CITYWIDE

NYCLU CHARGES POLICE WITH INDISCRIMINATE ARRESTS AT RNC

The police indiscriminately arrested and detained for excessively long periods of time hundreds of peaceful protesters during the Republican National Convention last year, according to a 64-page report published by the New York Civil Liberties Union yesterday. The report detailed a litany of complaints filed against the Police Department, including the illegal fingerprinting of people charged with minor offenses, which political activists feared would be used to create a database to monitor their activities, the civil liberties organization wrote in its report. The police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, defended the department’s activities during the convention. He said the data collected by the civil liberties union contained “gross inaccuracies” and was based on “self-serving statements by individuals who were arrested during the course of the convention.”

– Special to the Sun

PARKS DEPARTMENT TO HIRE PEACE OFFICERS TO PATROL PARKLAND

For the first time in more than two decades, the parks department will hire 70 peace officers to patrol the more than 28,000 acres of parkland across the city. The positions, however, may not be funded beyond next June, by which time the $2 million earmarked in this year’s city budget will have been spent. The number of unarmed security officers, who also write citations, has dwindled over the last three decades from 225 to 72 today, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group New Yorkers for Parks, Rowena Daly, said.

– Special to the Sun

LONG ISLAND

JUDGE ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH MOB STING

A Nassau County District Court judge was arrested yesterday, along with three alleged members of the Gambino crime family and 11 other men, in connection with an FBI investigation of gambling, extortion, and money laundering on Long Island. The judge, David Gross, was charged in connection with alleged money laundering. His lawyer, John Carmen of Garden City, was quoted by Newsday as saying Judge Gross is “a respectable judge and not an associate of organized crime.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

CONSTRUCTION OF FULTON STREET TRANSIT CENTER BEGINS

Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg announced the start of construction on the new Fulton Street Transit Center across the street from the World Trade Center site yesterday. Standing outside the temporary PATH station at the site, the governor and the mayor said the start of construction on the new transit hub was proof of Lower Manhattan’s rebirth. The governor said the new transit hub would be a “light, airy, accessible, 21st-century transit hub” for the people who live and work downtown. Mr. Bloomberg said the construction was just one of the many revitalization projects going on in Lower Manhattan. Next week, he said, there would be another groundbreaking, at the new PATH station, designed by Santiago Calatrava. By early next year, the restoration of West Street will have begun. In the next two weeks, the finishing touches will be put on 7 World Trade Center, and ground will be broken on the $2 billion Freedom Tower and Memorial.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BROOKLYN

JURY SELECTION STARTS IN TRIAL OF BROOKLYN ASSEMBLYMAN

Jury selection in the trial of Brooklyn Assemblyman Clarence Norman began Monday in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. In 2003, Mr. Norman, the 53-year-old Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman, was indicted on four charges, and will have to go through four separate trials. In this, the first, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes will attempt to prove that Mr. Norman falsified his re-election committee’s business records on multiple occasions and failed to report thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Jury selection will continue today at 320 Jay St., and opening arraignments may begin any time between Thursday and next week, said a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, Jonah Bruno.

– Special to the Sun