Tribeca prostitution Police raided a Tribeca S & M club on the third floor of 54 Walker St. on Tues., Sept. 16 and arrested Collin John Reeve, 35, charging him with promoting prostitution and Gina Noto, 21, with prostitution, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Reeve’s lawyer, Salvatore Strazzullo, said there was no prostitution and that the S & M offered was protected by freedom of expression, according to news reports. Reeve, who gave a St. Mark’s Pl. address, was freed on $30,000 bond pending a Jan. 5, 2009 court appearance. Noto, of Holmdel, N.J., pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was conditionally discharged. The original charge said she offered to perform a sexual act on an undercover cop for $200.
The club, Rapture, has been open five years and police said about 10 dominatrixes were involved and engaged in prostitution. The club displayed signs saying no sex.
Downtown death probe The Medical Examiner’s office is investigating the death of Julie Horner Lankamp, 42, found dead with a broken jaw in her apartment at 2 Gold St. on Tuesday evening Sept. 16. Her two-year-old daughter was in the apartment crying but healthy when police found the body. The Medical Examiner’s office said her injuries may have occurred during a fall after a drug overdose. She had been taking prescription medication for diabetes and kidney problems and a glassine envelope with cocaine residue was found near her body, according to reports. Her estranged husband, Edwin Lankamp, had pleaded guilty to harassing her early this year and was forbidden to see her under a court order of protection.
Warren St. assault Two suspects attacked a man, 19, who was walking on Warren St. between Church St. and Broadway shortly after 1 a.m. Fri., Sept. 19 and punched him repeatedly, police said. The victim, a Lower Manhattan resident, fell over the railing of a basement entryway at 22 Warren St. and suffered a broken jaw and a broken eye socket. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital. Police said the suspects, identified only as two white men, might have been following the victim before they attacked. The suspects are still at large.
Café burglary An employee who opened Flavors Café, 27 Whitehall St., on Friday morning Sept. 19 discovered that a basement office door, which had been locked at 9 p.m. the night before, was forced open and $3,000 cash was gone from an unlocked drawer, police said. A surveillance camera showed a stranger in the basement at about 2:25 a.m. putting on gloves and using a screwdriver to open the office door, police said.
Left the office The employee of a ground floor office at 304 Spring St. told police that she left the place unlocked for a little more than a half hour between 6:50 and 7:25 p.m. Mon., Sept. 22 and returned to find that two laptops, with a total value of $3,000, had been stolen.
Waitress robbed A waitress at Café Noir, 32 Grand St., told police that a patron pushed her, grabbed her cell phone and fled at 9:15 p.m. Fri., Sept. 19. The suspect, who had just used a credit card to pay a bill, was described as a white man, about 6’2” with short blond hair.
Assault at Mickey D’s An angry drunk stormed into McDonald’s at 52 Fulton St. at 4:56 a.m. Sun., Sept. 21, began hassling the 18-year-old woman behind the counter and then hit her with a broom handle on the right hand and the right side of the head, police said. The victim was treated for minor injuries at New York Downtown Hospital.
Parking lot loss The owner of an unattended parking lot at 200 Spring St. at Sullivan St. told police on Tues., Sept. 23 that someone had stolen his own Lincoln Navigator, valued at $60,000, from the lot sometime between Aug. 5 and Aug. 10. There was no information on the reason for the reporting delay.
Arrest safe thief Police on Thurs., Sept. 25 arrested one of two suspects who posed as Department of Sanitation inspectors and robbed a safe at Botanica Bar, 47 E. Houston St. at Mulberry St. on Sept. 5.
Robert Garcia, 51, of Queens, was charged with second degree burglary and robbery, said a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney. Garcia was identified in a video surveillance tape, police said.
An unapprehended accomplice of the suspect flashed a false D.S.N.Y. badge at the window of Botanica around noon Fri., Sept. 5 and told the porter to clean up the sidewalk. When the porter came out Garcia entered the bar and when the porter went back in, Garcia threw a garbage can at him and fled with the safe, police said.
Broker arrested A state Supreme Court grand jury indicted Michael Axel, a broker who worked for Tripp & Co., Inc., a Downtown municipal bond brokerage firm, on Thurs., Sept. 18 and charged him with stealing nearly $600,000 from four of his clients whose portfolios he managed.
Axel, 69, was charged with ordering checks to be cut from the clients’ accounts, forging clients’ signatures, and depositing the money in his own account beginning in 2002 and ending last year, according to the Manhattan District Attorney
But in 2005, Axel responded to an internet scam claiming to be from a lawyer for a deceased distant relative who left him more than $8.7 million. The suspect sent more than $400,000 overseas as upfront money to secure the non-existent inheritance.
After Tripp & Co. discovered the thefts, the firm reimbursed the clients from company funds and from Tripp’s insurance carrier, according to the District Attorney’s office. Axel has repaid Tripp about half of what he is accused of stealing, according to the D.A.
Bopped in bar Police charged Anthony Calvanese, 19, with second degree assault for hitting a victim who was playing indoor shuffleboard at Nancy Whiskey, on Lispenard St. at Sixth Ave. with a beer bottle at 12:40 a.m. Sun., Sept. 21. The victim, who sustained a cut over his left eye and a broken nose, was treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital and later identified the suspect in a line-up, police said.
Meat market bar bash A Battery Park City resident patronizing Club One, 1 Little W. 12th St., became enraged when the bartender refused to serve him at 1 a.m. Sun., Sept. 28. police said. Adan Castaneda, 37, of B.P.C. threw glasses at the bartender and destroyed a laptop computer by hurling it behind the bar, according to police. He was charged with criminal mischief and attempted assault and was released on his own recognizance pending a Jan. 14, 2009 court appearance, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Expensive smoke A patron of a lounge at 558 Broome St. stepped out for a cigarette around 1 a.m. Sun., Sept. 21 and came back to find that her bag which she had left at her table was gone. The victim, 24, lost her Massachusetts driver’s license, a digital camera and credit cards.
— Albert Amateau
