Volume 18, Number 3 | JUNE10 -16, 2005
Police blotter
Russell Crowe arrest
Russell Crowe, 41, the Australian star in town to promote his latest film “Cinderella Man” about the former heavyweight champion James Braddock, was arrested at 4:21 a.m. Mon. June 6 in the Mercer Hotel in Soho after throwing a telephone at a desk clerk, police said.
The clerk, Nestor Estrada, 28 of Greenpoint, sustained a welt over his eye that did not require stitches, police said.
Police who were called by management to the hotel at 99 Prince St. found Crowe waiting for them in his $3,000-a-night suite and described him as calm and co-operative. He acknowledged throwing the phone, which he had brought down to the lobby because he was unable to use it call his wife, Danielle Spencer, in Australia, police said.
By the time he was taken to the First Precinct lock-up at 5:20 a.m., a horde of reporters and photographers had gathered at the Tribeca station where his lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, failed to get him released with a desk appearance ticket.
Lefcourt told reporters that Crowe didn’t mean to hit Estrada, but only wanted to get a phone that worked. Police agreed to expedite his processing and took him to Criminal Court at 11:20 a.m. where he was charged with second degree assault and possession of a weapon (the phone). He was released on his own recognizance pending a Sept. 14 arraignment date.
Manhole covers blow
A fire in Con Edison cables under Clinton and Delancey Sts. between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Sat. June 4 blew three manhole covers into the air and slightly injured a Con Edison worker.
High concentrations of carbon monoxide caused the Fire Department to order the evacuation of a restaurant at 50 Clinton St. between 8 and 9 p.m., according to Con Ed. The worker was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital where he was treated and released, said Chris Olert, Con Edison spokesperson.
Two of the manhole covers blew up on Clinton between Stanton and Rivington Sts., and another, in front of 167 Rivington St., “shattered like shrapnel,” according to Clayton Patterson, an Essex St. gallery owner and photographer.
Police closed Clinton St. between Delancey and Stanton Sts. and Rivington St. between Allen and Suffolk Sts. for several hours. However, there was no power outage, Olert said.
Assault charge on Wall
A man, 46, was walking on Wall St. at about 1:30 p.m. on Thurs. May 26 when a stranger attacked him from behind and knocked him to the sidewalk and started to beat his head against the ground, police said. The suspect Jeremy Attali was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. The victim said the attack was unprovoked.
Essex St. robbers
Two men entered a video store at 119 Essex St. between Delancey and Rivington Sts. at 2:30 a.m. May 16, tied up two employees and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. One of the robbers was described as a black man between 25 and 30, six feet tall, weighing 240 pounds wearing a dark jeans suit, white T-shirt and black doo-rag. The other was described as a Hispanic man between 20 and 25, six feet tall, weighing 170 pounds and wearing a blue Yankees baseball cap and a gray Yankees Jersey.
Body found
The police harbor unit pulled the body of an unidentified man from the East River near Pier 11 at the foot of Wall St. at about 6:45 a.m. on Wed. June 1, police said. The medical examiner’s office is investigating the cause of death.
—Albert Amateau
WWW Downtown Express
