Sex assault arrest
Police arrested Asuncion DeJesus-Garcia, 20, on Wed. July 25, and charged him with sexually abusing and robbing a woman in the East Village. Police are also questioning him in connection with two similar crimes in the Lower East Side/Chinatown area.
DeJesus-Garcia, a resident of Lexington Ave. at 107th St., was charged specifically with first degree sexual abuse, second degree burglary and third degree attempted robbery in connection with the Fri., July 13 attack at 4:30 a.m. on a woman in the lobby of 508 E. 12th St.
Police are investigating whether the defendant was involved in the other two sexual attacks and robberies, one in a building on 29 Clinton St. near Stanton St. at 3:34 a.m. Sat., July 7 and another on at 4:16 p.m. Tues., June 12 in a building in the Fifth Precinct, which includes Chinatown and the Lower East Side.
In all the attacks, the attacker either lurked in a building lobby or pushed in after the victims and grabbed them from behind.
DeJesus-Garcia is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail pending arraignment later this week.
Arrest in Koran case
Stanislav Shmulevich, 23, a student at the Pace University Downtown campus, was charged on Fri. July 27 with two counts of criminal mischief for throwing copies of the Koran into a toilet in a second floor bathroom of a Pace building last fall.
On Oct. 13 last year a Pace instructor found a paperback copy of the Koran, the holy book of Islam, in the toilet of the bathroom. On Nov. 21 last year a student found another Koran in a toilet in the same bathroom.
Police said that when they showed the suspect surveillance camera images of him leaving a Pace meditation room where Muslim religious books are kept, he “made admitting statements” concerning the incident.
Shmulevich, who came to the U.S. as a boy from Ukraine with his parents, is a senior a few credits short of a degree, according to a Daily News article. He currently works for the New York office of a European bank and divides his time between his apartment in Brooklyn and his parents’ home in Staten Island
Shmulevich was freed on his own recognizance on July 27 pending an Aug. 15 court appearance.
Ciprianis plead guilty
Arrigo Cipriani, 75, head of the international restaurant group, and his son Giuseppe Cipriani, 42, president of Cipriani USA, the holding company for the group’s American establishments, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to evading $10 million in New York State and City taxes, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced.
The guilty pleas also include three Cipriani corporations, Cipriani Fifth Ave. L.L.C., operator of the Rainbow Room and Rainbow Grill at 30 Rockefeller Plaza; Downtown Restaurant Co. L.L.C., operator of the restaurant at 376 W. Broadway in Soho, and GC Alpha, L.L.C., operator of Cipriani Dolci in Grand Central Terminal.
The group also operates banquet facilities at 55 Wall St. and two Midtown locations.
Arrigo pleaded guilty to felony tax charges while Giuseppe pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax charges. They agreed to pay $10 million in back taxes and to install an independent monitor to oversee tax treatment at all family enterprises until the 2011 tax year. Prosecutors are not seeking prison time for the Ciprianis.
The investigation began in November 2005 and the first conviction was in May of this year when Dennis Pappas, former Cipriani USA vice president, pleaded guilty to attempted insurance fraud for defrauding three insurance companies and the Social Security Administration of more than $1 million. He was sentenced to 1 – 4 years and fined just over $1 million.
The tax evasion scheme that the Ciprianis pleaded guilty to involved illegal tax deductions that Cipriani USA took on sham royalty payments to its Luxembourg parent company, Cipriani SA, prosecutors said.
Beating at Vladeck
Robert Basile, 28, of Brooklyn, was arrested Mon. July 23 in connection with the May 23 beating of a 75-year-old man during an argument outside 45 Jackson St. in the Vladeck Houses. Basile was freed on $3,500 bail pending an Oct. 30 court appearance on a second degree assault charge.
—Albert Amateau
