CITYWIDE

COMMISSIONER’S CHRISTMAS GREETING CITES SUN

The commissioner of the New York City Department of Records & Information Services, Brian Andersson, dug into the municipal archives and sent out an unusual Christmas greeting – one connected to the history of The New York Sun. The greeting begins with a scanned photo of a birth certificate dated July 20, 1889, of Laura Virginia O’Hanlon. “This birth certificate,” the greeting declares, “belongs to a New Yorker whose name will forever be associated with Christmas.” As an 8-year-old, she wrote to the Sun, asking if there was a Santa Claus. She wrote: “Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.'” Editorial writer Francis Church’s response, which contained the immortal line “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” became one of the most beloved newspaper articles in history. Mr. Andersson’s Christmas greeting offers a peek at the family history of this famous letter writer. She was born at 321 E. 20th St., her mother and father were 25 and 26 years old respectively at the time of her birth, and her father was a physician, the birth certificate shows.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

VICTIM IN CHRISTMAS DAY HOUSE FIRE IDENTIFIED

BRENTWOOD – A Brentwood man who was killed by a Christmas Day fire in his home has been identified, police said yesterday. Mark York, 54, was found dead on the floor of his room in the multiple-dwelling home at 40 S. Fifth Ave., Suffolk County police said. Police and the Brentwood Fire Department responded to the fire around 4 p.m. Sunday. A firefighter discovered York’s body. The cause of the fire still hadn’t been determined yesterday, but police said it was not considered suspicious.

– Associated Press

PROSECUTORS: ALLEGED MOB COP BRAGGED ABOUT HELP FROM NYPD

A retired police detective accused of working for the Mafia was recorded saying that a “high ranking” member of the New York Police Department helped him get fake police identification, prosecutors said in court papers. Louis Eppolito was being recorded when he told a government informant earlier this year that “a high-ranking member of the NYPD had provided him with an active-duty ID card,” an assistant U.S. attorney, Robert Henoch, wrote in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein, according to reports published yesterday. Mr. Eppolito, who was charged with accepting thousands of dollars a month to settle scores for the Luchese organized crime family, has been retired from the force for more than a decade.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE: TAXI DRIVER KILLED IN HIT-AND-RUN

A Queens taxi driver died early yesterday morning when his cab was struck by a hit-and-run driver, police said. Gurbaj Singh, 40, of Queens, was traveling southbound on 114th Street in Ozone Park, when a 2000 Chevy Astrovan traveling eastbound on Rockaway Boulevard allegedly ran a red light and struck Singh’s yellow cab, causing it to ignite, police said. Singh was pronounced dead at the scene, police reported. According to police, they are looking for the driver and occupants of the van, who they said fled on foot after the accident. Police said they are also to look for another hit-and-run driver whose silver Nissan allegedly struck and killed 71-year-old Nevilly Mills at the intersection of Rockaway Parkway and Avenue B in Brooklyn just after midnight on Christmas Day.

– Special to the Sun

TRISTATE

TWO OFFICERS BELIEVED DEAD AFTER VEHICLE PLUNGES INTO FRIGID RIVER

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Two police officers in an emergency truck plunged about 45 feet into a river from an open drawbridge shrouded in dense fog, and officials said yesterday that one had died. Authorities were continuing to search the murky, frigid waters for the other. The body of Officer Shawn Carson, 40, was recovered at 10 p.m. Christmas night, and authorities scoured the Hackensack River yesterday for Officer Robert Nguyen, 30. However, the search was suspended around dusk yesterday and was expected to resume at 7 a.m. today.

– Associated Press