Trials

Despite State Ban, Federal Inmate Ronell Wilson Is Sent to Death Row

The Ballad of Donovan Drayton

He spent five years in jail awaiting trial. Call it justice, Queens-style.

Alfonso Portillo, Former President of Guatemala, Gets U.S. Noriega Treatment

It's not often that a former president of an entire nation is extradited to the United States on criminal charges, but that happened today as the feds took custody of former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo on money-laundering charges.

City Used Memo Leak to Drag Stop-and-Frisk Judge Through the Mud, Lawyers Say

In an act of desperation, the city of New York has used the media to launch a "despicable" attack on the federal judge presiding over a landmark stop-and-frisk trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs say. Early Wednesday morning, the New York Daily News published a story describing an internal report c ... More >>

Bloomberg's Sneaky Fix For All Those Stop-and-Frisk Lawsuits

Why the Police in Michael Premo's Occupy Wall Street Trial Are Unlikely To Face Perjury Charges

Many of the readers who commented on last week's story about Michael Premo, the Occupy Wall Street protester who beat his criminal charges last week thanks to video evidence, wanted to know: Would the police officer whose testimony was contradicted by the video face any consequences? Would he be cha ... More >>

Brooklyn Deserves a New D.A.

Why the 23-year reign of Charles Hynes must end

Settlment Reached in Poly Prep Sex Abuse Scandal

Prestigious Brooklyn private school Poly Prep has reached a settlement with plaintiffs from a 2009 lawsuit that alleges decades of sexual abuse by former football coach Phil Foglietta, according to the Daily News. The News has closely followed the lawsuit--which highlights a situation eerily simil ... More >>

Former NYPD Officer Nicholas Mina Cops Plea; Admits To Stealing NYPD Guns And Selling Them To Drug Dealers

A former NYPD officer admitted in court today that he stole several NYPD-issued firearms from fellow officers and sold them to a Queens drug kingpin over a six-month period earlier this year.The plea deal accepted by former officer Nicholas Mina, 32, includes a 15-year-prison sentence when he's sent ... More >>

Delloyd Hill, Alleged Doctor Impostor, Possibly Carried Out Similar Schemes in Multiple States

It could be a coincidence -- but it probably isn't. Delloyd Thomas Hill was arraigned yesterday in Queens criminal court on charges relating to a signature forgery scheme that netted him at least $415,000 in medical equipment loans. Hill's alleged crimes are awfully similar to the Delloyd T. Hill w ... More >>

The Weird Story of Jimmy Meng's Sting Arrest

The $80,000 Fruit Basket

More Pepper-Sprayed Protesters Sue NYPD

Three Occupy Wall Street protesters announced today that they are suing the New York Police Department in federal court over officers' use of pepper spray on marchers last September 24. Two of the plaintiffs, Damien Crisp and Julie Lawler, were sprayed by Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, whose act ... More >>

Michael "Rape Cop" Pena Pleads Guilty To Additional Charges; No Time Added To Extreme Life-Sentence

Michael "Rape Cop" Pena did something today that's somewhat admirable; rather than put his victim through the torture of another trial, he pleaded guilty to additional charges stemming from his attack on a 25-year-old teacher -- charges on which a jury deadlocked when he was convicted of three count ... More >>

Judge Allows Class Action In Last Fall's Brooklyn Bridge Mass Arrests To Go Forward

A federal judge ruled today that a class action suit against the NYPD over the mass arrest of more than 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge October 1 can go forward. The march over the vehicular roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the most visually dramatic events of the young Occupy Wall Stree ... More >>

City Jails Slapped With Major Class Action Lawsuit, Alleging Pattern of Staff Brutality

The city Correction Department has been hit with a new very toughly worded class action lawsuit alleging a program of excessive violence by correction staff on inmates throughout the jail system. Eleven inmates allege that they were severely beaten by correction staff, including Mark Nunez who clai ... More >>

Bail is Busted: How Jail Really Works

Thousands of New Yorkers are stuck behind bars because they're too broke to get out

Dawa Lama, Queens Monster Who Threw Newborn In Hospital Trash Can, Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter; 10-Year Prison Sentence Expected

​When Dawa Lama, 24, gave birth to a healthy baby boy in the bathroom at a Queens hospital last year, she could have easily turned him over to hospital staff if she felt she couldn't care for the boy. But she didn't -- she threw him in a trashcan. He died seven days later -- and now Lama is likely ... More >>

Crooked Cop Michael Carsey Convicted Of Lying To Get Search Warrant

​It sure is disappointing when the people we trust to keep us safe from the dregs of society turn out to be the dregs of society.Enter New York City police officer/convicted crooked cop Michael Carsey, 31, who was convicted this afternoon of lying under oath in order to get a search warrant for th ... More >>

The Lamest Attempt To Get Press Off Whitney Houston's Death

This press release came in, moments after the body turned cold: "CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY AVAILABLE ON WHITNEY HOUSTON "So-and-so, NY based leading criminal defense attorney, is available for comment on Whitney Houston.

Jazz Hayden and the Fight Against Stop-and-Frisk

An unlikely activist's battle with the NYPD's frisky business

Mata and Moreno's Previous Late-Night Incident

What the jury didn't hear: the recently acquitted NYPD officers had another reported issue with a young woman

Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno, NYPD Cops Acquitted of Rape, Likely to Have Sentencing Postponed

​Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, the two New York City police officers convicted of official misconduct last month (while being acquitted of the rape of an East Village woman) will likely have their sentencing postponed, the New York Times reports. This is at least partly so that defense law ... More >>

NYPD Rape Trial Accuser Releases Statement: 'Public Opinion Will Be the Ultimate Verdict'

​The trial of Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, the now-former NYPD cops accused of rape by a fashion executive who lived in the East Village at the time, has been much publicized, and, as such, it's perhaps no surprise that the accuser, who still has a civil suit against the city, has now iss ... More >>

The Innocence Project's Poster Child with a Past

They hailed Alan Newton's exoneration—without mentioning his other case of attempted rape

Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, NYPD Officers, Found Not Guilty of Rape

Moreno on the stand​There is a verdict in the trial of NYPD officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, who had been accused of raping a 27-year-old East Village woman they were called to help home on a drunken night in 2008. This comes on the seventh day of deliberations. Moreno, 43, and Mata, ... More >>

Vanessa Hicks, Former NYPD Officer, Sues Over Ticket Quota

​A former police officer is suing the NYPD for firing her for not writing enough summonses and not stopping and frisking enough people, the New York Daily News is reporting. Vanessa Hicks' lawsuit follows last year's class action lawsuit filed on behalf of about 25 New Yorkers who allege the ... More >>

British Court Orders Julian Assange Extradited To Sweden

​A British court ordered on Thursday that Julian Assange be extradited to Sweden to confront accusations that he sexually abused two women. Via the New York Times, Judge Howard Riddle ruled "that allegations brought by two women qualified as extraditable offenses and that the warrant seeking M ... More >>

NYPD Quotas: Brooklyn Jury Says 'Yes, Virginia, They do Exist'

​A Brooklyn jury yesterday ruled that ticketing and arrest quotas, long denied by the NYPD, do exist, and left a woman in cuffs after trying to stop her son's arrest. In a lawsuit filed by Bedford-Stuyvesant resident Carolyn Bryant, the jury found that the NYPD had a "custom and policy" on a ... More >>

Assange in Court: Sweden Could Mean Guantanamo Bay, or Death

​Julian Assange, the founder and editor-in-chief of secret-spilling international organization WikiLeaks, is in court today for the first of a two-day hearing in England, which will decide whether Assange is extradited to Sweden in order face questions about potential rape charges. Assange, wa ... More >>

NYPD Sodomy Story: Angry Ass-Rapist Cops Strike Yet Again

​Ralph Johnson, a "Wall Street financier," has filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, the AP reports. And if you've been paying attention, Johnson's claims might sound a bit familiar: He says that he, too, was sodomized by NYPD officers using a police baton when they responded to a domestic compla ... More >>

9/11 Workers' Settlement Suit Is Finally Almost Over

​The New York Times is reporting that the 9/11 workers who sued the city over health damages they suffered during Ground Zero rescue and recovery efforts have finally agreed to accept a $625 million settlement from the city after years of negotiations and delays.

