L.E.S. baby DOA
Police responded to a call shortly before 1 a.m. Sun., on Oct. 10, about a 3-month-old boy having trouble breathing in a 12th-floor apartment at 105 Baruch Drive, in the Baruch Houses in the Seventh Precinct. On arrival, they found the child, Noah Sepulveda, unconscious and unresponsive. An Emergency Medical Service team took the baby to Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Prostitution promoter
Police arrested Cindy Zao, 43, on Saturday night Oct. 2 at 73 Monroe St. and charged her with felony promotion of prostitution. The defendant offered an undercover officer the services of two women for $120 each for a threesome in the building at the corner of Pike St., according to the charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney. Zao’s bail was set at $5,000 pending an Oct. 26 court appearance.
Indict bash suspects
A Manhattan grand jury indictment was unsealed Sun., Oct. 10, naming the two Staten Island men arrested on Oct. 3 and charged with the hate-crime assault and attempted robbery of a gay man in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St. The defendants, Matthew Francis, 21, and Christopher Orlando, 17, told police that the incident was only a bar brawl and not motivated by homophobia. The victim, Ben Carver, 34, a gay visitor from Washington, D.C., told the Daily News that the two defendants had asked if he was gay, called him a faggot, then pinned him down and punched him and demanded money. Francis and Orlando are free on $10,000 bail each pending a Nov. 9 court appearance.
Police pretender
Police arrested Darin Poole, 48, on Thurs., Oct. 7, around 9:30 p.m. at the corner of East Houston and Columbia Sts. and charged him with impersonating a police officer and convincing a victim to give him about $20,000 between March 31 and June 1 of this year. On Oct. 7, Poole, still posing as a cop, told the victim that the district attorney would return the money. When two real police officers closed in to make the arrest, Poole pushed them to the ground and flailed his arms to avoid being handcuffed, according to the complaint filed by the Manhattan D.A. Poole, identified in a New York Post item as having previous felony convictions, was being held in lieu of $35,000 bail pending a court appearance.
Hudson Square fall
A window washer fell from a fourth-floor window at 484 Greenwich St. between Canal and Spring Sts. at 3:43 p.m. Fri., Oct. 8, and was critically injured, police said. The victim, identified by the New York Post as Igor Vnuk, 32, was not wearing a safety harness when he fell. Fellow workers with the cleaning contractor said the victim was sitting on the windowsill leaning backward to clean the window when he fell. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition with severe head injuries.
Sues Standard Hotel
Matthew Moorhouse, 42, an Australian businessman acquitted of trying to rape a maid in the Standard Hotel when she went to clean his room last November, filed a $10 million lawsuit against the hotel in Manhattan State Supreme Court last week, according to a New York Post item. Moorhouse contends the atmosphere of the hotel, which straddles the High Line at Washington and Little W. 12th Sts., was partly responsible for the false charges against him. The hotel has made headlines in the past when some of its guests exposed themselves while naked through its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the High Line below. The Standard declined to respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Took laptops, TV, wine
Police arrested Benjamin Devincenzi, 19, on Sat., Oct. 2, in connection with the burglary of an apartment at 175 Thompson St. between Houston and Bleecker Sts. The resident of the apartment returned from a night out at 1:30 a.m. Saturday to find the place had been entered and four laptops, a TV set, two bottles of wine and a backpack were stolen, according to the D.A.’s complaint. Devincenzi was caught on a surveillance tape leaving with the items, and was arrested later on Saturday. He was being held in lieu of $8,000 bail pending a court appearance.
Took bag, not baby
A Tenafly, N.J., woman, 32, told police she was shopping at H & M clothing boutique, 515 Broadway between Broome and Spring Sts., with her baby in her carriage around 12:40 p.m. Sat., Oct. 9, when her bag was stolen. She turned away to look at some clothes, and when she turned back she spied someone fleeing with her bag, which she had left in the carriage.
River park rape
A 16-year-old girl told police that a man whom she knew raped her in Hudson River Park at West and Morton Sts. around 11 p.m. Fri., Oct. 8. The victim was taken to the hospital where she was treated and released. Police are seeking the man, 25, whom the victim identified as a suspect.
Pedestrian killed by van
A Belleville, N.J., man was struck and killed by a small white delivery van as he was walking across West and Morton Sts. at about 5:18 a.m. Sun., Oct. 10, police said. The Emergency Medical Service team that responded took the victim, Dario V. Digiano, 21, to Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The van, with its front end damaged by the impact, fled southbound on West St., said police, who are seeking the vehicle and its driver.
No-funds card
Police arrested two men on Oct. 2 and charged them with larceny. The suspects presented debit cards with no funds to pay for charges in the Meat Market and Flatiron districts, according to the complaint filed by D.A. Cy Vance Jr. Diandre Wills, 23, was charged with stealing more than $3,000 by paying for bills at the Gansevoort Hotel, at Ninth Ave. and 13th St., and for purchases at the Apple Store on Ninth Ave. at 14th St. with no-funds cards. Terrance Moore, 22, was charged with stealing more than $1,000 for using a no-funds card to pay for charges at the Giraffe Hotel, 365 Park Ave. South, according to the D.A.’s office.
Visitors fleeced
A woman visitor from Spain told police she was in the Starbucks at 471 Broadway between Grand and Broome Sts. around 7 p.m. Sat., Oct. 9, when she put her handbag near her chair while she went for coffee. The bag, along with her cell phone, camera, sunglasses, a dress, Spanish passport, $500 and 100 euros, was gone when she got back.
A visitor from Montreal told police he was shopping in the Old Navy store, 503 Broadway between Broome and Spring Sts., on Sun., Oct. 10, when he put his knapsack on a table near a fitting room around 4 p.m. to try on some clothes. When he returned, the knapsack was still there but an envelope containing $1,300 that was in it was gone.
Albert Amateau
