NEW YORK (AP) — Video surveillance released Friday of the mistaken arrest of former tennis star James Blake shows…
Blog Archives
Man Killed In Fire At Trump Tower Was Trying To Sell Unit
He couldn’t give it away.
Todd Brassner
On Saturday, Todd Brassner died in the fire at Trump Tower in New York City. He had more than $3 million in artwork and other collectibles, including a portrait of himself painted by Andy Warhol. Todd was 67 years old. He lived alone and his collections included about 100 vintage electric guitars, 40 guitar amplifiers dating to the 1930s, and 150 ukuleles.
His friends said that Todd had been trying to sell his apartment since Donald Trump was elected president. The election brought increased security and activity that a friend described as “untenable”.
“It was like living in an armed camp. But when people heard it was a Trump building, he couldn’t give it away”, said Stephen Dwire, a close and long-time friend.
At least 6 firemen were injured in the blaze. There is no sprinkler system in the apartments. New York City fire marshals are still investigating but their preliminary finding is that the fire was accidental and not criminal in nature.
Our condolences to Todd’s family and friends.
New York Police Officer Hugh Barry Found Not Guilty For Killing Deborah Danner
This is becoming the norm for America. The dead cannot testify, and defendants testify what he or she thought the deceased was going to do that caused them to use discretion to take human life.
Hugh Barry, 32-years old, had been charged with murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the killing of 66-year old Deborah Danner who was in a mental health crisis.
I followed the trial at this post.
Deborah Danner
Barry opted for a bench trial. There was no jury and the judge was the only person hearing evidence and deciding the case. Justice Robert A. Neary of State Supreme Court presided over the trial.
Prosecutors argued that Barry created the conditions that placed him within a distance of Deborah Danner that he claimed caused him to feel threatened when Deborah picked up a baseball bat. There were witnesses at trial that testified not seeing Deborah swing the bat at Barry as he claimed. There were also witnesses that testified that they were following their training to calm Deborah down when Barry came into the apartment, walked past them, and entered Deborah’s bedroom.
Barry testified that he could not back away from Deborah because of other officers being too close behind him. Read the rest of this entry
Former Irondequoit, NY Cop Sentenced To Five Years For Cyberstalking
The Democrat and Chronicle reports that when first interviewed by the FBI, William Rosica claimed innocence. His former girlfriend received emails from Katy Jones. Rosica’s proof of his innocence was showing FBI agents that Katy Jones also sent him a load of emails. Rosica claimed that Katy Jones was sending emails to him to warn him that his former girlfriend was surveilling him.
“Please be careful,” read one of the Katy Jones emails to Rosica. “She is very devious and wants to ruin you. She thinks you’re with someone else.”
As the agents suspected, Rosica was using the name Katy Jones when sending the emails to his former girlfriend and himself.
“Between February 2016 and March 2017, defendant William Rosica subjected the victim to a nonstop sadistic campaign of terror and psychological torture intended to kill, injure, harass, and intimidate her”.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Rosica enlisted other police to surveil his former girlfriend; had other individuals use disposable “burner” phones to pass information onto him about her whereabouts; had someone rummage through the woman’s trash; and surreptitiously secured information about her television viewing that he then used “to show that he knew her every move”. Read the rest of this entry
Trial Starts For Cop Charged With Murder In The Death of Deborah Danner
Deborah Danner
Deborah Danner was a 66-year old senior citizen with schizophrenia. On October 18, 2016, Deborah was in her Bronx apartment when a neighbor called the police and reported that Deborah was screaming. New York City Police Sergeant Hugh Barry arrived on the scene and shot Deborah dead. For more about what happened, see my post from May 2017.
In May 2017, Barry was charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide. His trial began yesterday, January 30, 2018. It is expected to last 3 weeks. Barry has waived his rights to a jury trial and opted for a bench trial. The question to be decided by Judge Robert A. Neary is whether Sergeant Barry had exhausted other options for safely containing Ms. Danner before he fired his pistol. As I’ve written in other posts, this is clearly an abuse of discretion standard; not a beyond a reasonable doubt standard.
