By DANIELLE KOGEN
The jury began deliberating the charges against the brother of the president of Honduras on Thursday, accused of sending nearly 200,000 kilos of cocaine into the United States.
The defendant, Juan Antonio Hernandez, could face life in prison if convicted of the charges against him, including drug trafficking, conspiracy, weapons violations and falsifying statements during a federal interview.
The two-week trial included sensational testimony, indicating that Hernandez served as a bag man to deliver a $1 million bribe to his brother, Juan Orlando Hernandez, from the convicted drug lord nicknamed El Chapo. the president has denied the accusation.
Before adjourning the jurors requested written transcripts of interviews with former mayor Amilcar Alexander Ardon, and two other Honduran drug lords in the poverty-stricken nation.
Bove also branded the 41-year-old defendant as an “arrogant,” man who had his initials stamped into each kilo of cocaine. The Honduran President has not been charged, and has extensively denied any wrongdoing on the part of his administration throughout the case.
By JODI-ANN MALARBE
Jury selection continued on Thursday in the trial of a reputed pimp, who was charged for murder after his girlfriend’s head, hands and feet turned up in his freezer.
Somorie Moses was arrested in January 2017 after cops found several remains of his girlfriend, Leondra Foster, on ice in his home. Moses, previously charged with concealing of a corpse and tampering with evidence, was brought in contact with the case after bags of trash found in a garbage transfer station in the Bronx were tracked back to his apartment in Flatbush.
Moses, a long-time pimp, was registered as a level 2 sex offender in 2006, after he was busted trying to prostitute an underage girl, and acted as a solicitor for Foster, a known sex worker. During the months leading up to the murder the defendant was abusive in his relationship with Foster, according to the victim’s father, Kenneth Foster, who accused Moses of also being a sadist, “with a thing against women”.
The jury selection occurred at Kings County Supreme Court, with the presiding Judge Shillingford clearing up issues regarding access to documents the defense team and the prosecution, before bringing out the defendant, who remained present throughout the process.
Then the fifty candidates were bought into the court and sworn in by the judge and informed of the graphic nature of the case before being introduced to the defendant, his team and the prosecution.
After which the judge went into a series of questions to assess the candidates’ ability to fairly reach a decision over this case without hinderance from outside biases and conflicting issues. This involved typical questions like seeing which persons schedules would conflict with the days of the trial or if anyone had prior knowledge of the cases before entering the court.
Prospective jurors also were asked if the gruesome details of the case would affect the their ability to serve.
The trial was expected to begin on October 30.
By MICHELE VELEZ
A group of Northeast Governors held a summit in a Midtown hotel on Thursday to reach solutions and present a united front in the face of the vaping and cannabis crisis happening across state lines.
“This is a very important topic, and it is probably one of the most challenging issues that I’ve had to address in the state of New York,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of the vaping crisis.” It is complicated, it is controversial, and it consequential.”
After a closed meeting New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe joined Cuomo agreeing to restrict packaging and prohibit advertisingthat targets youth, restricting the sale of products to adults 21 and over and strict penalties on licensees that sell to youth.
One of the bigger concerns across states was the use of E-cigarette among young people. According to Governor Cuomo’s office, the use of electronic cigarettes within high schools in 2018 was 78% higher than it was in 2017. The leaders all agreed to back bans on flavored vape products and restrictions on advertising to ensure products are not targeted to minors.
The regional governors also were joined by representative and legislative leaders from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Colorado.
“These actions will be strengthened and magnified when we know there is a similar strategic approach in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other states,” said Murphy.
Photo by Michelle Velez
BY KEVIN LIMITI
Local politicians, officials from the US Department of Agriculture and others celebrated the successful extermination of the destructive Asian Longhorned Beetle from Brooklyn and Queens, completing the elimination of the invasive species from all New York City.
The mood was a victory lap for environmental and agricultural officials and workers. A tree shaped cake with beetle covered frosting on the leaves was served to USDA workers after officials posed for a picture, ceremonially planting a tree at McCarren Park, blocks away from where the first beetle was discovered infesting Norway maple trees in 1996.
The bug has already been eradicated in 2013 from Staten Island, the Bronx, and Manhattan, where it had infested trees in Central Park.
