QUEENS

SPORTS GAMBLING RING ALLEGEDLY TIED TO BONANNO FAMILY

Members of a gambling operation that handled $360 million in wagers in two years and allegedly had ties to the Bonanno organized crime family have been indicted for booking bets from an office in Queens to an offshore company in Costa Rica, Richard Brown, the Queens district attorney, said yesterday.

A 39-count enterprise corruption indictment filed in Queens County Supreme Court charges that the mob-run gambling ring operated wire rooms in Kew Gardens, Flushing, and in Costa Rica that handled wagers averaging $250 each and generated gross revenues of nearly $500,000 daily, or $15 million a month.

Among the 36 people arrested Monday was Dominic Valila, the head groundskeeper at Shea Stadium. Mr. Valila, who has worked for the Mets since 1986, was a so-called runner – a person who pays wins and collects losses for the sports book. Mr. Brown said he had no reason to believe any Mets players were involved with the gambling ring.

The district attorney’s office said the gambling ring was a major operation, pointing to one day during the 2005 NFL playoffs when the sports book allegedly handled $2.5 million in betting. An associate of the Bonanno family, Anthony “Tony Green” Urso, received a monthly fee from the gambling operation in exchange for the protection of the Bonanno family, the district attorney alleged.

The sports book allegedly handled up to 2,000 bets daily on horse racing, baseball, football, and other sports.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

HEALTH OFFICIALS: REPORT DEAD BIRDS TO PREVENT WEST NILE VIRUS

City health officials are asking New Yorkers to report dead birds and remove standing water in an effort to destroy the breeding grounds of mosquitoes that may carry the West Nile virus. Dead crows and blue jays, in particular, are birds that may indicate the presence of the virus, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said.

Ways to reduce mosquitoes include repairing holes in window and door screens, overturning containers that may have standing water, and cleaning out gutters. The health department will begin routine application of larvicide in the city’s storm drains in early June. Residents should call the city’s hotline – 311 – to have dead birds removed.

– Special to the Sun

KELLY SAYS NYPD TO OPEN ‘HELP DESK’ FOR DETECTIVES

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said last night that part of the department’s new high-tech approach to combating sexual assault will include the opening of a real-time crime center that will help detectives arrest criminals faster.

“It will be like a help desk for detectives,” Mr. Kelly told The New York Sun. The center will combine the department’s databases, allowing police to quickly analyze patterns of crime around the city, he said, so they can connect incidents across the boroughs and make quicker arrests.

The center, which is tentatively set to open on June 7, will include special area modules for sexual assault, homicides, and property crimes, among others, he said.

Mr. Kelly spoke with the Sun after receiving the Silver Whistle award last night at the Mount Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program’s benefit dinner. Mr. Kelly was introduced by a vice president of Altria Corporate Services, Jennifer Goodale, who lauded his expansion of the NYPD special victims unit in 2003 and the emphasis on DNA forensic investigations, both of which have led to significant decreases in sexual crimes.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

GREAT LAWN RULES FOCUS OF COUNCIL PARKS COMMITTEE HEARING

Two days before the Parks Department will hold a public hearing to discuss a controversial proposal to limit mass events in Central Park, the City Council held a hearing on the issue yesterday, with close to 100 people attending.

While the Council does not have the authority to block the proposal, the hearing, called by the chairwoman of the Parks and Recreation Committee, Helen Foster, drew speakers from both sides of the issue and served as a forum for people and groups to voice their concerns to city officials.

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, a former parks commissioner, spoke out against the proposal, arguing that a limitation on the rights of New Yorkers to gather in Central Park for rallies and mass events is in an infringement on free speech and the first amendment.

A number of neighborhood parks groups joined officials from the Parks Department in support of the proposal as a measure to protect the Great Lawn from large and potentially destructive events, another former parks commissioner, Henry Stern, said. The Parks Department stood by its initial statement, saying the proposal is a way to put existing park rules into writing and is not meant to limit the rights of people to congregate or hold rallies in the park.

A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Friday at 11:30 a.m. at the Chelsea Recreation Center on West 25th Street.

– Special to the Sun

UPSKIRT CAMERA HIDDEN IN SUBWAY GRATE CAUSES BRIEF SCARE

A small digital camera apparently planted by an unidentified voyeur to shoot up passing skirts caused a brief bomb scare near an Upper East Side subway station, police said yesterday.

A pedestrian called police on Tuesday afternoon to report seeing a box with wires sticking out of it under a subway grate at 88th Street and Lexington Avenue. The block was closed off while the police bomb squad investigated. The scare ended when officers discovered that the device was a digital camera. Police said yesterday they believe someone positioned the camera to record so-called upskirt images of women and girls in dresses and skirts as they strolled over the grate. Investigators found no evidence that the hidden camera had taken or transmitted any of the photos, which are featured on various Web sites.

– Associated Press