Teen charges rape
A 17-year-old Queens girl, a student at Aviation High School in Long Island City, told police that she got drunk at Don Hill’s, a music club at Greenwich and Spring Sts., on Sunday night Aug. 6 and was taken by three young men to an apartment where she was raped.
The girl first reported the incident the next day to a drug counselor at Aviation High School, saying she recognized one of her assailants as a former Aviation student.
The victim later told police that she came to the club at 8 p.m., smoked marijuana and got drunk, whereupon her three attackers put her in a car where she passed out in the back seat. She told police she woke up when she was being raped in an apartment somewhere near the Brooklyn-Queens border. She said she fled from the apartment at 4 a.m. and went home.
Don Hill, a partner in the club that opened 13 years ago, said underage patrons are never admitted and security guards are at the door at all times.
“I spoke to a police officer last week who wanted information about the bands playing here,” Hill said. “He couldn’t tell me much about the case. It is still pretty cloudy,” said Hill, adding that there were no incidents at the club on the night of Aug. 6-7.
Arrest two suspects
Police arrested two men in connection with the 12:55 a.m. Aug. 1 knifepoint robbery of a man walking on Canal St. at Varick St. The suspects removed the victim’s sneakers as well as his backpack and iPod, police said. They fled into the subway station at Sixth Ave. and Canal St. where Officer David Jamet of the First Precinct apprehended them. Charged with second-degree robbery were Barnell Blackwood, 20 and Roger Myers, 17.
Junior Gotti — again
The third trial of John Gotti, Jr., began with jury selection on Mon. Aug. 14 Gotti, whose two previous trials ended in deadlocked juries, is charged with ordering the June 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa in a cab near Sliwa’s home on Avenue A and St. Mark’s Pl. Sliwa, a founder of the anticrime Guardian Angels, was going to his WABC radio show when he got into the cab and was shot in the leg by an assailant who had been crouching down in the front seat. Gotti targeted Sliwa because he was denouncing Gotti’s father on his radio show, according to the charges.
Sue Crobar
Two women who were injured by a single shot that was apparently fired at random inside Crobar, 530 W. 28th St., on July 13, are suing the club for $20 million each, claiming Crobar failed to provide adequate security. Antoinette Bryan, 39 and her friend, Angelita Dunkey, 35 were hit by a single .22-caliber bullet that went through one of their calves and lodged in the leg of the other victim.
Steven Krentsel, the victims’ lawyer, called the club “a breeding ground for trouble” and said the operators should screen for weapons at the door. With a capacity of more than 3,000 patrons, Crobar is the largest club in West Chelsea. This year, the club has had 52 incidents requiring police attention and 22 arrests.
Canal St. dip
A woman visiting from Uniontown, Ohio, told police she was walking on Canal St. at Mercer St. at about 4 p.m. Sun. Aug. 13 when someone bumped into her. A short time later, the victim, 36, discovered her bag was open and her wallet missing. She lost $20 in cash, a driver’s license and credit cards.
Car break-in
A man who parked his car on Mercer St. near Spring St. on Saturday night Aug. 12 returned at 12:20 a.m. to find a rear passenger-side window smashed and a laptop computer and other personal property missing.
‘Put down the coffee’
A man walking on King St. near Sixth Ave. while drinking take-out coffee on Sunday morning July 30 was accosted by a stranger who ordered him to put down the cup, police said. When the victim refused, the stranger began rifling his pockets. The victim then fled into a nearby deli to phone 911 and the stranger fled north on Sixth Ave. Police Officer Michael Lanaro soon arrested Roy Miller, 38, who was identified by the victim.
Soho jewelry
The manager of Versant Jewelry, 152 Mercer St., told police that someone had smashed the front window of the shop on Friday night July 21 and made off with merchandise valued at $18,000.
Eyewear boutique
One or more thieves smashed the front door window of Joel Name optical boutique, 448 West Broadway, near Prince St., during the early hours of Fri. July 28, entered the store and took an undisclosed number of sunglasses with a total value of $9,000, police said.
Chaired on Canal
A man told police that a stranger, described only as a black man, picked up a vendor’s metal folding chair and hit him with it at 5:45 p.m. Mon. July 31. The attacker fled in an unknown direction.
Vendor ruckus
An argument between a street vendor and a customer on West Broadway and Broome St. at 5 p.m. Fri. July 28 ended when the vendor stabbed the customer in the left arm with a fork, police said. The victim told police that the vendor fled in an unknown direction.
Uphold bag search
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 11 unanimously upheld the city’s subway bag inspection program as a lawful counterterrorism measure. Ruling that the random search program might well stymie a terrorist attack or disrupt the timing of multiple attacks, the three-judge panel affirmed a U.S. District Court nonjury decision dismissing a suit that charged the random subway bag searches were unconstitutional and not a terrorism deterrent.
Albert Amateau
