Results tagged “convicted”

Having gotten his drink on while waiting for his Jet Blue flight to Mardi Gras in New Orleans in February, Paul Henry Boritzer was in a totally festive mood when he finally boarded the plane. But then the flight attendants had to go and harsh his vibe because he was strolling about the cabin "in a loud and disruptive behavior" ten minutes before take-off. When a flight attendant asked that he return to his seat, he told her he didn't have to follow her rules, because he was a federal air marshal and a U.S. Airway pilot. Lying about that stuff is a no-no, and after the attendant insisted he sit down, Boritzer called her a bitch and asked, "Who do you think you are?" Boritzer remained disruptive throughout the flight, and, according to the Justice Department, threatened a flight attendant who denied him more booze. Needless to say, he didn't make it to Mardi Gras; he was arrested upon arrival and a jury yesterday found him guilty of interfering with a flight crew and impersonating a Federal air marshal. Boritzer will be sentenced in December, and could face a 29 year prison term, a $1 million fine, and the indignity of Will Ferrell portraying him in a movie adaptation.

A federal judge in Brooklyn excoriated a high profile defense lawyer in court yesterday after the jury handed down guilty verdicts on 12 counts of conspiring to threaten and bribe witnesses and possessing illegal wiretapping equipment. Robert Simels, 62, was defending a powerful Guyanese drug lord when he got caught on tape telling a former gang member that certain witnesses should "just fall off the face of the Earth... I'm gonna leave it to you to figure out what's going to be best to get to him." Yesterday Judge John Gleeson said that Simels crossed "a very bright line... into what is flat-out forbidden." Simels had unsuccessfully argued that when he talked about ways to "neutralize the witness" he was just talking "street" to the gang member because "Guyana is a Third World country. They sometimes speak in a very unappealing fashion, so I spoke down in a manner he would appreciate." Simels, who once represented the Jets' Mark Gastineau, faces disbarment and between 12 and 15½ years in jail. He's been put on house arrest and has to wear an electronic ankle bracelet until his sentencing in November.

Jeb Corliss, who attempted to parachute off the Empire State Building in 2006 and has been in and out of court since, was convicted yesterday of reckless endangerment. He could face up to one year in jail, a significantly steeper punishment than was just handed to NY Times Building climber Alain Robert, who received a fine and community service. Corliss told the awaiting press,"I'm shocked. I can't believe it," and he'll now have to wait until January 22nd to find out what his exact sentencing will be. The Daily News adds that defense lawyer Mark Heller spoke up to Assistant DA Mark Crooks, a relative of flight pioneer Orville Wright, saying "If your great-great-granduncle were alive today, he would disagree with your argument that Jeb Corliss was being selfish, arrogant and reckless." Crooks responded that the Wright Brothers "didn't take their flying machines into crowded cities."

Two of the women involved the infamous lesbian catcall beatdown of Aught Six may get out of jail soon, the Times reports. A four-judge appeals court yesterday overturned the convictions of Terrain Dandridge and Renita Hill, who are currently doing time on assault charges after they attacked a man who they say tried to woo them outside the Greenwich Village IFC Center with come-ons like “I’ll fu-k you straight.”

With Martin Tankleff's recent release (after 17 years behind bars) and the appointment of none other than New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as a special prosecutor in the murder investigation, there's more attention paid to who may or may not have been responsible for the murder of Seymour Tankleff and his wife Arlene in 1988. At the time, prosecutors pegged the cold-blooded killing on their 17-year-old son Martin, claiming that the distraught teenager copped to killing his parents in hope of getting an early inheritance.

Steven Sakai, the bouncer who went on a shooting rampage in front of Opus 22 in Chelsea last year, was found guilty of two other murders yesterday and acquitted in a third killing. From the accounts we've read, Sakai was his own worst enemy throughout the legal process, beginning with implicating himself in three killings as police questioned him about his role in the May 2006 shooting of four patrons outside the club where he...