‘Page Six’ pot arrest
Baird Jones, curator of Webster Hall, a contributor to the New York Post Page Six and a writer on the East Village art scene, was arrested on Bowery near E. First St. at 9:50 p.m. Wed., March 9, and issued a desk appearance ticket for marijuana use and possession, Ninth Precinct police said.
“I was standing in front of CBGB’s with a group of people — at an Andy Warhol exhibit,” Jones told The Villager. “I definitely was not smoking pot. I think these guys [Ninth Precinct police] are overzealous,” he added.
Bank rob arrest
The New York Police Department’s Bank Robbery Task Force and the Major Case Squad arrested a suspect in four bank robberies, one of them attempted at the Valley National Bank, 145 Fifth Ave. near 21st St., on Wed., March 9.
The suspect, Todd Cooke, 41, was arrested at his home in Staten Island a few hours after police said he walked into the Valley National Bank at 12:20 p.m. and fled without anything after a teller refused his demand for money. At a lineup on March 10, Cooke was identified as a suspect also in an attempted robbery of a J.P. Morgan Chase branch on Sixth Ave. at 50th St. an hour before the Fifth Ave. attempt. He was also identified as a suspect in a Feb. 10 robbery of a Commerce Bank on Broadway at 74th St. and a March 8 robbery of another Commerce Bank on Broadway at 68th St., fleeing both of them with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Arrest gun suspects
Police from the 10th Precinct spotted one of four men in a tow truck armed with a handgun and menacing pedestrians on 10th Ave. at 21st St. at 3:15 p.m. Thurs., March 10. When they approached the truck, which was found to have been stolen, the driver sped away but crashed into a patrol car responding to the incident, police said. The four men in the truck were arrested. Lonnie Jeanette, 28, of 90 Sackman St., Brooklyn, was charged with stealing the truck, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. Phillip Gallegos, 28, of 953 DeKalb Ave., Brooklyn, was charged with weapon possession. Luis Roldan, 25, of 120 Pennsylvania Ave., Brooklyn, was charged with reckless endangerment, third-degree menacing and weapons possession. Tykey Davis, 17, of 478 Park Ave., Brooklyn, was charged with weapons possession and disorderly conduct.
Hot 97 landlord fires back
The District Council of Carpenters Pension Fund, which owns 395 Hudson St. where the Hot 97 radio station occupies the seventh floor, sent a March 4 letter to Emmis Broadcasting, owner of the station, about the shootings in front of the building involving the posses of rap artist guests at the station.
The union pension fund demanded that the station allow only one person to accompany a hip-hop performer to the station. The landlord also wants Hot 97 to furnish a notice a week in advance of who is to appear on the station in order to alert police and hire extra security. The union also demands the right to bar from the building anyone it believes “poses a risk of danger, damage, injury or disruption.”
Alex Dudley a spokesperson for the station, said, “We’re in constant contact with our landlord to reach a mutually acceptable resolution, but it’s important to remember that there has been no incident inside the building.”
Kevin Reed, 20, of Los Angeles was shot in the leg in front of the building between Houston and Clarkson Sts. on the night of Feb. 28, while waiting for an autograph. He was caught in the crossfire between two posses, one following 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) and the other with The Game (Jayceon Taylor).
The sidewalk in front of 395 Hudson St. was also the scene of a Feb. 2001 shooting involving the entourages of the rapper, Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Jones) and her rival, Foxy Brown (Inga Marchand).
The federal court perjury trial in connection with Lil’ Kim’s grand jury testimony on the 2001 shooting went to the jury on Mon., March 14, after closing statements by U.S. Assistant Attorney Cathy Seibel and Mel Sachs, Kim’s defense lawyer. The charge involves Lil’ Kim’s testimony that she did not know two suspects in the 2001 shooting, Suif Jackson and Damion Butler, who subsequently pleaded guilty and are serving jail terms.
Soho auto break-in
A woman who parked her 2004 Dodge Intrepid on the northwest corner of Thompson and Watts Sts. on Sun., Feb. 27, found the lock of the door on the driver’s side damaged and unspecified property missing when she returned at 2:45 p.m., police said.
Naked theft
A woman who was in Naked Lunch, a lounge at 17 Thompson St. near Grand St. at 3 a.m. Sat., Feb. 26, left her handbag on the bar before she went to put her drink down on a nearby table. The bag, with $180 in cash and personal papers, was gone by the time she turned back to it, police said.
Still working the con
The con man, who identifies himself as Doug Richards from England and has been calling Doris Diether in the Village for the past month asking her to mail $3,800 in cash to a Rotterdam, Netherlands, post office box in order to with an $89,000 lottery prize, is still at it.
“He called me again yesterday [Mon., March 14,] to tell me he didn’t get the money yet,” said Diether. “He also said they made a mistake and my prize money was really $412,000. But I’d have to send more money and he’d phone again to tell me how much,” she added.
“He said his secretary called me several times over the weekend and when I told him I didn’t get any message, he said ‘We never leave messages because we don’t want anyone to know your business.’ I think he doesn’t want any record of his voice,” she said. Diether has notified postal authorities, the F.B.I., state and local law enforcement agencies and the New York consulates of The Netherlands and the U.K. She also taped some earlier conversations with a borrowed mini-recorder.
Slashing on Orchard
Police said that a victim was slashed in an apartment on Orchard St. between Stanton and Houston Sts. on Monday morning March 14. Police did not identify the victim but said the injury was not life threatening. One man was taken to the Seventh Precinct for questioning, but no one was charged by press time on March 15.
Albert Amateau