Considered an invasive species, the insect is native to eastern China and Korea but was accidentally introduced to the United States and is dangerous to trees because of its larval feeding behavior. When the beetle infests trees, it could destroy 30% of urban foresting and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in economic damage.
New York State Environmental Conservation Director Steve Zahn said that his dark clothes were appropriate because while the event was celebratory, “From the Asian Longhorned Beetle’s perspective, it’s a bit like a funeral,” he said.
Zahn commended the “herculean effort” to stop the spread of the Longhorned Beetle by removing 3,000 host trees and other methods such as conducting surveys of campgrounds for contaminated firewood, which is a common way the beetle spreads.
USDA official Samantha Simon called the species an, “invasive, destructive pest,” and praised the elimination of the species as a victory for protecting property values and the maple industry, which is adversely affected by tree contamination.
Liam Kavanagh, Department of Parks and Recreation official, stressed the difficulty they had dealing with the beetle when it was discovered, calling it a “very bleak time.”
“It didn’t look like we were ever going to get rid of it,” he said. “I thought we were going to have to live with it. Through persistence, through constant vigilance. . .we were able to ride out the threat and eventually eliminate the beetle.”
Christopher Logue, Plant Industry Director at the USDA, praised the cooperation between the various government agencies responsible for eliminating the pest. “The collaboration we have had on the Asian Longhorned Beetle was key to getting to this day.” He attributed the “aggressive role in controlling the pest” with the success which included quarantining and educating people on infestations.
“This is a shining example of success,” Logue said.
Photo by Kevin Limiti
By MARIE FIERO & MAKEET FINCH
It was a mob scene at Brooklyn Federal Court on Thursday, where a court date was set for 20 alleged mobsters charged with crimes including racketeering, extortion, and loansharking.
The 20 men were defended by 11 attorneys, who gathered in a crowd in front of Judge I. Leo Glasser. Each defendant raised their hand from the audience as attendance was taken. The seats were packed with friends and family of the charged men. A hush came over the crowd as three defendants entered the courtroom in prison garb, including Joseph Amato, reputed mob boss.
The case was set to begin on December 10 at 11am, which gives lawyers 60 days to prepare for the case because it is so complex. The government requested a protective order for discovery material and wiretaps, to safeguard those who are cooperating in the case.
This status conference came after the indictments were released last Thursday for racketeering, extortion, loansharking, stalking, attempted sports bribery and related offenses. Wiretapping allegedly shows that Benjamin Bifalco and Joseph Amato Jr. planned to pay a college basketball team thousands of dollars to lose a game. Amato Jr. was arrested last Thursday, but was released on a $1 million bail on Monday. Federal prosecutors objected to his release because he often touts his father’s name around Staten Island. In 2014, he used his name to threaten a man and beat him so brutally that he needed staples in his scalp.
The elder Amato was arrested for allegedly trying to track his then-girlfriend in 2014. She found the tracking device on her car, and got rid of it by sticking it to an MTA bus. This event prompted the government to begin wiretapping Amato’s devices.
“This is my island. Not yours. I have eyes all over,” Amato said in an email, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office.
The defendants include: Joseph Amato, 60; Joseph Amato Jr., 26; John Cahill, 27; Daniel Capaldo, 54; Primo Cassarino, 31; Christopher Coffaro, 21; John Dunn, 30; Philip Lombardo, 61; Joseph Marra, 58; Albert Masterjoseph, 57; Dominick Ricigliano, 30; Thomas Scorcia, 52; Vincent Sucra, 58; Anthony Silvestro, 28; Krenar Suka, 26; John Tucciarone, 39; Anthony Bosco, 26; Nicholas Bosco, 30; Joseph Bosco, 55; Benjamin Bifalco, 25.
By JODI-ANN MALARBE
Turncoat testimony by Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 69 helped secure the conviction on Thursday of two members of the Nine Trey crew as a federal jury convicted them of several racketeering charges.
The guilty verdicts against Anthony Ellison and Aljermiah Mack came after a two-week trial and eight hours of deliberation.
