MANHATTAN

POLICE OFFICER CHARGED WITH RAPING HIS DAUGHTERS A veteran police officer was arrested and charged yesterday with raping and sexually abusing two of his daughters when they were as young as 11 years old, the authorities said.

The police officer, whose identity was not released because his name could also reveal the identity of the victims, was arrested after both daughters – one now age 20, and one is still a minor – recently came forward with details of the alleged sexual abuses, authorities said.

The officer, who was assigned to the Manhattan Traffic Task Force and first joined the police department in 1995, has been suspended without pay. He is charged with rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child.

The alleged sexual abuse first started nine years ago when his oldest daughter was 11, authorities said. After she got older, the officer allegedly began propositioning his younger daughter for sex. An attorney for the officer could not be reached yesterday.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

DEAD PREGNANT WOMAN FOUND OFF CHELSEA PIERS WAS SHOT IN HEAD

A woman near full-term pregnancy found floating in the Hudson River Sunday was shot execution-style in the head with a single bullet, police said yesterday.

Crew members of a ship passing by Chelsea Piers late Sunday afternoon spotted the floating body of Lisa Eatmon, 33, of Brooklyn, whom police said was approximately eight months pregnant. Emergency workers and paramedics rushed the corpse to a nearby hospital in an effort to recover the baby. The effort was unsuccessful.

An autopsy conducted by the medical examiner yesterday revealed a bullet wound in Eatmon’s head.

As part of the murder investigation, police are looking to question a city sanitation worker whom family members said was recently intimate with Eatmon. The sanitation worker, Roscoe Glinton, was considered a suspect in an unsolved murder case after his wife, Deborah Glinton, a mother of three and city dental hygienist, went missing in 1998. Her skeletal remains were discovered four years later by a hunter in the bottom of an embankment alongside the New York State Thruway.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CITYWIDE

VALLONE TARGETS UNRULY SPORTS FANS WHO THROW OBJECTS

City Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. has proposed a law that would increase penalties for fans that throw objects on the playing field or court during a sporting event. Under the proposal, fans who violate the rule could go to jail for up to a year and pay fines of up to $25,000.

Mr. Vallone, who represents parts of Queens, said the law would build on the one passed last year, which creates penalties for fans that run onto the field. Representatives from the Queens district attorney’s office who have prosecuted or settled with three individuals under the original law testified in favor of the new measure. Representatives from the United States Tennis Association and the New York Mets also threw their weight behind Mr. Vallone’s bill. “This is of grave concern to players, umpires, and coaches,” said the vice president of security for the Mets, Robert Kasdon. The bill, he said, would be a “useful tool” to protect employees and fans.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAYOR AND UNIONS AGREE ON DRUG BENEFITS

Mayor Bloomberg and the Municipal Labor Union announced a settlement yesterday that will preserve certain prescription drug benefits for more than 500,000 city employees.

The agreement averts a potential disaster that could have ended with the program going belly-up. The negotiated deal makes certain changes in July, when a union funding of a health plan will start providing asthma medications and psychotropic drugs. Co-payments on chemotherapy and injectable medications will increase slightly, and the city will have to kick in roughly $50 million.

The deal was announced by Mr. Bloomberg and the chairwoman of the coalition of unions, Randi Weingarten, the president of the teachers union. Over recent months, Ms. Weingarten and the mayor have been at an impasse over the teachers’ labor contract. Yesterday’s announcement seemed to indicate that the mayor was extending an olive branch during an election year when union support for his campaign is going to be crucial. But Ms. Weingarten said her union’s contract was a separate issue.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

ORGANIZED-CRIME TAVERN GAMBLING RING DISMANTLED

After a 15-month investigation, a multimillion dollar Queens gambling operation run by both the Bonnano and Genovese crime families was dismantled with the arrest of 17 individuals yesterday, police said.

Using at least three Queens bars, the notorious mobsters had stationed “runners” who took bets on horse races and high-profile sports games ranging from $100 to $5,000. On a busy day, the ring could book up to $30,000, according to the indictment unsealed in Queens federal court yesterday. Police estimated that the operation had processed approximately $12.5 million during the course of their investigation alone, which the runners funneled into a Costa Rica-based Web site in an effort to avoid detection.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

LAZIO LUNCHES WITH STATE GOP CHIEF

Rick Lazio, the former Republican congressman from Long Island who lost a 2000 Senate race to Hillary Rodham Clinton, may be thinking about a return to elected office. Mr. Lazio had lunch yesterday with state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik and the state party’s executive director, Ryan Moses. Mr. Moses, who helped run Mr. Lazio’s unsuccessful Senate campaign, wouldn’t say much about the meeting other than that Mr. Lazio “wanted to talk about the political landscape.” Mr. Moses also added: “Rick has a future with the party. He’s one of the names you hear people talk about.”

Sources said Mr. Lazio, a Wall Street lobbyist, might be interested in running for state attorney general next year.

– Associated Press