Manhattan Supreme Court

Mayoral Race Campaign Finance Rules Will Not Change, For Now

The day after two former campaign aides of mayoral candidate John Liu got busted for attempting to defraud the city through an illegal campaign finance scheme, a Manhattan supreme court shut down GOP mayoral candidate George McDonald's hope of changing the city's campaign finance rules. Currently, ... More >>

City Council Members Say Bloomberg and Kelly Aren't Listening, Take Legal Action Against Stop-and-Frisk

Perhaps it is Mayor Michael Bloomberg who needs a crash-course on the dangers of ear-bud volume, because the City Council's Black, Latino and Chinese Caucus says the mayor must not be hearing the massive outcry against stop, question and frisk. The 27-member caucus filed an amicus brief Monday in t ... More >>

*UPDATE: Judge Allows Censor of Testimony* Censorship Ruling Expected at Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Military Tribunal Hearing

[UPDATE]: Testimony at the 9/11 military tribunal trial at Guantanamo Bay will be subject to censorship, according to court documents released yesterday. Judge Col. James Pohl ruled last week that the testimony of the defendants, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, could conta ... More >>

Censorship Ruling Expected at Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Military Tribunal Hearing

The military tribunal -- where alleged 9-11 master-mind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9-11 conspirators will be tried -- is expected to rule at a pre-trail hearing today on the government's request to censor testimony. The government filed the motion back in April, requesting that ... More >>

Espada & Son Will Plead Guilty To Embezzlement Charges Today

Sometimes, you have to just give in (to charges of embezzlement).When State Senator Pedro Espada was charged by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in May 2010 with stealing $400,000 from a Bronx clinic that he helped set up, the Democratic powerhouse, like any politician, fought passionately for his repu ... More >>

Shepard Fairey Must Do 300 Hours of Community Service for Obama 'Hope' Poster

You might know Shepard Fairey. If you don't, you probably do or at least haven't realized yet. The Los Angeles man behind Obey and one of the stars in street artist Banksy's mockumentary, "Exit Through the Gift Shop," has risen to fame in the contemporary art world, partly because he created one of ... More >>

Vitaly Borker, A Fraudster in His Own Category, Gets Four Years for Threatening Customers

Online glasses dealer and worst salesman ever Vitaly Borker, who memorably and appallingly threatened his customers when they had the gall to complain about his conduct, got four years in prison for his misdeeds, federal prosecutors said yesterday. Borker, who liked the complaints because it bumped ... More >>

NYC Living Wage Bill Heads to Court

'Living' sounds much better than 'minimum.'When Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced the introduction of a 'living' wage bill, Mayor Bloomberg compared the gesture to Soviet statism in April, arguing that "the last time we really had a big managed economy was the USSR, and that didn't work ... More >>

After Mounting Pressure, Mayor's Office Gives Out Hard Copies of 'Final' 9-1-1 Report

Today, the mayor's office gave out hard copies of the city's controversial 9-1-1 report to reporters that asked for it. The Voice stopped by City Hall late this afternoon to grab a copy of the 133-page consultant's report that examined the city's emergency response system. It has been a topic of m ... More >>

Mayor Bloomberg Defends Not Releasing 9-1-1 Report With (Another) Newspaper Analogy

Recently, we've noticed that Mayor Mike Bloomberg likes to respond to reporters' questions in a way that he thinks, perhaps, might grab their attention best: newspaper analogies. While on the defense about a controversial issue, Bloomberg seems to enjoy taking a combative stance with reporters at p ... More >>

Michael Pena, "Rape Cop," Convicted. DA Cyrus Vance Vows "No Mercy" At Sentencing

​Former New York City police officer Michael "Rape Cop" Pena was convicted yesterday of three of the top charges against him for the sexual assault of a teacher last summer, and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance pledges to show him no mercy when he's sentenced in May. "In this brutal attack ... More >>

NYU Professor Says He Was Fired For Giving James Franco a D

​One of James Franco's MFA professors at NYU had to give the actor a D after he missed 12 "Directing the Actor II" classes in one semester. The professor, José Angel Santana, now says that the school fired him over the D and he's suing NYU in Manhattan Supreme Court. He's also taken his story ... More >>

Two More Bicyclists Killed in NYC Traffic This Week

Salim VirjiTwo more NYC cyclists were killed in traffic this week.​Two more bicyclists were killed in New York City traffic this week. Last night a 60-year-old man was killed near Rockaway Beach as he attempted to change lanes. The cyclist, whose identity hasn't yet been released, was taken to ... More >>

Marilyn Dershowitz and Ray Deter Killed in Separate Bicycling Accidents

Salim VirjiTwo bicyclists were killed in Manhattan traffic in the last week.​It's been a bad week for bicyclists in New York. First came the news that Ray Deter, the owner of the popular d.b.a bars, was hospitalized Wednesday after a silver Jaguar hit his bicycle on Canal Street. Friday, Deter ... More >>

Bronx Synagogue Bomb Plotters Get 25 Years

Prison time for the convicted bomb-plotters.​Three of the Newburgh men convicted last October of plotting to bomb synagogues in Riverdale were sentenced to 25 years in prison in Manhattan Federal Court today. James Cromitie, David Williams, and Onta Williams -- along with a fourth man, Laguer ... More >>

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Undisclosed New Location Very Quickly Disclosed; Is Fancy

​That didn't take long! Dominique Strauss-Kahn's new lodgings have been identified as "a posh pad in Tribeca" with all the amenities, secured by his wife, Anne Sinclair, reports the New York Post. The three-story, 6,800-square-foot townhouse on 153 Franklin Street rents for $50,000 a month, wh ... More >>

Michael Bloomberg Sued by Reporter Over Cathie Black Freedom of Information Requests

​Today, I am suing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Last year, Bloomberg baffled New Yorkers when he appointed publishing executive Cathie Black to be the city's next schools chancellor. Black was an unpopular choice, and for months, responses to her appointment ran the gamut of ridicul ... More >>

NYPD Rape Trial Hears Closing Defense Argument: Accuser Just Wants $57 Million

​The defense attorney for New York City cops Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, accused of raping a drunk East Village women, delivered his closing statement in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, calling the alleged victim a golddigger. "Fifty-seven million -- that's a lot of money," said Edwar ... More >>

Chancellor Walcott: Change That Kids Can Believe In?

Is the new broom actually just, 'another mouthpiece for the mayor'?

Paty's Taco Truck Fights Back

Amy Zimmer/DNAinfo​When the going gets tough, the tough bring about a lawsuit. Patricia Monroy, owner of Paty's Taco Truck, has been battling the Upper East Side over the past year. Now, she is hoping to reclaim her income and the right to sell tacos in the neighborhood, where crotchety resid ... More >>

Allegedly Fake Diamond Heist Sounds Complicated, Fails

jurvetson​Two jewelers are accused of hiring men to fake-rob their Midtown offices in order to collect insurance money, the New York Post reports. Mahiveer Kankariya and Atul Shah went on trial today, and the specifics of their alleged scheme sound pretty fun, if not short-sighted and poorly e ... More >>

The Empire Diner Is Trapped in a Naming Kerfuffle

​The saga of the old Empire Diner's slow metamorphosis into the new, Coffee Shop-owned Empire Diner continues: according to the Daily News, its longtime owners are stuck in a legal battle with its landlord over who owns the restaurant's name.

Ingrates Sue Waldorf Over Bedbugs, Despite Complimentary Spa Treatments

​If you're still wondering whether bed bugs are "scaring tourists away," this might help: Crain's says a Michigan family will file a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court today, suing the posh Waldorf-Astoria Hotel after finding bedbugs in their room that followed them home in their luggage "and ... More >>

Almost Half of Judge Candidates Unqualified to Run, Says NY Bar

​Nearly half the candidates running for city judgeships in this year's general election on November 2 are unqualified to run, the New York City Bar Association said yesterday. Of the 34 candidates running in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, 15 are unqualified by the Bar's reckoning ... More >>

Cabbie-Slashing SVA Student Gets Booze-Free Bail

​Michael Enright, the 21-year-old School of Visual Arts senior charged with drunkenly slashing a Muslim cab driver in August, can leave jail on a $500,000 bail package, a Manhattan judge ruled today.

Suspect in Latest West Village Gay Attacks Was on Parole

​Following the latest in a string of gay "bias attacks," police have arrested a 45-year-old Queens man for attacking two men in the West Village Friday night, including a bartender at what authorities called the city's oldest gay bar, Julius. The suspect was already on parole for a separate, s ... More >>

Shrink-Killing Schizo Unfit for Trial, Judge Rules

​A Manhattan Supreme Court judge declared a mistrial this morning in the case of 42-year-old David Tarloff, the schizophrenic accused of murdering a psychologist with a meat cleaver on the Upper East Side two years ago.

