The stabbing occurred during a violent brawl inside Cookie’s Lounge in Ozone Park.

By Michael V. Cusenza

A Jamaica man has been convicted in the July 2017 stabbing death of a man inside of an Ozone Park watering hole, Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan recently announced.

Following a two-week trial, Kenneth Shaw, 38, was found guilty last Wednesday of first-degree manslaughter. He faces five to 25 years in prison.

According to trial testimony, on July 13, 2017, at approximately 12:55 a.m. inside of Cookie’s Lounge on Cross Bay Boulevard, Shaw touched the tattoo of a woman at the bar. The woman’s friend took offense and pushed Shaw and a brawl ensued. John Savillo, 55, of Ozone Park, allegedly broke a stool over another patron’s head and choked him. Savillo was then stabbed twice in the torso and sustained a lacerated liver.

Savillo was immediately transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center with internal bleeding. The married father and grandfather succumbed to his injuries about 13 hours after the fight.

Ryan said that Shaw “turned an evening in a bar into mayhem and bloodshed. A man is dead over a petty dispute and the defendant has now been found guilty of taking a life. After careful deliberation, the jury found him guilty and the defendant will face a lengthy term of punishment for this senseless act of violence.”

However, then-DA Richard Brown originally balked at prosecuting Shaw. According to law enforcement officials, witnesses supported his claim that Savillo initiated the melee.

“The District Attorney’s Office has declined to file charges at this time, citing the need for further investigation,” spokesman Kevin Ryan told The Forum on Monday, July 17, 2017.

This did not sit well with Savillo’s loved ones.

“It’s an injustice that this man is allowed to go on with his life,” John Andriano, a nephew of Savillo, told the New York Daily News.

Shaw was indicted a month later. He was arraigned on Aug. 29, 2017, on a single charge of first-degree manslaughter with intent to cause physical injury.

The DA’s Office did not explain why it switched gears and ultimately decided to present the case to the grand jury. Shaw’s attorney, Marcia Payton, did not return a call seeking comment.

Shaw is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 2.

Captain John Costello addresses area residents Tuesday.

By Michael V. Cusenza

If you couldn’t make Tuesday’s Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association meeting at St. Helen Catholic Academy you missed an impromptu, symbolic passing of the blue torch as two former commanding officers of the 106th Precinct introduced area residents to their new top cop: Capt. John Costello.

“I have some tremendous shoes to fill,” Costello quipped after accepting the microphone from his immediate predecessor, Deputy Insp. Brian Bohannon, Jr., the newly minted commander of the 113th Precinct who expressed gratitude for the loyalty that Howard Beach and Lindenwood residents have displayed over the past three years.

Costello, 43, took the reins from Bohannon earlier this month. He noted Tuesday that his father, a retired cop, was raised in Howard Beach.

“My roots are from here,” the captain said, later adding that he’s “a third-generation cop” with two brothers and three cousins still on the job. “I’m humble and glad to be part of the community.”

Costello has hit the ground running. On Tuesday, he warned residents about crimes that usually see spikes during the holiday season.

“I’ve noticed in Howard Beach—be cognizant of your packages. Criminals are opportunists,” Costello cautioned. He also pointed out that there are 32 blue U.S. Postal Service collection boxes in Sector A (Howard Beach and Lindenwood); not all have been retrofitted with “fishing-proof” equipment.

“If you can, during the holidays, please physically go into the post office,” the captain said.

Costello on Tuesday also got the stamp of approval from a familiar face: Inspector Jeff Schiff, who led the 106 from September 2013 to March 2016. He’s currently assigned to the Counterterrorism Division.

“He knows what he’s doing fighting crime,” Schiff said of Costello.

Due to the deterioration of the building, DOB issued an immediate emergency declaration allowing a city contractor to demolish the home.

By Michael V. Cusenza

An unoccupied residence that has teetered precariously on the lip of a Hawtree Basin inlet in Hamilton Beach since Superstorm Sandy inundated the area with water in 2012 partially collapsed into the drink on Monday, according to officials and eyewitnesses.
A City Department of Buildings spokeswoman told The Forum that the agency responded to reports of a leaning building at 102-39 Russell St. DOB inspectors found that the vacant, single-family home had shifted 2-3 feet toward the waterway behind it. Any utility services feeding the home were cut. Due to the deterioration of the building, DOB issued an immediate emergency declaration allowing a city contractor to demolish the home.
The spokeswoman indicated that DOB will continue to monitor the edifice until the home is demolished. In addition, the agency issued an aggravated violation to the building owner for failure to maintain the home in a code-compliant manner.
The property owner has pledged to DOB that they will hire a private contractor to perform the work; however, if they do not commence the demolition right away, a City contractor will perform the work and bill the owner.
The City Office of Emergency Management promised to conduct a follow-up probe of the site on Wednesday.
Area residents have been alerting elected officials and authorities about the home and others like it for years. Just last May, residents in Old Howard Beach made several calls to The Forum after a waterfront property located on Bayview Avenue near 163rd Avenue in Ramblersville, abandoned since Superstorm Sandy hit, began to sink further into Hawtree Creek.
Fears had been mounting that the shed and the deck attached to the property would soon break free and clog the waters of the creek, introducing dangerous conditions in the waterway and prohibiting any watercraft from passing.
As with all properties in similar condition, the homeowners were offered the choice to renovate, rebuild, or surrender the property for market value to the City’s Build it Back initiative. Due to the highly restrictive conditions and the extended time frame involved, the owners of the property chose to participate in the acquisition phase of the program and sold their home to the City.
The house, which was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, has been demolished.