Deborah was intelligent. She wrote a six-page essay about her illness to a lawyer saying, “We are all aware of the all too frequent news stories about the mentally ill who come against law enforcement instead of mental health professionals and end up dead.”
The Message In His Defense Is that Black Lives Matter Is An Inconvenience Because Had Deborah Been White, Barry Would Not Have Been Charged For Killing Her
Ramarley Graham’s Family Still Seeks Personnel Records For Cops Involved In His 2012 Death
Ramarley Graham, 18-years old when killed by NYPD officer Richard Haste
Ramarley Graham was 18-years old when he was killed on February 2, 2012. He lived in the Bronx. The Street Narcotics Enforcement Unit of the New York Police Department spotted Ramarley and alleged that he was tugging on a gun in his waistband. Officer Richard Haste followed Ramarley, who went into his apartment and locked the door. The incident ended with Haste shooting Ramarley in the bathroom of his apartment. No gun was found.
The official report stated that Ramarley ran when officers identified themselves. Video evidence however, showed that Ramarley was walking into his home casually.
Officer Richard Haste was stripped of his service weapon and placed on modified duty. In 2013, Haste was indicted by a grand jury and charged with manslaughter. A judge dismissed the indictment however, citing an error in jury instructions. A second grand jury convened and Haste testified before that grand jury. That grand jury failed to indict Haste. Read the rest of this entry
NY Cop Wayne Isaacs Found Not Guilty For Killing Delrawn Small
We followed the trial, where you can also read the background of the case at this link. Wayne Isaacs was not on duty when he shot and killed Delrawn Small. However, his defense during trial was that he acted according to his training and killed Delrawn in self-defense. Within seconds of Delrawn approaching the driver’s side window of Isaacs car, Isaacs shot him three times.
Isaacs was charged with murder and the alternative charge of manslaughter.
The jury began deliberating on Thursday and today, the jury of seven women, five men, consisting of five Whites, five Blacks, one Hispanic and one Asian, handed in the verdict of not guilty. Read the rest of this entry
New York Cop Goes On Trial For Killing Delrawn Small
Delrawn Small
Delrawn Small, 37-years old, worked as a maintenance engineer at a Chelsea supermarket. He was raising three children and two stepchildren.
On July 4, 2016, Delrawn was in his car with his family when he was allegedly cut-off in traffic by Wayne Isaacs, who had just left his shift as a New York police officer. Isaacs was out of uniform, but was carrying his service weapon.
At a red light, Delrawn approached Isaacs’ car. Isaacs fired three times, hitting Delrawn in the arm, chest and abdomen, killing him.
Officer Wayne Isaacs, who joined the department in 2013, stayed at the scene and told investigators that he acted in self-defense after Mr. Small punched him through an open window.
Based on a preliminary investigation, police initially said they believed Isaacs opened fire after Delrawn reached through the officer’s open window and repeatedly hit him on the head as he sat behind the wheel. Isaacs’ claimed that he shot Delrawn in self-defense.
Then surveillance video surfaced. Read the rest of this entry
Laptop with info on Trump Tower Stolen from Secret Service agent
Can’t help but wonder if the First Lady was residing in the White House, if the Secret Service would have been in New York?
Image Credit: Getty Images
NEWS.MIC
Police are scrambling to retrieve a laptop that was stolen from a Secret Service agent in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday morning.
The computer contained information about Trump Tower and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, authorities told the New York Daily News.
The Daily News and other outlets first reported that the computer’s contents were classified, but a Secret Service statement later indicated otherwise.
“Secret Service issued laptops contain multiple layers of security including full disk encryption and are not permitted to contain classified information,” the statement reads. The Secret Service, however, will of course continue investigating the theft.