Update: City Serves Temporary Restraining Order to Bus Man Running Charters along MTA-Cut Lines

​A week and a half ago, we spoke to Joel Azumah, the 27-year-old who began running charter buses along the X25, X29, X90, QM22 lines recently cut by the MTA. The city Department of Transportation sent him a cease and desist letter at the end of June, when he started his service, but he kept hi ... More >>

Broadway Triangle Rezoning Blocked

On Monday the city council approved a rezoning plan for the Broadway Triangle in North Brooklyn that would move out several small manufacturing businesses to make way for affordable housing units. Yesterday a judge blocked the plan over the objections of the district's councilman, David Yassky, an ... More >>

Court Deals Blow to Columbia's $6.3 Billion Harlem Land Grab (Updated)

A State Court of Appeals decided this afternoon that New York State was wrong to grant Columbia University eminent domain rights that enabled it to seize land from property owners whose businesses were located in the footprint of the university's expansion. This ruling marks the culmination of a ... More >>

Astor Trail Ending in Purple Prose

We've tried to stay away from the Astor trial but, as with O.J.'s, we've been sucked into the thrilling climax. Today we hear that superannuated boychild Anthony Marshall is "depraved" (but not, as with Officer Krupke's charges, on account of he's deprived), and that he and lawyer Francis X. Morriss ... More >>

Barrett: Snyder's Justification for a Gun Permit Needs Updating

​In Sunday's WABC-TV debate, Leslie Crocker Snyder, one of three candidates running in tomorrow's Democratic primary for Manhattan District Attorney, acknowledged that she had a gun permit, but maintained that she keeps the gun "in a vault" in her Manhattan apartment. She explained that she go ... More >>

Even Closed, the John Dory Swims Against a Tide of Back Rent

You'd also look annoyed if you owed $75,000 in rent.​For the John Dory, the end may be the beginning of even more trouble: The Daily News is reporting that Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, who were both guarantors of the shuttered seafood restaurant, owe almost $75,000 in back rent to the buil ... More >>

Gambino Crime Big Had an American Blast!

Say what you will about him, John Gotti considered himself a bona fide red-white-and-blue patriot. Back in the day, the dearly departed Dapper Don mounted a 4th of July fireworks show for his Ozone Park nabe that was the biggest and best thing east of Macy's barges. And maybe that was the inspiratio ... More >>

Cocaine Cunnilingus Cop Firing Upheld

In 2006 NYPD pilot Dan Goldin, was suspended without pay after a positive cocaine test. He argued that he had "passively ingested" the coke while eating out girlfriend Coreen McCarthy (pictured, we think? We like to think, anyway), of whose drug habit he was unaware. The NYPD didn't go for it, and f ... More >>

Troubled Tropic Zone Sued for Racist Non-Hiring of Bikini Girl

As if the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, whose management has recently been hit with rape and sexual harrassment accusations, isn't having enough trouble, now the Daily News reports that "former Hooters girl" Melody Morales is suing them for rejecting her because, the managers are alleged to have told her, " ... More >>

Ponzi schemer Norman Hsu claims stories about Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff are 'prejudicial'

Hot Air's Ventilators sing "Runaround Hsu." If you hunger for a good snicker and you're somewhat of a news junkie, what's better than a concise roundup of the best Bernie Madoff news stories — the good parts, the adjectives, the apoplexy? Look no further than a December 22 court document in ... More >>

Mob Curse at a Midtown Hotel

Everything goes wrong for the wiseguys at the Park Central. Well, almost everything.

A tanned McLaughlin back in court

Shooting Rally: Public Enemy No. 1?

St. Brigid's Gets 2nd Reprieve

'The Place' No More

Judge Calls Off St. Brigid's Demolition!

NEST-y Fight Ends

Grand Theft Jobs

Millions are missing at a powerful union-backed worker-training group

2005

Mike's Mixed Message

Bi-positional Bloomberg assails gay marriage in court

City Goes Judge Shopping

Held in contempt for convention detentions, the city gets a Pataki court to step in

Spitzer's Spiel

A.G. Backpedals on Schools, Dodges MTA Case

Who's the Boss?