CITYWIDE

HEALTH OFFICIALS WARN RESIDENTS TO BOIL DRINKING WATER

Recent thunderstorms and resulting floods have contaminated upstate reservoirs with particles that interfere with the water chlorination process, making it dangerous for people with weak immune systems to drink the city’s water until noon today, health officials said.

Officials from the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health and Mental Hygiene observed high levels of particles in its Kensico Reservoir in upstate New York, one of three reservoirs that supply drinking water to the city. Though the affected water was diverted, the Health Department has requested that doctors increase testing for parasitic illnesses. The Health Department also recommends anyone with HIV/AIDS, leukemia, transplanted bone marrow, or compromised immune systems to drink boiled or bottled water as a precaution until noon today.

– Special to the Sun

COUNCIL APPROVES HYBRID TAXI CAB BILL

The City Council passed legislation yesterday that would require the Taxi and Limousine Commission to allow drivers to use hybrid electric-gasoline vehicles as taxis. If the mayor signs the bill, the taxi commission has 90 days to decide which vehicles will be used as hybrids. The commission in a written statement said it supported the measure, though it had expressed concerns in recent days that current hybrid vehicles on the market do not have enough legroom for passengers.

Two cars discussed by the commission at a recent meeting for use as hybrid cabs are the Toyota Highlander and the Ford Escape, but neither has as much legroom as the Ford Crown Victoria, favored by nearly all cab drivers. Over the course of the fiscal year that begins today, the commission will auction at a discount 81 taxi medallions whose eventual owners would have to use with a hybrid vehicle.

– Special to the Sun

COMMISSIONER KELLY PRESIDES OVER NYPD PROMOTIONS

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly personally presided over two Police Department promotion ceremonies yesterday, including the promotion of the first Asian female to captain, and the awarding of a detective’s badge to an officer shot during an attempted drug bust in Brooklyn in early June.

The two ceremonies yesterday included a total of 200 promotions, police said.

Mr. Kelly spoke on the heroism of Officer Patrick Caprice, who was promoted to detective yesterday. A bulletproof vest saved Officer Caprice’s life after he was shot three times by a man attempting to buy drugs in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section Brooklyn. The vest stopped a bullet that hit him in the chest, but he also sustained bullet wounds to his left arm and abdomen. Despite his injuries, Officer Caprice was still able to stand on one knee and return fire at the man as he sped away, hitting him in the hip and arm, police said.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

RAPE SUSPECT ARRESTED IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS

Using tips from several calls to a police hotline, the Special Victims Unit yesterday arrested a teenager suspected of an attempted rape on Monday, police said.

The 15-year-old, who was not identified because of his age, was apprehended in Morningside Heights in front of 444 Second Avenue, police said.

Monday’s report of the attempted rape indicated that the suspect found a woman alone in the laundry room in the basement of a building near Grand Street on the Lower East Side. He pretended to be lost, asking her for directions. He then allegedly hid, and when she left the room, he began attacking her with a red cast over his right wrist, police said.

He allegedly pulled down her pants, but when another person witnessed the attempted rape and screamed, he fled the building, police said.

Police released elevator surveillance footage showing the young man waiting in the elevator as it descended to the basement floor. It was the wide publication of the photos and television coverage that generated the tips about the suspect, police said.

The teenager was charged with two counts of attempted rape and one count of burglary yesterday afternoon in a Manhattan court.

– Special to the Sun

MAN CHARGED IN SLAYING OF HALF-BROTHER IN EAST VILLAGE

A man was charged by police yesterday with fatally shooting his half-brother on the streets of Alphabet City. The victim, Henry White, 32, managed to make a call to emergency personnel before he died, police said. He was taken to Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced dead. A gun was recovered at the scene, police said.

The shooting happened around 9:11 a.m. yesterday outside the Campos Housing Development in the East Village yesterday, though police said they had no leads on the motive for the killing. Patrol officers from the 9th Precinct caught the alleged shooter, Milton Muller, who shared a mother with White, on East 14th Street. Mr. Muller is charged with murder, police said.

– Special to the Sun

HISPANIC PARENTS PROTEST ENGLISH REPORT CARDS AT CITY HALL

A group of 40 Latino parents from Brooklyn and Queens held a protest yesterday in front of City Hall, calling on Mayor Bloomberg to support Intro. 464, the Education Equity Act, and demanding legislative action to defend the rights of immigrant parents before the beginning of the next school year in September.

The protesters delivered a letter to the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, with copies of their children’s report cards printed only in English. More than 25% of all New York City parents cannot read or speak English.

“We have made a priority of translating report cards into other languages and expect to provide them during the next school year,” a spokesperson for the Education Department, Michele McManus Higgins, said.

According to Ms. Higgins, last month the city agency announced a comprehensive expansion of translation and interpretation services, including $7.5 million in additional support to provide increased translation and interpretation services for regional offices and schools across the city.

– Special to the Sun

THE BRONX

MAN FOUND DEAD IN BRONX APARTMENT RULED A HOMICIDE

The death of a elderly man found in his Bronx home early Wednesday morning has been classified as a homicide, police said

Police found Pastor Crespo, 78, lying face up in his bed at 354 Cypress Avenue shortly before 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

An autopsy yesterday revealed that Crespo had died from a “compression of neck,” which leads to restricted breathing, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of the Medical Examiner, Ellen Borakove, said.

Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. Crespo’s murder was the 49th homicide in the Bronx this year, police said.

– Special to the Sun

QUEENS

‘SICK’ TEACHER WAS ON WRESTLING TOUR IN JAPAN

A social studies teacher at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens claimed to be sick in December 2004, but he was actually wearing spandex and participating in a professional wrestling tour in Japan.

The Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, Richard Condon, launched an investigation of the teacher, Matthew Kaye, in March, after the high school’s principal came across Mr. Striker’s wrestling homepage, www.thisisstriker.com, and realized that the teacher apparently had a secret, greased-up alter ego.

Mr. Kaye provided the school with a number of notes signed by doctors. A woman identifying herself as Mr. Kaye’s mother also called the school and said there had been a family emergency. But his Web site told a different story.

“I cannot express in words what this tour has meant to me as a person and as a professional wrestler,” Mr. Kaye wrote online of his touch-down on December 16 in Tokyo. “Everywhere I went, fans and press alike were courteous and receptive… Now I am so excited for the opportunity that lays ahead of me.” He continued: “I am a social studies teacher in my ‘other life’ and I know Japan is rich in history both world and wrestling.” Mr. Kaye resigned from the Department of Education on April 28. Mr. Condon recommended that the Department of Education require Mr. Kaye to reimburse the city for the time he was off wrestling and be barred from future employment in the public schools.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun