Hot 97 fined
Hot 97, the hip-hop radio station at 395 Hudson St. agreed on Aug. 8 to pay the maximum fine of $240,000 to settle charges filed by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Athletic Commission Chairman Ron Scott of promoting an illegal Smackfest contest.
The fine is in addition to a commitment by the station, owned by Emmis Communications, to fund an antiviolence campaign that includes a $60,000 donation to Safe Horizon, an organization the promotes awareness and prevention of domestic violence.
The Smackfest promotion began last year and involved contestants, mostly young women, taking turns violently slapping each other, with winners getting concert tickets and cash prizes of up to $5,000. Videos of the contests were put on the Hot 97 Web site.
The State Athletic Commission, which supervises sports like boxing, charged that the contests were dangerous and violated state law on promoting combative sports.
No plea for Foxy
Hip-hop artist Foxy Brown, charged with assault on two attendants at a Chelsea nail salon in August 2004, declined to plead guilty on Fri. Aug. 5 to misdemeanor third-degree assault in return for a sentence of 10 days community service. Her lawyer, Joseph Tacopino, said later that Brown, 25, whose real name is Inga Marchand, might have considered a disorderly conduct plea because it is a violation that would not be on a criminal record. Her next court date is Sept. 22.
She was charged with punching an employee, Myoung Yi, at Bloomie Nails on W. 23rd St. near Eighth Ave. during an argument at closing time. The dispute arose because Brown had asked for a manicure and a pedicure, but claims she was given only the manicure and paid for it as the store was closing at 10 p.m.
Antigay assault
After shouting an antigay epithet at a black 33-year-old man who was walking with his 29-year-old white friend on W. 18th St. and Ninth Ave. in Chelsea at about 12:50 a.m. Sun. Aug. 7, an unidentified assailant punched him in the face, police said. When the victim began fighting back, an accomplice of the assailant hit him over the head and both suspects fled.
The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, treated for injuries to the face and the right shoulder, and released. Police are calling for witnesses to phone the bias-crime hotline 646-610-5267.
The incident, being investigated as a bias attack, came at the same time that a black man, 29, was beaten and robbed in Brooklyn by a group of white men wielding baseball bats and pipes. The week before in Crown Heights, two black men attacked a Hasidic man after shouting anti-Semitic epithets. All three are considered bias crimes.
City Councilmember Christine Quinn joined Brooklyn councilmembers in a rally on the steps of City Hall on Aug. 9 denouncing bias crimes and calling for the swift capture and prosecution of the attackers.
Christopher St. arrests
With the help of a passersby and a waiter at a nearby bar and restaurant, police arrested three women suspects in a bag-snatching incident around midnight between Aug. 2 and 3 at the corner of Christopher and Greenwich Sts.
Terry Howell, vice president of the Christopher St. Patrol, said she was not on duty at the time but recognized one of the suspects and chased her after the bag snatching. The waiter chased two of the suspects who got into a cab. Police apprehended the woman on foot and the two in the cab.