While Ellison and Mack were acquitted on some of the charges in the July 2018 abduction of the rapper and other offenses, both were convicted on racketeering charges. In addition Ellison was found guilty of kidnapping and Mack of conspiring to distribute drugs.
The sweeping verdict came after the controversial rapper, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, broke a cultural code of silence by testifying against his former associates, prompting such rap icons as Snoop Dog to brand him “a rat”.
The defendants were arrested in November, 2018 .
Hernandez decided to cooperate with authorities shortly after his arrest, ending, for the moment at least, his platinum-selling recording career but helping him avoid a long jail sentence by describing himself as a victim of the gang members who, he testified, kidnapped and robbed him. Hernandez and other gang members pleaded guilty last year to various charges.
The popular rapper made a colorful but compelling figure on the witness stand with his face tattoos and dreads He laid out his first connection to the gang through Chris Ehigiator, his manager in 2014, who introduced him to crew members to build up his gangsta rapper image through use of Nine Trey Blood members in his music videos. Tekashi also testified to his connection to multiple shootings, robberies and hits on rival rappers after he became more affiliated with the gang.
“When I uploaded the video… there was such — like, a lot of people were showing attention to it, ” testified Hernandez. “After we shot (the video) “Gummo,” I knew I had a formula. I knew the formula was to repeat it”
He recounted the events leading up to his kidnapping late last year by his fellow gang members after a dispute over his earnings.
“I was humiliated….,” he testified. “I constantly bragged that nobody could touch me, and I was untouchable, and I was the king of New York.”
If the rapper does manage to alleviate his sentence, he is still up against a lot of opposition not only from his former gang but from the public who have expressed negative and mocking attitudes towards the rapper’s willingness to testify in such detail, resulting in arrests and convictions for both Ellison and Mack and several other tray gang members.
But even with the antipathy building up around Tekashi it is still uncertain if he will be put in a witness protection program. He was scheduled to be sentenced in January.
His lawyer reportedly were angling for him to be sentence only to time served.
Ellison and Mack were scheduled be sentenced in February. Ellison could get life in prison and Mack faced 20 years.
By MICHELLE VELEZ
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space Museum that the founding Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services and trailblazer for females in the military was scheduled to resign this fall.
Brigadier General Loree Sutton, was leaving her post as Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Services after founding the agency in 2016. She served in the United States Army for nearly 30 years, and was one of only 15 women generals serving in the Army at the time.
“The challenge did not stop when we took our uniforms off,” said James Hendon, former director of the NYU Veterans Lab and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, slated to replace Sutton on November 1.
During Sutton’s time as commissioner New York had an 97% decrease in veteran street homelessness, an all-time low, city officials said. Sutton got a standing ovation at the announcement.
The battleship setting prompted the mayor to remark that his father, Warren Wilhelm, who served during World War II, had sailed on the USS Intrepid, which was built during that war
“For a lot of men and women,” de Blasio said,”the time they served was extraordinarily difficult and noble, but equally hard or sometimes even harder was the time after. And I saw that in my home, and I came to understand that the war doesn’t end, for a lot of soldiers, sailors, for a lot of families, the war doesn’t end, it stays with them their whole life.”
The mayor was speaking from hard experience. His father, severely injured in the war, suffered from alcoholism and was “largely absent” from the family, causing the future mayor to adopt his mother’s maiden name and embrace his Italian heritage.
He does not often talk about his father.
The Department of Veterans Services also released a report outlining such achievements as project “Veterans on Campus” and services offered through the Veteran Resource Centers in all five boroughs.
Image credit:
“Photographer/Mayoral Photography Office”
By NICHOLAS WILLIAMS
A forensic biologist testified at Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday that no DNA evidence was found that links a New Jersey man to the murder of a Rikers Island guard in 2016.
Michelle Hoffman, a forensic biologist at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was responsible in examining physical evidence of the case.
Evidence from a gold 2002 Hyundai Elantra that defendant 37-year-old Keon Richmond was allegedly driving the day of the murder was presented, but no DNA evidence was found that matches Richmond to be the driver of the vehicle.
“I was unable to identify the individual contributors, I wasn’t able to identify a major contributor,” Hoffman said. “There’s just not enough DNA to go forward.”
