“What are these illegal immigrants doing here? I hate immigrant people,” yelled David Caputo according to prosecutors. The diminutive man had a machete when he threatened to kill and man on a Sunset Park street in June. On December 6, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun refused prosecutors’ request to boost Caputo’s bail to $10,000. […]
READ MORESmile! You’re Being Surveilled By New York’s Finest
New Yorkers see them strapped to the back of patrol cars, mounted on toll booths and hanging on metal posts along the highway. “They” are automatic license plate readers and have become the spark of an ongoing debate in the balance between crime fighting and privacy invasion.
READ MOREMichael Brown Could Have Just Stopped Running
Ferguson, Missouri ripped apart in August 2014 when a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed a black teenager, Michael Brown. Protests echoed from America’s east coast to west coast, but maybe it took a New York City playwright to put the pieces together.
READ MOREF-Bombs Litter The Courtroom And Elsewhere
A word which used to be limited to locker rooms and schoolyard spats is now getting national coverage thanks to a trio of offenders — including a New York City judge who was instructed to begin his retirement a month early.
READ MOREAmerican Citizen Convicted in Suicide Attack
A failed suicide bombing in Afghanistan raises old arguments: should an American be tried in an American court of law for crimes committed while serving with the enemy, or should that person be killed in a drone strike. Execution without due process is the avenue American jurists are weighing.
READ MOREInternational Phishing Con Catches New York Trainer
What makes an upscale, personal training living the good life in New York fall for a phishing scheme which lands her in jail? G.R.E.E.D. “You can only cheat a greedy person,” said Mark Twain. Shannon Pettinger appears to be living proof. Pettinger’s greed led her to be linked with an international phishing scam that netted her “bosses” $100 million dollars and left Pettinger facing years in prison.
READ MOREWill The Most Hated Man In America Be “Loved” In Prison
Fun and games for Martin Shkreli are over. It’s impossible to say what may happen to Shkreli but everyone knows it won’t be fun. The smug 34-year-old who jacked-up AIDS medicine, stole from investors and called Washington DC lawmakers “imbeciles” will be spending his days sharing his new residence with vermin, limited computer access, and […]
READ MORENew York Prosecutors Don’t Always Play By the Rules
Pushed by political dreams, ineptness or something else, prosecutors don’t always follow the rules. When they ignore accepted “best practices”, justice is delayed. A legal maxim says “justice delayed is justice denied.” Now, some state legislators are talking about changes which will make at least one scheme unavailable to prosecutors.
READ MORENew York Residents Get Warrants Dismissed
Arrested decades ago in New York and failed to show up in court? Breathe easier. Your warrant may be just one of hundreds of thousands being dismissed as Manhattan’s District Attorney reviews old cases and gives (some) people the chance at a do-over.
READ MORENew York Implements Man Up! To Drive Down Violence
New York City has always had a reputation for crime. Occasionally the reputation was better than reality, but too often the reputation failed to live up to real life. Regardless, a new program, modeled after one in Chicago, is demonstrably reducing violent crime as it intervenes in young adults.
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