CITYWIDE

JUDGE ORDERS ‘MAFIA COPS’ RELEASED ON BAIL

Two former police detectives accused of leading double lives as Mafia hitmen were ordered released on bail yesterday after a federal judge said the government’s case against them was weak.

U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein said the statute of limitations may have run out years ago on nearly all the charges against Louis Eppolito, 56, and Stephen Caracappa, 63, who are accused of participating in eight murders on behalf of organized crime in the 1980s and early 1990s. Federal prosecutors charged the former detectives with engaging in the killings as part of a racketeering conspiracy, which has a five-year statute of limitations. The last killing occurred in 1991.

“The charges seem to me to be relatively stale, and the statute of limitations problem is going to be a serious one,” Mr. Weinstein said.

He ordered both men released on $5 million bond each secured partly by homes belonging to the detectives and their relatives. Messrs. Eppolito and Caracappa will be placed under house arrest at relatives’ homes in the New York area and will be allowed to visit their lawyers. The two detectives will be released in 10 days if prosecutors do not appeal the judge’s decision. Prosecutors did not comment as they left the courtroom.

– Associated Press

THREE HOMICIDES IN THREE BOROUGHS OVER 24 HOURS

The city saw three homicides in a 24-hour period on Wednesday, police said.

Early Wednesday morning, Jerome Crump was fatally shot in front of the Sunrise Deli at 374 Ralph Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, police said. No arrests had been made yesterday, but the crime appeared to be gang related.

At about 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, several body parts of a missing woman turned up in a box on the shore of a creek in the Bronx, police said.

The case has been classified a homicide, but no arrests have been made, police said. Police found the head, hands, and feet of the woman, who was identified by family members as Rawayti Haimraj. Police said Haimraj, 35, who is of Guyanese descent, had been listed as a missing person for an unknown duration of time. Her husband was being questioned in connection with her disappearance last night, police said. The body parts were found on the shore of the salt marshes in Pugsley Creek Park.

At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Carlo Mazzocchi, 28, was fatally stabbed after an alleged dispute with Angel Flores, 36, in Flushing, Queens. Police said the fight was probably over one of the men’s girlfriends. When Mr. Flores was arrested, a knife was found concealed in his clothes, police said.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

‘OPEN WINDOW’ RAPIST SUSPECT ARRESTED

An alleged rapist who entered victim’s apartments through open windows was arrested yesterday at 1 p.m. after a DNA match successfully linked the man to a rape on June 14, police said.

The man, identified by police as Reginald Swinton, 49, of 43 W. 129th St. in Harlem, is charged with rape in the first degree and burglary, police said.

Though the police have previously linked three rapes in the Upper East Side to a possible serial rapist, as of yesterday, Mr. Swinton has only been charged with the rape of a 56-year-old woman at an apartment on West 87th Street, police said. More charges are possible following further DNA tests, police said.

The other two rapes which could potentially be linked to Mr. Swinton also occurred last month, both of them in apartments on East 89th Street, one on June 8, when a 41-year-old woman was attacked, and the other on June 23, when a 29-year-old woman was raped. Both crimes involved a man entering apartments through fire escapes. He then allegedly blindfolded his victims before sexually assaulting them. According to police, after raping them, the man forced his victims to take showers and brush their teeth to get rid of DNA evidence.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN

MISTRIAL DECLARED IN NOTORIOUS B.I.G. WRONGFUL DEATH LAWSUIT

A mistrial in the Notorious B.I.G. wrongful death case means the Brooklyn rap star’s family won’t get immediate answers about his slaying, but they can file a new lawsuit seeking to link his unsolved 1997 killing to a Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared a mistrial Wednesday in Los Angeles after she expressed concern at a hearing Tuesday that the LAPD had deliberately withheld evidence. Her clerk and attorneys on both sides confirmed the ruling.

There were only three days of testimony in the trial, which began June 21. It was interrupted when an anonymous tip led to the discovery of large numbers of LAPD documents that hadn’t been turned over to family attorneys.

B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace, was 24 when he was gunned down in 1997 while leaving a crowded late-night party at a Los Angeles museum. The rotund Brooklyn rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, was one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s.

His family’s lawsuit against the city and LAPD claimed corrupt LAPD Officer David Mack arranged to have Wallace killed at the behest of Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight, and that LAPD officials covered up Officer Mack’s involvement. Family attorneys, who had requested either a mistrial or default, plan to refile the suit with new allegations against the LAPD.

– Associated Press

THE BRONX

PEDESTRIAN KILLED, MAN WOUNDED IN DEADLY CHAIN REACTION

A deadly chain reaction involving a wounded motorist and a fallen street sign left a pedestrian dead early yesterday in the Bronx, police said.

The incident, in the Bedford Park section, started when a 21-year-old motorist was shot in the back of the head at about 12:20 a.m. while driving a car with Virginia license plates on East 194th Street, police said. The driver lost control of his car, jumped a curb and plowed into a street sign. The sign fell, striking pedestrian Wellington Contreras, police said. Contreras, 43, was pronounced dead at the hospital. The motorist, whose name was not released, was listed in stable condition. There were no arrests.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

ASSEMBLYMAN SAYS NEW YORK TRANSIT SHOULD REASSESS SECURITY

The chairman of the Assembly committee that oversees the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the deadly mass-transit bombings in London yesterday raise fresh questions about the level of security that transit officials in New York should adopt.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat of Westchester and chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions, said yesterday he plans to contact MTA officials about developing a “reasonable” response here to the London bombings in which at least 37 were killed and more than 700 injured.

“People are trying to figure out an intelligent response that goes beyond a reflexive reaction to this horrible event,” Mr. Brodsky said. “But it means we are again confronted with the traditional conflict between security and a free society. There have been inconceivable restrictions on the way people travel that are not inconceivable any more.”

Mr. Brodsky raised the possibility of security upgrades that would make subway stations more like airport terminals. He said this and other ideas would have to be confronted, possibly through a series of hearings, in response to the London bombings.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

QUEENS

CITY AIDE CHARGED IN LARCENY, TAX FRAUD, IDENTITY THEFT SCHEMES

A city aide who allegedly stole $175,000 by cashing her deceased father’s Social Security checks and filing false income tax claims in the names of welfare recipients was arraigned yesterday, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors allege that a food stamp eligibility specialist, Lorraine Barber, 57, of Hollis, Queens, received 247 of her father’s retirement benefit checks over 22 years, totaling $106,222, endorsed them with both his and her names, and deposited them in a Texas bank account. Ms. Barber’s father died in 1981. She did not report the additional income, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.

Ms. Barber is also accused of submitting 700 fraudulent tax forms in the names of welfare recipients, who earned less than $18,000 a year, resulting in 452 refund checks totaling more than $69,000. Ms. Barber allegedly endorsed the checks with her name and the welfare recipients’ names before depositing them in the Texas bank account.

At her arraignment yesterday, Ms. Barber was charged with grand larceny, identity theft, scheme to defraud, falsifying business records, and offering a false instrument for filing. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Queens Criminal Court Judge Lenora Gerald ordered bail set at $75,000 during yesterday’s arraignment.

– Special to the Sun