Police BLOTTER

Police Blotter

Abduction case dropped

The office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau on Nov. 13 dropped all charges against Lawrence Omansky, longtime Tribeca resident and criminal defense lawyer, accused of forcing his estranged real estate partner to sign over properties and then leaving him bound in a crawl space for 28 hours last April.

Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Nochlin told Criminal Court Judge Raymond Guzman there were “substantial issues with respect to the complainant’s own activity and credibility,” just before Guzman dismissed the charges.

Lawrence Schlosser, a resident of Washington Sq. and a business associate of Omansky for 30 years, told police on April 16 that he had just worked his way free from duct tape bindings after 28 hours in a crawl space in Omansky’s Chambers St. apartment. Schlosser said Omansky forced him to sign transfer documents and then bound and thrust him into the space beneath the bathroom floorboards.

But Omansky’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said Schlosser had a key to the apartment, a converted firehouse at 160 Chambers St. “The forensic evidence did nothing more than confirm that Mr. Schlosser had been in the apartment and may have been at some time in the crawl space,” Brafman said shortly after the dismissal.

Tribeca neighbors last April said they were shocked by the charges. Omansky, the divorced father of three daughters, was described as a dedicated Little League coach when his daughters were children.

Sexual assault

A man who grabbed a 19-year-old mother from behind as she was pushing her 2-month-old baby in a carriage at 10:30 a.m. Thurs. Nov. 20 on Houston St. near the F.D.R. Dr., said he had a gun and then led the victim into an alley where he forced her to perform oral sex, police said.

As the suspect was leading the victim into a building, she called out to a passerby and then managed to flee with her baby. Police described the suspect as a black man between the ages of 18 and 22, between 5’6” and 5’8” tall, with kinky hair and wearing a mid-thigh-length gray coat. The suspect had one foot slightly crooked and tilted inward, said police.

Subway accident

A man described as acting in a disturbed manner was struck by a passing subway when he leaned over the track on the Uptown platform of the F train I.N.D. station at Houston St. and First Ave. at about 9:30 p.m. Sun. Nov. 23. He was taken to Bellevue with head injuries in critical condition.

N.Y.U. abuse

A female New York University student, 18, told police that three men sexually abused her in her Waverly Pl. dorm room at about 3:45 a.m. Sun. Nov. 16. The victim was out drinking with the three just before the incident, police said. Solomon Evan, 18, an N.Y.U. student, was charged in connection with the incident on Nov. 19 after he was arrested at his dorm on University Pl., according police.

Chelsea groper

A woman, 25, told police that a man came up to her as she was walking on W. 16th St. west of Fifth Ave. at 2:50 a.m. Sat. Nov. 22 and sexually abused her before fleeing.

Fast food robberies

Police are looking for two suspects in a series of seven gunpoint robberies, mostly of fast food shops in the Village, East Village and Chelsea. The suspects were described as black men, one 5’10” weighing between 185 and 200 pounds, the other 6’2” and weighing 250 pounds.

One of the suspects robbed two places on Mon. Nov. 17, one a fast food shop at 8:25 p.m. at 291 Fifth Ave. at 29th St. and the other at 7:25 p.m. at 237 Park Ave. S. at E. 19th St. The pair hit a fast food shop at Fourth Ave. and E. 14th St. at 7 p.m. Fri. Nov. 14. On Nov. 10, one of the men robbed a fast food shop at 8:30 p.m. on Seventh Ave. near W. 13th St. A half hour earlier, the pair robbed a fast food shop at 32 E. 23rd St. across from Madison Sq. Park. An hour earlier, at 7 p.m., the two suspects robbed a dry cleaners at 220 Sixth Ave. near King St. On Nov. 4, the pair held up a fast food shop at 7 p.m. on W. 14th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves.

Knives and knuckles

Police raided two stores, one at 79 Clinton St., and the other at 177 E. Houston St., and arrested three suspects in connection with the illegal sale of knives, brass knuckles and other items. Robert Shen, of Searingtown, N.Y., and Hector Celero and Zygmunt Magcher, both of Queens, were arrested in connection with the case. At 79 Clinton St., a general merchandise store, police seized 216 gravity knives, 21 daggers, 13 brass knuckles and two switchblade knives. At 177 E. Broadway, an army-navy store, police confiscated 349 gravity knives, a baton and 26 handcuffs.

Subway death

The body of an Asian woman, 34, was spotted on the express track of the Seventh Ave. I.R.T. subway line between 14th and 18th Sts. at 6:45 p.m. Fri. Nov. 21, police said. The body was removed after Transit workers shut power on the line for nearly an hour during the weekend evening rush. The medical examiner’s office is investigating the cause of death.

Bank job

A man walked into the J.P. Morgan Chase branch at 71 W. 23rd St. at 9:21 a.m. Tues. Nov. 18, passed a note to a teller and fled with $895, police said. The suspect was said to be a black man, age 19, 5’10”, wearing a dark blue, fur-lined coat.

Fire at N.Y.U.

A fire broke out on the ninth floor of the Gallatin School for Individualized Study on Broadway between Waverly Pl. and Washington Pl. at 5:45 p.m. Wed. Nov. 19, and forced the evacuation of students and faculty from both the Gallatin and Tisch School of Art building next door. The buildings reopened at 8 p.m. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

T.A. substation fire

A fire at the Transit Authority electrical substation at Greenwich Ave. and 13th St. that started at 12:28 p.m. sent hazy smoke billowing into the air on Mon., Nov. 24. Assemblymember Deborah Glick requested that the Department of Environmental Protection send a team to monitor the air for potential toxins. The conditions caused rerouting of trains for three hours on the Eighth Ave. and Sixth Ave. lines.