Results tagged “cop”

The off-duty officer who fatally ran over a woman hailing a cab in Brooklyn on a rainy night in September pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and other charges yesterday. Officer Andrew Kelly, a seven-year veteran assigned to the 68th Precinct, was driving with another off-duty officer and three civilians when he struck Vionique Valnord, 32, around 1 a.m. on September 27th.

It comes as no surprise that the off-duty NYPD detective who fatally struck an elderly pedestrian early Friday morning in the Bronx has an alcohol problem. Detective Kevin (Spike) Spellman had a blood alcohol level of 0.21 percent—more than twice the legal limit—almost six hours after the accident. Now it's being reported that this isn't the first time booze has caused problems for Spellman and others.

Bronx resident Sanija Kurtovic is eight months pregnant, and she got quite a scare the other day when her parked car was sideswiped as she was about to get out. But what's even scarier is that the vehicle that hit her was an NYPD cruiser, and the driver allegedly fled the scene. Kurtovic says that after her car was hit, she ran up to Officer Shirley Perez-Romero, who was stopped at a red light. But the cop allegedly played dumb, acting as if she didn't realize an accident had occured. Kurtovic says the officer told her she would do a U-turn and file a report, but instead Officer Perez-Romero just drove off.

The NYPD cop facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly flashing his gun at rowdy Rangers fans on the LIRR is no longer talking to the press, after saying way too much to a local news crew. But the Nassau district attorney's office is talking, and tells Newsday, "The allegation is that he was not acting in any legal law enforcement capacity, and he allegedly used his weapon to menace the passengers, so it doesn't matter that he's licensed or a trained professional." But surely the jury will take into account that Officer David Hendrick's alleged targets were Rangers fans from Long Island?

An off-duty NYPD officer was arrested Sunday night after waving his gun at a group of rowdy, belligerent Rangers fans. For some reason, that's a crime, and Officer David Hendrick, a 16-year veteran assigned to the Manhattan Task Force, faces a felony charge of criminal possession of a weapon and a lesser charge of menacing. MTA cops stopped the Ronkonkoma-bound train in Mineola after several frightened passengers called 911 to report that a man had brandished a gun.

The lawyer for the off-duty police officer who fatally ran over a Brooklyn woman Saturday night has tried to cast his client in a heroic light by telling the press that he almost saved the woman's life, and even resuscitated her momentarily. But an anonymous "source" tells the Daily News, "That story is a bunch of bull. He barely touched the girl. His hands were almost on her stomach, not her chest. His mouth never even touched her mouth."

The widow of NYPD Lieutenant Michael Pigott, who killed himself a week after issuing a fatal command to Taser a mentally disturbed man, is suing the city. Her lawyers are arguing that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and NYPD spokesman Paul Browne contributed to his suicide by making him a scapegoat for the Sept. 24, 2008 incident, in which a naked bipolar man fell one story to his death after being Tasered. Court papers obtained by the Post argue that public comments made by the NYPD's top brass "caused Michael Pigott to become humiliated, distraught, depressed, and caused him to commit suicide."

Today Mayor Bloomberg lashed out at the cop accused of DWI and vehicular manslaughter in the Saturday night crash that left a reverend's daughter dead. Today it was revealed that the driver, off-duty officer Andrew Kelly, scored a perfect zero on a blood alcohol test after successfully postponing it for eight hours. The NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating whether other cops at the scene helped him, and this morning Bloomberg told reporters, "Yesterday, I talked to the Reverend Varius Valnord, the father of Vionique, who was hit and killed by a car Sunday morning. It’s a tragedy that deserves the closest of scrutiny, and if true the allegations of a DWI hit and a cover-up are reprehensible."

After fatally running over a Brooklyn woman trying to hail a cab late Saturday night, off-duty cop Andrew Kelly successfully dragged his feet on taking a Breathalyzer or blood alcohol test for almost eight hours. And the gambit worked: When a doctor, acting on a warrant, finally drew Kelly's blood at 8 a.m., there was no alcohol in his system. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to charges of DWI and vehicular manslaughter; 32-year-old Vionique Valnord is dead.

The off-duty NYPD officer accused of DWI and vehicular manslaughter in the death of a Brooklyn pedestrian early Sunday morning managed to avoid having his blood alcohol level tested for over seven hours after the crash. As victim Vionique Valnord lay dying, officer Andrew Kelly, who was slurring his speech and reeked of alcohol, refused to take a Breathalyzer test, and told first responders he wouldn't easily submit to a blood test either: "I'm not going to let that happen," he said, according to a Daily News source. "You're going to have to tie me down."

Just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, Vionique Valnord, 32, was trying to hail a cab after a wedding reception in Flatbush when she was fatally struck by a Jeep Cherokee SUV; the driver was NYPD officer Andrew Kelly, 30, a seven-year veteran of the department who worked in the 68th Precinct. Four passengers in the SUV, one an off-duty cop, immediately fled the scene, but Kelly, who was off-duty, remained. His brother-in-law tells the Times that Kelly "performed CPR on the woman," and one witness tells the Post, "[Kelly] got out of the car, and he was trying to resuscitate her. He got her breathing again by the time the ambulance got here."

Bronx cop Marc Rios, an 11-year-veteran currently under indictment for smashing a man in the face with his baton during a road-rage incident, has now been slapped with a federal civil rights suit. Victim John Roperto is seeking unspecified damages from Rios over the March altercation, which Roperto says was sparked after he left a Kingsbridge nightclub around 4:20 a.m and an NYPD squad car almost ran him over. Roperto, 32, slapped the car in anger, which prompted Rios to get out and crack him in the face with his flexible police baton, breaking both Roperto's cheekbone and the baton.

While investigating former police officer Robert Melia Jr.'s alleged sexual assault on three underage girls, detectives discovered a video in his home that shows him sexually molesting cows in 2006. So animal-cruelty charges were added to the list, but on Wednesday a judge dropped the charges because prosecutors didn't "present enough evidence to jurors that Melia's alleged actions tormented the animals."

In an indictment unsealed yesterday, Bronx cop Marc Rios, a 12-year-veteran, is accused of assaulting a man outside a Kingsbridge nightclub around 4:20 a.m. on March 30th. Assistant DA James Cudden says the "unprovoked incident" happened after Rios's squad car almost hit clubgoer John Roperto, who had just exited the El Aguila nightclub. Roperto angrily hit the hood of the car, and Rios got out and cracked Roperto in the face with his nightstick—breaking the man's cheekbone and the baton. Rios then drove off, but when his Sergeant informed him about a 911 call to the location, he allegedly quipped, "That must be my bag of shit." Rios faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted; his lawyer tells the Post he acted in self-defense because Roperto, who was "quite likely... highly intoxicated," disobeyed an order to stop and approached Rios with his hands hidden beneath a jacket. Rios's lawyer also points out that Roperto got off easy, because "perhaps an inexperienced officer might've pulled out his gun and shot him."

Former rookie NYC transit officer Christian Torres has pleaded guilty to twice robbing a Sovereign branch on the Lower East Side in 2007. The robberies netted $116,000 and were almost completely successful, thanks in part to his 20-year-old girlfriend Christina Dasrath, who worked as a teller at the bank. (She still claims Torres tricked her into helping him, and describes him as her first love.) Torres, 23, only got busted for those jobs when cops pulled him over after robbing $113,000 from a Sovereign branch in Pennsylvania last April. Dasrath is currently serving a two and a half year sentence, and Torres is doing a ten year bid in the Keystone State. While pleading guilty yesterday, Torres blamed the crime spree on the low salaries allotted rookie cops.

Officer Rodney Lewis and his partner Mark Bublin were responding to a domestic dispute in Ridgewood early Sunday morning when a suspect's handgun accidentally discharged during a scuffle, wounding Lewis under his left arm. According to WABC, it all started around 11 p.m. Saturday during a family party, when Marcello Campana, who identifies herself as a woman named Hazel, got into an argument with her reportedly violent boyfriend Carlos.

As many of our astute commenters suspected, it was a drug deal gone bad that sparked Wednesday night's wild car chase and fatal shooting in Washington Heights. It was originally reported that a man had flagged down a patrol car screaming that he was robbed and pointing to a silver Cadillac a few car lengths ahead, near West 170th street. And while police say it's true that the man and his buddy were robbed—of somewhere between $500 and $1,200 cash—it's now confirmed that the robbery was a pot deal gone bad.

Anyone who rides a bike regularly in NYC quickly realizes that the NYPD is pretty lax when it comes to keeping drivers from parking in bike lanes—hell, even the NYPD's own patrol cars are often seen blocking bike lanes. But according to the city's Department of Finance, some 70,000 tickets were issued for stopping in a bike lane last year, out of 10 million tickets issued citywide. One's inclined to dismiss that statistic as utter BS, but NY1 actually found a driver who claims he was issued a $115 ticket for blocking a bike lane on the Lower East Side. It sounds crazy, which is why it made the news! Shocked motorist Ernest Marshall says it all happened when he was picking up his wife:

As my wife was leaving the sidewalk to get into the car, a traffic officer pulled in front of me, blocked me in and then proceeded to give me a traffic ticket. There's parking, a bike lane and traffic on both sides of the street. It's impossible to load or unload passengers from a car without blocking a bike lane or traffic itself. It's unfair.

A former NYPD narcotics officer who was shot in the back by a fellow cop during a drug bust eleven years ago has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the city, far less than the $31 million he originally sought. It's better than nothing, but Dexter Brown, who takes steroids every day just to get out of bed and needs a cane to walk, is, understandably, still pissed about the shooting—especially since the NYPD has not admitted any wrongdoing nor disciplined the cop who pulled the trigger: Detective Luis Lopez, who is still on the force.

Defying the tired old cliche about cops loving their carrots and wheatgrass, a Brooklyn police sergeant is under investigation for loading up on donuts without paying at a Belle Harbor Dunkin' Donuts. A manager at the location called the cops on Sgt. Eric Turetsky after getting fed up with his behavior, which he claims included flirting with the adolescent workers and habitually underpaying for his donuts. The manager, who for obvious reasons asked not to be identified, tells the Post, "The girls here couldn't stand him. He was rude toward them. He was not professional at all." After reporting Turetsky, Internal Affairs watched him go into the store on seven different occasions, and on each of those trips he allegedly went behind the counter to help himself to the donuts. Turetsky, who was promoted to detective after blowing the whistle on fellow officer Justin Volpe in the infamous Abner Louima bathroom sodomy scandal, is currently assigned to the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways. If found guilty of accepting free or discount donuts, Turtetsky could lose 30 days of vacation time!

An unidentified NYPD narcotics officer had one of his legs amputated below the calf last night after getting pinned by a car that jumped the curb during an accident in Brooklyn. The plainclothes officer, a five and a half year NYPD veteran, was loading drug bust prisoners into a van at about 5 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue U and East 34th Street in Marine Park, when two vehicles traveling opposite directions slammed into each other and jumped the curb. The cop was rushed to Kings County Hospital and is listed in serious but stable condition. No one else was hurt in the incident, and according to 1010 WINS, neither of the drivers have been charged and police have ruled this an accident.

As a 15-year veteran of the NYPD, Sergeant Joseph Spiekerman knew exactly what to do after drunkenly running a red light and plowing into 68-year-old Barry Gintel one morning last month: Refuse to take the breath test! Though he admitted he'd been drinking, cops on the scene had to get a court order to draw his blood, so we'll never know just how wasted Officer Spiekerman was when he ran over Gintel at 6:40 a.m. on June 29th at York Avenue and 86th Street. Gintel was on his way back to his apartment after buying a coffee and two buttered rolls at The Mansion diner; the cashier tells the Daily News, "I give him his change, look out the window, and I see he got hit and goes flying 10, maybe 20 feet in the air." The impact shattered the windshield of Spiekerman's Volvo and Gintel underwent emergency surgery for two fractured legs, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, and head and neck injuries. He's still in the hospital and wearing a neck brace! Spiekerman has been suspended without pay and is charged with felony vehicular assault and DWI, and the News seems rather surprised that "police officials declined to explain why they failed to release details of the crash and Spiekerman's arrest sooner."

Upstate writer John Kuhner was visiting New York (his hometown) last week when his late night subway ride to Queens got even more tedious than usual. Around 5:30 a.m., a plainclothes cop entered his subway car at Roosevelt Avenue and ordered all seven male riders off the train. Like the others, Kuhner had made the mistake of putting his feet up, which is punishable with a $50 fine. He writes, "We were received by a group of police officers, six in all... who demanded our IDs and said they were going to run a check on us. It took forever for these six cops to get our names through to their computer, and the entire time all seven of us became more and more annoyed and difficult... I began to harangue the officers: 'This is ridiculous. The Law is for the resolution of grievances between citizens... This is a shameless revenue grab, and that’s why you, officer, won’t look me in the eye or even respond.'" Kuhner goes off on the cops like Patrick Henry on his sixth Sparks, and you can probably imagine how far his impassioned rhetoric got him. Read the whole indignant story here, which ends with one commenter sagely urging Kuhner to "take solace in the fact that by challenging this ticket... you will ultimately cost the city more than the $50 that they fined you."

