If you were appalled by previous accounts of serial rapist John Hamlett and his ruthless cross-examination of one of his distraught victims during his trial, you'll be pleased to know that he was sentenced to 154 years in prison yesterday. Hamlett, whose decision to act his own lawyer during witness testimony backfired spectacularly, was convicted on all 12 counts for repeatedly breaking into the same building on East Third Street and Avenue B and sexually......

A Manhattan Supreme Court Justice has delivered another defeat to a developer's long-delayed plan to turn a century-old school in the East Village into a massive dormitory. You may recall the heated controversy surrounding developer Gregg Singer's plans to build a 19-story university dorm where a five-story school on East 9th Street stands—the school, finished in 1906 and abandoned by the Department of Education in the '70s, had been revived as the vibrant Charas community......

Serial rapist John Hamlett's strategy to act as his own lawyer and cross-examine one of his victims has backfired, surprising no one except Hamlett himself. The Daily News reports that he "shook his head in disbelief" when a jury found him guilty yesterday on all 12 counts of sexual abuse, criminal sexual acts, robbery, burglary, and criminal impersonation of a police officer. In 2006, Hamlett broke into the same building on East Third Street and......

The cookbook author who's locked in a vicious legal battle with Jerry Seinfeld and his wife Jessica says the Bee Movie star's "jokes" at her expense on the David Letterman show last January scared her and her daughter. In court papers filed Tuesday, Missy Chase Lapine—who is suing Jessica Seinfeld for stealing her recipes for sneaking vegetables into kids' food—reveals that she was emotionally devastated by Seinfeld's comments, which compared her to notorious killers with......

Good morning. So this happened yesterday: Rape suspect John Hamlett, a convicted sex offender, was permitted to cross-examine an unnamed woman who accuses him of breaking into her East Third Street and Avenue B apartment in 2006 and sodomizing her at knifepoint. Against the advice of his lawyer, Hamlett insisted on cross-examining the distraught woman—a doctoral student in psychology now living in San Francisco—for about an hour. His questions included "I forced you to have......

Lil Wayne was in Manhattan court yesterday trying to prove his tour bus is pot-free. Too bad his star witness was...his "assistant" and pot dealer! The NY Post reports that "testifying at a suppression hearing for Lil Wayne's Manhattan gun-possession case, Terry Bourgeois told the judge that nobody was smoking pot on the 30-foot tour bus when it was pulled over one night last summer near Columbus Circle" after a Beacon Theater concert. Bourgeois did......

One of the climbers who scaled the NY Times building earlier this year is making headlines again. Although both Renaldo Clarke and Alain Robert climbed the same building unannounced on June 5th, their stunts are being treated differently, The NY Times reports. Robert is being viewed as a professional stuntman, while Clarke is not-- despite his attempts to convince the court otherwise (he says he previously climbed the Hearst building unnoticed). Clarke appeared in State......

Who knew the word "plaza" would come to be so coveted? After a three week trial, a jury has ruled that the low-budget downtown Vegas Plaza Hotel and Casino has not adequately protected its trademark, clearing the way for the El-Ad Group, the owners of the Plaza Hotel in New York, to build a $5 billion, seven-tower, 6,700-unit "Plaza Hotel and Casino" on the Strip. The jury ruled that the Vegas Plaza had simply gone......

J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. have won their copyright infringement lawsuit against a web site operator who intended to publish an encyclopedia based on the author's multi-billion dollar fantasy franchise. Today a judge agreed with Rowling's argument that Steven Vander Ark's Harry Potter Lexicon would amount to "the wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work." Vander Ark and his publisher had contended that the lexicon was a fair use allowable by law for......

Another day, another Andy Warhol lawsuit. The NY Sun has the latest on artist John Chamberlain, who has been claiming he owned a piece by the artist, titled 315 Johns. However, a former Warhol assistant, Gerard Malanga, says he created the piece. What's the connection? Malanga says he stored the work at Chamberlain's apartment, and sometime around the year 2000 the latter submitted it to the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, who dubbed it an......

Rappers Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown (otherwise known as Kimberly Jones and Inga Marchand) were separately contracted to write books for Simon & Schuster...but after collecting their advances, each failed to produce manuscripts. By not making good on their words, they were each delivered a lawsuit in New York State Court yesterday. The NY Sun reports that Jones received a $40K advance for her booked titled, "Untitled Novel" and Marchand received $75K for hers, called......

Turns out Lorne Michaels has a stalker (no, not Jimmy Fallon), and he was just in court. Reportedly a Manhattan Criminal Court judge "has upheld charges against a Long Island man accused of stalking" the Saturday Night Live producer. The 31-year-old, Evans Pidhajecky, had claimed Michaels stole his ideas after overhearing his conversations and hearing him sing (sounds like a slight case of Truman Show Delusion). Pidhajecky had been attempting contact with Michaels at both......

Newsday reports on the latest 50 Cent drama; the rapper was back in court today fighting to see his son, Marquise. A judge ordered he couldn't do so last month as the boy's mother Shaniqua Tompkins has been concerned for his safety (Tompkins publicly accused her ex of trying to kill them both by setting the house they were living in on fire earlier this year). Her lawyer said, "She wants Marquise to have access......

In a clever ploy to undermine the city’s controversial proposal to lease out the 78-year-old Union Square Pavilion as a year-round restaurant, a group of activists sent a fake press release Monday that claimed to be from the Union Square Partnership Business Improvement District (BID). The release announced the BID’s decision to drop its push for “privatization of the famous park after overwhelming feedback from citizens across New York City.” (NewsBlaze still has the release......

