Police blotter

Cigarette burns

The fire on the night of July 31 when a tenant was found dead in his third floor apartment in the Alfred E. Smith Houses at 180 South St., was caused by a cigarette left burning, according to a fire marshal’s report. The cause of the death of the tenant, Roberto Ayala, 55, whose body was found in the apartment, was still under investigation on Aug. 10, a spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s office said.

Hot 97 fined

Hot 97, the hip hop radio station at 395 Hudson St. agreed on Aug. 8 to pay the maximum fine of $240,000 for promoting an illegal Smackfest contest to settle charges filed by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and State Athletic Commission Chairperson Ron Scott.

The fine is in addition to the commitment of the station, owned by Emmis Communications, to fund “an extensive anti-violence campaign” that includes a $60,000 donation to Safe Horizon, an organization the promotes awareness of domestic violence.

The Smackfest promotion began last year and involved contestants, mostly young women, taking turns violently slapping each other, with winners getting concert tickets and cash prizes of up to $5,000. Videos of the contests were put on the Hot 97 Web site.

The State Athletic Commission, which supervises sports like boxing, charged that the contests were dangerous and violated state law on promoting combative sports.

No Foxy plea

Hip hop artist Foxy Brown, charged with an assault on two attendants at a Chelsea nail salon in August 2004, refused to plead guilty on Fri. Aug. 5 to a misdemeanor third degree assault in return for a sentence of 10 days community service. Her next court date is Sept. 22.

A February, 2001 shoot-out in front of 395 Hudson St., where Hot 97 Radio has its studio, involved the entourages of Brown, 25, whose real name is Inga Marchand, and her rap rival Lil’ Kim. Brown was not present at the station that day and was not charged with any offense at the studio.

— Albert Amateau

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