A plan to beef up street patrols around the city on Fridays by making NYPD desk jockeys walk the beat has been dropped, and the police chief who ordered the summertime reassignments has been essentially demoted, the Post has learned. A source tells the tabloid that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pulled the plug because he "was annoyed that he wasn't told about it. It wasn't going to work anyway, because the cops involved weren't for it. It was just window dressing." When it was announced last month, an NYPD spokesman insisted, "This is not a new program, and the NYPD has been using this for years." But today's news seems to contradict that assertion, and Kelly has stripped Chief of Patrol Robert Gianelli, his former radio-car partner, of command of the Special Operations Division over the flap. Today would have been the third Friday that administrative cops—as many as 10 from each of the 76 police precincts—were reassigned to foot patrols. According to the Post, precinct commanders were grumbling because the officers are needed to perform the day-to-day administrative tasks to keep office operations running.

Though some bloggers have shrugged off Monday's allegedly rough arrest of a woman who was carrying her pug through the subway as "breathtakingly minor," the incident's certainly major enough to have gotten the attention of New York's top cop. Or, at least a reporter was able to ask NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly whether officer Joel Witriol used excessive force and made sexist remarks while arresting Chrissie Brodigan, who was trying to carry her sick pug out of the subway station.

A bystander who witnessed the arrest Monday of a woman carrying her sick pug in the subway says the dog owner made anti-Semitic remarks toward the arresting officer, who happens to be the city's first Hasidic cop. Yesterday the pug-owner, Chrissie Brodigan, told us (and a second witness corroborated) that when she became upset during the incident, Officer Joel Witriol said, "If you're going to act like a woman I'm going to treat you like a woman."

    

Greenpoint resident Chrissie Brodigan says she was riding on the L train between Bedford and First Avenue when her pug, who has health problems, overheated and began vomiting in the tote bag she was carrying him in. As she was leaving the subway station with the dog in her arms, she says a police officer's attempt to issue her a ticket turned ugly, and when she became upset the cop began saying, "If you're going to act like a woman I'm going to treat you like a woman." [We've updated with photos of Brodigan's arrest. July 1 update: A new post with details about another witness's account is here. ]

A New York Police sergeant admitted yesterday that he illegally used a city police computer to get registration information on two cars as a favor for a Long Island crack dealer. The cars were being used by DEA agents for surveillance on the dealer, Frank Wilson, who gave sergeant Roosevelt Green a pair of sneakers worth $20 and a discount on several other pairs in exchange for the information. Green, an 11-year police veteran, confessed to the misconduct and lying to DEA investigators when they questioned him about his relationship with Wilson. But Green's lawyer insists his client was unaware that Wilson was a drug dealer, telling Newsday that Wilson said he wanted the car ownership information because he suspected robbers were following him. Fortunately, the ownership information was false, to prevent the cars from being traced back to law enforcement. Green faces up to 5 years in prison and has agreed to quit the city police force. It's unclear if he gets to keep the sneakers.

Two potential witnesses who took cellphone video in the moments following last month's fatal cop-on-cop shooting in Harlem were told to leave by an officer at the crime scene, WABC reports. The two men, who showed the video to reporters but requested anonymity, say they were in a vehicle at a stoplight where Officer Omar Edwards chased the man who broke into his car. They didn't see the shooting because their view was blocked by another vehicle, but they heard the gunshots.

The NYPD has dusted off a ten-year-old training video meant to teach officers how to avoid friendly fire, and has been showing it to all cops at roll call in the wake of last week's fatal cop-on-cop shooting in Harlem. The video features testimonials from plainclothes cops, sharing common sense advice for uniformed cops, such as not making assumptions about individuals based on ethnicity or attire. There are also instructions for undercover officers on how to respond when "professionally challenged" by a uniformed officer—first and foremost being stopping when someone yells, "Police! Don't Move!" and not "reflexively spinning."