.@SecretService “laptops contain multiple layers of security inlc full disk encryption & are not permitted to contain classified info” pic.twitter.com/C6GRh8h585
— Celeste Katz (@CelesteKatzNYC) March 17, 2017
The laptop was reportedly swiped from the agent’s vehicle…
View original post 175 more words
New York Police Officer Charged For Lying
Jonathan Munoz, Sitting Center. Photo credit, Jefferson Siegel, NY Daily News
It was on March 12, 2014 when 21-year old Jason Disisto was arrested by New York police officer Jonathan Munoz. In December 2015, Officer Jonathan Munoz was arrested for misrepresenting the facts surrounding Jason’s arrest.
Munoz alleged that he suspected a 20-year old woman of purchasing marijuana and that she threatened him. Jason was there with his cell phone because those present believed it to be an unlawful stop and frisk. Munoz alleged that Jason was interfering with his arrest of the woman; that he took a “fighting stance” and threw a punch at him.
Munoz booked Jason for obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. Jason was arrested and jailed for 24 hours before being released on $1,500 bail.
It wasn’t video on Jason’s phone, but surveillance video of a local restaurant that revealed that Jason had not engaged in the actions attributed to him by Munoz, and that Munoz had unlawfully searched the woman as she stood on the sidewalk. Read the rest of this entry
NYC ARREST VIDEO OF JAMES BLAKE (FORMER TENNIS STAR)
This has left me speechless.
This is one of those stories along with an accompanying video that makes me sick to my stomach. My hope and my wish is that James Blake will sue the arresting officer and the NYC Police Department. There are too many ways that this incident could have been avoided but instead… this young man was humiliated and cuffed because this overzealous (I could include more adjectives) officer did not do due diligence. He could have easily identified himself and… questioned Blake until he was satisfied that this was/was not the suspect that he was looking for.
Here is a picture of Blake and the suspect that they were seeking.
Blake is on the left and the unidentified suspect’s picture is on the right.
Check out the story from the Associated Press below:
View original post 753 more words
Yahnick Martin Receives $50K Settlement After NYPD Conducted Stop-And-Frisk and Ruined His Christmas
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Yahnick Martin (pictured) got sweet reparation from the New York City Police Department after they mistakenly slapped him with cuffs, hauled him off to jail, and had him leave his gift-filled van unattended and running on a Brooklyn street back in 2011. Now the city Law Department is reportedly forking over $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit he filed against “New York’s finest” because the van and all of its gifts were stolen, ruining his family’s Christmas, according to the New York Daily News.
On December 23, 2011, Martin was reportedly sitting in a rented van waiting for his wife, who had dropped off a Christmas present to a friend. Martin, a real estate agent and father of three, was smoking a cigar in his van when Officer Roman Goris and a few colleagues pulled up to his vehicle. The “Men in Blue” claimed they smelled marijuana wafting in the air.
Goris asked Martin to exit the vehicle and patted…
View original post 176 more words
Rep. Michael Grimm, facing federal charges, surrenders to FBI
The only Republican who represents any part of New York City is not serving as a good role model, is he? (snark remark)
Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.) faces federal charges related to his past ownership of a restaurant in Manhattan. | Carolyn Kaster/AP
Mr. Tough Guy turns himself in…
The Washington Post
Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-N.Y.) surrendered Monday morning to federal authorities in New York as he faces multiple charges connected to a restaurant business he operated before entering Congress in 2011, according to sources familiar with the long-running probe into the lawmaker’s finances.
Grimm spent much of the weekend hunkered down, bracing for the unveiling of the federal charges, which were due to be disclosed after his surrender. He turned himself in to the FBI at an undisclosed location Monday morning and was taken to Lower Manhattan for processing. The charges stem from his ownership of a Manhattan health-food restaurant that has ties to an Israeli fundraiser who served as a liaison between Grimm and a mystic, celebrity rabbi whose…
View original post 836 more words
Teen Thrown In Violent New York Prison For Years Without Ever Having Been Convicted – Kalief Browder
Caleb, thanks for much for bringing this to attention. Browder’s attorney interviewed with Huff Post and answered a question I had. The answer? Charges were dismissed.
