Coercion, harassment
An angry member of the District 1 Community Education Council and parent of a student at the Shuang Wen school, 327 Cherry St., was arrested for threatening on March 14 “to burn the school down” if his daughter were not allowed to transfer out of the school. Edward Primus, 58, of Inwood, was led from the school in handcuffs shortly after 9 a.m. Monday charged with coercion and harassment. He was released on bail Thurs., March 17 after pleading not guilty. He said the charges were brought by “unethical people” trying to cover the fact that the school was being investigated for financial mismanagement and irregular enrollment practices. The district C.E.C tried unsuccessfully last year to remove Primus from the council charging him with aggressive and disruptive behavior. But the Department of Education mediated a settlement of the issue. Shuang Wen is a dual-language Mandarin-English school located in the P.S. 184 building.
Gay bash arrest
Police arrested a Tribeca resident, Edward Gordon, 22, on Wed., March 16, charged with being one of at least six suspects in the hate assault of a man in front of the Independence Plaza building at 80 N. Moore St. on May 10, 2009. Gordon was identified in a New York Post item as the son of a retired N.Y.P.D. officer and as having 11 prior arrests for drugs and assaults. Gordon denied that he had anything to do with the incident. The suspects, five of whom have been arrested and one convicted, punched and kicked the victim during the early morning attack while shouting, “white preppy faggots, bitches, gay white boys and fucking faggot,” according to charges filed with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. The victim suffered a crushed nose, scratched cornea and four chipped teeth in the attack. Adan Rosado, 29, the first man arrested, is serving a five-year sentence for a gang assault conviction in the case, according to the Post item.
Ban fatal driver
New York State last week removed the commercial driver’s license of Ophadell E. Williams, driver of the Chinatown discount bus that crashed in the Bronx on March 12 while returning from a trip to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, killing 15 passengers. Williams was accused of lying on his license application by failing to report that his previous commercial license under the name Eric Williams had been suspended. In the wake of the crash, state inspectors stopped 36 buses last week, issued eight summonses and took the buses of 10 drivers out of service for various infractions and offenses.
Pocket cutting
A Transit Police officer arrested Chukwudike Enemuo, 21, in an E train at the Fulton/Church Street station around 6:37 a.m. Sat., March 19, and charged him with cutting a pocket of a sleeping passenger and stealing the victim’s wallet.
Bag picked
An immigrant woman, 57, from Serbia told police her wallet was picked from her bag sometime on the afternoon of Mon., March 14, after she left her doctor’s office on the Upper East Side. Police, with the help of a Serbian translator, learned the victim first discovered the theft around 4:40 p.m. while she was on a train at the Fulton Street station.
Shoplifting
Police arrested a girl and a woman in the J. Crew boutique, 99 Prince St., around 4 p.m. Fri., March 18, after an employee stopped them from walking out of the shop without paying for a pair of shorts, a sweater and a vest, with a total value of $1,014. Kyra Stewart, 27, and Shauntel Caton, 14, were charged with larceny. Stewart was also charged with possession of an undisclosed amount of marijuana.
Nicolas Waickman, 19, was arrested around 7:50 p.m. Fri., March 11, in the Scoop boutique, 48 Mercer St., after an employee stopped him from leaving the store with a sweater valued at $1,270 in his bag for which he had not paid. He was charged with larceny and with possession of burglary tools after two wire cutters were found in his bag.
Motorcycles, car stolen
A man who parked his 2008 Land Rover, valued at $60,000, in front of 75 Sullivan St. between Broome and Spring Streets at 12:30 p.m. Mon., March 14, returned to the spot at 2 p.m. and found it had been stolen.
A man parked his motorcycle on the southwest corner of Prince and Thompson Streets near his home shortly after midnight Fri., March 18, and returned at 9:30 a.m. to find it had been stolen.
A man parked his 2005 Kawasaki motorcycle in front of 133 Wooster St., near his home around 6 p.m. and returned two hours later to discover it had been stolen, police said.
Phone snatch
A Brooklyn woman, 21, was about to dial her cellphone on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street around 7:30 p.m. Tues., March 15, when she received a rude shock as an unidentified man snatched the phone from her hand and fled, police said.
Left on bench
A woman who works for Vai Spuntino, 105 Thompson St., put her bag down for a moment on a bench in front of the restaurant at 3:10 p.m. Sun., March 20, only to have it stolen by an unknown thief who fled, police said. She lost credit cards, a BlackBerry, and an iPod. The victim learned later that an unauthorized charge of $304 had been made on a credit card.
M.T.A.: He was drunk
A report by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the man who became pinned between a platform extender and a No. 4 train at the Union Square subway station in December 2010 “appeared to be drunk at the time of the incident.” The report said the train’s conductor observed a beer can beside the victim, who “appeared to be inebriated.” The victim, who was injured but survived, denied being drunk, and his lawyer said that two witnesses would testify that a drunken man had placed the beer can beside the victim, who was screaming for help. The victim, Michael Dion, has filed notice that he is suing the M.T.A. for $15 million.
Did the shoe fit?
A Brooklyn woman told police on March 11 that she was at the Aldo boutique, 579 Broadway between Prince and Houston Streets, when she left her wallet on a chair while she walked to a mirror to look at shoes she was trying on. She turned back to her chair to discover the wallet had been stolen. The victim discovered later that an unauthorized charge of $104 had been made on her debit card for a monthly MetroCard.
— Albert Amateau