Google Will Pay $8.5M to Settle Class-Action Buzz Lawsuit, Just Not to You

​If you use Gmail, you probably received a strange and unexpected e-mail from Google yesterday about Google Buzz and some kind of $8.5 million class-action lawsuit settlement that you really didn't bother to read about because, yeah, Google Buzz was a disaster, but you never signed up to be pa ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesn't Work

NYPD Quotas leading to Civil Rights Violations, New Lawsuit Says

​The city is facing a new class action lawsuit filed by nine New Yorkers over the NYPD's use of quotas to get officers to issues summonses and stop-and-frisk people, court records show. The lawsuit, filed late last month in federal court in Manhattan, cites some of the quotations which appear ... More >>

Patsy's Dishwasher Sues Restaurant Over Dickensian Work Conditions

Trees on the outside, drudgery on the inside.​A former dishwasher at the Patsy's on East 60th Street is suing the restaurant after working there for three years in conditions that his class-action lawsuit claims "can only be described as indentured servitude."

Crime Beat: SEC Renews Vow to Take Acquitted Bear Stearns Duo Tannin and Cioffi to Civil Court -- Shades of O.J. and Scrushy!

Hedge fun: Matthew Tannin and wife Joyce were all smiles after his acquittal last month on criminal charges. The Bear Stearns hedge funders Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, found not guilty last month of fraud in the only major criminal prosecution even indirectly related to Wall Street's meltdown ... More >>

Crime Beat: SEC Renews Vow to Take Acquitted Bear Stearns Duo Tannin and Cioffi to Civil Court -- Shades of O.J. and Scrushy!

Hedge fun: Matthew Tannin and wife Joyce were all smiles after his acquittal last month on criminal charges. The Bear Stearns hedge funders Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, found not guilty last month of fraud in the only major criminal prosecution even indirectly related to Wall Street's meltdown ... More >>

Former Texas Cop Indicted in New York for Moving 200 Tons of Cocaine

​A leader of a major Mexican drug cartel and former Texas police officer was sentenced in Manhattan federal court yesterday for importing at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States during a five year period. Between 1994 and 1999, Gilberto Salinas Doria -- formerly Officer Dora of th ... More >>

Did The Jury Foreman Know the Accused Armed Robber? Charlie Hynes' Office Is On the Case

​Here's another reason why we love the Brooklyn criminal court system: a guy's on trial last month for felony armed robbery. One day, a paralegal for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office wanders into the courtroom to drop off some papers. The robbery defendant, Corey Hinds, she notes, look ... More >>

How the Mob Hoodwinked D.A. Candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder

Robbins, Yaeger Earn Top Journalism Honors

Scientology's Crushing Defeat

A previously unpublished saga of an $8 million check

Lawsuit: Columbia Expansion Poses 'Biohazard' Risk

The Sean Bell Curveball For Cops on Trial

Prosecutors' 'acting-in-concert' theory in chaotic shooting of Sean Bell misses the mark, observers say

Adventures in Google's Contextual Advertising

Blood Brothers

Mob mistress Linda Schiro told one murder tale the same way to everyone. Despite the holes in her story.

The Schiro Tapes

Teacher in Queens Sends Graphic Emails to Students: DA

Tall Tales of a Mafia Mistress

A witness for the prosecution of an ex-FBI agent once told a different story

Name That Criminal

In a notorious murder case, Rohan Bolt is doing the time. Did someone else do the crime?