Killed by a truck
A truck turning from Sixth Ave. onto the eastbound lane of W. 14th St. at about 11:20 a.m. Fri. Aug. 26 struck and killed an 86-year-old Lower East Side woman, police said. The victim, Lee Zimmerman, a resident of the Seward Park Houses and a Holocaust survivor, was crossing W. 14th St. near the crosswalk when the truck, owned by Stericycle, a Bronx medical waste transporter, struck her and crushed her under the wheels, police said.
The driver, Edmund McMullen, 45, of Peekskill, told police that he did not see the woman. No criminality was involved, police said.
Neighbors described Zimmerman, a widow who lived in the Seward Park development for 40 years, as a vigorous and active woman.
Gunshot on Avenue B
An undercover Narcotics police officer conducting a buy-and-bust operation at 13th St. and Avenue B by the Campos Plaza housing project on early Sunday morning sometime after midnight was involved in a struggle with an alleged drug dealer during which a shot was inadvertently fired from the officer’s gun. According to Deputy Inspector James McCarthy, commanding officer of the Ninth Precinct, the officer approached the dealer with his gun drawn and the struggle ensued. There were no injuries, though the officer was removed to Bellevue hospital to check on ringing in the ears from the shot and possible trauma from the incident. McCarthy said the suspected dealer was arrested for sale of a controlled substance and resisting arrest.
Camp Casey bust
According to a police spokesperson, Paul Zulkowitz, 49, was arrested at Union Square’s south plaza on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m. after he was observed erecting a shack and refused to desist. Zulkowitz was charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and one more charge the spokesperson did not identify. Zulkowitz, who goes by the name zool and said he lives at the East New York Green Tea House, an artists and activists’ collective in Brooklyn, said he had had a discussion with the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, who was at the scene with undercover officers; then, Zulkowitz said, he sat down on a small pup tent and was arrested. Zulkowitz said his group has a Parks Department permit to camp out for 19 hours a day, with the exception of from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., when the park is closed. They are camping out in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, who is vigiling outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., asking to meet with Bush and calling for an end to the Iraq war. Zulkowitz said angrily, “Cindy Sheehan is holding her vigil outside George Bush’s ranch in Texas, and here in supposedly the most liberal city in the United States, we cannot exercise our First Amendment rights.” Zulkowitz said he was also charged with erecting a shack. He said the permit allows them to have a table, and that they have a table, a gazebo, a display, a banner and two tents.
Crowe case
The civil lawsuit by Nestor (Josh) Estrada against the film star Russell Crowe regarding an assault on June 6 in The Mercer, the hotel at 147 Mercer St., has been settled, according to a spokesperson for the actor.
Crowe, who was staying at the hotel, was charged with throwing a telephone at Estrada, a desk clerk, after Estrada failed to connect the actor’s call to his family in Australia. The settlement, confirmed by Robert Baum, spokesperson for Crowe, is in the “low six figures,” according to a Daily News article.
Crowe also faces felony assault charges in connection with the case, which is scheduled for a Sept. 14 Criminal Court hearing. Court sources said a plea to a misdemeanor charge is possible at that time. A felony conviction could bar the actor from working in the U.S.
Grand larceny
A woman employee of Zuckers, Inc., a retail outlet at 151 W. 28 St., her husband and six other suspects, were charged with stealing more than $2 million from the company between last December and June of this year, police said.
The company’s charge that the employee, Elana Vidourre, 35, was embezzling funds prompted the investigation that led to the arrest on Aug. 8 of Vidourre and her husband, Patrick Gilles, 30, both of Aspen Knoll, Staten Island.
The six other defendants, four women and two men, were arrested later and charged with receiving some of the money that was stolen. They are Lesley Gonzalez, of Brooklyn; Karen Parada, 26, of Brooklyn; Joan Calmicker, 39, of the Bronx; Giovanni Armas, 26, of Union, N.J.; and Delmy Perdomo, 53, and Christopher Sem, 22, both of Las Vegas.
Empty handed
A man who entered a Chase branch bank at 71 E. 23rd St. at 3:12 p.m. Mon. Aug. 29 passed a note demanding money to a teller, but rushed out empty handed with the teller told him, “Hang on a moment,” and walked away from the window, police said.
Graffiti spillover
In the wake of the Mark Ecko graffiti block party on W. 22nd St. on Wed. Aug. 24, police charged six men ranging in ages from 17 to 39, with graffiti violations. The block party between 10th and 11th Aves. involved graffiti artists tagging mock subway car panels, but the suspects were charged with painting on private and public property aside from the panels.
A spokesperson for Ecko said the suspects were not connected in any way with the legal event.
The Bloomberg administration tried to revoke a previously granted street permit for the event, but a federal judge granted Ecko’s suit to block the revocation.
Albert Amateau and Lincoln Anderson
