THE BRONX

PREGNANT WOMAN STABBED IN MELROSE

A 19-year-old pregnant woman was stabbed multiple times by another woman early yesterday morning in a Bronx park, police said.

The injured woman was brought to Lincoln Hospital and listed in critical condition, police said. The victim was found lying in a park on the corner of 158th Street and Cauldwell Avenue at 2 a.m. in the Melrose section of the South Bronx, police said. Detectives investigating the case believed the 19-year-old is a gang member, though they aren’t sure what connection that had to the stabbing.

Police are looking for two suspects, a male and a female.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

DA’S OFFICE CHARGES 26 WITH WORKER’S COMPENSATION FRAUD

An investigation by the Queens district attorney’s office found that 26 New Yorkers have defrauded the state worker’s compensation system and several private insurance companies of more than $500,000 since 1990. The district attorney, Richard Brown, joined state officials at a press conference yesterday to release the names of 22 of the 26 individuals charged with fraud.

In one of the schemes uncovered by investigators, a 45-year-old man from Richmond Hill claimed that he had sustained a debilitating back injury while lifting a tray of frozen meat as a cook at an Italian restaurant in Midtown. The man allegedly received $84,740 in benefits from an insurance firm. Meanwhile, according to the district attorney, the man adopted a false identity and found employment as a maintenance worker, reeling in more than $40,000 a year.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

COUNCIL VOTE DUE TOMORROW ON HYBRID CARS FOR TAXI USE

The City Council will vote tomorrow on a bill that would push the Taxi and Limousine Commission to authorize the use of hybrid cars within 90 days, and pave the way for the addition of some vehicles into the city’s fleet of 13,000 later this year. TLC regulations currently in place require taxis to have more passenger room in the backseat than is standard in most of today’s hybrids, and the TLC has argued that it needs more time to study the issue. The bill is co-sponsored by council speaker Gifford Miller and Queens Democrat John Liu, chair of the transportation committee that unanimously approved the legislation on Monday.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

COURT UPHOLDS BROOKLYN JUDGE’S REMOVAL FROM BENCH

A Brooklyn judge has been kicked out of office for awarding millions of dollars in “unsubstantiated” fees to a law school friend, the state’s highest court said yesterday.

Kings County Surrogate Michael Feinberg’s “failure to abide by the legal requirements of his office, in a matter that conveyed the appearance of impropriety and favoritism, debased his office and eroded public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary,” the state Court of Appeals said in a unanimous decision.

In February, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended Mr. Feinberg be removed after finding he awarded “excessive and overly generous” fees to Louis Rosenthal, a longtime friend whom Mr. Feinberg appointed counsel to the public administrator of Kings County.

From January 1997 to May 2002, Mr. Rosenthal received more than $2 million in excessive fees despite never filing any affidavit of legal services that would have supported the fee requests, the commission said. Mr. Feinberg argued that his conduct was an “innocent mistake” and amounted only to a legal error, not misconduct. Attempts to reach Mr. Feinberg were unsuccessful last night. His attorney, Henry Greenberg, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

– Associated Press

UPSTATE

ASSEMBLYMAN’S E-MAIL MISTAKE CALLS ONLINE CONSTITUENTS ‘IDIOTS’

POUGHKEEPSIE – Thinking he was sending an e-mail to an aide, Assemblyman Willis Stephens instead sent a note to nearly 300 constituents, making the following comment on their listserv: “Just watching the idiots pontificate.”

In the message, meant for aide Beth Coursen, Mr. Stephens wrote that he subscribes to the Brewster-based online discussion group to monitor area happenings, but he doesn’t post messages. The accidental note went out early Monday morning. Within an hour, Mr. Stephens sent another e-mail apologizing for the first one. “To all who read and post on this group, I honestly enjoy reading most of what is exchanged on this site and do not direct my indiscreet characterizations to anyone in particular or to the group in general,” he wrote. “In fact, now I most closely resemble the type of poster I described.”

Mr. Stephens, a Republican, represents an area that includes a handful of towns in Putnam and Westchester counties and Pawling in Dutchess County.

– Associated Press

WESTCHESTER

WOMAN STABBED TO DEATH IN MALL PARKING GARAGE

WHITE PLAINS – A woman was stabbed to death yesterday inside a garage at Westchester’s Galleria Mall, police said. White Plains police Commissioner Frank Straub said a suspect was arrested just blocks from the downtown mall. Police recovered a weapon they believe was used in the stabbing. Police officers were called to the city-owned metered parking garage at 1:15 p.m. and found a woman who had been stabbed in the upper torso. The woman was taken to White Plains Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m.

– Associated Press

LONG ISLAND

MAN ARRESTED IN ALLEGED ATTACK ON EAST HAMPTON BEACHWALKER

A house painter faced arraignment yesterday for allegedly sexually attacking a woman on the beach near an exclusive club in East Hampton Village.

John Giraldo, 30, of Southampton, was arrested Tuesday after he confessed to the alleged crime, two other sexual assaults and exposing himself in the Hamptons over the past three years, the police chief of East Hampton Village, Gerard Larsen, said. Mr. Giraldo faced arraignment in East Hampton Town Court on charges of attempted rape, sexual assault, and unlawful imprisonment stemming from the alleged attack on the woman near Maidstone Club.

Police said the 61-year-old woman was walking along the beach at around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday when a man – nude and wearing a ski mask – suddenly emerged from the sand dunes. He allegedly threw her to the ground and began assaulting her when a passerby came to her aid, said Mr. Larsen.

– Associated Press