BRONX

POLICE RECLASSIFY AS HOMICIDE CASE OF MAN STRUCK BY SUBWAY

Police have reclassified as a homicide the apparent suicide of a 66-year-old Hispanic man who was struck and killed by a subway train in the early hours of May 31. The medical examiner determined yesterday that the man, Enrique Soriano, of the Bronx, was assaulted with a blunt object while he stood on the platform of a no. 6 train at the Westchester Avenue station in the South Bronx. Before he was pushed onto the tracks in front of a southbound train, Soriano had been severely beaten with a blunt object and suffered multiple fractures to his head, body, and arms that were “inconsistent” with being struck by a train, the medical examiner said.

– Special to the Sun

ALBANY

STATE SAYS CLAIMS INVESTIGATOR FILED FOR $8,744 IN FALSE EXPENSES

A claims investigator for the State Insurance Fund bilked the state out of $8,744 by claiming she spent the night at bed-and-breakfasts that investigators found didn’t exist, the state inspector general said yesterday.

Investigators who checked into Margaret Kelly’s expense vouchers after an audit by the state comptroller’s office found the address she gave for one bed-and-breakfast in Poughkeepsie, where she claimed to have stayed during the period of April 2004 to May 2005, was actually a senior citizens apartment complex.

– Associated Press

STATE CALLS FOR CENSURE OF HIGH COURT JUSTICE

A state commission yesterday recommended a Supreme Court justice in New York City be censured for driving after drinking several alcoholic beverages and accusing police of arresting her because she is black. The state Commission on Judicial Conduct recommended Justice Donna Mills be censured. Censure is a public criticism short of removal. Justice Mills, a Supreme Court Civil Branch judge since January 2000, was arrested around midnight July 22, 2002, in the parking lot of a Loehmann’s department store in the Bronx. While trying to back her Rolls Royce out of a parking space, she struck two cars, authorities said.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

SHARPTON PLANS TO JOIN ACTIVIST SHEEHAN AT RANCH

The Reverend Al Sharpton plans to join peace activist Cindy Sheehan, known as the Peace Mom, on Sunday near President Bush’s Texas ranch.

Rev. Sharpton’s office said yesterday he would participate in a prayer vigil Sunday with Ms. Sheehan in Crawford, Texas. Ms. Sheehan returned on Wednesday to Camp Casey, named after her 24-year-old son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, who was killed last year in Iraq. Ms. Sheehan began her vigil on the road leading to Mr. Bush’s ranch August 6, vowing to stay through his month-long vacation unless he met with her. She left last week to visit her 74-year-old mother, who had suffered a stroke, in Los Angeles. Ms. Sheehan plans to leave Crawford at the end of August and embark on a bus tour ending in Washington, D.C., on September 24.

– Associated Press

DANIELS LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN SITE

New York’s Republican secretary of state, Randy Daniels, unveiled a campaign Web site yesterday aimed at informing voters ahead of next year’s race for governor. The site is not tied to a particular race, but Mr. Daniels has said he will seek his party’s nomination to challenge the likely Democratic nominee, the state’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer. The Web site’s address is www.randydaniels.com.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE: GOODEN SURRENDERS 3 DAYS AFTER FLEEING DUI STOP

Former baseball star Dwight Gooden, sought by police since he fled a DUI traffic stop three days ago, turned himself in at a county jail yesterday, police said.

Mr. Gooden, 40, arrived at the jail warrants facility at about 5 p.m., a police spokeswoman, Laura McElroy, said. He had been missing since early Monday, when an officer pulled over his 2004 BMW near downtown Tampa on suspicion of drunken driving. He twice refused to get out of the car for a field sobriety test, then drove away suddenly, police said.