The mayor also touted past initiatives taken by his administration to prevent and address youth homelessness, including Marsha’s House in the Bronx, the first-ever DHS shelter for LGBTQ young people in the five boroughs.

By Forum Staff

The City will adopt new investments to help youth experiencing homelessness transition off the streets into shelter and from shelter into permanent housing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.
According to the administration, through collaboration across multiple agencies, including the Department of Youth and Community Development, the Department for the Aging, and the Department of Social Services, youth experiencing homelessness will have access to an array of new resources, including a new mobile service that will help youth experiencing homelessness find and access relevant support. Hizzoner said he will also establish a senior advisor for Youth Homelessness responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and expansion of the interagency initiatives.
The new resources include:
• The Department for the Aging for the first time will connect youth experiencing homelessness to housing opportunities through their Home Sharing program (program already operating, effective immediately);
• A new mobile service that will help homeless youth more easily find and access support. The design of the service will be informed by youth with lived experiences of homelessness in the five boroughs, developed through a human-centered design process led by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, with $200,000 allocated for research, scoping, and design to begin this fall;
• A new cohort of pregnant or parenting youth participating in the outcome-driven Parent Empowerment Program through the Department of Youth and Community Development, which provides access to childcare to young parents while they pursue their high school equivalency diploma and earn workforce credentials.
According to de Blasio, his administration is:
• Piloting the provision of DSS prevention resources within a DYCD 24-hour drop-in center in Queens
• Working with DYCD to connect certain eligible young people transitioning out of DYCD shelters and entering Department of Homeless Services shelters with CityFHEPS rental assistance
• Bidding out a two-year contract through the Department of Social Services-Human Resources Administration to support the NYC Youth Action Board, which will integrate people with lived experience within the NYC Coalition on the Continuum of Care
• Ensuring that DYCD providers are trained by DSS-HRA in applying to NYC Supportive Housing units;
• Partnering with members of the NYC Youth Action Board, DYCD and homeless service providers so that HRA can update the assessment for Supportive Housing applications to include specific eligible experiences of young people; and
• Relaunching the Youth Experiencing Homelessness page on Generation NYC, co-designed by Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity with members of the NYC Youth Action Board, DYCD, and homeless service providers so that there is an online resource guide specific to youth experiencing homelessness (no cost, to launch this summer, the mayor noted).
On Friday, de Blasio also touted past initiatives taken by his administration to prevent and address youth homelessness, including the NYC Unity Project, a $9.5 million investment to prevent and address homelessness for LGBTQ youth across the five boroughs; 500 new beds for homeless youth and expansion of youth drop-in centers; Marsha’s House in the Bronx, the first-ever DHS shelter for LGBTQ young people in New York City; and the commitment to allocate 1,700 supportive housing units for youth through the Supportive Housing NYC 15/15 Initiative.

Photo Courtesy of the Cabán Campaign

By Michael V. Cusenza

It has been characterized as one of the most important political contests in a generation—complete with Election Day drama that left many veteran pundits and pols stunned.

In what is shaping up to be a striking upset, public defender Tiffany Cabán leads Borough President Melinda Katz in the Democratic Primary for district attorney. As of Wednesday afternoon, with counts at 99 percent of precincts completed, Cabán topped Katz by 1,090 tallies. The Richmond Hill native garnered 33,814 votes (39.57 percent), while Forest Hills’ Katz compiled 32,724 votes (38.30 percent).

More than 85,000 votes have been counted so far, with roughly 3,400 absentee ballots remaining to be calculated.

Still, Cabán, 31, declared victory Tuesday night in Woodside.

“We won the District Attorney’s Office!” she beamed to her elated supporters.

However, Katz, 53, and her allies would not concede.

“I want everyone to know we are doing a recount,” she asserted at her reception in Forest Hills.

“This thing ain’t over folks,” Queens Democratic Party Chairman Greg Meeks added. “Every vote will be counted.”

The political veteran Katz trails Cabán by 1,090 votes.
Photo Courtesy of the Office of the Borough President

A crowded six-candidate race has ultimately come down to two starkly different counselors. Katz is a career elected official, with her legal experience coming in the private sector. She has held seats in the Assembly, City Council, and has been borough president since 2014. As for her platform, Katz has said that preventing crime and stopping people from becoming victims in the first place will always be the better solution. To that end, she has promised arrest, bail and sentencing reforms; ending marijuana prosecution and arrests; and to establish a Conviction Integrity Unit to examine cases and make recommendations for exoneration.

Cabán has been a public defender, “working for people who did not have resources to defend themselves against the brutal system of mass incarceration,” since graduating from New York Law School.

“I am running to transform the Queens District Attorney’s Office after years of witnessing its abuses on the front lines,” she said upon entering the fray.

Cabán garnered headlines, and ultimately the endorsements of The New York Times, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens and Bronx), and U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), by running on a platform to end Broken Windows prosecuting; decriminalize sex work and recreational use of marijuana; and work with safe injection facilities to help reduce overdose deaths.

According to the City Board of Elections, the 3,400 absentee ballots can’t be counted until July 3.

“You are going to have to go back and study the history books to come up with a session that did more good than this session did,” Gov. Cuomo declared on Friday.

By Michael V. Cusenza

Ever since the 2019 Legislative Session wrapped up last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Democrat-led Legislature have seemingly been on a victory lap, touting “historic progressive accomplishments” notched during what Cuomo has called the most productive Albany legislative confab “in modern political history.”
Even Mayor Bill de Blasio was effusive in his praise of the Executive and the Legislature.
“We haven’t seen a session this daring, productive, and progressive in decades,” Hizzoner gushed Friday.
Hyperbole aside, said “accomplishments” included:
• Passed the Jose R. Peralta DREAM Act, giving undocumented New York students the same advantages afforded to their citizen peers, including access to the Tuition Assistance Program and State-administered scholarships.
• Passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, creating what Cuomo has characterized as “the most aggressive climate change program in the nation” with goals to: reach zero carbon emissions in the electricity sector by 2040; and directs State entities to work toward a goal of investing 40 percent of clean energy and energy efficiency resources to benefit disadvantaged communities. Additionally, the law creates the Climate Action Council comprised of the leaders of various state agencies and authorities as well as legislative appointments to develop a plan outlining how the State will achieve an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, and eventually net zero emissions in all sectors of the economy.
• Made permanent the 2 percent property tax cap, building upon the approximate $25 billion in taxpayer savings since it was implemented in 2012.
• Funded the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with an estimated $25 billion raised through a promised congestion pricing plan, a new progressive mansion tax, and the elimination of the internet tax advantage.
• Enacted legislation in support of LGBTQ rights, including the elimination of the gay and trans panic defense—closing a loophole in State law that allowed individuals to use the gay and trans panic defenses after attacking another based upon that victim’s gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The governor also signed into law the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act and a ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy.
• Enacted additional sexual harassment protections via a package of reforms that will lower the high bar set for employees to hold employers accountable under the New York Human Rights Law for sexual harassment by amending the requirement that conduct be “severe or pervasive” to constitute actionable conduct; extend the statute of limitations for employment sexual harassment claims filed with the Division of Human Rights from one year to three years; and protect employees’ rights to pursue complaints by mandating that all non-disclosure agreements in employment contracts include language stating that employees may still participate in government investigations conducted by local, state, and federal anti-discrimination agencies
• Enacted legislation extending the statute of limitations for second- and third-degree rape and expanding the civil statute of limitations for claims related to these offenses, allowing victims greater opportunity to obtain justice.
• Increased school aid by more than $1 billion, bringing total school aid to a record $27.9 billion. In addition, Cuomo noted that new reporting requirements will address imbalances in the distribution of resources by prioritizing funding at the individual school level in order to advance a more transparent, equitable education system.
• Delivered criminal justice reform by, among other aspects, eliminating cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent offenses, ensuring the right to a speedy trial, and transforming the discovery process.
“This was I believe, the most productive session in modern political history. You are going to have to go back and study the history books to come up with a session that did more good than this session did,” Cuomo added on Friday in an end-of-session media availability in the Red Room of the Capitol. “We laid out a 100-day agenda back in last December and said that this is a moment where we can make great change. You know change comes when the planets line up and the people are ready for change. Change is hard. The status quo is very difficult to overcome. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of advocacy. And it takes a lot of intelligence because it is not just, I want to change. Change to what? And what are the consequences of that change? It’s not just the political intent to make a change. It’s the legal effect of what that change is. It goes from politics to government. The political part is easy. I want to make change. Okay, the governmental part is hard. How do you do it and what are the consequences, et cetera? But we did it and the people were ready for change.”

By Michael V. Cusenza

EDITOR’S NOTE: Please be aware that the details contained in the following report are extremely graphic.

A Woodhaven man has been convicted of sharing dozens of videos of children as young as 6 engaging in sexually explicit acts via an online file-sharing network, Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan announced on Monday.

The explicit videos—and additional images of children as young as 2 participating in vulgar sex acts—were retrieved from a computer and other electronic devices recovered from the defendant’s 87th Avenue residence.

Following a two-week trial, a jury found Diego Guerra, 41, guilty of 68 counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child. Sentencing has been scheduled for July 30, at which time Guerra faces up to seven years in prison, Ryan noted.

According to the charges, while utilizing an internet software tool on Jan. 5, 2017, law enforcement officials linked Guerra’s Internet Protocol address to a series of files containing images of child pornography uploaded to ARES, a peer-to-peer file sharing network. Detectives assigned to the City Police Department’s Special Investigations Division determined that Guerra shared multiple videos of children between the ages of 6 and 12 engaging in explicit sexual acts with other underage children and several adult men. Some of the videos depicted children as young as 6 being vaginally penetrated by adult men, while others showcased teenage boys between 10 and 12 engaging in lewd sexual acts.

On Jan. 19, 2017, authorities retrieved an additional video from Guerra’s account. The video—which was 24 minutes in length—showcased a teenage boy performing a sexual act on a girl whom authorities believed was between the ages of 6 and 8 years old. The video then depicts a man giving instructions to the boy as he continued to vaginally penetrate the young girl. Shortly after obtaining this file, authorities subpoenaed records pertaining to the IP address associated with the account. It was subsequently determined that Guerra was sharing the videos.

Detectives executed a search warrant at Guerra’s home on July 27, 2017. Once inside the residence, authorities encountered the defendant who admitted to owning a laptop and several other electronic devices retrieved from the house. A forensic exam performed on the laptop recovered 60 additional images of children between the ages of 2 and 12 with their genitals exposed and engaging in lewd sexual acts.

