CITYWIDE

FEDERAL OFFICIAL SAYS CITY SHOULD FEAR HOMEGROWN TERRORISTS

New Yorkers have more to fear from homegrown terrorists inspired by Osama bin Laden’s message of hate than from seasoned Al Qaeda operatives sent to the city to carry out attacks, a federal official said yesterday. “We have to be concerned about who is already in our midst, as opposed to somebody who is being deployed from abroad,” the outgoing interim chief of the National Counterterror Center, John Brennan, said at a corporate security conference. “Who is a terrorist among us?” Mr. Brennan also warned that Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists who – unlike their predecessors trained in Afghanistan – have honed their skills in urban settings. He said the new generation could enter America “and bring with them the tactics and techniques they’ve developed there.”

– Associated Press

WHEELCHAIR USERS URGE COUNCIL TO INSTALL RAMPS ON TAXIS

New Yorkers who use wheelchairs said yesterday that they are forced into a segregated public transportation system that offers few options to move about the city. Marking the 15th anniversary of the signing of an anti-discrimination law, the Americans With Disabilities Act, a group of riders who use wheelchairs urged the City Council’s transportation committee to take up a bill that would require new taxis to be equipped with a wheelchair ramp, as is mandated in other cities such as London. The chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee, John Liu, said he is working on a proposal to require the next 300 taxi medallions slated for auction this year to be for wheelchair-accessible cabs, but advocates said the council member is stalling.

– Special to the Sun

DRUG-DEALING NYU STUDENT TO ATTEND CALIFORNIA JUNIOR COLLEGE

The former New York University student who pleaded guilty to dealing marijuana, cocaine, LSD, mushrooms, and other hallucinogens from her dorm room on Washington Square has finished the first part of her sentence at a rehabilitation facility and is moving out to California to attend a junior college, her defense lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said yesterday. At a hearing to determine the status of her sentence yesterday, Julia Diaco, 19, looked solemn. She will now attend Santa Monica Community College, where she will be a full-time student, undergo counseling, and submit to periodic drug tests as part of her plea deal. After eight months in Santa Monica, if all goes well, she will enter a five-year probationary period, according to a representative from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

– Special to the Sun

BLOOMBERG CALLS CONSUL-GENERAL TO EXPLAIN CUFFING OF TOURISTS

Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that he called British Consul-General Sir Philip Thomas to explain why police swarmed a tourist bus over the weekend, handcuffing six British citizens and forcing them to kneel on the ground. Mr. Bloomberg told reporters that he knows the consul-general quite well, and in fact with him last week. “We talked about mutual concerns,” he said. “I explained to him what happened with the half-dozen British citizens that were on the tour bus, and you know we keep in close contact, as do Scotland Yard and the British police units with the American Police Departments, including particularly with New York City’s police department.” He said the incident was “unfortunate” and told New Yorkers that they shouldn’t be shy about calling 911 or 311 if they notice something suspicious, but they should be careful not to exaggerate. He said over the weekend the massive response was not warranted, adding, “There were reports that these gentlemen had knapsacks and that it was a question as to what was in them, and they didn’t even have any knapsacks.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS START CAMPAIGNS AGAINST BAG SEARCHES

In response to the new searches of bags on city subways, buses, and trains being conducted by the New York Police Department, several grassroots civil-rights groups are starting up information campaigns on the Internet to fight against what they call infringements on personal liberty. One group that started up a Web site, www.nosubwaysearches.org, Monday afternoon has already had 500 Web users sign its petition against the searches – and an equal amount of hate mail, according to one of the Web site’s founders, David Berry, 38. While more than 1,000 people have visited the site and many expressed support, Mr. Berry said it has also been his first experience with hate mail. The group offers printable fliers and a form for sending off letters to Mayor Bloomberg, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, and local council members. The New York Civil Liberties Union set up a form for telling stories of illegal bag checks on its Web site the day after the searches began.

