Two Brooklyn nail salon workers who pummeled a customer with brooms in a viral video had assault charges against them dismissed at trial – and a defense attorney says they were victims of a mob mentality fueled by elected officials.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called Saturday for all New York supermarkets to offer express lane treatment for those heroic New Yorkers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Suspect Donte West, 28, broke into a side door of the shoe store on Pitkin Ave. near Bristol St. in Brownsville about 8:45 a.m. Saturday and loaded up a Chevy Trailblazer with more than three dozen pairs of sneakers and nearly 40 baseball caps as cops arrived, police said.

A 39-year-old man was shot in the stomach on Rockaway Parkway near Winthrop St. in Brownsville around 3:20 a.m., according to authorities. Three other men, in their 30s and 40s, were shot in the legs.

The funeral was held for Rav Yosef Kalish, 63, an Amshinover rebbe who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last week and died Sunday morning, The Associated Press reported.

The last thing Jorge Cruz ever did was ask for a cup of hot tea. By the time it was cool enough for a sip, he was dead -- apparently from coronavirus.

Wilfredo Cervantes, 52, an artist and poet from Puerto Rico, was found dead inside his second-floor apartment on Jefferson Ave. near Ralph Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Wednesday evening.

Inmates were coughing and sneezing, and guards wore no personal protective equipment, said Hassan Chunn, 46, who fears the disease is spreading through the Metropolitan Detention Center.

The crook first targeted Grace Baptist Church on New Jersey Ave. near Liberty Ave. in East New York around 8 p.m. March 31, cops said. He forced open a side door and made off with a wad of cash.

Outraged community leaders joined staffers Tuesday outside the Linden Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, where demonstrators complained as many as 10 bodies were stored in an unrefrigerated fourth floor dementia unit where the dead reside among the living — and ailing residents are reportedly free to wander.

Gina Torres, radiologic technologist at Wyckoff Heights Hospital in Brooklyn, knows the amount of stress waiting inside as coronavirus patients pour in day after day.

An 83-year-old man was punched and had a gun put to his head by two masked men in Brooklyn, according to video released by police.

Roberto Correa, born and raised in Brooklyn, looms in his Sunset Park neighborhood as a prominent and popular figure: He owns The Booth NYC, a local clothing store/recording studio, and is a well-known local activist.

When Deirdre Von Dornum and the others arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal Bureau of Prisons staffer wearing no gloves or mask greeted them in the lobby, according to the email.

The fourth-year DA told the Daily News in an interview that his focus has shifted dramatically during the crisis, as trials and grand juries have been put on hold across the state.

Martin Greenfield Clothiers, creator of Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” suit and tailor to the well-dressed from President Obama to Mayor Bloomberg, is taking on coronavirus. The venerable custom suit maker teamed with its union workers to start producing protective face masks, with local community groups first on their list of beneficiaries.

The mayhem began when the assailant went berzerk inside an apartment building on Dorchester Road and East 21 St. in Flatbush about 10:50 p.m. Saturday, punching and kicking two men before stabbing one multiple times, police said.

NYC Mayor de Blasio denounced storing bodies in unrefrigerated and unmanned U-Haul trucks outside of Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home on Utica Ave. and Ave. M in Flatlands

The scene on 43rd St. between 13th Ave. and 14th Ave. unfolded at about 4 p.m. Thursday as mourners flouted social distancing norms to attend what was supposed to be a private funeral at the home of Rabbi Cheskel Wagshel, 95, said a family friend.

Antonio Rivera, accused of getting high in East New York amidst a group of people ignoring the city’s pandemic policies, was sent tumbling to the street when he came at one of the NYPD cops making arrests. The video shows police placing Rivera in handcuffs as he was lying on the ground behind their car.

The plaintiff, a former high school cheerleader identified only by the pseudonym “Mary Coe,” was in her first year at the school when defendant William Martire allegedly initially forced her to perform oral sex on him in the early 1980s, according to a horrifying 18-page Brooklyn Supreme Court filing.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams wants to start serving non-dairy alternatives to city kids as part of a pilot program, he wrote in a January letter to schools Chancellor Richard Carranza.

A Brooklyn middle school took a novel approach to remote learning: A computer drop-off service to students.

Sigrid Nunez, 69, authored the National Book Award-winning novel “The Friend," which depicts a woman’s grief over the death of a close friend as she cares for his dog. She’s among 175 recipients of this year’s grants, which aim to give awardees the financial freedom to pursue their creative work.

Red Hook Container Terminal and Fifth Avenue Committee teamed up to donate tens of thousands of pieces of fruit to local families.

Rondell Russell, 22, was taken into custody soon after he shot 48-year-old Otis Adams during a confrontation at Russell’s building on Powell St. near Pitkin Ave. in Brownsville, part of NYCHA’s Seth Low Houses, about 10:10 p.m. Thursday.

Nearly all of the assaults occurred on Thursday along the border of South Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant between 9:55 and 11:15 a.m., cops said.

The Amateur Traveler talks to Andrew Hickey of TheBrooklynNomad.com about his home town. Andrew gives us reasons to visit this borough of New York City next time we are in town from some of the neighborhoods like DUMBO, Williamsburg, GreenPoint, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bay Ridge to Prospect Park and Coney Island. The second largest of the New York Boroughs offers good pizza and Italian food for sure, but Andrew will also direct us to a local chocolatier, coffee houses, ice cream parlors and of course Nathan’s Famous hotdogs. Along the way we will visit the Brooklyn Museum, mention where the American War of Independence nearly ended (badly) and ride the classic Coney Island Cyclone.

