East Village child rape
Police arrested a 26-year-old East Village man last week for raping his 5-year-old daughter and offering the child to a 72-year-old acquaintance who came down to the father’s Avenue D apartment from the Upper West Side and also sexually abused the girl.
The older man, Ariel Berlin, of W. 85th St., was also charged with rape in connection with the incident that occurred during the week of July 11-15, police said. Law enforcement officials declined to give the father’s name in order to protect the child’s privacy.
Both men were being held in lieu of bail.
The child’s father, who met Berlin on a telephone chat line, invited the older man to come to his apartment to “play” with his daughter, police said. Berlin told police that the father came to the door dressed in women’s clothes holding his daughter’s hand and then watched as Berlin fondled the child, according to the charges.
Police did not say how they learned of the incident. The girl’s mother was said to be living in Massachusetts and the child had been living in her father’s apartment for about two months when the incident occurred, according to charges filed at the office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau.
The girl was placed in the custody of an aunt who lives in Manhattan, police said.
Union Sq. subway death
A Transit Authority computer specialist was killed early on Mon. Aug. 1 when he jumped in front of a northbound N train at the Union Square subway station in front of several witnesses, police said. The victim, Antonio Lopez, 35, of Elmhurst, Queens, was employed at the Jay St. station in Brooklyn. The incident interrupted service between Prince and 34th Sts. from 5:34 a.m. to 7:05 a.m.
St. Mark’s power out
Burned-out electric power cables beneath St. Mark’s Pl. between Avenue A and First Ave. left buildings on the south side of the street without electricity between 1:30 p.m. Tues. July 26 and 2:30 a.m. Wed. July 27.
Pot and big bucks
Police from the Seventh Precinct who responded to a call about a disturbance at Apartment 2 at 21 Essex St. at 8:30 a.m. on Sun. July 31 found several bags of marijuana with a total weight of over 10 pounds and a stash of cash in $50 and $100 bills in plain view. They arrested Sami Chartouni, 31, who gave a Danbury, Conn., address. According to the police, the cash could have totaled as much as $375,000.
The suspect pleaded with the officers, saying, “Please let me go. There’s a plastic bag over there full of money. You can have all of it. I’ll just go out this window,” according to the charges on file at the office of District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau. The charges also say the defendant told police, “My family will kill me. I was supposed to be clean. I have a drug problem.”
Chartouni was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana and second-degree bribery.
Albert Amateau
