Jane New Year’s assault
Police arrested the man who they believe bashed his girlfriend around inside their room at the Jane Hotel early on Jan. 1.
The victim, 22, told cops that her boyfriend, Steven Fortier, 28, had already attacked her on New Year’s Eve by throwing her against a wall, and said that he then entered the fifth-floor room of the landmarked hotel around 2 a.m. and began attacking her once again. Fortier allegedly punched the woman repeatedly in the head and arms, and, when she tried to escape, began choking her and forcing her to the ground. The woman told cops she made one last-ditch effort to open the door and crawl away, but Fortier pulled her back in by her legs.
However, by that point a 60-year-old bellhop heard the struggle and came to the woman’s aid, according to the police report. Hotel security guards were then able to respond, and they restrained Fortier until officers could arrive. Fortier was charged with assault. His girlfriend didn’t suffer any serious injuries, according to the report.
East Side sex attacker
Police are still hunting for the man who tried to sexually assault a 42-year-old woman as she jogged through East River Park at midday on Dec. 27.
The suspect targeted the woman around 11:30 a.m., while she was running near Houston St., and snuck up from behind, tossed her to the ground and began pulling off her pants, police said. The woman, however, fought back and escaped.
Police later released a sketch of the suspect, pictured above, whom they described as a 17-to-25-year-old man last seen wearing a gray hoodie and green sweatpants.
W. Ninth weapons bust
A Greenwich Village couple was busted on Dec. 29 for storing guns and a chemical substance used for making bombs in their apartment, and now stand accused of intending to use the weapons in a future attack.
Morgan Gliedman, 27, and Aaron Greene, 31, were arrested after police raided their apartment at 8 W. Ninth St. around 6 p.m., finding seven grams of highly explosive H.M.T.D. powder and two shotguns, according to the police report. Officers also found a stack of papers titled “The Terrorist Encyclopedia,” according the Manhattan Criminal Court complaint.
The complaint further alleges that the pair planned to use the bomb materials and firearms against either a person or property.
The Daily News reported that neighbors had originally called police in late November after spotting the weapons stash, but cops were not able to make their move until a month later, when they secured a Manhattan Criminal Court search warrant.
The events of Gliedman and Greene’s case are eerily similar — but, fortunately, not identical — to those that took place just two blocks away in 1970, when a bomb made by the radical group the Weather Underground accidentally exploded. That weapon was being constructed in the basement of 18 W. 11th St., and its untimely detonation completely destroyed the townhouse and killed three Weather Underground members. Actor Dustin Hoffman and his wife, who lived next door and were at home at the time of the explosion, escaped unharmed.
Bleecker St. D.W.I.
Police booked a drunk driver who was speeding through the West Village early on Dec. 29, saying that his blood alcohol content was nearly twice the legal limit at the time of the arrest.
Miguel Ortiz, 36, was pulled over around 3:30 a.m. near the corner of Bleecker and W. 10th Sts., according to police, after he blew through two red lights while traveling southbound on Bleecker St. Officers said that when they approached his vehicle, Ortiz had a flushed face, watery eyes, slurred speech and smelled of alcohol. A Breathalyzer test immediately after that revealed that his blood alcohol content was .153. The legal limit for driving is .08.
Ortiz was charged with D.W.I.
Taxi attack
After a cab driver caught him trying to run away from a ride without paying, police arrested John Doe, 26, for allegedly attacking the driver early on Jan. 1.
The cabbie, 53, told cops that he picked up Doe at Allen and Delancey Sts. around 1 a.m., and that he asked to be taken to Times Square. But he then apparently asked to be let out at the corner of Sullivan and W. Houston Sts. — and when the driver obliged, Doe started to flee the scene, heedless of his $7 fare. According to a vague line in the police report, however, the driver was, with “great difficulty,” able to force his rider to hand over the cash.
But when the hack then turned to walk back to his vehicle, Doe blocked his path and punched him in the face multiple times, police said. After officers responded to the action, Doe was charged with assault, and the driver was treated for minor cuts but wasn’t hospitalized.
Sam Spokony
