MANHATTAN

CONDUCTOR ARRESTED BACKSTAGE AT OPERA

After the curtain closed to applause on his production of “La Boheme,” a New York Metropolitan Opera conductor, Daniel Oren, walked backstage last night only to be cuffed by NYPD detectives serving a family court warrant. Mr. Oren, an Israeli who resides in Italy, was arrested for failing to make child support payments, police said. He was cuffed only minutes after his on-stage appearance and taken to the 20th Precinct to await processing. Mr. Oren is a well-known conductor who regularly performs at some of the best-known opera houses around the world, such as Covent Garden in London and the Vienna State Opera. Mr. Oren is scheduled to appear before a family court judge this morning, police said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

PROSECUTORS TRY FOR DISMISSAL OF TIMES PHONE RECORDS SUIT

Federal prosecutors yesterday moved to dismiss a New York Times lawsuit seeking to protect reporters’ phone records sought in a grand jury probe. United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago said the records are needed to determine if government employees leaked sensitive information to Times reporters Philip Shenon and Judith Miller about ongoing terrorism fundraising investigations. Prosecutors accuse the reporters of informing two charities suspected of terrorism fund-raising about law enforcement plans to freeze and block the charities’ assets. The Times denies the charges and filed a lawsuit last month in federal court in Manhattan to block prosecutors from obtaining the records. In yesterday’s court filing, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s office said a judge overseeing the grand jury investigation in Illinois should decide the case. Prosecutors accused the Times of “circumventing” federal criminal procedure and seeking “an inappropriate tactical advantage” by filing their lawsuit in New York. Prosecutors also said that the phone records are not protected. “The extraordinary relief sought by the plaintiff,” prosecutors wrote, would “interfere with and impede the grand jury’s investigation.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

FUNDING SET FOR COUNSELING CHILDREN OF VIOLENT HOMES

The City Council announced $1 million in funding yesterday to help four organizations provide counseling to children who have witnessed domestic violence at home. The money, which was put aside in June, will go to two Manhattan-based agencies, one organization in Brooklyn, and one in the Bronx at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It will go toward expanding services for children 5 or younger. The allotment comes just two days after the state Court of Appeals ruled that social workers cannot take custody of children simply if the children have witnessed violence. Council Speaker Gifford Miller, Council Member Margarita Lopez, and activists commended the ruling yesterday and criticized the city, which they said was taking children away from their mothers without evaluating all the facts. The activists said they were opposed to the city automatically removing children as a matter of policy. City officials said each case is reviewed before a removal decision is made.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICEMAN WHO REFUSED TO OBEY ORDER PUT ON PROBATION

A police officer who refused to arrest a homeless man in 2002 was put on probation yesterday for one year for disobeying an order. Lawyers for Officer Eduardo Delacruz said he also was given a 30-day suspension without pay, a penalty he’s already served. Officer Delacruz, 39, drew support from homeless advocates who portrayed him as a conscientious objector to a crackdown on the city’s dispossessed. The officer, who had a clean disciplinary record, suggested his religious beliefs played a role in his refusal of a sergeant’s order to arrest a homeless man who was sleeping in a Manhattan parking garage. “God is in control,” the 10-year veteran said during a recent police department hearing when asked what he was thinking at the time. Officer Delacruz could have been fired. But his police union lawyers argued that even giving him probation was unduly harsh. Though disappointed with the decision, Officer Delacruz was “happy he can continue his career as a police officer,” attorney Greg Longworth said. Police officials had no immediate comment. Officer Delacruz’s lawyers accused his supervisors in a homeless outreach unit of trying to impose an illegal one-arrest-per-week quota. When he resisted, the bosses sought to “single him out for punishment and force him out of the unit,” defense papers said. The officer never “acted dogmatically,” the papers said. “He simply on one occasion failed to arrest a homeless man when he felt he was being set up by his superiors.” In a written decision finding Officer Delacruz guilty, a department judge found that “by deciding which orders he would obey, the (officer) is treading on a slippery slope that would undermine the leadership and viability of the department, if unchecked.”

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

INSURANCE BROKER CONVICTED IN HITMAN HIRE CASE

A Brooklyn jury yesterday convicted a 68-year-old insurance broker of attempted extortion in connection with a failed plot to hire a thug to scare a former business partner. The federal jury, which convicted Martin Cohen after deliberating for three hours, had listened to a tape in which Cohen discussed harming an associate of his partner with a hitman. The hitman turned out to be an undercover police officer. On the tape, Cohen says he wanted to give the associate a “couple of shots” and send him to the hospital in order to scare his partner. He and his partner were locked in a long and bitter dispute over money. Cohen testified that he had never wanted to kill his partner and blamed an FBI cooperator, Harold Odzer, for pressuring him into hiring the thug. A previous federal trial on the same charge had ended in a deadlock. Cohen remains free on bail and awaits sentencing on January 12. “We’re sorely disappointed,” defense lawyer Michael Washor said after the jury delivered the guilty verdict.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN CAR, INFANT ALIVE IN BACK SEAT

A 911 call led police and firefighters to a parked Toyota in Queens yesterday, where they found a woman dead in the front seat, and her infant daughter strapped into a car seat in the back, police said. Firefighters and EMS workers broke into the car after the 911 caller told them that a woman was sitting passed out or dead, locked in her dark grey Toyota, which was parked near the intersection of Cresskill Place and 95th Avenue in Jamaica. The 1-year-old baby was alive and conscious in the back seat, and was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital’s pediatric ward for treatment for severe dehydration, police said. The victim, 32-year-old Queens resident Cesarina Colon, was found with a gash above her right eye and her jacket pulled up over her head, according to law enforcement sources. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The medical examiner’s office had yet to determine the cause of death yesterday. Police said they have made no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing.

– Special to the Sun

BRONX

TWO CHARGED IN ASSAULT OF COURT OFFICER

Two Bronx men were charged yesterday in the assault of an off-duty court officer last April after a six-month joint investigation into the fight by the NYPD and Bronx District Attorney’s Office. During the fight, the off-duty officer drew his gun and fired on his assailants. Barry McManus, 17, and Ezekiel Cruz, 19, both of the Bronx, were charged with assault in the third degree. The grand jury declined to charge Ranji Singh, the housing court officer, for firing his weapon at the two men as they attacked him. The assault occurred on April 22 in Castle Hill, when Mr. Singh got into an argument with the defendants, who were setting off fireworks while he was going to pick his children up from an after-school program. According to the DA’s office, Mr. McManus and Mr. Cruz began to punch and kick Mr. Singh as he tried to get into his car and leave. Mr. Singh then drew his gun, and shot Mr. McManus twice. He then drove directly to the nearest police precinct to report the incident. No arrests were made until the charges were filed by the grand jury. If convicted of the misdemeanor assault charges, the defendants face a jail term of up to one year.

– Special to the Sun