Subway robberies arrest An East Village man wanted for a series of bag-snatchings in Downtown Manhattan subway stations was arrested on Wed., May 21. Police say the suspect Mark McIntosh, 25, of E. 9th St., escaped by jumping onto the tracks and fleeing to the next station. McIntosh was charged with victimizing five women between May 11 and May 20.
The latest robbery was on May 20 at 7:30 a.m. of a woman on the platform of the R station at Rector St. and Trinity Pl.
McIntosh was also charged with robbing a woman on the platform of the L station at First Ave, and 14th St. at 8:30 a.m. May 11. He was also charged with robbing a woman on the platform of the Christopher St. and Seventh Ave. station at 7:20 a.m. on May 13, another woman at 9:06 a.m. on May 14 in the station at Third Ave. and 14th St. and still another woman at 7:37 a.m. May 15 on the platform of the station at Lafayette and Bleecker Sts.
McIntosh was being held pending a July 7 court date on robbery and grand larceny charges, according to spokesperson for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Elder assault A 27-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested Sunday morning May 25 and charged with assaulting and critically injuring an 85-year-old woman in the P.S. 134 playground, 293 E. Broadway at Pitt St. The victim, identified as Liu Mei Liang, was taken to Bellevue Hospital with a fractured skull and serious brain injuries and remained in critical condition on Wed., May 28.
The suspect, Gary Brown, of Brooklyn, was arrested a short time after the attack and is being charged with second degree assault. Police did not elaborate on the circumstances of the incident but said the suspect threw the victim violently to the ground and that nothing was stolen.
At Brown’s arraignment on Monday, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case called for the suspect to be held pending a bail hearing but Acting State Supreme Court Justice Kibbie F. Payne released Brown on his own recognizance pending a June 5 court appearance.
B.P.C. lawyer arrested Richard Dienst, 68, a Battery Park City resident, was arrested on Fri. May 23 and charged with sexually abusing two women attorneys in his office in the Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway.
Dienst was charged with accosting one victim in his office on March 21, placing his hand on her breasts and putting her hand on his crotch. The victim notified the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which investigated the case and discovered another woman lawyer who said Dienst had sexually abused her in his office on June 22 of last year.
Dienst, a founder of Queller Fisher Dienst Serrins Washor & Kool, has done legal work for the N.Y.P.D. sergeants’ and detectives’ unions over the years and lives in the same building as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, according to a Daily News article.
Dienst was arraigned on charges of forcible touching, third degree sexual abuse and second degree harassment and was freed on his own recognizance pending an Aug. 5 court appearance.
Subway survivor Abdul Haque, of 60 Pitt St., escaped death around 1:40 p.m. Tues. May 27 when he fell from the platform of the Delancey St. station into the path of an oncoming F train, police said. Haque, 55, managed to hunker down in the trough between the rails just before the first two and a half cars passed over him, according to Allen Stern, writer of the blog, InsideTransit.com, who was a passenger on the train. Haque emerged from under the train and was taken to Bellevue where he remained overnight. The train proceeded after 35 minutes, Stern said.
Hit at courthouse An SUV struck and injured a woman while she was crossing Centre St. across from State Supreme Court at 60 Centre St. on Wednesday afternoon May 21. The victim, Fran Gordon, was taken to St. Vincent’s hospital in stable condition. The driver was not charged and the victim had just lost a court case in which a $65,000 judgment was filed against her, according to a Daily News article.
On April 11, a car driven by a man whose license had been revoked jumped the curb at 60 Centre St., struck a coffee cart and overran the first three courthouse steps, injuring himself and five other people.
— Albert Amateau