Four swabs of DNA on the seat buckle, gear shift, steering wheel, and car interior front seat were tested on. Hoffman explained that there were a mixture of multiple DNA samples present on the swabs, which made it difficult in identifying a major contributing DNA sample or other individual contributors.
Hoffman also performed a likelihood ratio, which is a test that tells how likely someone may be a match to the DNA evidence. Richmond, based on DNA testing of the steering wheel scored 11,500. Likelihood ratio is based on a statistical calculation, and doesn’t prove a DNA match. The higher the ratio, the stronger the evidence is in favor of the hypothesis presented.
“Anything over 1,000 provides a strong support,” Hoffman said. She concluded that Richmond was a possible DNA contributor based on the likelihood ratio.
Richmond’s attorney, Gregory Watts, objected that he did not believe Hoffman was a credible forensic biologist. Watts even questioned a possibility of a false positive in Hoffman’s likelihood ratio to which Hoffman responded, “It’s rare.”
Richmond faced possible life in prison if convicted. He reportedly placed a tracking device on his ex-girlfriend, Alastasia Bryan’s car, tracking her movements for three days before finally shooting her five times with a revolver as she sat in her vehicle outside of her home in Canarsie on December 4, 2016.
Richmond allegedly fled the scene in a gold 2002 Hyundai Elantra. The vehicle was later discovered to be registered under the name of Richmond’s current girlfriend, Shirley Mejia, who was indicted on one count each of first-and third-degree hindering prosecution. Richmond was arrested a week after the shooting and was charged with 2nd degree murder and two counts of second degree criminal possession of a weapon.
By MARIE FIERO
Former Republican Rep. Chris Collins’ son and his son’s fiance’s father pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges related to an insider trading case.
At their change-of-plea hearing in Manhattan Federal Court Cameron Collins and Stephen Zarsky pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. They face up to five years in prison.
“I knew what I was doing was wrong immediately,” said the younger Collins.
His co-defendant was equally contrite.
“My moment of weakness will haunt me for the rest of my days,” said Zarsky as his voice broke.
Collins was scheduled to be sentenced on January 23 and Zarsky on the following day.
On Tuesday, Rep. Collins pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and lying to federal investigators. He faces up to 10 years in prison. He resigned from his seat in congress on Monday.
The indictment accused Rep. Collins of learning in advance in 2017 that Innate Immunotheraputics had failed a critical trial for a drug to cure multiple sclerosis. Collins owned some 17 percent of shares in the drug company. He was accused of warning his son to sell his stock in the company.
He reportedly called his son seven times from a congressional picnic on the White House lawn after receiving an email that explained Innate had failed the test. He reportedly saved his son from $570,000 in losses after the stock prices dropped. The younger Collins advised Zarsky to sell his and his daughter’s shares in the company.
Zarsky’s daughter was not charged.
In 2018, though he was under indictment, Rep. Collins was re-elected in his Western New York district, narrowly beating the Democratic contender. He had served as the representative of that district since 2012. He was known to be one of the richest members of congress.
Rep. Collins first rose to fame as the first sitting member of congress to endorse Donald Trump in his 2016 presidential campaign.
By MAKEET FINCH
Transit advocates From The Riders Alliance Group joined forces with 39 straphanger groups who rallied on Thursday against the MTA’s plan to hire 500 transit cops while cutting transit service.
Protestors sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo demanding him to stop focusing on fare evasions, blaming low income New Yorkers and instead spend the money on improving subway and bus service.
“We’re calling onto the governor to stop criminalizing the poor, I think we’re worth a lot more than $2.75 cents” said Danysha Reyes at the rally in front of Cuomo’s Midtown office.
Officials said the MTA planned to hire 500 new transit cops to deal with homeless people and crack down on fare evasion while implementing service cuts.
The protestors said the Citizens Budget Commission had put a price tag of $261.5 million on hiring the cops. increasing the MTA budget deficit.
The governor’s office did not reply to several requests for comment.
“When we’re talking about a crackdown on fare evasion we’re talking about a surge in summons for people who can least afford it, ” contended Brooklyn public defender Jared Chausow. “We’re talking about a rise in arrest, we’re talking about a billion dollars in new police officers in the subways in record low crime rates.”
