New York Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BROOKLYN
MAN CHARGED WITH LYING TO FBI ABOUT BRIDGE BOMBING PLOT
A 32-year-old Pakistani man who sought asylum in America has been charged with lying to the FBI about a supposed plot to blow up the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Prosecutors say that Tanveer Choudhry told the FBI on October 1 that a customer he knew from a Brooklyn gas station had discussed hijacking two gasoline trucks. Mr. Choudhry told the FBI that the customer said he and other “brothers” wanted to “burn the bridge” and “kill the Jews” and offered Mr. Choudhry $5,000 to join the plot. But on a lie-detector test taken October 5, Mr. Choudhry acknowledged the plot was a hoax, prosecutors said. Mr. Choudhry reportedly had wanted to win authorities’ support for his asylum application. He is being charged in Brooklyn federal court with making a false statement.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
LONG ISLAND
ACCUSED KILLER’S SISTER TESTIFIES AGAINST HIM
RIVERHEAD – A Long Island man on trial for allegedly beating an East Hampton millionaire to death retrieved an unidentified item from his sister’s attic around the time of the killing, and she felt “something hard” inside his leather jacket when they hugged goodbye, the woman testified yesterday. Barbara Lukert was the second member of Daniel Pelosi’s immediate family to testify for the prosecution at his murder trial. Mr. Pelosi, 41, is charged with murder in the death of Theodore Ammon, a Manhattan investment banker and chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Ammon was struck more than 30 times on the head in his mansion on the weekend of October 20-21, 2001; a time of death has yet to be revealed in the three-week-old trial. Ammon, 52, had been within days of finalizing a bitter divorce with his wife, Generosa Ammon. Prosecutors argue that Mr. Pelosi, who was having an affair with Ammon’s wife, killed the banker because he was upset over her share of a $46 million divorce settlement. Mr. Pelosi married Generosa Ammon three months after the killing, but they later split. She died of cancer last year.
– Associated Press
POLICE BLOTTER
CATHOLIC SCHOOL ROBBED OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
A Roman Catholic school at the Kensington section of Brooklyn was robbed yesterday by a gun-toting suspect who made off with thousand of dollars, police said. At 10:40 a.m., a man in his 20s entered the office of the Holy Innocents School at 249 E. 17th St. and robbed a 68-year-old secretary at gunpoint, according to police. The secretary suffered a minor injury during the course of the robbery, and the suspect fled the scene with $4,200. An attempted robbery occurred at the school on October 15, probably by the same suspect, according to a police source. There was no arrest and the investigation is ongoing. Phone messages to the school yesterday afternoon were not returned.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
DNA LEADS POLICE TO SUSPECT IN 3-YEAR-OLD CASE
DNA evidence taken from drugs at a Brooklyn murder scene led investigators to a convict who allegedly beat a woman to death at her apartment three years ago, police said. Bernard Stoney, 42, of Brooklyn, was arrested yesterday and charged with second-degree murder in the killing of fellow drug user Sonia Jackson, 38, police said. Stoney, who was released in 1999 after serving nearly five years at Kings County for attempted robbery, is accused of murdering Jackson at 648 Grand St. at Greenpoint, police said. Jackson was killed by blunt trauma to the head, and police officers discovered her body at 7:19 a.m. on August 26, 2001. Stoney and Jackson were using drugs together prior to the murder, and investigators used DNA evidence from paraphernalia to finger Stoney as the killer, according to a police source.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
POLICE MAKE ARREST IN NIGHTCLUB KILLING
Police arrested a convict yesterday who allegedly killed a woman who intervened in a dispute at a Brooklyn after-hours club on Halloween. James Bonafede, 27, of Staten Island, was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly shooting Susan Boyce, 40, of Brooklyn, several times in the head, police said. Bonafede, who was paroled in 1997 after serving less than a year at Richmond County for attempted grand larceny auto, was arguing with a woman at 6:48 a.m., October 31 at an illegal club at 1739 W. 7th St. at Bensonhurst. Boyce intervened in the dispute and was shot in the head, allegedly by Bonafede, police said. Boyce was taken by EMS to Coney Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
TEENAGE GIRL TAKEN FROM BRONX STREET AND SEXUALLY ASSAULTED
A teenaged girl was grabbed off a South Bronx street on Tuesday and sexually assaulted by a prowler who remains at large, police said. The 15-year-old girl told police she was walking home from church at 11 p.m. when a man in a dark-colored car drove up to her, displayed a silver handgun, and ordered her into the vehicle, police said. The prowler drove the girl to an undisclosed location, where he sodomized her and then attempted to rape her, police said. He then dropped her off and drove away. The girl was evaluated at an area hospital. The suspect was described as a 5-foot-11 black man between 20 and 30 years old, police said. There were no arrests and the investigation continues.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
MAN ACCUSED OF RAPING WOMAN AFTER ENTERING THROUGH WINDOW
Police arrested a prowler accused of crawling through a woman’s window and raping her Tuesday morning at Flushing, Queens. Richard Brown, 26, was arrested at 2 p.m. yesterday and charged with first-degree rape and burglary, police said. Mr. Brown, who has no prior criminal history, allegedly climbed into the 38-year-old woman’s apartment via her fire escape and raped her at 4:30 a.m., according to police. Mr. Brown then fled the scene and the woman was treated at an area hospital.
– Staff Reporter of the Sun
MANHATTAN
DIAMOND STORE OPENS AT TIME WARNER CENTER
If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, sometimes that friendship can turn into an obsession. A self-described diamond “zealot,” Hillary Beckman, chief operating officer of the store Lockes Diamantaires, said her friendship with rocks began early: She recalled doing book reports on diamonds as a child.
Now, she said, she is eager to pass her enthusiasm and eye on to the consumer. The store opens today in the Time Warner Center. Lockes Diamantaires is the only retail store on the fourth floor of the Shops at Columbus Circle, a level it shares with Jazz at Lincoln Center and four restaurants. Designed to look like a life-size jewelry box, the store features rich, dark wood walls with panels hand-dusted with diamonds, and quilted-fabric ceilings.
Lockes is open until 11 nightly and Ms. Beckman plans to occasionally offer champagne and appetizers to potential customers.
– Special to the Sun