Church criminals return
Vandals bent two cast iron flagpoles and stole the flags from the front of the Most Prescious Blood rectory at 109 Mulberry St., on the night of July 15, police said. The church, at 113 Baxter St. and the rectory has been the target of vandals and thieves before. On Christmas Eve last year, a thief stole money from the poor box in front of the altar and the following day, a thief made off with the figure of Jesus from the Nativity scene at the rectory. The Baby Jesus figure was also stolen from the Nativity scene on Jan. 6, 2004.
Overdose death
Antonio DeJesus, 19, was found dead of an apparent drug overdose at about 10 a.m. Tues. July 18 in a basement apartment at 69 Clinton St. between Rivington and Stanton Sts., police said. The Medical Examiner’s office is investigating the cause of death of the victim who was a resident of E. 11th St.
Immigration scam
John Nevarez, 53, was indicted last week for stealing $200,000 from 40 victims while posing as an employee of the Immigration and Naturalization Service at 26 Federal Plaza, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
The indictment charges Nevarez, who never worked for I.N.S., with filing false and forged documents with the agency allowing his unwitting clients, who recently arrived in the U.S., to get green cards. The victims paid Nevarez about $5,000 each, according to prosecutors.
The defendant faces charges of criminal impersonation, fraud, grand larceny and possession of forged instruments, punishable by 12 years imprisonment.
Attorney theft charges
A grand jury last week indicted Campbell Holder, 59, an attorney with offices at 401 Broadway at Walker St., for stealing more than $1.6 million from seven clients between Jan. 2002 and March of this year.
The defendant was charged with transferring a total of $1,623,688 from escrow and client trust accounts to his own general business account, according to the district attorney’s office.
Many of the victims are from Barbados and hired Holder to handle their inheritance accounts and even their entire assets because he is also from Barbados, according to prosecutors.
Holder was previously charged with grand larceny in connection with the theft of $69,158 from a client and arrested in March. He was arraigned on the new charges last week and his bail was set at $250,000. Holder was ordered to surrender his U.S. and Barbados passports.
—Albert Amateau
WWW Downtown Express
