Cab fare fracas
An argument between a Chelsea woman and the cab driver who dropped her off a half-block from her W. 22 St. home at 11 p.m. Thurs. May 25 provoked charges, countercharges and a call to police about an incident involving a gun.
There was no gun, but the woman, Stephanie Adams, 35, who had been a November 1992 Playboy magazine Playmate, later told the New York Post that police had forced her to the ground and later leered at her disrespectfully. She also told the Post that she filed a complaint about her treatment with the 10th Police Precinct and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
But Captain Stephen Hughes, 10th Precinct commanding officer, said on Tues. May 30, that Adams had not made any complaints about her treatment either the night of the argument or the following evening when she came to the precinct with her lawyer to charge the cab driver with harassment.
“She can still file a complaint with the 10th Precinct and the C.C.R.B. but we advised her to take her complaint about the cab driver to the Taxi and Limousine Commission,” Hughes said.
According to Adams, the incident started when the cab driver took her from the Upper East Side, where she had dinner with her hair stylist, but stopped a half-block beyond her home west of Ninth Ave., turned off the meter and refused to take her to her door.
Adams refused to pay the fare, the shouting became heated, she called 911 and so did the driver. Captain Hughes said the 911 operator had asked the driver the standard question about firearms and the driver said, “She threatened to shoot me.” That was transmitted over the police radio as a dispute in a cab with a gun involved.
A Manhattan boroughwide unit in plainclothes was the first to respond, followed by 10th Precinct uniformed police, Hughes said.
“I don’t know if they pushed her to the ground, but they got her out of the cab and searched for a gun. When they didn’t find one, they tried to straighten it all out,” he said.
Adams told the officers that she knew Captain Hughes and was a friend of Mike Patrillo, 10th Precinct community affairs officer.
“I wasn’t there at the time but Mike Patrillo was on duty and he went to the scene. He told her she had to pay the cab fare — it was something like $10. She gave the money to Mike, Mike gave it to the driver and then he walked her home,” said Hughes, who confirmed that he had met Adams once at the precinct house last November.
Adams has contacted the lawyer, Raoul Felder, who according to the Post, plans to pursue the matter.
Impaled on fence
A 28-year-old man who had been drinking with a friend in the East Village on Friday night was impaled on an iron fence at a parking lot on E. First St. near Avenue A when he tried to vault the fence at 7:30 a.m. Sat. May 27.
The victim and his friend were taking a shortcut across the parking lot to a nearby diner at the time.
An Emergency Medical Service team and police were able to free him from the fence spike that penetrated his lower left leg. He was taken to Bellevue hospital in stable condition.
Boy dies on track
The body of a 15-year-old Queens boy was found on the tracks at the Bowery station of the J/M/Z line on Sunday morning May 28, police said. A Queensbound train apparently struck the victim, Frederick Rios, of Ridgewood, shortly before 6:45 a.m. The circumstances were still under investigation on Tuesday.
Boutique vandalized
An employee at Agi Brooks, sweeping up the remnants of the broken glass front door in front of the Soho design boutique at 192 Spring St. on Monday evening, said that around 6:20 p.m., she had heard what sounded like a gunshot and then saw the front door shattered in a spider pattern. Requesting anonymity, she said she hadn’t seen any hole among the broken glass, though, so she wondered if it might have just been a rock, either thrown or slammed against the door, that sounded like shot. But she didn’t find a rock either. The employee reported the incident to insurance and said Brooks was on her way from Upstate to survey the damage. The shop’s customers include top professional women in publishing, documentary filmmaking and national youth organizations, the employee said.
Hardhat bank job
Police are looking for a man dressed as a construction worker who walked into a HSBC branch at 800 Sixth Ave. near 27 St. at about 10:20 a.m. Fri. May 19, told a teller he had an explosive device and demanded money. He was wearing a hardhat, construction boots and a dark jacket and fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
Albert Amateau
Mass rider doored
Last Friday evening, 300 cyclists participated in the monthly Critical Mass ride. Shortly after setting out from Union Square out at 7:30 p.m., at Broadway and Eighth St., four cyclists were stopped and issued tickets for traffic infractions including riding more than two abreast and riding in the middle of the street. Just after 8 p.m. a group of 15 cyclists was riding down Broadway at 40th St. in the bicycle lane when, according to witnesses, a police van chasing the ride opened its door, causing a female cyclist to crash into it. The woman, on her first Critical Mass ride, suffered a broken collarbone and was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent’s Hospital Midtown. She was reportedly released around midnight. The woman reportedly did not want her name printed. Police issued 53 summonses for various traffic violations and another eight summonses for disorderly conduct. There were no arrests.
Jefferson Siegel