Hear about travel to the borough of Brooklyn in New York City as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jessica Festa from jessieonajourney.com who used to live in the city and still leads tours there.

Source: www.brooklynpaper.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
The owner of the iconic Park Slope events venue Grand Prospect Hall, Michael Halkias, died from COVID-19 on Wednesday. He was 82. Halkias’ death sent shockwaves throughout Brooklyn, where community leaders and friends remember him as a passionate, generous figure. “ He was a Brooklyn character for sure in the best sort of way,” said Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “He was larger than life.” Halkias and his wife Alice bought Grand Prospect Hall in 1984 and turned the extravagant Prospect Avenue building into an opulent catering hall. The space became a New York icon because of the its long-running, popular commercials, where Alice Halkias declares in a Greek accent, “We make your dreams come true!” Saturday Night Live spoofed the famous commercial in February of 2019, and the pair appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in October to remake the ad with Mets player Pete Alonso. Grand Prospect Hall, a Victorian banquet hall built in 1892, attracted big names such as dancer Fred Astaire and mafioso Al Capone during its heyday in the early 20th century — and boasted some of the borough’s oldest treasures, such as Brooklyn’s first reported elevator, which functions to this day. But by the 1980s, the landmarked building had fallen into disrepair: its walls had been painted black, molding had been stripped off the walls, and the chandeliers were gone, Halkias told Brooklyn Paper in 2004. The couple spent 20 yea

The new season of the hit cop sitcom will deal with 'how [the characters] have been affected by the virus and the pandemic as first responders in New York City'

Thanks to Zoom, 50 of their friends were able to attend.

Odell Folks, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was sentenced to prison today by District Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the Eastern District of New York for his participation in a false tax return scheme. Folks, who pleaded guilty in March 2009 to mail fraud, a false claims conspiracy, and making and subscribing a false return, was sentenced to 77 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $489,292.

Thirty people have been charged in three cities for their alleged roles in schemes to submit more than $61 million in false Medicare claims as part of the continuing operation of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force.

Solstice executive Dmitry Shteyman, 35, and Solstice employees Aleksey Shteyman, 41; Maxsim Shvedkin, 38; and Sara Kalantarov, 22, were each charged in an indictment unsealed today in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York, with conspiracy to defraud the United States, to submit and cause the submission of false claims and to pay health care kickbacks.

Boris Sachakov, M.D., was arrested today in Brooklyn, N.Y., and charged in connection with a scheme to defraud Medicare and numerous other health care benefit programs of at least $3.5 million.

Brooklyn-area resident Yefim Drakhler pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for his participation in a Medicare fraud scheme operated out of the Solstice Wellness Center, a Brooklyn-area clinic purportedly providing physical therapy and various diagnostic services.

The owners and operators of a Brooklyn-area durable medical equipment (DME) company pleaded guilty yesterday to defrauding the Medicare program, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS).

A Brooklyn physical therapist pleaded guilty today for his role in submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for physical therapy services that were medically unnecessary and never provided.

Three employees of the Solstice Wellness Center, a Brooklyn-area clinic that purported to specialize in providing physical therapy and various diagnostic tests, have pleaded guilty in connection with a $3.4 million Medicare fraud scheme.

Leonard Langman, M.D., a neurologist who owned and operated a Brooklyn, N.Y., medical clinic pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare; the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs; the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board; the New York State Insurance Fund and various private health insurance carriers, announced the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.

Two defendants who co-owned and operated two Brooklyn,N.Y.,-area pharmacies were arrested today on health care fraud charges for their alleged participation in a scheme to defraud Medicare Part D that resulted in more than $3 million in fraudulent billings, announced the Department of Justice, FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Office of Inspector General (OIG).

Shaoxiong Zhou and Shaoxia Huang, both of Shantou, Guangdong, China, have pleaded guilty to trafficking in counterfeit perfume.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in managing a credit card fraud operation that operated throughout the East Coast of the United States.

The United States has filed a lawsuit against Annie P. Williams to bar her from preparing federal tax returns for others.

Twelve individuals, including three medical doctors, a doctor of osteopathy and a chiropractor, were charged today in the Eastern District of New York for their roles in separate health care fraud schemes that resulted in the submission of more than $95 million in false claims to the Medicare program.

Shaoxiong Zhou, 42, of Shantou, Guangdong, China, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sandra L. Townes in the Eastern District of New York. Judge Townes also ordered Zhou to pay $20,000 in restitution.

A federal court has permanently barred Annie P. Williams, the former proprietor of PPH Tax & Realty Inc. in Brooklyn, N.Y., from preparing federal tax returns for others and from having any ownership or financial interest in any tax preparation business, the Justice Department announced today.

Seven individuals and four check cashing businesses were charged today in the Eastern District of New York and the Central District of California for their alleged roles in separate schemes to violate the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA).

A Brooklyn board-certified colorectal surgeon, who owned and operated a New York medical clinic, was convicted for his role in a fraud scheme that billed Medicare and numerous private insurance companies for surgeries and other complex medical procedures that were never performed.