– Special to the Sun

FRACTION OF MONEY FOR TRANSIT SECURITY WENT TO MASS TRANSIT

A fraction of the money set aside for transit security has gone toward mass transit, officials from the Department of Homeland Security told Congress yesterday. Of the approximately $8.3 billion available for transit security, $25 million had been spent on mass transit in 2004, officials said during a hearing before the House Homeland Security subcommittee. The head of security at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, meanwhile, told the committee that riders and subway workers were of great importance in detecting potential threats in the subway. Responding to concerns that unlocked bench seats on certain trains made the subway vulnerable to hidden bombs, transit officials said those benches on 1,500 cars on the A, B, C, E, J, M, Z, and W lines will soon be locked. The unlocked seats contain heaters.

– Special to the Sun

MANHATTAN

FERRER SAYS HE WOULD HAVE FIRED PARKS COMMISSIONER OVER REMARKS

A Democratic mayoral candidate, Fernando Ferrer, said last night at a forum that he would have fired Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe over remarks Mr. Benepe allegedly made about the uselessness of allocating money for parks in poorer areas. In response to a question about a city official who said supporting rundown parks was akin to “throwing good money after the bad,” Mr. Ferrer said: “That individual should have been summarily fired.” A moderator later pointed out to the 400-person audience that the city official was in fact Mr. Benepe. The three other candidates present at the forum for mayoral candidates sponsored by a parks advocacy organization, Parks1, said they disagreed with Mr. Ferrer. “I wouldn’t fire him for one comment,” the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, said. “But no parks commissioner of mine would make such a comment.” A Republican challenger to Mayor Bloomberg, Thomas Ognibene, said he would have liked more context about the remarks, and the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, said she would not fire him over those remarks.

– Special to the Sun

PASTOR ACCUSED OF STEALING MORE THAN $800,000

A pastor of a church on 72nd Street was indicted on charges of grand larceny, tax evasion, and falsifying business records in a way that let him funnel more than $800,000 into his personal bank account, according to a press release from the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Monsignor John Woolsey, 67, allegedly bought expensive Rolex, Breitling, Omega, and Breguet watches, as well as clothes, golf equipment, nights out at fancy restaurants, and trips to Vermont, Florida, and Spain, according to the statement. As bookkeeper and treasurer at St. John the Martyr Parish, he kept parishioners in the dark, made false reports to the Archdiocese of New York, and falsified check registers for personal purchases, according to the statement. The criminal complaint states he took $820,800 from parish accounts and used the parish’s checking account to spend $15,944. The Archdiocese began an investigation of Monsignor Woolsey’s activities after an executor of one of the church’s parishioners noticed large transfers to the pastor, according to the statement. He stands to face up to 15 years in prison on the top count, grand larceny as a Class C felony.

– Special to the Sun

ROBBERY IN CENTRAL PARK

Police arrested one of two suspects yesterday who they say robbed a man in Central Park on Sunday. On July 24 at 8:15 p.m., the female suspect, Shameeka Wadley, 18, allegedly approached the victim, 27, at around 64th Street and West Drive near the Heckscher ball fields, police said. Armed with a bat and a knife, Ms. Wadley allegedly demanded the victim’s belongings. The victim complied, giving the woman $35, a MetroCard, and a cellular telephone. The male suspect acted as a lookout, and the duo fled together, police said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN CONVICTED OF PUBLIC LEWDNESS

Thomas Webster was arrested for exposing and fondling himself in public, investigators said. On July 23 not long after 2 a.m., Mr. Webster stood outside a 36-year-old man’s residential window on 84th Street between Third and Lexington avenues, police said. Mr. Webster was nude and was fondling himself before police arrested him. He pleaded guilty to public lewdness and was sentenced to five days in jail, the district attorney’s office said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY KICKING IN WINDSHIELD

Police arrested a man they say was walking back and forth along York Avenue in the nude. On July 15 at 2:10 a.m., the suspect, Juan Unigarroo, 28, paced in the nude before jumping on the hood of a vehicle and repeatedly kicking the windshield, causing it to break, police said. Investigators caught Mr. Unigarroo in front of 1735 York Ave. The district attorney’s office charged him with two counts of criminal mischief. His next court date is August 17.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun