Tattoo sex abuse
Police arrested Robert Emilian on Thurs., Aug. 12, and charged him with first-degree sexual abuse, unlawful imprisonment and petit larceny involving a woman customer of a piercing and tattoo parlor at 116 MacDougal St. opposite Minetta Lane.
The victim told police that Emilian pressed against her, preventing her from escaping, and stuck his hand down her shirt and touched her breast shortly before 1 a.m. Sat., Aug. 7. She repeatedly asked him to stop and tried to leave, but he blocked her exit, according to the complaint filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. Emilian was also charged with taking several hundred dollars from the victim’s bag. Police said Emilian told them he took the money from the bag. He pleaded not guilty and was released pending a Nov. 23 court appearance.
Emilian had previously been charged on April 6 with sexual abuse for grabbing the crotch of a woman for whom he was doing body piercing at the tattoo parlor, according to a New York Post item.
Shots fly on 2nd Ave.
A man, 43, was shot twice on E. Fifth St. at Second Ave. around 3:57 a.m. Sun., Aug. 22, police said. The victim, shot once in the arm and again in the chest, was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. Police found four shell casings at the scene, according to neighbors. There were no arrests and the investigation continues, police said.
The shooting occurred outside Sin Sin/Leopard Lounge, at 248 E. Fifth St. According to local blog EV Grieve, concerned neighbors recently met with Sin Sin management to discuss problems they were experiencing “as a result of Sin Sin’s method of operation, ranging from people partying in their cars, to crowds on the street, trash and waste deposited by patrons and violence from patrons.”
On Aug. 24, Stuart Zamsky, on behalf of the E. Fifth St. Block Association, wrote to the State Liquor Authority about problems with noise and violence at the place, as well as the recent shooting. He referred to “wilding” that occurs when the club closes at 4 a.m.
“Over the past few years the bar has had an increasingly rowdy crowd, and over the last year this crowd has begun to be violent as well,” Zamsky wrote. “Residents are routinely woken between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. by patrons gathering on E. Fifth St., carousing, partying in their cars and fighting. We are regularly woken up…by screaming, cursing and the sounds of body blows. A resident has been assaulted while locking her bike to a public rack near the bar. The street is a residential street with families and children who face the street. They are frightened when they are awakened by what they hear and see. This Sunday morning at 3:30 a.m. this violence culminated in a shooting outside the bar.
“Our neighborhood is tired of attending meeting after meeting in the hope that it will have some impact on this business,” Zamsky wrote the S.L.A. “The business has demonstrated contempt for the neighborhood it so disrupts. On behalf of The E. Fifth St. Block Association, I ask you to look into the matter and help us to close this scourge on our neighborhood known as Sin Sin/ Leopard Lounge.”
Online news service DNAinfo reported that the nightspot’s owner, Philip Quilter, said he “didn’t believe the people involved were inside the place at any point.”
Cell-phone voyeur
Police arrested Carlos Arevalo, 39, shortly after 6:30 p.m. Fri., Aug. 20, and charged him with unlawful surveillance for taking photos up a woman’s skirt in Union Square Park. The suspect used his cell phone to take the photos, police said. Arevalo, a Queens resident, was being held pending a Thurs., Aug. 26, court appearance.
St. Mark’s stabbing
Police arrested two men in connection with the 4:48 a.m. Sun., Aug. 22, stabbing of a man on St. Mark’s Place at Third Ave. The victim, 25, was stabbed in the chest and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Fahimul H. Khan, 22, of Queens was arrested later and charged with second-degree attempted murder and possession of marijuana. Arrested the following day in connection with the stabbing was Mateo Tashman, 18, of Brooklyn, who was charged with first-degree assault.
Unsolved murder
Police are still seeking information about the homicide last year of a Brooklyn woman, Chao Ru Zie, 37, last seen alive at 8 p.m. July 1, 2009, at 103 Allen St., between Stanton and Rivington Sts., after she left work in Manhattan. Her husband reported her missing the following day, and on July 6 police found her body in the rear seat of her 2008 Lexus S.U.V. in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She had been killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object. Her husband told police that someone had used the victim’s cell phone to call her sister, 21, in China demanding $50,000 to ransom the victim.
Information should be phoned to Crime Stoppers, 800-577-TIPS (8477) or reported online at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting tips to 274637 (Crimes) and entering TIP577. All calls are confidential.
Christopher assault
Two Bronx men, apparently related, were arrested in connection with an assault on an 18-year-old victim around 5:30 a.m. Sat., Aug. 21, on the northwest corner of Hudson and Christopher Sts. The victim was taken to Beth Israel Hospital for a cut above his right eye and multiple bruises.
One of the suspects, Maurtrece Harris, 27, kicked out the rear window of the police van that took him to the Sixth Precinct after his arrest, police said. The other suspect, Maurques Harris, also 27, swung his arms in an attempt to avoid arrest, police said. Maurtrece Harris was charged with assault and criminal mischief. Maurques Harris was charged only with assault. The two suspects gave the same Bronx address but police did not say how they were related.
Duped immigrants
Te-hu Tsuei, 54, known as Peter, was indicted Monday for stealing more than $6,000 from Chinatown residents by falsely claiming to be an immigration lawyer or an experienced paralegal who worked for an immigration lawyer.
Tsuei, a Jamaica, N.Y., resident, had an office at 240 Grand St. near Bowery when the thefts took place from November 2007 to May 2009.
The offences became known when two victims reported Tsuei to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Immigrant Affairs Program at a June 2009 safety seminary in Chinatown sponsored by D.A. Vance.
The defendant introduced himself in fall 2007 as an immigration lawyer to one victim and as an experienced immigration paralegal to the other victim, even though he was not a lawyer nor authorized by the federal Board of Immigration Appeals to provide legal services to immigrants, the indictment says.
After paying a total of more than $6,000 to Tsuei, the victims, who did not know each other, were unable to reach him, and discovered in May of last year that his office at 240 Grand St. was closed.
“We are pleased that the community’s support stemming from a safety seminar conducted by the District Attorney’s Office led directly to today’s indictment,” Vance said on Monday. The case is still under investigation and the District Attorney’s Office is aware of other victims. Vance is asking victims to call his Immigrant Affairs Program at 212-335-3600. The Asset Forfeiture Division of the D.A.’s Office has brought a civil suit against Tsuei to seize the proceeds from the scheme. Tsuei pleaded not guilty and was being held pending $500,000 bail for a Sept. 16 court appearance.
Ride-by cell snatch
Police arrested Carlos Dejesus, 49, in connection with the theft of a cell phone from a victim talking on the phone while walking west on E. 11th St. between University Place and Fifth Ave. at 10:46 p.m. Sat., Aug. 21. Police said the suspect was riding a bicycle on the sidewalk next to the victim, snatched the phone and rode off, but was soon arrested and charged with fourth-degree larceny.
Pushed her into train
A man who was menacing people on the northbound platform of the R subway station at 28th St. and Broadway at 7:45 p.m. Wed., Aug. 11, pushed a woman into an incoming train. The victim, 39, was flung back onto the platform and sustained several broken ribs, a broken left shoulder and left arm and a crushed sinus cavity. She was in satisfactory condition in Bellevue Hospital this week.
The suspect, Jose Rojas, tried to flee but was stopped by witnesses who held him for Transit police. According to court papers charging attempted murder and first-degree assault, Rojas, 25, of the Bronx, told one of the witnesses, “I don’t know why I pushed her.” He pleaded not guilty and is in jail pending an Aug. 31 court appearance.
Actually believed him
A man shopping at Barney’s, 255 W. 17th St., picked up a cell phone and $400 in bills from the floor around 11:45 a.m., and told an employee who was standing by that he would turn it in to security, police said. The cell phone and the money were not reported as found nor were they turned in, police added.
Cyclist ‘rams’ car
A motorist told police that a woman in her 20s riding a bicycle rammed the rear left door of his 2008 BMW on W. 16th St. between Ninth and 10th Aves. around 7 p.m. Fri., Aug. 20, and then rode off. The door was dented, police said.
Albert Amateau