“This defendant partook in the vile act of sharing lewd videos of children on the internet. These horrifying crimes should serve as reminder to all that the internet must be policed in order to prevent further instances of children being violated and degraded in the worst imaginable ways,” Ryan fumed. “The defendant deserves to be adequately sentenced for his role in this despicable crime.”

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a non-profit corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization, as of November 2018, its CyberTipline has received more than 43 million reports of child sexual abuse imagery; its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed more than 267 million photos/videos; and more than 15,800 victims have been identified by law enforcement.

Martinez and Velazquez last week allegedly tried to steal mail from this box on Lefferts Boulevard in Richmond Hill.

By Michael V. Cusenza

Two men have been charged with “fishing” mail out of blue U.S. Postal Service collection boxes in Richmond Hill and Forest Hills in October and November, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown announced on Friday.

Alvaro Martinez, 28, of Manhattan, and Luis Velazquez, 22, of the Bronx, were arraigned Thursday night on three complaints charging them with third-degree burglary, first-degree criminal tampering, third-degree criminal possession of stolen property, first-degree identity theft, and possession of burglar’s tools. Bail for Martinez was set at $25,000; Velazquez’s bail was set at $13,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, neither had posted bail, according to City Department of Correction records.

“Mailbox fishing” is a federal crime in which envelopes containing checks and sensitive documents are “fished out” of curbside mailboxes by crooks using a makeshift rod: an adhesive slathered all over a weighted, 16 ounce-20 ounce bottle attached to the end of a string or rope.

According to the charging documents, around 4:35 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 29, Velazquez was seen on surveillance footage standing in front of a USPS mailbox at 64th Avenue and 108th Street, and a second box roughly a block away, in Forest Hills. The video allegedly shows Velazquez inserting an object into the mailboxes and pulling it out again along with pieces of mail.

According to the complaints, shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17, Martinez was observed on surveillance video standing in front of a blue mailbox at 62nd Drive and 108th Street, also in Forest Hills. Martinez allegedly could be seen on camera placing something inside the mailbox and then retrieving that item along with mail attached to it, the complaints noted.

And on Wednesday, Nov. 29, Martinez and Velazquez were seen around 3:50 a.m. at the intersection of Lefferts Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill, according to the charges. Martinez was allegedly observed with his hands near the opening slot of a mailbox and Velazquez was leaning on the box. As a detective approached, both men moved away from the box, but a shoestring was left dangling from the slot. A member of the U.S. Postal Police opened the box and found the shoestring attached to a juice bottle that was covered with glue. Velazquez allegedly admitted that a nearby vehicle belonged to him and inside that car police recovered dozens of pieces of both unopened and opened mail along with mouse and rat glue traps. The complaints noted that at least one envelope recovered contained a check for $4,000.

Mailbox fishing has hit Gotham hard in recent years—especially Queens. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service told The Forum on Wednesday that the agency has already replaced approximately 40 percent of the old collection boxes in Queens with new, virtually “fishing-proof” ones.

“The plan has always been to replace all of these boxes; it’s the most prudent approach,” USPIS Public Information Officer Donna Harris said. “We know it works.”

Indeed, since all of the old collection boxes were replaced in the 104th Precinct, USPIS has not recorded a single mailbox fishing complaint in that part of Queens, Harris noted.

“We’ve done a lot, but we’ve still got a ways to go,” the spokeswoman added.

The meeting was held on Tuesday evening at the Howard Beach Library.

By Michael V. Cusenza
For generations, excessive noise has been a seemingly endless source of irritation from Breezy Point to Beechhurst.
And in recent weeks, Queens’ quality-of-life cacophony has created a summer of discontent for several Howard Beach residents who brought the issue to the attention of 106th Precinct Neighborhood Coordination Officers Tuesday evening at the Sector A (Howard Beach, Lindenwood) Build the Block meeting.
The “mystery music,” along with decidedly not harmonious sounds are emanating from the Howard Beach-Brooklyn border. The 106 NCOs Pete Paese and Mike Petrizzo indicated that they have discussed the problem with their colleagues in East New York’s 75th Precinct.
“Brooklyn deals with a lot more than Howard Beach deals with,” Petrizzo said. “Noise might not be a priority for them.”
The NCOs on Tuesday also encouraged meeting attendees gathered in the Howard Beach Library to continue calling and/or texting 311.
Some weary residents let out exasperated sighs when the city’s non-emergency governmental services and information line was even mentioned.
“311 is not good at responding, but they are a very good tracking system,” said long-time Community Board 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton, who later noted that Howard Beach isn’t even the noisiest patch of the precinct. That honor is shared by South Ozone Park and Richmond Hill.

Search warrants netted numerous illegal guns, including an AR-15 (similar to the one pictured).

By Forum Staff

An acting captain in the Gambino crime family has admitted to his involvement in acts of loansharking and illegal gambling in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, federal authorities announced on Thursday.
John “Johnny Boy” Ambrosio, 74, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in federal court in Central Islip. Prosecutors noted that the Huntington resident is the last defendant to plead guilty in a superseding indictment that charged him and six members and associates of the Gambino family and a member of the Bonanno family. Co-conspirators Frank Salerno, 43, of Whitestone; Thomas Anzalone, 44, of Ozone Park; and Alessandro Damelio, 49, of Whitestone; as well as Joseph Durso, Anthony Rodolico and Anthony Saladino, all Gambino associates and residents of Long Island, have previously entered pleas of guilty to racketeering conspiracy.
According to the superseding indictment, between January 2014 and December 2017, Ambrosio and his co-conspirators engaged in a racketeering conspiracy, which included loansharking, operating illegal gambling businesses, narcotics distribution conspiracy, and obstruction of justice conspiracy.At his guilty plea, Ambrosio admitted to participating in the affairs of the Gambino family by collecting an extortionate loan from one victim, and supervising a gambling business involving poker games, electronic gaming machines and sports betting. As part of his plea agreement with the government, Ambrosio will forfeit $100,000, including $66,116 in cash that was seized from his home at the time he was taken into custody.
When Ambrosio and his co-conspirators were arrested on Dec. 12, 2017, law enforcement agents executed search warrants at various locations, including a storage facility in Nassau County, and recovered gambling and loan sharking records, electronic gaming machines, narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia, and numerous firearms, including an AR-15, a .38-caliber revolver, and a sawed-off shotgun. Agents also recovered letters addressed to Ambrosio from Bonanno family boss Michael “The Nose” Mancuso and former Gambino family boss, and Howard Beach resident, John Gotti.
When sentenced later this year, Ambrosio, Anzalone, Damelio, Durso, and Rodolico each face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. Saladino and Salerno each face a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment and up to 40 years for the cocaine distribution conspiracy offenses.

Hizzoner actually showed his cards in old emails that recently surfaced. On Thursday, the City finally handed over a massive trove of more than 4,000 electronic correspondences to Spectrum News NY1 and the New York Post. Earlier this month, following prolonged litigation, State Appellate Division Judge Anil Singh upheld a lower court’s ruling that the administration must disclose all emails between City Hall and outside consultants that de Blasio famously dubbed “agents of the City.”

These secret “agents” actually were from the private consulting firm BerlinRosen, led by long-time de Blasio confidant Jonathan Rosen. In its argument against NY1 and the Post’s Freedom of Information Law request, the City claimed that though Rosen and several other private consultants were not public servants, they served as “agents of the City,” exempting them from such FOIL requests.

Let’s stop for a moment and think back to those halcyon days four or five years ago when Mayor de Blasio promised to run the most honest, transparent, and accessible administration this city has ever seen.

How long did that last?

Instead, we see this email from the mayor in August 2015:

“First of all, the news media is pitiful and it’s sad for our city and nation. We can make a conscience decision to surrender…or we can govern. They will never defeat us.”

While we’d never lump together de Blasio and Queens’ own President Donald Trump—they are polar opposites in every sense. However, that quote, to us at least, rings eerily similar to one of many from Mr. Trump in which he gleefully blasts the press.

“The fake news media is the enemy of the American people,” the President tweeted in February 2017.

De Blasio on Friday attempted to expound on the email during his weekly spot on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC-FM.

“I think there’s a problem with mainstream media. I mean, I’ll get to the specifics but I think the broad point is there’s a problem with mainstream media. I have felt this my whole life,” de Blasio said on Friday during his weekly spot on “The Brian Lehrer Show” on WNYC-FM. “This is not new to my role as mayor. We have a corporate media. It is based on a free-enterprise model. It’s based on selling things. I don’t think that’s healthy. I think that leads to a lot of distortions. I am a big fan of public radio and public TV. I’m a big fan of alternative media and subscription-based media like The Guardian that are trying to take some of the bias out of the equation that is based—that comes from needing clicks and having a mentality that connects to a corporate structure.”

He later added, “Look, I don’t think the coverage has reflected the work we’re doing or the impact it’s having on the people of this city.”

So, because the press doesn’t write that which you’d like it to write about you and your “accomplishments,” it’s “pitiful” and “sad”? Is that even mature?

Wake up, Mr. Mayor. This is New York City. We’ll praise you for honest-to-goodness progress—and we’ll tear you a new one when you, or any other elected leader, deserves it.

If you don’t like it, take your ball and go back to Boston.

By Michael V. Cusenza

Police were able to set the Howard Beach community at ease on Monday after several erroneous reports of a major shooting incident on Cross Bay Boulevard were splashed across social media platforms and even major newspaper screens, leading to at least one school lockdown.

“Nobody got shot in Howard Beach, residents were safe the whole time,” 106th Precinct Community Affairs Officer Mark Competello told The Forum.

According to police reports, a man was driving his SUV westbound on the Belt Parkway within the confines of the 113th Precinct on Monday morning when another vehicle pulled up to him and the driver unloaded three shots at the SUV.

The SUV driver then exited the parkway and flagged down the first cop he saw at Cross Bay Boulevard and 156th Avenue to report the incident. The motorist was not injured, cops said. However, he was taken into custody when records revealed an outstanding warrant attached to his name.

Saint Helen Catholic Academy in Rockwood Park was on temporary lockdown as a result of the activity in the area.

By Michael V. Cusenza

The commanding officer of the 106th Precinct told The Forum this week that his officers will soon meet with the owners/operators of the tractor trailers that seem to clog up both North and South Conduit avenues in South Ozone Park.
“We are aware of the situation and have visited the location,” Capt. Brian Bohannon said on Tuesday. “The trailers are moved frequently. We will sit down with management to discuss these issues.”
Residents have raised concerns about the problem in the past, noting the danger posed by the presence of detached trailers at busy intersections along both thoroughfares.
“It is not right how these owners of about 5-10 trucks have no regard for people’s safety,” one anonymous resident recently wrote to the blog Queens Crap. “Tell me how drivers can see oncoming traffic with these trucks illegally parked.”
It seems to be an enforcement issue. According to City Department of Transportation Traffic Rules, “Street storage of boat trailers, mobile homes and mobile medical diagnostic vehicles prohibited;” and “Street storage of vehicles prohibited.”

