/online-auction-cuts-costs-for-nypd/4434/ Mon, 8 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Faced with a near-constant need to purge unclaimed property that has outlived its usefulness as evidence, the New York Police Department has gone online to find a nationwide clientele. But the police don't use e-Bay, they use a rapidly growing upstart that is specially tailored for departments across the country. "They need it out of their way and out of their warehouses," Thomas Lane, chief executive officer of online auctioneer Propertyroom.com, said of the police evidence inventories... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/two-british-bobbies-nab-stabbing-suspect/3837/ Wed, 27 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST A husband and wife duo of British bobbies on vacation were hailed as heroes yesterday for collaring a suspect in a bloody Diamond Row knife attack. Sergeant Colin Webber and Constable Claire Webber of the Leicestershire Constabulary, England, were standing outside a 47th Street shop debating the merits of pricey jewelry. "My wife was trying to con me into buying a diamond necklace, actually," said Mr. Webber, 37. The Webbers, who joined the constabulary together six-and-a-half years ago, heard... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/boy-3-discovers-his-parents-dead-in-their/3768/ Tue, 26 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST A 3-year-old Manhattan boy entered his parents' bedroom yesterday and found his mother lying on the floor dead with a cord around her neck and his father's body hanging from a ceiling pipe. Juan Garcia, the dead man's brother, lives across the hall at the Lower East Side walk-up. Mr. Garcia answered his door at 10:33 a.m. to find the boy standing there. "Mami y Papi estan muertos," said the boy. Mr. Garcia called 911 after he went into the apartment and took in the grisly scene. Julio Garcia... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/national/fbi-report-nyc-crime-fell-more-than-national/3772/ Tue, 26 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Citywide crime dropped in 2003 at a significantly faster rate than the nationwide decline in crime, according to FBI statistics released yesterday. The New York City crime rate dropped 5.8% last year, compared to a decline of 0.5% across the country, according to the FBI report. City officials pointed to anticrime initiatives as crucial factors in dragging down overall crime. The annual FBI report indicates that nationwide, every type of violent crime fell last year, with one notable exception... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/nonfatal-domestic-abuse-reported-to-be-on/3608/ Fri, 22 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST While nonfatal domestic abuse crimes have declined so far this year, the rate of domestic homicides has been steady when compared with last year, according to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Of the 446 homicides committed through October 21 this year, 49 were deemed domestic, said Mr. Kelly at a press conference held in recognition of Domestic Abuse Awareness Month. Of the more than 480 murders during the same period last year, the tally of domestic homicides was the same: 49. Over the past... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-arrest-4-after-heated-i-95-car-chase/3615/ Fri, 22 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Without firing a shot, Bronx police arrested four suspects accused of robbing an auto repair shop at gunpoint yesterday and then shooting at a police cruiser on the New England Thruway. No one was injured in the three-mile, five-minute pursuit, which began at The Bronx and ended at New Rochelle. The incident began at 10 a.m. at Classique Auto repair shop on Tillotson Avenue, near Co-op City. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the owner of the shop dialed 911 and left the phone off the hook... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/carbon-monoxide-poisoning-kills-well-known/3460/ Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Three generations of an Albanian family, including a recently widowed singer well known among the Albanian community, died of carbon monoxide poisoning at their Staten Island home, according to police and family members. Anita Bitri, 36, a singer who had recently released a new album, her mother, Azbije, 66, and her daughter, Sibora, 8, were discovered dead at their Ocean Avenue home yesterday at 8:24 a.m., police said. A friend of the family who visited the home found the bodies. "She was a... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/woman-confesses-to-two-borough-swastika-blitz/3391/ Tue, 19 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST A woman jealous of her ex-husband scrawled swastikas on 20 different sites in Brooklyn and Queens, including synagogues, Jewish schools, Sephardic community centers, private homes, and even police cars, according to the police. Police said Olga Abramovich, 49, of Bay Ridge, confessed to spraying the swastikas. She was charged yesterday with criminal mischief and related charges. Ms. Abramovich painted swastikas on Jewish synagogues and community centers at Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/business/spitzer-halts-9-11-coin-sales/3212/ Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST Attorney General Eliot Spitzer slapped an Westchester County company with a court order yesterday, halting sales of commemorative dollar coins purportedly from recovered silver excavated from the ruins of the World Trade Center and supposedly endorsed by the American government. As a result of the order, National Collector's Mint, a private company based in Port Chester, NY, is temporarily barred from selling its 'Freedom Tower Silver Dollar," a coin that depicts the World Trade Center with the... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/investigators-at-mafia-dig-unearth-bones-of-two/3117/ Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST FBI agents and police investigators digging at a suspected mob graveyard in Queens have unearthed what are believed to be the bones of two captains of the Bonanno crime family slain more than 20 years ago. The remains uncovered at the abandoned Ozone Park lot are believed to be the bones of Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera and Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone, according to a law enforcement source. "We went back to the site where we uncovered human remains yesterday, and we continued to uncover... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/judge-denies-bail-to-gotti-jr/2752/ Wed, 6 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST A federal magistrate judge yesterday denied bail for John A. Gotti Jr., the convicted crime family racketeer who has been charged with ordering three murder attempts, including targeting the founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa. Judge Frank Maas shot down Gotti's bid to post $10 million bail and spend his next trial under house confinement, citing Gotti as a "threat to public safety" and "a player in the Gambino crime family." "The bottom line is, anyone who is a member of the Gambino... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/as-crime-rate-drops-by-nearly-5-nypd-credits/2683/ Tue, 5 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST The crime rate in the city has dipped so far this year and the New York Police Department is crediting Operation Impact, a program that sends police reinforcements into troubled neighborhoods. "We keep crime down by staying focused through Operation Impact and through the continued hard work of the men and women of the NYPD," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement released to The New York Sun. According to the police department's Compstat system, the crime rate slid 4.78% through... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/teenagers-rescued-in-sheepshead-bay/2605/ Mon, 4 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST In a dramatic air-sea rescue, helicopter-borne police officers dove into the drink and saved two teenage sailors whose drifting boat had capsized at Sheepshead Bay. A police aviation unit responding to a 911 call at 10 a.m. yesterday flew to the water south of Manhattan Beach. Sergeant Edward Schulze, captain of the helicopter's five-man crew, spotted a "shimmer in the light," which turned out to be an overturned sailboat with two males, a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old, clinging to the hull... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/rikers-inmate-beaten-to-death-by-six-others/2639/ Mon, 4 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST A 21-year-old inmate at Rikers Island Correction Facility was beaten to death yesterday by six other inmates. A female corrections officer managed to pull the victim from the midst of the all-male melee, but he was pronounced dead a short time later at the correctional facility's medical clinic, according to a spokesman for the city Department of Corrections, Tom Antenen. Mr. Antenen said the assault occurred at 1:30 p.m. at the George Motchan Detention Center, a facility housing 2,200 inmates... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-round-up-35-suspected-urban-housing-cheats/2536/ Fri, 1 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST In what authorities called the largest single sweep of housing-fraud suspects, dozens of tenants were charged with defrauding the Department of Housing and Urban Development. With 35 suspects arrested and two more expected to surrender to face federal charges at the Southern District of New York, authorities accused tenants of concealing tens of thousands of dollars in annual income to qualify for enviably low rents, or of subletting the apartments to turn a profit while they lived elsewhere... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-collar-suspects-who-invaded-homes/2468/ Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Suspected members of a home invasion crew linked to more than 80 robberies over the last four years, as well as one homicide, two gunpoint kidnappings, and a shootout with police, were collared in early morning raids by police officers and federal agents. The suspects allegedly posed as plainclothes police officers to gain entrance to homes and businesses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens where they believed large amounts of cash were stored. The suspects allegedly targeted check-cashing... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/man-convicted-of-impersonating-education-official/2393/ Wed, 29 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST A high-risk sex offender was convicted yesterday at Queens Supreme Court for impersonating a Department of Education official, illegally entering two public schools, and rifling through confidential student files at one of those schools. Matthew Matagrano, 28, of Jackson Heights, a convicted sex offender who once applied to work for the Department of Education but was not hired, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in the third degree for entering two schools in his neighborhood on May 4 to... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/commuters-scramble-as-penn-station-fire-paralyzes/2322/ Tue, 28 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST An underground transformer fire sent smoke billowing into Pennsylvania Station yesterday, sickening civilians and causing a power outage that paralyzed Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road service at the station throughout the afternoon, as commuters scrambled for other ways to leave the city. A transformer in the Amtrak River Tunnel burned up at 12:54 p.m., and it was 7 p.m. before limited rail service "in all three directions" was restored, according to an Amtrak spokesman, Marc Magliari. He said... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/dog-dispute-in-queens-leads-to-surprise-find/2141/ Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST On a block of tidy, Tudor-style duplexes in Ozone Park, the Addiego residence was the odd one out, with its barred windows," Beware of Dog" signs, and American flags interspersed with life-sized plastic geese wearing handknitted sweaters and matching caps. "Can't you tell it's a very odd place?" said Robert Moore, 51, whose brother-in-law was allegedly menaced by an assault rifle-wielding resident of the home. Despite the home's eclectic exterior, police officers were still surprised at what... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ghastly-killing-claims-the-life-of-a-2-year-old/1992/ Tue, 21 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST In a particularly horrifying murder, a 2-year-old who was being toilet-trained was beaten until his bones were broken and his liver was crushed, and then was left to languish for hours without medical care until he finally died, it was charged yesterday. The mother of the boy and her roommate are accused of beating the child to death at their Morningside Heights housing project. Zahira Matos, 20, the mother, and Carmen Molina, 32, were charged with second-degree murder, endangering the welfare... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/brooklyn-father-charged-in-sons-death/1920/ Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST The Brooklyn father of a 3-year-old boy found in a gym bag in front of a Queens church has been charged in connection with his son's death, police said. William Lee, 38, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, was charged yesterday with reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child, and illegal disposal of a body, police said. The body of his son, Marcus, was discovered in a gym bag at 10 a.m. on Friday in front of the First Baptist Church at 145-50 109th Ave. at Jamaica, according to police. Police... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/officer-mourned-in-brooklyn-was-precincts-heart/1860/ Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Detective Robert Parker sang opera while lifting weights, raised his girlfriend's daughter as his own, bought dinner for the suspects he arrested, and was known as "the black James Bond" for his dead-ringer imitations of movie stars. But a week ago today, before he ever laid eyes on his newborn goddaughter, Parker was gunned down at East Flatbush with his partner, Detective Patrick Rafferty. "He didn't get a chance to see the baby," said Ronnelle Jackson, sister to Parker's longtime girlfriend... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/officer-accidentally-shoots-friend/1862/ Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST An off-duty rookie police officer accidentally shot and killed his friend during a card game at Bay Ridge, police said. The police officer, Javier Colon, 25, joined the department one-and-a-half years ago. He was cleaning his 9mm police-issue semiautomatic inside a friend's house when it went off at 8:34 p.m. A round hit his friend, George Perez, in the face, police said. Perez, 25, of West New York, N.J., was rushed to Victory Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m... AARON SMITH http://www.nysun.com/new-york/thousands-salute-a-fallen-officer/1783/ Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Thousands of police officers from the tri-state area packed a mile long stretch of Main Street in East Islip, L.I., to bid a final farewell to Detective Patrick Rafferty, who was gunned down last week in Brooklyn and buried in his hometown yesterday. In honor of Rafferty's 15 years of service to the department and his ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, seven helicopters flew in formation over St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church as his flag-draped coffin was removed from the church...