POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE ARREST THREE FOR ALLEGEDLY ASSAULTING OFFICER

Police arrested three men in connection with the assault of a police officer in the Bronx that resulted in his shooting Saturday. Police charged Nelson Rodriguez, 26, Edwin Rivera, 25, and Daryl Massey, 22, in the assault, in which a security camera captured five men kicking and beating an off-duty police officer, Eric Hernandez, 25, in a Bronx White Castle restaurant. According to police, Officer Hernandez was subsequently shot in the restaurant’s parking lot when an on-duty officer responding to the assault found him holding an assailant at gunpoint and shot him three times apparently not realizing Officer Hernandez was a police officer. Police released a security videotape depicting the assault Sunday, and said yesterday that a number of tips resulted from the tape, including a call from a police officer who recognized Mr. Rodriguez. All three men are charged with attempted assault in the first degree, and assault in the second degree. Police said last night they are still looking for the other two assailants. As of last night, Officer Hernandez re mained in critical condition.

– Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

EX-NEW YORKER ACCUSED OF KILLING CHILD PLEADS NOT GUILTY

DE QUEEN, Ark. – A former New York woman accused of smothering her three children was distraught over the breakup of her marriage and told police that the children asked that she kill them, too, when they saw her attempt suicide with an ant poison. Eleazar Paula Mendez, 43, pleaded not guilty to three counts of capital murder Monday and was ordered held without bail. A judge ordered a mental evaluation that will take months to complete. The children’s father, Arturo Morales, met with De Queen police yesterday afternoon after traveling to Arkansas from New York, where he lives. Prosecutor Tom Cooper said Ms. Mendez and her family moved to the small Arkansas town about a year ago to give the children a safer environment but her husband couldn’t make a living and returned to New York to work.The family was together in New York last summer, and Mr. Morales was to have traveled to De Queen at Christmas but didn’t. “According to her, she found out he wanted a divorce and no longer wanted to be with her or the children,” Mr. Cooper said. “She got on the bus and brought the kids back to De Queen. Over the next few weeks she became despondent and depressed and ultimately decided to take her life.” Prosecutors said investigators found two notes in Spanish, one to her husband, and one to whomever found them.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

ALBERT ELLIS WAS REMOVED FROM HIS INSTITUTE ILLEGALLY, JUDGE RULES

The founder of a psychotherapy institute that teaches people they can think and act themselves out of emotional problems, Albert Ellis, was wrongly removed from the board of the center he founded almost 50 years ago, a judge ruled yesterday. Mr. Ellis, 92, was voted off the board of the nonprofit Albert Ellis Institute, which he founded in 1959, amid accusations that he was receiving excessive benefits from the organization to pay for his medical expenses.The removal occurred at a regularly scheduled meeting of the institute’s board of trustees on September 18, 2005, when six members of the board – excluding Mr. Ellis – voted 5-0 to expel him, with one abstention. A state Supreme Court justice, Edward Lehner, said in his seven-page decision, which returns Mr. Ellis to the board, that no notice had been given that the board would take such a vote and Mr. Ellis was not given a chance to speak.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

PATAKI OPPOSES FEDERAL TRUST FOR ONEIDA LAND

The Pataki administration yesterday opposed an application by the Oneida Indian Nation to place nearly 17,000 acres of central New York property in a federal land trust that would essentially exempt the parcels from local and state laws and taxes.The application, if approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior, would affect hundreds of properties in Madison and Oneida counties purchased by the tribe from profits of its casino operations that include resort hotels and golf courses. “It is unprecedented and would have profound negative impacts to the state, its political subdivisions, residents, and citizens,” counsel to Governor Pataki, Richard Platkin, said. “I find no legal authority for the Secretary of the Interior to act on the instant application.”

– Associated Press