By DYLAN CAMPBELL Assistant DA Patrick O’Connor called the jurors’ attention to three words written in bold red font on the PowerPoint screen in a Brooklyn court house on Thursday: “Who is responsible?” The central question arose during closing statements in the trial of a man accused of stabbing two children, leaving one to die, in the elevator of their housing project. “There is only one person responsible for what happened to these two children,” said O’Connor, aggressively pointing downwards. The “monster” sitting at the defendant’s table, he concluded, indicating Daniel St. Hubert, a large hulking man whom the tabloids have branded “The Brooklyn Ripper.” But the defense attorney mounted a spirited argument that his client was being “scapegoated,” and there was “lack of proof,” focusing on the inconsistent testimony of the now 11-year-old survivor and labeling the DNA evidence as “junk science.” “There’s never been a weaker case than this,” said defense attorney Howard Greenberg. “The investigation left so many stones unturned.” The event culminating in this  moment began on June 1, 2014 when Mikayla Capers, 7, and Prince Joshua (P.J.) Avitto, 6, were playing in the playground at the Boulevard Houses when they decided to go to P.J.’s apartment to get “icees.” That is when they were allegedly followed by Daniel St. Hubert into the elevator where they were stabbed 27 times and left for dead. Mikayla testified that St. Hubert was her attacker and four other witnesses say they saw St. Hubert near the door before the attack and fleeing the scene afterwards. A bloody knife with Mikayla, P.J.’s and his DNA on it was found along the path witnesses say he ran along. But in Greenberg’s nearly two hour statement read from a stack of wrinkled papers with scribbled notes and post-its peeking from all sides, he said that this was not enough proof to dispel reasonable doubt. He deemed Mikayla “delusional” and a “pathological liar” because of inconsistencies in her testimony. Mikayla testified that she identified the defendant in a photograph shown to her by police while in the hospital and recognized him as her attacker, but the prosecution and defense agreed that this never happened. “This is a child that doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie,” said Greenberg, citing other times Mikayla was inaccurate about her ability to translate Chinese and Spanish and admitting on the stand that sometimes she does lie. He said she can’t make “heads or tails” of what is a lie and what is the truth. He then attacked the rest of the prosecution’s evidence, saying that when his defendant was arrested on June 4, three days later, that he had no blood on the items or wounds and no clear motive. The prosecution later cited that a knife set that was missing three knives that matched the murder weapon was found among his belongings. His charge that the DNA evidence was “junk science,” arose from the multiple profiles that were found on the knife. An expert witness had testified that the knife had a mix of DNA, but that most of it belonged to St. Hubert. Greenberg argued that the prosecution ignored other leads and other suspects based on the DNA after the killing. “You want to believe in your heart but can’t believe in your head,” said Greenberg asking the jury to not let “one tragedy [be] morphed into another.” The prosecution on the other hand called for justice for a family. In his PowerPoint closing, between photos of young P.J. and the small elevator he was killed in, O’Connor emphasized the accuracy of the witnesses, saying they had no reason to lie and only interest to find justice for their family. St. Hubert who had been quiet but fidgety throughout the day, occasionally leaning in  and whispering to his attorney throughout the closing. It’s been four years since the murders that landed St. Hubert back in jail, just nine days after he was released in 2014. St. Hubert had a violent past and a history of mental illness and has served time for attempting to strangle his mother. Hubert is charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and weapon possession. The jury was expected to start deliberations on April 9 after the holidays.

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By ALAIN GAILLARD

“Please Do Not Deport My Mommy,” said a sign held by the unflappable 10-year-old son of a Guatemalan immigrant mother at a march outside the Trump International Hotel in New York on Thursday.

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” added the boy, Daniel Hernandez to the absent President Donald Trump at a march organized by a coalition of immigration activists and religious leaders who showed solidarity with Aura Hernandez, who has taken sanctuary in the Universalist Society church since March 18 with her United-States born 15-month-old daughter, Camila, to avoid deportation to Guatemala.

“I want to raise my voice because my children, who are the future, cannot do so because they have rights,” Hernandez said after the march, standing at the church podium. “I am no longer quiet; I am going to keep raising my voice so my children can have a future.”

In 2005, Hernandez crossed the United States–Mexico border into Texas. She was soon arrested by border patrol agents. She was released after three days and had a court date written in English that she could not comprehend because she did not speak a word of English. She also claimed that she had been sexually abused during her three days in detention.

Hernandez would later learn in 2013 that she had an active deportation order for failing to appear at a 2005 court date in Texas after being arrested for driving the wrong way on a one-way street.

With the help of a lawyer, she filed for a visa for victims because she claimed to have been sexually assaulted, but the visa was denied because too many years had passed.

According to Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz,  Hernandez was fleeing domestic violence in her native country and she thinks her life would be in danger in she goes back to Guatemala. He said that the  Coalition plans to bring her case before The New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, so Hernandez can return to her normal life.

Churches in the United States have a history of providing sanctuary to undocumented immigrants; they can be effective in protecting immigrants from deportation since agents of the Immigration of Customs and Enforcement (ICE) pursue a policy of not entering churches to seize immigrants except in extreme cases, fearing a strong political backlash if they do.

Immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir, who also faces deportation, praised the march and advocated for more such demonstrations saying, “What we did today is to go outside to seek those who want help, to say we are there for you, and you are welcome.”

Photo by Alain Gaillard

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By THUY KYAW

The sound of bagpipes echoed around Washington Square Park on a rainy Thursday morning as the city honored one of its bravest.

The New York City Fire Department and New York University hosted a joint memorial service for a Fire Marshal and fallen local airman, who was killed earlier this month along with seven others in a helicopter crash at the Iraq-Syria border.

Christopher Zanetis, known by his nickname Tripp, was deployed by the Air National Guard where he was trained to fly the Air Force combat search and rescue chopper.

“He loved New York, he loved the people and the values,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who attended both the procession through the Park and ceremony at NYU’s Kimmel Center. “He loved New York and New York loved him right back.”

The ceremony, which was named “Celebration of Life” in the memory of Zanetis, started around 10:30 a.m. as his coffin was carried into the park by fellow firefighters for the funeral service.

Firefighters in their uniforms, members in the US air force and friends and family were present to bid final goodbyes to the firefighter-turned-soldier

Zanetis was an NYU alumnus, graduating with honors in political science a decade ago and serving as president of student body.

“As NYU President, I often talk about the types of students we hope to nurture,” said Andrew Hamilton. “Tripp was the perfect example of that.”

The 9/11 attacks, however, made him reconsider his future in politics as they inspired him to join the fire department.

He then moved on to the Air National Guard in 2008 after four years in the fire department, and managed to graduate from Stanford Law School last year while on still active duty.

“Tripp could have been anything in life but he chose to be one of us,” said Firer Commissioner Daniel Nigro.

He had interned with the Office of Legal Affairs at NATO Headquarters in Belgium, and was working as an associate at a New York law firm at the time of his death.

Zanetis is survived by his parents, grandmother, sisters, uncles, nephew, and partner.

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By MICHELLE CUMMINGS

A leading expert in adolescent health on Thursday branded violence against children “a hidden public health epidemic” at a two-day conference at Mt. Sinai Hospital focusing on the problem.

“Violence against children, including sexual abuse and exploitation, is a hidden public health epidemic in the United States and around the world,” said Angela Diaz, Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, “and one that bears a lifetime of burden for its victims, including mental health and substance abuse problems later in life, and the physical effects of repeated or chronic stress,”

The event kicked off the hospital’s 50th anniversary, including some 600 participating scientists policymakers and advocates

According to Diaz 50 percent of teenage girls and 23 percent of teenage boys that the center sees disclose a history of childhood sexual abuse.

“At least 1 billion children experienced violence,” said Howard Taylor, Executive Director of End Violence Against Children.

The conference for convened more than 60 experts in research, prevention and treatment, practitioners and survivors to devise strategies to end child abuse and youth sex trade.

“When we talk about a young person as being resilient, they’re not unaffected,” said one participant. “They effectively compensate and cope with their brain changes.”

Renowned child psychologist Cathy Spatz Widom said the effort to identify and curb violence against kids began with a study in 1986 by Attorney General Janet Reno that compared the incidents of violence with court substantiated cases of neglect. Widom’s research focused on long term outcomes of abuse on cognitive development. following more than 900 people who were victims of child abuse in the 1960s and 1970s.

Back then some experts believed children who suffer abuse were destined to become adults who live a life of crime and violence, and would someday abuse their own children.

“There’s an idea that girls who are abused go on to experience more violence, and boys who are abused are more likely to commit violence,” said Widom. “They’re wrong.”

According to Widom the negative effects of childhood maltreatment are not inevitable.

However, “It’s all really complicated and we still don’t know enough about it,” said Widom.

“The impact of child abuse and childhood neglect extends well into adulthood,” said Diaz. “In a developing child physiological changes in response to stress appear to have a universal and adverse impact on neurological development.”

Annually over 3.4 million cases are referred to child protective agencies in the United States according to the National Children’s Alliance website.

“Neglect represents the vast majority, 75 percent, of cases brought to attention of authorities,” said Widom. “These victims receive scant research attention.”

The Child Abuse and Prevention Center defines neglect as the extreme failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical attention.

The World Childhood Foundation USA and the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center both envision a world where all children are free from violence, sexual abuse and exploitation said Diaz.

“It is our hope this conference will be the impetus for creating a roadmap to end violence against children by 2030 in New York, the United States, and globally,” said Joanna Rubinstein, President and CEO of World Childhood Foundation.

“The impacts cascade throughout victims’ lifetimes, not only affecting them but also their families and society,” she said.

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“She said that she saw a black shadow that speaks to her, that mentions her name.”

Thus the testimony of a young woman came to a climax after  taking the witness stand Thursday to describe meeting the now-infamous alleged “killer nanny” just hours before the babysitter brutally murdered the two toddlers in her care.

Jennifer Mercedes Reynoso Moya  a 19-year-old neighbor of the nanny at the time of the killings recalled her reaction when the defendant, Yoselyn Ortega, described her hallucinations: “I said, ‘Oh my god,’ I said, ‘she’s crazy.’”

Reynoso’s testimony was central to the defense’s case that Ortega is not guilty due to insanity.

With animated hands and furrowed brows, the witness detailed the events of Oct. 25, 2012 via a translator. She had been living with her aunt and was home alone when at around 1:30 pm she heard a knock and opened the door to see Ortega, who was then a complete stranger to her.

Ortega, who lived in the same building as Reynoso, mentioned that she was friends with Reynoso’s aunt and wanted to cook something. After confirming these details with her aunt, Reynoso invited the defendant into the apartment.

Just four hours later, Ortega would fatally and repeatedly stab four-year-old Lucia and two-year-old Leo Krim in the bathtub of their Upper West Side home.

“She looked very odd, very nervous,” Reynoso told the jury.

She detailed how Ortega had gone into the kitchen to make plantains, but kept pacing in and out of the room, making phone calls and acting “weird.”

“She was looking side to side a lot with her eyes, fast,” Reynoso said, gesturing with her index fingers from one side of the room to the other.

She explained that she eventually became so uncomfortable with the defendant’s behavior that she locked herself in her room.

Then, things got scarier for her.

“She knocked on my door and said, ‘I don’t want to be alone, come sit with me in the living room,’” Reynoso recalled.

When Reynoso asked Ortega why she didn’t want to be alone, Ortega confided in her, saying that she was hearing voices and seeing “black shadows.”

“I wanted her to leave because I was so scared,” Reynoso said.

She called her aunt to tell her what had happened, and remembered her aunt simply responding, “Yes, she sees monsters.”

Reynoso’s testimony provided support to the defense’s claim that Ortega had been psychologically unstable prior to the killings.

The prosecution’s cross-examination suggested that the testimony was influenced by the defense’s family and not completely accurate. Assistant DA Courtney Groves focused her questioning on why Reynoso did not report the details about these hallucinations to the psychiatrist who interviewed her or to police officers until a few years after the murder.

The defense also called to the stand members of Ortega’s family—her niece, adoptive brother, and son—to bolster their argument that her mental state had been deteriorating in the months leading to the murders.

All three members recalled that Ortega had been stressed for various reasons: she was moving between the Bronx and Manhattan, she was worried about her son’s school, and she had been fighting with her sister.

“She was always crying, always sad,” recalled Glendalys Garcia, the defendant’s niece, who lived in Dallas, Texas but would receive up to three phone calls a day from the defendant during the months prior to the October 2012 murders.

Garcia remembered visiting the defendant in New York in September 2012 and being shocked that she had lost weight and had bags under her eyes. “She wasn’t herself… normally she’s very cheerful, talking to us,” she said.

However, none of her relatives were aware of any hallucinations or psychosis; they could only recall a “sadness” and that Ortega had complained about severe headaches.

The family members who testified were careful to step around the word “murder,” with her son Jesus Frias even calling the event an “accident.”

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By DYLAN CAMPBELL

Mikayla Capers, an 11-year-old girl who was stabbed 16 times in 2014, says she has no doubt that the handcuffed man sitting in front of her was her attacker, but an agreement between the defense and the prosecution Thursday deemed part of her testimony false, putting
her credibility in question.

During the trial at Brooklyn Supreme Court Tuesday, Mikayla confidently pointed to Daniel St. Hubert, the defendant, as the man who attacked her and killed her friend, P.J. Avitto, 6, in the elevator of their East New York housing project on June 1, 2014, stabbing them both over and over.

Mikayla testified that she had identified the defendant in a photograph shown to her by police while in the hospital and recognized him as the man who followed her and P.J. into their building to attack them. The defense argued she’s a liar, but both sides agreed that the photographic identification never happened.

“Mikayla, you’re making it up, using your imagination,” defense attorney Howard Greenberg said to the 11-year-old as she took the stand for a second day after hours of testimony on Tuesday.

During the lumbering cross-examination filled with objections, Greenberg persisted, asking if she was sure she knew the defendant and where she knew him from.

“You’re making it up that a police officer showed you a picture in the hospital, aren’t you?” Greenberg asked, questioning if she saw Hubert on the news.

“That’s not true,” Mikayla quickly replied.

As the testimony went on the 6th grader tucked into herself, chin down, lips pouting and occasionally chewing the end of her jacket but unwavering in her answer that she is not lying.

“Did you see his picture in the hospital four weeks after you got hurt?” Greenberg asked Capers.

“Yes,” Mikayla replied.

“You’re making that up too, aren’t you,” Greenberg persisted.

But Greenberg, an attorney with a high success rate and reputation for being relentless, has been attempting to discredit Mikayla’s testimony from the beginning. He argues his client is not guilty of the charges of second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and weapon possession.

When Mikayla was excused from the stand and exited the court, both sides filed the stipulation confirming inconsistency in her testimony to the jury.

She’s “delusional,” said Greenberg during lunch break. “The government lost this case today.”

Two additional witnesses took the stand, testifying that they had seen the defendant near the scene of the crime. Shameka Hampton, the woman who found Mikayla’s bloody body and called 911, said she saw Hubert outside the building moments before the attack and later running from the scene.

Angela Roberson, a grandmother who was at the playground when the attack happened, said she saw the defendant running from the building along a path where the knife was later found.

But the defense said that what they witnessed proved nothing. Neither saw the defendant directly enter the building. Neither saw the weapon. But both women on the witness stand made it clear they believed the killer was in the room.

The case bears many resemblances to the current Manhattan trial of Yoselyn Ortega, the nanny accused of stabbing to death two young children of an affluent family on the Upper West Side, including the bloodiness and seeming senselessness of the stabbings and the apparent lack of a clear motive in both cases. The Brooklyn case, involving victims of color in impoverished East New York, has drawn far less media attention.

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By DYLAN CAMPBELL

On Oct. 25, 2012 a nanny took a knife to the two children she was supposed to be caring for,
stabbing them to death in their Upper West Side apartment before turning the knife on herself, driving it into her own neck.

But was there motive?

The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, 55, has pleaded not guilty for reason of insanity to charges of
first-degree murder in the stabbing of Lucia, 6, and Leo, 2.

At her Manhattan Supreme Court trial on Thursday, the defense began to build its argument that mental instability drove her to murder by discrediting her statement in the hospital that seems to have shown possible motive. They argued that her communication with the police was not her own words but delirium speaking.

In an attempt to show that Ortega would not have been fit to make a statement, their first
witness was Dr. Philip Steven Barie, an attending surgeon at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, who oversaw some of Ortega’s care when she was in the hospital for her neck wound the days following the murders.

Valerie Van Leer-Greenberg, Ortega’s lawyer, focused on the medical care, particularly the
drugs and intubation given to Ortega, as reasons that her statement can not be taken seriously.

On Oct. 27, three days after she was admitted, the defendant tried to make a statement to
the police officer guarding her; despite being intubated and under the influence of medications.

Sgt. Yoel Hidalgo testified last week that he tried to understand Ortega, reading her lips
and leaning over her bed with a letter chart for the two hours after she tried to communicate. He passed the notes he took from what he said Ortega was trying to say to the police officers outside the room.

“I had to do everything and take care of the kids,” Sgt Hidalgo read from one of the notes
as she took the stand. “I worked as babysitter only and she wanted me to do everything so wanted 5 hours of cleaning every week. ”

Though the statements were made through the twitching of her face and tapping on the bedside
as she lay intubated and drugged,  Hidalgo expressed confidence in what was written as Ortega’s own words.

“When I got things wrong she would make a grunting, gargling sound,” Hidalgo testified.
“She would tap on the railing. She would show frustration. Even small facial expressions, she would make.”

The defense went on for hours, going through dozens of pages of medical records that even
put one juror to sleep.

With Dr. Barie on the stand, the defense emphasized the cocktail of drugs including fentanyl,
propofol, lorazepam and, later, diazepam, all to keep Ortega out of pain and sedated as they waited to do surgery to not only repair her wound but two smashed vertebrae in her neck from hitting her her head after she stabbed herself.

The day the testimony was made Ortega was on drugs from a preparatory procedure as she awaited the major surgery she would have early the next week.

Barie explained in cross examination that she was “more responsive” that evening. Medical
documents showed normal responses in everything except in speaking because she was intubated.

He said that “disorienting experience” of being in a hospital where there is “no day, no
night” could have caused delirium, but it is a mental state that “waxes and wanes.” But it is unclear if she was in a waning state of delirium if she could or could not have made a statement. He said there is “no stereotype.”

The days before were filled with tearful testimony from the parents of the children murder
as the prosecution tried to depict Ortega as a stressed woman motivated by anger.

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By MICHELLE CUMMINGS

In celebration of Women’s History Month on Thursday, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James rallied 400 female entrepreneurs committed to reducing gender-based inequity at a networking breakfast near City Hall.

“As entrepreneurs we have to make a road for other women,” she said. “The goal is to reimagine leadership.”

The Queens Economic Development Corporation and the Women’s Business Centers of New York City joined forces with the New York District Office of the Small Business Administration to support, motivate and activate women at an empowerment event.

The Above & Beyond summit showcased an inspiring panel discussion with successful females rethinking power, politics, and the workplace.

“Women’s work is valued less than men’s work,” said James.

She said a comparable worth analysis was needed and that she was about to release a study detailing gender pay disparities among city agencies.

James announced the release of her groundbreaking report, titled Wage and Hiring Inequity, in New York City Agencies, 20 minutes later on the steps of City Hall.

For the first time data to prove patterns of pay inequity and subjective promotions based on sex, gender, and race were published.

Legislative change requires gender and race wage data be available and transparent to the public, she said.

“This is not about a wage gap issue but an opportunity and access report,” said James. “it’s about women being overrepresented in lower paying agencies,” she said.

Researchers analyzed city payroll data from 2014 to 2017 for the study. They found 15 city agencies paid female workers more on average than men, compared with 56 agencies that paid men more.

James made several recommendations to combat discriminatory patterns of wage suppression in the study: Thorough and regularly-occurring payroll reviews for city agencies and annual reporting employee demographics, hiring, salaries, and departures, to inform policy making of employment, promotion, and retention.

“We have made great strides to break the political glass ceiling, but the economic glass ceiling continues to restrain us,” James said in a statement. “It is clear that our city must do more to support women and provide equal opportunities in the workplace.”

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Women make policy not coffee!

That was the rallying cry of a movement led by former English professor Lilia Melani 35 years ago.

“I wanted to transform the whole system!” said, Melani on Thursday, at the commemoration of the new exhibition in the Brooklyn College library, The Women in the Archives for her role in the history and legacy of the class action lawsuit, Melani et al. v. The Board of Higher Education.

The exhibit highlights archival collections of documents, photos, and flyers giving a glimpse of activism on campus created 35 years ago by (or) about women who are alumni of Brooklyn College. Melani is featured in the exhibition as a tribute for her work in the CUNY Women’s Coalition and their action in the class action lawsuit, which fought against the discrimination of women in CUNY for getting paid $1,800 less than men in equal positions.

Ten years later in 1983, Federal Judge, Lee P. Gagliardi ruled a, $7,500,000 settlement to be given any women who applied or were employed by CUNY. A portion of the settlement was also set too be given to the Women’s Development and Research Fund.

Melani and the 25 other women who were apart of the Women’s Collation, not only minimized the pay gap between men and women in CUNY but, also advocated for the creation of a women’s center, childcare centers, and a Women’s Studies degree program.

On March 24, 1990, the CUNY Women Students Bill of Rights and the Demands of Women Students of the City University of New York was created to provide an institutional environment free from bias against sex in all New York City campuses.

Both documents are also on display at the exhibit.

Among the changes the Women’s Coalition made, Melani pointed out that there is still, “more to be done. There are a lot of underlying systematic things that have to be changed.”

The exhibition honors the victory of the class action and the changes the CUNY Women’s Coalition has created in history for all the women (employees and students) in the CUNY system.

Melani concluded, “We work together as women. We are women together.”

Photo of Prof. Melani by Jasmine Peralta.

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