Double gay bash
The Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is investigating the beating of two gay black men in the West Village near 14th St., at 10 p.m. Sun., Feb. 15. The assailant shouted antigay epithets and threw one victim to the ground and punched his companion, police said. Both victims were taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with unspecified but not life-threatening injuries, police said. A police spokesperson said the incident occurred “on 14th St. and Fifth Ave., in a movie theater.” However, there is no movie theater at that location. A Web site, Queerty, contains a posting on the incident by one of the alleged victims, who said it happened at the Regal Union Square movie theater at 13th St. and Broadway.
Senior stabber
Police arrested James Ford, 73, a resident of the Bowery Mission, 227 Bowery between Rivington and Stanton Sts., and charged him with assault for stabbing a fellow resident, 29, in the abdomen with a kitchen knife at 8:10 p.m. Fri., Feb. 13. Ford, who has been convicted twice on assault charges, was also charged with weapon possession. The victim was treated for lacerations of the abdomen.
Bottle bonk
Sean Best, 27, was arrested around 4:15 a.m. Sun., Feb. 15, in front of 197 Madison St. near Rutgers St. and charged with assault for knocking down a man with a blow to the head with a bottle, police said. After the victim fell to the ground, Best kicked and punched him, according to the charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Best was being held in lieu of $15,000 bail pending a March 18 court appearance.
Caught on roof
Police said officers spotted Scott Burke, 25, on a second-floor fire escape at 89 E. Broadway at 1:10 p.m. Mon., Feb. 16, and ordered him to come down. Burke, however, climbed the fire escape to the roof, pursed by the officer who arrested him. The suspect had a metal rod, an implement commonly used in burglaries, in his possession. Burke pleaded guilty on Fri., Feb. 20, to a reduced charge of possession of burglary tools and was sentenced to a jail term of 30 days.
Shot in her car
A New Jersey man told police that after he got into the passenger seat of a strange woman’s black Mercedes-Benz at Little W. 12th and Washington Sts. around 6:20 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 19, she pulled a gun. The gun went off when the man grabbed it and a bullet hit him in the left hand. The woman drove the man to the emergency room at St. Vincent’s Hospital and drove off, according to reports.
E. Seventh St. body
Police responded to a call at 12:24 p.m. Fri., Feb. 20, to 104 E. Seventh St. between First Ave. and Avenue A and found a badly decomposed body in Apartment No. 7. The identity and the sex of the body could not be determined and the Medical Examiner is investigating. No criminality is suspected at this time, police said.
Whole Foods slash
Ngawang Jorden, 22, an employee of Whole Foods Market on Union Square South, was arrested at 8:30 a.m. Mon., Feb. 23, and charged with attempted murder and assault for slashing the neck of a fellow employee with an 8-inch knife. The victim, 28, was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Jorden, a Queens resident, was freed on $15,000 bail pending a March 20 court appearance.
Bar punch-up
Police charged Starlin Jimenez, 22, with misdemeanor assault for punching a fellow patron, 21, in the face during an argument at 1:10 a.m. Sun., Feb 22, in Off the Wagon, the bar at 109 MacDougal St.
Fired for bicycle shove
The rookie police officer caught on a YouTube video shoving a Critical Mass cyclist off his bicycle in the Times Square area last July 25 was fired on Feb. 10, Paul J. Browne, Police Department deputy commissioner for public information, said last week. The former officer, Patrick Pogan, 23, still faces criminal charges of assault, harassment and filing a false police report. Pogan’s attorney, Stuart London, contended Pogan was not fired but had resigned to concentrate on fighting the criminal charges, “so that when he is ultimately acquitted he can reapply to the Police Department.” Charges of attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct against the cyclist, Christopher Long, have been dropped.
Another video acquittal
All charges against Michael Cephus, 47, the truck driver whose July 4 beating on Delancey St. by a police officer wielding a metal baton was recorded on video, were dropped Mon., Feb. 23. The officer, Maurice Harrington, is under investigation and is on modified work status. The video of the beating was taken by two bystanders who passed the tape to a friend of Cephus’s before they too were arrested for disorderly conduct. Cephus faced up to 15 years in prison on the charge of assaulting an officer.
Albert Amateau