Jay-Z's Manhattan nightclub 40/40 is under scrutiny for screwing over the little guy. The NY Post reports that a Manhattan judge has ordered the club's management turn over records of all employees in the past three years, for a class-action lawsuit filed by former waitress Celeste Williams. She claims that workers never received overtime or minimum wage, and now could have hundreds of others joining in on the suit (which already has around 20 bartenders......

After 50 Cent's ex, Shaniqua Tompkins, accused him publicly of burning down the home he owned that her and their son were living in -- she followed up with a restraining order. 50 may have had to surrender any guns he's been toting around as a part of the ruling, but the rapper then responded with his own legal papers...a $20 million defamation suit against Tompkins. It's been about one week since they were last......

Jerry Seinfeld’s lawyers urged a judge yesterday to throw out a defamation lawsuit brought against him by litigious cookbook author Missy Chase Lapine. In addition to suing Seinfeld’s wife Jessica for plagiarizing her book about sneaking healthy food into kids’ meals, Lapine has also sued Jerry for slander after he likened her to an assassin on David Letterman's show: "If you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins. Mark David Chapman and,......

After the roof over her head burned to the ground, Shaniqua Tompkins found herself in court where a Manhattan judge ruled that she owes Fifty Cent $4,500 for May rent that she never paid (previously a judge ruled she owed double that for past due rents). The NY Post reports that she has until Friday to come up with the cash."She better pay it by the end of the week. Do you understand?" Edmead told......

Following their Nassau County Family Court appearance yesterday regarding visitation rights, Michael and Dina Lohan held a joint press conference to let the press know they will no longer be talking to them. In fact, The Daily News reports that Dina's lawyer said the two want to keep their lives private. Presumably they mean starting now, but everyone with basic cable is given a weekly (albeit edited) glimpse into Living Lohan on Dina's reality show,......

The six person jury in the trial of Christopher Carter – the stockbroker accused of assaulting an overly vocal spin classmate at Equinox gym – found him not guilty yesterday of a misdemeanor assault charge which could have landed him in jail for a year. Though the victim, hedge fund manager Stuart Sugarman, spent almost two weeks in the hospital undergoing surgery for a herniated disc, the jury remained unconvinced that his injuries resulted from......

The case of the spin class smackdown has been sparking a lot of debate about proper workout etiquette. According to the Times, the noisy behavior of Stuart Sugarman – who was thrown against the wall during a spin class by a guy who was fed up with his vocalizations – is not at all abnormal. There are too many people grunting, cursing, and hollering “Let’s do it!” in gyms all over town, and also plenty......

It was about nine months ago that New Yorkers were thrilled by the story of the spin class smackdown; now the case has gone to trial, and reading the testimony is like watching a montage of the all the greatest moments. For those of you just joining us, the incident was sparked at an Upper East Side gym when 44-year-old broker Christopher Carter became enraged at the grunting and bellowing from his spin classmate two......

It's on! MTA chairman Dale Hemmerdinger says the agency will go to court in order to have the option of giving free E-Z Passes to retired and current board members--many of whom are wealthy. The MTA says that the passes are a small thank you to board members who serve without compensation. But Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said, "If the law says no compensation then the law means no compensation and these gimmicks that are......

After trying to parachute off of the Empire State Building in 2006, Jeb Corliss found himself in front of a judge; at first the charges were dismissed, but earlier this year he was charged with reckless endangerment. The misdemeanor could turn the daredevil into a caged bird for up to one year. However, the Eyewitness News has learned that some key evidence in his case has vanished! What's more, they report that it appears to......

Fellow vendors and loyal customers are rallying to the defense of Antonios Dragonas, the 50-year-old pushcart food vendor who may soon be put out of business. For the past 25 years, Vendy runner-up Antonios Dragonas, has been serving his famous lamb shish kebab from the corner of Madison Avenue and East 62nd Street, but now the Department of Health is refusing to renew his license and permit. The Times has it that during a twelve......

After doing time for violating probation and assaulting a manicurist, Rapper Foxy Brown found herself in court again yesterday. This time it was for attacking a neighbor with her Blackberry phone, causing the victim a bruised eye and chipped tooth. Brown, who in the past has pleaded guilty and then tried to take it back, pleaded guilty. By doing so, she avoids trial and thus a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars. Instead, a......

While a judge deliberates on whether Harry Potter superfan Steve Vander Ark and his publisher violated copyright law by producing a lexicon based on J.K. Rowling’s hit novels, the 50-year-old librarian has simply been trying to keep it together. This week he told the New Yorker all about the trauma caused by the recent trial, during which he broke down in tears. Hoping for acknowledgment from his idol, Vander Ark would look at Rowling during......

A State Supreme Court judge has issued a “preliminary injunction” prohibiting the city from turning the 78-year-old Pavilion in Union Square park into a restaurant. Last week the court ruled that the $21 million overhaul to the north end of the park could proceed while a lawsuit brought by community groups moves forward, but temporary stalled work on the Pavilion. Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the......

For her testimony against stalker Jack Jordan yesterday, The NY Times described Uma's appearance as being "pared-down," as she donned "a gray shawl thrown over black slacks and a black sweater. Her golden hair was carelessly knotted in back, with long strands hanging down both sides of her face. She wore no makeup and looked thin and hollow-eyed." Thurman testified that she was "freaked out" by Jordan's contact with her (and her family), including an......

Last week Governor Paterson signed off on a new tax law requiring out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax from consumers in New York State. Like other states, New York requires residents to pay tax on out-of-state purchases for which sales tax wasn’t collected. The big argument is over who’s responsible for collecting; the new law puts that onus vendors like Amazon, which is now fighting the bill in State Supreme Court. What’s interesting is that......