Yesterday, a funeral was held for three-year-old Kyle Smith, who died under the care and apparent abuse of family friends. Family members, friends and neighbors shed tears and voiced regrets over the child's death. Kyle's mother, Eugenia Holmes, carried a photograph of her son. Last year, while battling drug addiction, Holmes had agreed to let her friend Nymeem Cheatham take Kyle in. After his battered body was examined by the medical examiner's office two weeks......

After a 3-year-old boy died, battered and sexually abused by his caretakers, fingers have pointed at his abusers, his parents, his neighbors and the Administration of Children's Services. Now lawmakers hope to new law can stop similar tragedies. Kyle Smith had been in the care of his godmother Nymeem Cheatham and her boyfriend Lemar Martin when his mother needed help, as she battled her drug addiction. Though a court found Cheatham to be an able......

Family members mourning the death of a 3-year-old child at the hands of a family friend who was caring for him are speaking out, including the child's mother. Kyle Smith died last Friday, with extensive injuries including broken bones, cigarettes burns all over his body, and tearing from sexual abuse. His godmother Nymeem Cheatham and her boyfriend Lemar Martin admitted to beating the child and were arrested and are being held without bail. Kyle's mother......

Never mind the kids who are being murdered by violent parents or drugged to death by foster mothers, the Administration for Children's Services is busy checking up on the home environments of kids who skip gym class too many times, even though that's not technically a violation worthy of an ACS home visit. Like her son blowing off gym class, Karen Dussack skipped a meeting at Bronx Science to talk about her progeny having......

The jury deciding the fate of Cesar Rodriguez, accused of brutally killing his stepdaughter, had completed its third day of deliberations without a verdict yesterday, but this morning they have announced they have a decision. The AP reports they have found Rodriguez guilty of first-degree manslaughter; he will face up to 28 years in prison. Prosecutors had argued that 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown died at the hands of Rodriguez and her mother Nixzaliz Santiago (Santiago will......

Police say Barbara Sheehan confessed to killing her retired cop husband in their Howard Beach home, saying, "I shot him. I shot him. I think he's dead." Sheehan, charged with second-degree murder, pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. Sheehan allegedly shot her husband Raymond, who retired as a sergeant in the NYPD in 2002 and had been working at UBS in security, Monday morning using two of his guns, a Glock and .38-caliber......

The producer of Pan's Labyrinth, the Oscar-winning film that partially delves into the world of abuse, may in fact have done some abusing of her own. A lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday against Frida Torresblanco. Her nanny, Angelica Hernandez, claims she was treated like a virtual slave. Hernandez (who was hired in February 2007) worked up to 150 hours a week for seven months in the producer's Tribeca apartment and brought home......

Remember that cruel(la) couple from Long Island that enslaved two Indonesian women who worked in their mansion? After their million dollar bail plan was announced back in June we hadn't heard much about these two. Today, however, silence was broken after Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her hubby Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani's trial has ended...and the latest is not good news for them! The terrible two-some "were each convicted of all charges in a 12-count federal indictment......

It’s not Tracy Letts’s fault that his play, August: Osage County, has been breathlessly overhyped by the critics, from the Times’s Charles Isherwood on down. It’s also not his fault that compared to many other Broadway spectacles the play stands out as a polestar of humor and intelligence. Still, it’s difficult to disassociate the play from the deafening buzz; August: Osage County is being heralded as an Important Theatrical Event, when it’s really just a......

The morning started with rumors of names mentioned in Senator George Mitchell's report to Major League Baseball, but not until this afternoon were any rumors substantiated. Stating in his report that “there is much about the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in baseball that I did not learn,” Mitchell proceeded to lay waste to the careers of many notable players, perhaps none more so than Roger Clemens. In the report Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’......

A middle-aged man held several workers hostage at Sen. Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office in the town of Rochester yesterday, before surrendering to police. The alleged bomb he had taped to his chest turned out to be simply a number of road flares. Leeland Eisenberg's motivation for seizing Clinton's field office is unclear, but he appears to be a disturbed individual. The New York Times declined to speculate on Eisenberg's purpose ("[Police] would not discuss......

Barack may have Oprah, but the stagehands' and writers' union have John Edwards! The former senator, currently in third place after Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination, voiced his support of Local One, the Broadway stagehands union that has been on strike since November 9 over a new contract. Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said, "To interfere with the power of the Broadway community is not......

Dare we say that Brooke Astor is rolling in her grave? Yesterday, it was reported that her son Anthony Marshall and his former lawyer Francis Morrissey would be indicted for criminal activity over the handling of her will. And this morning, Marshall turned himself in at the Manhattan DA's offices, to face charges of fraud, forgery and grand larceny. Or, as DA Robert Morgenthau said, "The indictment charges that Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of......

Last year, there was a very sad report about a 14-year-old boy who committed suicide by jumping into the frigid waters of the East River, and his mother suggested it was because of school bullying. Now the Daily News reports that the Administration for Children's Services had been investigating a charge that the boy's mother had choked him and beat his brother with a belt. Last March, Sidney Hatchett and his 6-year-old sister were walking......

New York magazine has an extraordinary cover story on the life of Brooke Astor, months after the "doyenne" of the city's social scene passed away. It is a sordid tale of jealousy, greed, enmity, conflicting agendas, and familial conflict worthy of the most outlandish soap opera. Her son Tony is now under i investigation by a grand jury and control of her estate has passed to Astor's friend Annette de la Renta. The litany of......

Yesterday, the police arrested the personal assistant to "broker to the stars" Linda Stein in connection with Stein's October 30 murder. Stein, who had also managed the Ramones and later parlayed her connections to sell real estate to celebrities, had been found bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment by her daughter. The police revealed that assistant Natavia Lowery confessed to them that Stein's abuse pushed her over the edge. Police Commissioner Ray......

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg met with Joseph Zadroga, whose son James was a NYPD detective and worked hours of rescue and recovery after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. James Zadroga's death has been controversial, as the NYC medical examiner's office ruled that his death was not due to exposure to toxic WTC dust but prescription drug abuse, findings that contradicted the expert opinion of two other doctors. Bloomberg entered the fray when he said that......

Were the police surveillance photographs of Shawn Kovell's apartment what set her landlord off? Or was it the fact that she and boyfriend Robert Chambers had been arrested by undercover cops for allegedly selling drugs out of the East 57th Street apartment? Apparently it was something more simple. The couple wasn't able to make the rent. Chambers, infamous to New Yorkers as the Preppy Killer after he admitted to the 1986 strangling Jennifer Levin in......

Probably realizing that talking smack about a dead former NYPD detective who spent hours at the World Trade Center site working rescue and recovery isn't smart Mayoring, Mayor Bloomberg amended his comments about the late James Zadroga. Though he had said Zadroga "was not a hero" according to science at an event days earlier, the Mayor acknowledged Zadroga's record and told reporters yesterday, "This was a great NYPD officer who dedicated himself, put his life......

Last week, it was revealed that the NYC medical examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch did not believe WTC dust ultimately killed NYPD Detective Charles Zadroga. Zadroga, who worked rescue and recovery in the World Trade Center debris after September 11, died after a long, protracted battle of a respiratory disease in 2006. Now it turns out that Hirsch thinks Zadroga's death was caused by prescription drug abuse. Zadroga had been taking a number of pills, and......

More than a year and a half after the death of Nixzmary Brown, the Administration for Children's Services has hired 20 retired NYPD detectives to work as trained investigators consulting with ACS caseworkers. The ACS plans on eventually fielding 120 such investigators. The need for a bolder approach to protecting children being monitored by the ACS follows the beating death of Brown in January 2006 and a number of other deaths of children under ACS......

It's been a couple of days since we checked in on rap mogul and late night rabble rouser Sean Combs, who allegedly punched Steven Acevedo this past Sunday at an after hours club in SoHo. Currently The Daily News is reporting that Acevedo's lawyer stated his client doesn't want Combs to go to jail, however there are other reports stating Combs "is naive if he believes he can escape his latest accusations of assault with......

The Real Deal (via Brownstoner) is reporting that, according to a recent court ruling, the city is taking two Williamsburg properties via eminent domain for Bushwick Inlet Park. The properties are located along the East River between North 9th and 10th streets. According to one real estate expert, the city will only pay about $100 per square foot, compared to the $200 per square foot it could garner on the open market, even though the......

Yikes: A Carroll Gardens doctor was arrested for molesting two teen patients last week. The teens, who are 13- and 16-year-old brothers, were going in for "treatment of skin conditions." According to the Daily News, Dr. Cesar Veloso allegedly gave them rectal exams, measured their genitals, and asked them sexual questions. Unsurprisingly, the boys' lawyer says they were traumatized: The 16-year-old left the office "stunned" and the younger brother left "screaming." Veloso, who was given......

Nannies tattling on the foibles of their well-to-do employers are very last year. The Internet has spawned a forum that makes hidden cameras and GPS tracking seem like child's play when monitoring the people monitoring one's children. ISawYourNanny is a site where people can post incidents that they found suspect, and some of the descriptions of the people and places are meant to be specific enough that parents can figure out if it's their child......

It seems like Pete Hornberger doesn't do much on 30 Rock, but Scott Adsit says it's a pretty accurate representation. And he should know, he's a producer on the Emmy Award winning Morel Orel, for which he's also a writer and voice-actor. And this Saturday, October 13th, and the two Saturdays that follow, you'll have the opportunity to see Scott and former Mad TV writer Tami Sagher at the UCB Theater perform hilarious long-form two......

MOVIE: Somewhere between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford (pictured) starred in Ridley Scott's 1982 cult classic Blade Runner, which has been screening over at the Ziegfeld. This director's cut version includes more fights! And more special effects! And way more cyberpunk attitude! 5:30 and 8:30pm // Ziegfeld [141 W 54th St] // $11 READING: Earlier today Rosie O'Donnell was there, but tonight Shalom Auslander will spend some time at Barnes & Noble reading......

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: The New Yorker Festival hosts a conversation with Errol Morris tonight. He'll be talking with staff writer Philip Gourevitch about Abu Ghraib, with clips shown from Standard Operating Procedure -- his new film is a study of the prison-abuse scandal. Friday // 8pm // Directors......

Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D, 51st District) wants to ban alcohol ads on buses and subways. The ads provide just $3 to $5 million of the $100 million in revenue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority gets from ad sales and the MTA has not taken a position on the proposed legislation. The state’s Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services did express support for the legislation calling it "consistent with our strategy of preventing alcoholism......

Are the munchies a side effect of cocaine abuse? The NYPD busted a multi-million dollar drug ring where buyers could buy their cocaine and deli meats. The police found 4.5 kilograms of cocaine ($175,000 worth) and arrested 25 suspects. The Sun reports that the $4 million ring was operated out of establishments such as the Fiesta Meat Market in Washington Heights, billiards hall D.D. Café Billiard Sport, clothing store Yaharra (the headquarters), and bodega Broadway's......