– Associated Press

PRODUCER SENTENCED TO PROBATION AND FINE

Susann Brinkley, a former off-Broadway theater producer, was sentenced yesterday to five years of probation as well as a fine of $48,000 of which she has already paid $8,000, said the office of the Manhattan district attorney. Brinkley, 48, pleaded guilty in May to a felony grand larceny charge after stealing $48,000 in 2001 from the nonprofit theater company where she had been employed as executive director. Brinkley was ordered to pay $48,000 in restitution as a result of a civil case brought by the New York State attorney general’s office. Brinkley has produced and directed such productions as “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TEN CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLEMENT

Ten people were arrested and charged yesterday with stealing more than $2 million from a Web site that sells discounted luxury items. Over a two-year period beginning December 2002, Elena Vidaurre, 35, illegally processed transactions at the Internet site where she worked as a shipping clerk, Jomashop, and kept the proceeds for herself or issued credits to nine other friends and family members, including her husband, Patrick Gilles.

The district attorney’s office charged all 10 people involved in the scheme. Jomashop sells high-end items such as expensive pens, luxury watches, fine crystal, designer wallets, and handbags at discount prices. Zuckers Gifts, Incorporated is the parent company of Jomashop and is located at 151 West 26th St.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TWO SHOT IN CAR IN QUEENS

A black two-door sedan pulled up next to a 2000 Audi on Grand Central Parkway in Jackson Heights, Queens, at 4 a.m. yesterday morning and an unidentified person shot two of the three occupants in the Audi, police reported.

The three men in the Audi had left a club in Astoria, Queens, and were headed east when they heard three pops, police said. The 21-year-old man sitting behind the driver was hit in the neck, police said, and the man in the passenger seat was grazed in the back. He allegedly declined medical attention at the scene. Both victims were taken to Booth Memorial Hospital in stable condition. Police said a black Mercedes-Benz that had reportedly been driving recklessly at about the same time as the incident might have been the same car from which the three shots were fired.

– Special to the Sun

POLICE: COMMERCE BANK HIT BY HALF OF ROBBERIES BELOW 59TH ST.

About half of the bank robberies in Manhattan below 59th Street this year were at branches of Commerce Bank, statistics from the New York Police Department show. As of August 21, there were 31 bank robberies, which includes attempted bank robberies, below 59th Street, and only 22 above, the figures state. At least 15 of the 31 were at Commerce Bank branches.

The bank with the second-greatest number of robberies was Wachovia, with five, law enforcement officials said. The most common method in those 31 bank robberies was a verbal request, with 11 such cases, followed by gun with threat, which occurred eight times, officials said. Thirteen of the 31 robberies happened on Fridays.

Bank robbers’ second-busiest day of the week was Tuesday, with seven of the crimes recorded in Manhattan below 59th Street. The only day of the week with no bank robberies in that part of Manhattan was Sunday – a day Commerce branches are open. For all of last year, there were 87 bank robberies in Manhattan below 59th Street and 63 above 59th Street. Citywide, through Wednesday there were 128 bank robberies so far this year, down from 232 for the same period last year.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

WEINER FILES BRIEF TO SELL PLO’S U.N. MISSION IN CITY

Democratic mayoral candidate Rep. Anthony Weiner filed a brief with the U.S. district court yesterday that asked the court to seize and sell the Palestine Liberation Organization’s U.N. mission in Manhattan to cover debts owed to the family of an American slain by Hamas in 1996.

In April a federal appeals court upheld a judgment that ordered the Palestinian Authority and the PLO to each pay $116 million to the family of Yaron Ungar. The court found that the organizations had provided shelter to Hamas, members of which allegedly killed Unger and his wife Efrat in a drive-by shooting in Israel. As the basis for the decision, the court cited the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows Americans who are victims of terror abroad to seek damages in court. “The Palestinian Authority and PLO need to be held accountable for their actions in regards to terror,” Mr. Weiner said. “The fact of the matter is, the PA could be making a better effort to end the violence.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BLOOMBERG VETOES FREE SUNDAY PARKING LEGISLATION

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday vetoed legislation to eliminate parking meter fees on Sundays. In the midst of a fiscal crisis in 2002 the city began charging motorists to park at meters on Sundays. In July, the City Council passed legislation to end the policy, which opponents had dubbed “pay to pray.”

– Associated Press