CITYWIDE

PATAKI FILLS LAST VACANT SEAT ON LMDC BOARD

Governor Pataki filled the last vacant seat on the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation yesterday with the appointment of the chairman of the Alliance for Downtown New York, Robert Douglass. The LMDC is a 16-member state and city corporation in charge of overseeing the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, and both the mayor and the governor are allowed to appoint eight board members. On November 16, both the mayor and the governor announced their appointees to fill the vacancies in their seats. Mr. Pataki chose his top deputies, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, Charles Gargano, and his senior adviser for counterterrorism, James Kallstrom, to fill two of his three vacancies on the board. Mr. Douglass’s appointment yesterday means the board will be at full capacity when it meets next on December 15.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

AUDIT: SHUTTERED SALVATION ARMY SHELTER INFESTED WITH ROACHES

A shuttered Queens homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army was infested with roaches and beset by water damage, peeling paint, and other deplorable conditions, according to an audit released yesterday by the city comptroller, William Thompson. The investigation by Mr. Thompson’s office found dozens of safety and sanitation violations in the 335-unit Carlton House Shelter in South Ozone Park. The city’s Department of Homeless Services hired the Salvation Army in 2002 to run the shelter, which the city closed two months ago. “In every unit we checked, we found horrible conditions,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement. In addition to the unsanitary conditions, the study also found that the Salvation Army had improperly used nearly $2 million in funds earmarked for the Carlton House elsewhere in the organization.

– Special to the Sun

NYCLU FILES CHALLENGE TO NYPD VIDEOTAPING OF DEMONSTRATORS

A civil rights group, citing the First Amendment, yesterday asked a judge to stop the Police Department from routinely videotaping political demonstrations. The New York Civil Liberties Union said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the Police Department adopted a regulation on September 10, 2004, claiming it may photograph and videotape all political activity in the city without restriction. The surveillance was noted by participants in protests during the 2004 Republican National Convention, especially those who wanted to exercise their First Amendment rights anonymously, an NYCLU attorney, Arthur Eisenberg, said.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

MAN CONVICTED FOR 1973 RAPE GETS UP TO 46 YEARS IN PRISON

A man who was convicted earlier this month after DNA evidence identified him as the rapist in a 32-year-old case was sentenced yesterday to up to 46 years in prison for what the judge called a “brutal and heinous crime.” Fletcher Anderson Worrell, 58, received eight and one-third to 25 years for first-degree rape, the maximum possible, and seven to 21 years for first-degree robbery, with the sentences to run consecutively. He declined to speak before sentencing. Worrell was convicted Nov. 9 for the knifepoint attack and rape of Kathleen Ham on June 26, 1973, during a 5 a.m. invasion of her Manhattan apartment. Ms. Ham, 58, now a lawyer who lives in California, allowed her name to be made public to show she is not ashamed. A state Supreme Court justice, Bonnie Wittner, said she is grateful that she is a judge now and not 30 years ago. She said “a woman’s testimony was not sufficient in 1973” to convict a rapist; evidence to corroborate the woman’s word was needed then.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

U.S. SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR GAMBLING CASE

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear a case filed by a group of antigambling organizations seeking to overturn a 2001 New York state law that authorized the broad expansion of legal gambling in New York. The move by the nation’s highest court was the final nail in the coffin for the suit to prevent more Indian tribes from opening casinos in New York. “The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear this case effectively concludes this aspect of the war against the spread of commercialized gambling in this state,” an Albany lawyer representing the antigambling interests, Cornelius Murray, said. “There’s nowhere else to go,” he said. The 2001 gambling bill was approved as the state sought new revenues in the wake of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The law was the largest expansion of state-sanctioned gambling in New York’s history. Mr. Murray argued that because casino gambling is prohibited under the state constitution, the Legislature did not have the power to authorize the governor to negotiate compacts with Indian tribes for casino gaming.

– Associated Press