By Michael V. Cusenza

In the early morning hours of Feb. 26, 1988, Eddie Byrne gave up everything for this borough, this city, this country. That Friday, Eddie Byrne made the kind of once-every-millennium sacrifice that you might only have read about in comic books.

That sacrifice certainly changed Gotham City.

Byrne, a rookie City cop just seven months out of the academy and assigned to the 103rd Precinct, was summarily executed on Feb. 26, 1988, as he sat in his marked radio motor patrol car at 107th Avenue and Inwood Street in Jamaica, guarding the home of a critical witness in a major drug case.

The four killers that were convicted of the assassination—Philip Copeland, Todd Scott, Scott Cobb, and David McClary—were members of a drug gang that had been instructed to kill a police officer. At approximately 3:30 a.m., one of the men knocked on the passenger-side window of Byrne’s car to distract him as a second man opened fire just outside the driver’s side window. Byrne was shot five times in the head.

Byrne, a rookie just seven months out of the Police Academy and assigned to the 103rd Precinct, was killed guarding a critical witness in a major Jamaica drug case. Photo Courtesy of NYPD

He was 22 years old.

Copeland, Scott, Cobb, and McClary were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Each has been denied parole at their hearings.

On Monday, Feb. 26, 2018, a grateful city gathered at that infamous Jamaica intersection to mark the 30th anniversary of Eddie Byrne’s sacrifice.

“That was the beginning. That was a wakeup call for this whole city that it was time. It was time to no longer accept the violence that was so prevalent in New York City back in the ’70s and the ’80s,” recalled City Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill. “That wasn’t the high water mark though. In 1990 there were 2,245 homicides, but that was the beginning and we continued each and every year after that to make sure that the people who take this job understand why they take it. They take it to make a difference and to do good, and to make life better for the 8.5 million people in this great city. And they continue to do it each and every day.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio characterized Byrne’s death as not just simply a tipping point, but the spark of a revolution.

“In every tragedy we look for something we can cling onto and the case of the loss of Eddie is something very, very meaningful. He did not die in vain by any stretch of the imagination. There was anger, there was revulsion at the death of this good, young man,” he said. “It was not something this city ignored. It galvanized people, created one of those moments where people said enough is enough. The city came together and with the NYPD, the people of this city said we will not accept a situation where a young man like this is taken from us and we will not accept lawlessness. The NYPD, working with partners in every community block by block over years proceeded to take back this city. Many believe it began that day. I think a way to think about it is this: Eddie Byrne’s life may have ended but his tour of duty never did.”

Photo Courtesy of Facebook

By Michael V. Cusenza

The City recorded its first homicide of the new year in Richmond Hill on Monday after a troubled husband stabbed his wife to death in their 103rd Avenue home and fled to nearby Forest Park where he hanged himself from a tree limb, according to police and published reports.

Investigators were called to the Woodhaven scene around 11:30 a.m. after a jogger discovered Vinny Loknath’s body in the massive borough green space near Park Lane South.

“He did it in a location where he wanted to be found,” a police source told The Forum. “It was visible.”

Cops found Loknath’s wife, Stacy Singh, 26, around 2 p.m. in their home lying face-down with a knife near her body. She had been stabbed in the back multiple times.

According to the New York Daily News, Loknath, 46, has a long history of domestic violence, and allegedly liked to drink and dabbled in cocaine.

“The cops are always there,” a neighbor said. “They were always having big fights. But she still came back to him.”

The couple had a young son and daughter.

This is the second consecutive year that the 106th Precinct has hosted NYC’s first murder. Last January, Ricky Kalisaran, 31, was shot and killed in South Richmond Hill during an attempted armed robbery that also left his younger brother with a pair of gunshot wounds.

