QUEENS

BURNED MAN FOUND UNFIT TO STAND TRIAL

A Queens man was found unfit to stand to trial yesterday for allegedly burning a former girlfriend to death at a summer camp two years ago, authorities said.

The man, Jo Sung Chul, 45, was facing murder and other criminal charges and was remanded to a psychiatric facility indefinitely. In July 2003, Mr. Chul allegedly popped out of some bushes near a summer camp as his girlfriend, Cindy Bae, 33, and her 10-year-old son were arriving with campers at 8 a.m.

Carrying a two-gallon container of gasoline, Mr. Chul was charged with slapping Bae, dumping the container of gasoline on top of her, and lighting her on fire with a cigarette lighter. He then grabbed her close, police and fire officials said at the time, and pulled himself into the flames. A passer-by eventually extinguished the blaze by running into a nearby convenience store for water.

An attorney for Mr. Chul, John Scarpa, said that at time, both Mr. Chul and Bae had suffered significant burns and that doctors believed that Mr. Chul, who was in critical condition, would perish and Bae, also in critical condition, would survive. Bae eventually died.

Mr. Chul’s ears, nose, and lips were burned from his face and he suffered brain damage from smoke inhalation. According to Mr. Scarpa, these injuries, in addition to Mr. Chul speaking only Korean, have made communication with his client difficult for himself as well as prosecutors and police officers – even through the use of an interperter. With such strained communication, it was difficult to ascertain if Mr. Chul had committed murder, or if the couple had a pre-existing suicide pact, Mr. Scarpa said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

COUPLE ROBBED AT GUNPOINT IN CENTRAL PARK

A husband and wife from Patterson, N.J., were robbed at gunpoint while strolling through Central Park yesterday afternoon, police said.

At about 3 p.m., a 30-year-old man and 28-year-old woman were walking into the park at West 76th Street, police said, headed in the direction of the Bow Bridge. As they proceeded southbound, they were approached by a man walking on the same path, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. The man, who appeared to be in his 30s, brandished a semi-automatic firearm, then racked the chamber back, indicating that the handgun was loaded.

“Give me your money,” the man told the couple.

The husband told police he then tossed about $200 onto the park path. The man then told the couple to walk away, which they did, going to an emergency telephone box to call the police. Police statistics show the incident was the sixth robbery reported in Central Park this year. In 2004, there were four reports of robberies. Nearly a decade earlier, in 1993, there were 204 reports of robberies.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BETH ISRAEL NAMES SHULKIN AS PRESIDENT AND CEO

Beth Israel Medical Center has appointed a new president and chief executive officer, ending a nearly three-year transitional period after the previous president stepped down without a replacement, the hospital announced yesterday.

Dr. David Shulkin, a well-known quality expert, will leave his post as chief medical officer at Temple University in Philadelphia to assume his position at Beth Israel in July, hospital officials said. Prior to his work at Temple, Dr. Shulkin won several medical awards as chief medical and quality officer at the University of Pennsylvania. He has contributed to many scholarly medical works and has received more than $1.5 million in grants in past years, officials said.

“Healthcare is an industry that is constantly changing, and challenged by so many factors, including economics, advancing technology and increased competition,” Dr. Shulkin said in a statement. “But at the same time these factors are what make this position at Beth Israel so interesting and exciting for me.”

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL PROPOSES SAFETY RULES ON CANDY SALES

The City Council introduced legislation yesterday that would ban the sale of hard candy of a certain size to children under 14 in response to the deaths of two girls earlier this month, both of whom choked on peppermint candies.

The legislation also seeks to add warning labels so that adults giving children candy are aware of its potential hazards. The legislation proposes to ban round, ball-shaped candies that are between 3/4 – and 1 1/2 -inch in diameter. The guidelines were taken from those used by the Centers for Disease Control, said the sponsor of the bill, Council Member Christine Quinn. The law would be enforced by the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs. Earlier this month Ashley Morrison, 4, choked to death on a candy called a jumbo mint ball. Two days later, another girl, Jocelys Santiago, 5, choked to death on the same candy, which is manufactured by a Colombian company.

– Special to the Sun

CLARK URGES COUNCIL TO LEGISLATE ‘POTTY PARITY’

The City Council member who introduced legislation yesterday that would create more stalls in women’s bathrooms called it “potty parity” in a press release. Citing studies of bathroom behavior that show women take twice as long as men when using the bathroom – as well as the invariably longer restroom lines women face after, for example, seeing a movie – Yvette Clark proposed amendments to the city’s building code that would force establishments with occupancy of 150 people or less to build two women’s toilets for every one toilet in a men’s room.

Likewise, arenas, bars, concert halls, convention halls, movie theaters, public dance halls, and stadiums that hold between 151 and 300 people would have a four-to-one women’s to men’s bathroom ratio; establishments that hold 300 to 450 people would need six women’s toilets for every three men’s toilets. The law would not apply to bars, and applies only to new establishments. Exempted from the proposed rule change are restaurants, municipal buildings, schools, and hospitals.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

PATAKI TEMPORARILY BANS PUBLIC FUNDING OF IMPOTENCY DRUGS

Governor Pataki imposed a temporary ban on all publicly funded impotency drugs and said he will soon propose legislation that will permanently prohibit the state from subsidizing delivery of such drugs to criminals convicted of sex crimes.

Mr. Pataki made the announcement three days after the New York state comptroller, Alan Hevesi, released the results of an audit showing the state reimbursed 198 rapists and Level 3 sex offenders – those considered most dangerous – for Viagra and other impotency drugs after they had been released from prison over the past four years. The governor blamed a rule dating back to President Clinton for the reimbursements under Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled, even though federal officials said earlier this week that states have always had the right to block reimbursements on sexual-enhancement drugs to sex offenders.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun