STATE CAN BOUNCE ESPADA NETWORK FROM MEDICAID: JUDGE
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
A Bron judge on Thursday upheld the Cuomo administration’s decision to dump ex-state Sen. Pedro Espada’s Bronx health care network from the Medicaid program.
The decision could spell the end for Espada’s Soundview Health Care Network because Medicaid bucks account for some 70% of its funding.
QUACK GETS 8 MONTHS FOR FATAL BUTT IMPLANT SURGERY
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN AND KEVIN DEUTSCH (NYDN)
A “cold and calculating” quack Bronx plastic surgeon whose botched butt implants killed a woman was sentenced to three to nine months in prison Monday.
Elsa Then, 58, broke into sobs when Judge Martin Marcus gave her jail time instead of the probation for which her lawyer begged.
He also admonished her for preying on Hispanic women who frequented her flourishing, but illegal, cosmetology practice.
BRONX ACTIVISTS WIN RIGHT TO SEE CITY RECORDS ON SHELTER
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The scales of justice may once again be tipping toward the Bronx, with local activists scoring another court victory against the city Department of Homeless Services.
An appellate division judge has ruled that the agency must cough up records related to the controversial siting of a 38-unit homeless shelter in 2009 on St. Peter’s Ave. in Westchester Square.
FEDS EYE PROJECTS IN BROOKLYN, BRONX FOR LABOR ABUSES
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Illegal labor is the foundation of the city’s affordable housing industry, construction workers and union leaders claim.
Mayor Bloomberg has vowed to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2015. But Hizzoner’s push is coming under scrutiny, with a top contractor headed to trial for wage infractions at an East Harlem project and a housing agency bigwig arrested Oct. 6 for corruption.
Now the U.S. Labor Department and the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development are probing underpayment and kickbacks at affordable housing projects in the Bronx and Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned. At the Bronx site - 780 Prospect Ave. - workers are due $575,000.
DISABLED MAN WINS CASE AGAINST CO-OP CITY FOR ACCESS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
A handicapped Bronx man has defeated Co-op City management in court for the second time in less than a year.
“I feel vindicated,” John Rose said yesterday, vowing to continue his case to the Supreme Court if management takes it that far. “Disabled people have the right to be treated equally.”
Rose notched the legal victory last month when a Bronx judge cited Co-op City for discrimination and ordered the sprawling complex to make the front doors of Rose’s high-rise building wheelchair accessible.
FAMILY CLAIMS CEMETERY LOST GRANDMA’S ASHES, THEN LIED
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
A local grandmother went from ashes to ashes - to lost.
Elisabeth Delfini’s ashes are missing from her memorial niche at a Bronx cemetery and her devastated son plans to sue.
He believes Woodlawn Cemetery has misplaced the ashes. But Woodlawn says Delfini’s remains were stolen sometime after her February funeral.
BRONX REV ARRESTED FOR COLLECTING DEAD TEACHER’S PENSION
BY BEN CHAPMAN, DANIEL BEEKMAN AND CHRISTINA BOYLE (NYDN)
A Bronx pastor has been busted for pocketing nearly $250,000 in pension payments intended for a dead public school teacher, officials said.
The Rev. Victor Rosa, 72, is accused by federal prosecutors of cashing the monthly payments for more than a decade after his tenant Maria Sicardo passed away in 2000.
FEDS SUE OVER ALLEGED RACISM AT RIVERDALE COMPLEX
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
The feds filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday against the landlord, management company and superintendent of a Riverdale building for allegedly turning away African-American apartment seekers.
The operators of 3800 Independence Ave. have discriminated against black people since at least 2009, using tactics that recall the racist America of yesteryear, according to the lawsuit filed by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bhahara.
The suit charges Loventhal Silver Riverdale LLC, Goodman Management Co. and superintendent Jesus Velasco with violating the Fair Housing Act by offering apartments to whites but not African-Americans.
SYRACUSE TEEN GETS 2-6 YEARS FOR 7 CENTS ROBBERY
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN AND PHILIP CAULFIELD (NYDN)
A Syracuse teen is going away for up to six years as a convicted felon for a mugging that netted him just seven cents - or about a year per penny he stole. Anthony Stewart, 15, was convicted of punching 73-year-old Eugene DeGroat in the face last December while an accomplice kicked the old man in the head.
NEW STATE LAW WOULD BAIL OUT BRONX DEFENDANTS
BY DANIEL BEEKMAN (NYDN)
Thousands of Bronxites do hard time at Rikers Island because they can’t afford to post bail.
But new legislation headed to Gov. Cuomo’s desk could set them free.