Capt. Brian Bohannon and Capt. Courtney Nilan

By Michael V. Cusenza

It certainly has been a banner 12 months for the City’s Finest. As of Wednesday, Dec. 27, there had been an eye-popping 286 murders in the five boroughs in 2017 – the lowest number on record.
For perspective, in the early 1990s the NYPD investigated more than 2,000 homicides per year.
Ask any veteran beat cop, seasoned gumshoe, or legendary boss: Success starts at the precinct level.
So The Forum sat down with the commanders of the 102nd and 106th precincts this week to learn more about their 2017 success stories, and the issues they’re looking to address during the first few weeks of 2018.
Though Capt. Courtney Nilan only assumed the reins of the 102 six weeks ago, the borough native is quite familiar with the command – she was its Special Operations lieutenant for two years. Nilan is especially proud of the overall decrease in crime in the precinct – 21 percent compared to 2016; the steepest drop of all Queens South posts. And the two-year difference is even more remarkable: 34 percent.
Nilan points to precision policing, technological advances, and the improvement in cop-community relations as reasons for the crime-fighting achievements in the 102.
“Technology has a lot to do with it; it deters a lot of criminals. Nowadays, you can’t commit a crime without being on 10 different videos, or tracked on your phones,” she noted.
Though the 102 isn’t set to install the department’s wildly successful Neighborhood Policing program until this summer, Nilan credits a strengthening of the unique bond between police and the people they swore to protect and serve with helping to bring down negative numbers.
“It has helped both with crime prevention and solving crimes after they happen,” she added.
As for what’s on her radar for 2018, Nilan said she’s focusing on a small uptick in commercial burglaries in the precinct, especially on Jamaica Avenue, 101st Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue.
Captain Brian Bohannon has skippered the 106th Precinct ship for the past 14 months. For 2017, overall crime is down more than 5 percent; two-year totals have it plummeting nearly 20 percent. He points to technology, the Neighborhood Policing program, which launched in the 106 over the summer, and “accurate and quick dissemination of intelligence” as pillars of his precinct’s success.
“Where crimes occurred, how they occurred – we can get that to our officers quickly, pretty much in real time,” he told The Forum. “And we’re getting a lot of good feedback on Neighborhood Policing. If we get a call about smoke, we address it before it becomes fire. And the people trust that we’re responding to them.”
In the first weeks of 2018, Bohannon said he’s also attacking a commercial burglary issue and some quality of life holdovers.
Overall he’s “extremely happy and confident in the command,” he added, “and looking forward to building on our success.”

The opioid addiction crisis is worse than most of us imagine. It impacts us all, from Rego Park to Rockaway Park to Redwoods Park. An expert panel, convened by STAT (an investigative medical news branch of the Boston Globe), estimates that opioids could kill nearly half a million Americans over the next decade. The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) recently released a report stating the economic cost of the opioid addiction crisis is six times higher than previous estimates. The CEA says the economic cost of the opioid crisis in 2015 was $504.0 billion, 2.8 percent of GDP (compared to the percent of GDP for Medicare, and Medicaid: 3.5 and 2 respectively).
A key tool to address the opioid addiction crisis is expanding access to safe disposal for unwanted household medications in the form of drug take-back programs. Removing unwanted medications from the home limits illegal diversion and decreases the chances of accidental child poisonings and aquatic contamination from trashing or flushing medications.
While State Sen. Joe Addabbo, Jr. (D-Howard Beach) and other legislators should be applauded for their interest in addressing the public and environmental health impacts of over-prescribed medications, Gov. Andrew Cuomo should VETO the chain pharmacy take-back bill (S.6750). This chain pharmacy bill does a poor job of providing convenient take-back, and it gives little consideration to consumer convenience or public education.
With this bill, rural areas with no chain pharmacy will likely remain without a safe disposal option.
Where there are chain pharmacies, the $2 fee for a small take-back envelope will discourage consumer participation and will cause prescription drugs to remain in medicine cabinets. A manufacturer-funded drug take-back program would be free to the public and would better encourage safe drug disposal.
Instead, this bill puts the cost of recovering unwanted pharmaceuticals for safe destruction on chain pharmacies and consumers, while allowing drug manufacturers to avoid any financial responsibility for safely managing the disposal of their products. It further guarantees manufacturers a free pass by preempting local existing legislation (Rockland County), proposed legislation (Erie and Westchester counties), and future legislation that requires manufacturers to organize and pay for take-back programs. It is worth noting that in the last five years, pharmaceutical lobbyists contributed more than $1.7 million to NYS political campaigns and S.6750’s sponsor, State Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City), was one of the top individual beneficiaries, receiving more than $71,000.
This take-back bill does too little, and it puts the cost on consumers and pharmacies rather than on the drug manufacturers who profit most from medication sales.
Governor Cuomo should instead support extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation that establishes a drug take-back program fully funded by drug manufacturers, containing strong convenience and public education standards. Using pharmacy-based receptacles, take-back would only cost manufacturers about $0.01 per prescription. Two states, 18 municipalities, and many other countries have such pharmaceutical EPR laws. Now is the time for New York to establish a convenient, comprehensive, and well-promoted take-back program for unwanted pharmaceuticals that is paid for by drug manufacturers.

Gottlieb is :
Chairman, Tompkins County Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal; Board member, New York Product Stewardship Council; Member, National Association of Clean Water Agencies Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee; Member, Product Stewardship Institute Pharmaceuticals’ Policy & Coordination Work Group Member, Tompkins County Water Resources Council (pending legislative approval) Member, New York Water Environment Association, Government Affairs Committee

Howard Beach resident Karina Vetrano was brutally murdered inside Spring Creek Park in August 2016.

By Michael V. Cusenza

The video recording of accused Karina Vetrano killer Chanel Lewis stoically recounting for detectives how he brutally murdered the beloved Howard Beach resident took center stage on Monday in a borough courtroom during a pre-trial evidentiary hearing.
According to the New York Post, Vetrano’s family endured the details of Karina’s final moments as Lewis delivered them to investigators inside the 107th Precinct stationhouse. Her parents and sister watched the footage of the February confession in horror on Monday.
Lewis, 21, told cops that he grabbed Vetrano, 30, as she jogged past him inside Spring Creek Park on Aug. 2, 2016. She fought for her life as Lewis tried his best to knock her out.
“She didn’t yell. She was finished,” Lewis said in the Post story. “I finished her off, I strangled her. She fell into the puddle and drowned.”
Though Vetrano had been sexually assaulted, Lewis insists on the tape he had nothing to do with that element of the attack.
“I didn’t do any of the stuff they said, sexual assault and stuff like that,” he said.
When asked for a motive, Lewis answered, “Because a guy moved into my house and the neighborhood.”
Lewis’ family apparently could not bear to sit through the entire footage.
“His family left the room,” Karina’s dad, Phil Vetrano, told the Post. “They couldn’t listen to his confession. We know where the coward got his cowardliness from. The truth hurts. It’s pathetic.”
Phil Vetrano and NYPD investigators discovered his daughter’s body that summer night lying in a marshy area, approximately fifteen feet from a trail near 161st Avenue and 78th Street in the park.
Lewis, an East New York resident, was arrested in February, six months after the murder. He was arraigned in April on a 13-count indictment charging him with murder and sexual abuse in the strangulation death of Vetrano: four counts of first-degree murder; five counts of second-degree murder; two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual abuse; and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
According to court records, Lewis’ trial date is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2018. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Paul Ragusa, a long-time associate of the Bonanno and Gambino families, at one time was No. 1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

By Michael V. Cusenza
Earlier this month, three indictments were unsealed in Brooklyn federal court charging four men with narcotics trafficking, loansharking, and firearms offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
And the name of at least one of those four defendants is going to sound quite familiar to longtime residents of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, and Rego Park.
Damiano Zummo, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family; Salvatore Russo, an associate of the Bonanno crime family; Paul Semplice, a member of the Gambino crime family; and Paulie Ragusa, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino crime families, were arrested and arraigned on Wednesday, Nov. 8.
Ragusa, 46, was once a leader of the infamous Giannini Crew (named for the defunct Ridgewood café in which they congregated), a tight-knit group of up-and-coming La Cosa Nostra talent that the feds dismantled in the late ’90s after they terrorized Queens via mob staples like loan-sharking, extortion, and arson; as well as a series of armed robberies, assaults, and murder.
Ragusa and 13 other members were indicted in June 1996. But he went on the lam before authorities could cuff him. Months later, Ragusa, then 26, shot to the Number 1 spot on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list, where he remained for roughly a year until agents finally caught up to him.
Ragusa pleaded guilty to racketeering in 1998 and was sent to prison for 19 years. He had nearly completed his bid – he was living in a halfway house in Brooklyn when he was taken into custody a couple of weeks ago. According to noted American mafia expert and Gang Land News founder Jerry Capeci, an old Giannini Crew cohort recorded Ragusa, among other offenses, “buying a small arsenal of weapons…”
Ragusa is charged with being a felon in possession of nine firearms, including three automatic assault rifles and one silencer. As alleged in the indictment, Ragusa transported the firearms in exchange for $2,000 in cash. He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
“Criminal enterprises, both national and international, contribute to the breakdown of a lawful society,” said FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge Bill Sweeney. “And yet, the allure of this gangland culture is often embraced and glamorized in movies and on television, where the threats posed to our economic and national security are seldom displayed.”

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and her colleagues recently voted 47-0 in favor of instituting a public alert system for hit-and-run incidents.

By Michael V. Cusenza

The City Council recently approved several pieces of proposed legislation, including a bill that calls for the creation of a public alert system for hit-and-run incidents.
Introduction 1463-A, which passed the City’s legislative body last week by a 47-0 tally, would require the City to establish a system, similar to America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alerts, to notify the public and media of hit-and-run incidents resulting in serious injury or fatality, in order to assist in the identification of drivers responsible for these events.
“From January to September, 42 hit-and-run crashes were reported and only 18 arrests were made. We cannot tolerate these crimes knowing that families are left destroyed and mourning the loss of a loved one,” said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), chairman of the Council Transportation Committee and the sponsor of the measure. “This irresponsible driving behavior has triggered me to advocate for an alert system for the purpose of increasing the number of hit-and-run arrests in NYC. Using technology already available to us to make New Yorkers aware of hit-and-run crashes that resulted in severe physical harm or death will make the more than eight million New Yorkers a resource for the NYPD in finding the suspect.”
The bill was inspired by Jean Paul Guerrero, a.k.a. DJ Jinx Paul, a popular Latin radio personality who was killed in Brooklyn in a hit-and-run on Dec. 19, 2016. He was 39 years old.
Kevin Ozoria, 28, has been charged as the alleged driver in the fatal accident.
Additionally on Thursday, the council voted in favor of a bill that would officially deem “revenge porn” illegal. Sponsored by Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest), Intro. 1267-A would prohibit the nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit videos or images of another person, with the intent to cause harm to the person depicted in such videos or images. The bill also prohibits any legitimate threat to do so. The measure creates both a criminal penalty and a civil cause of action, and contains limited exceptions, Lancman noted.
“With passage of this landmark legislation, New York City finally calls revenge porn exactly what it is: a crime,” said Lancman, chairman of the Committee on Courts and Legal Services. “For too long, our laws failed to keep up with our technology, leaving victims of revenge porn unable to seek justice and hold perpetrators accountable. That changes today. Criminalizing revenge porn will ensure New Yorkers are protected and those who take part in this despicable conduct will face serious consequences. I commend the victim advocates, law enforcement personnel and revenge porn survivors who raised their voices to make this day a reality.”
The council also approved legislation that would require City employees and contractors to protect all identifying information—including contact information, sexual orientation, religion, and immigration status—by limiting its collection, disclosure, and retention, except where required by law. Requests for the collection or disclosure of identifying information would be processed by a newly established privacy officer within each agency who would analyze whether the collection or disclosure would further the purpose or mission of the agency.