POLICE BLOTTER

ACS EMPLOYEE ARRESTED FOR ABUSING DAUGHTER

An administrative assistant from the city’s Administration for Children’s Services was arrested on assault charges last night for abusing her 7-year-old daughter, police said. Sharon Bines, 46, was arrested at about 10 p.m. at her home yesterday, police said. School officials alerted police to the case after noticing injuries to the child, who wasn’t named because of her age. Ms. Bines was charged with felony assault in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

– Special to the Sun

NYU PROFESSOR STABBED IN WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

A New York University professor was stabbed with a screwdriver while he was walking through Washington Square Park yesterday afternoon, police said. The professor, Joseph Church, 48, was stabbed at 4:40 p.m. by Mark Davilla, 32, of the Bronx, police said. Mr. Davilla has been arrested several times for robbery and drug charges, police said. Mr. Church was listed in stable condition at St. Vincent’s hospital yesterday. Mr. Church, who teaches music theater composition at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education.

– Special to the Sun

BRONX

DOZENS HOMELESS AFTER BRONX FIRE

Thirty-one firefighters suffered minor injuries and more than 50 families were left homeless following a six-alarm fire yesterday morning in an apartment building in the Bronx, fire and Red Cross officials said. The blaze erupted on the third floor of the six-story building in the Morrisania section and quickly spread to consume the roof, a Fire Department spokesman, John Criscuoli, said. The building was evacuated shortly after the blaze was reported at 6:41 a.m., and by 8:42 a.m., a sixth alarm was sounded, meaning over 150 firefighters and 50 fire units were needed to battle the blaze. It was declared out at 10:38 a.m. Injuries to the 31 firefighters ranged from smoke inhalation, to exhaustion, to “minor bumps, burns, and bruises,” Mr. Criscouli said. The preliminary cause was a severed wire found under a stove in a third-floor apartment. Red Cross spokeswoman, Annie Lazar, said 100 apartments were damaged. The agency was assessing how many people would need temporary housing.

– Associated Press

LONG ISLAND

OIL TRUCK MAKES DELIVERY TO WRONG HOUSE

BETHPAGE – Oil’s not well at the Tesoriero home. A driver for a Long Island company mistakenly pumped at least 50 gallons of heating oil into the family’s Bethpage home through a long-idle filler pipe after misreading the address on a bill, Juliann and Edward Tesoriero, said. They were forced from their home by the error. The oil flooded their basement, rendering the house uninhabitable for at least a month due to the fumes, the couple said. Everything in the basement – including carpeting, furniture, and pictures – was ruined. The couple was out running errands on Tuesday morning and returned home to find the unwanted delivery.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

OWNER OF LIVERY SERVICE PLEADS GUILTY TO GRAND LARCENY

The owner of a Queens livery service entered a guilty plea to grand larceny charges that he submitted claims to the state for nonexistent Medicaid recipients, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced yesterday. The owner of Magnificent 7s Enterprises, Incorporated, Michael LaRocca, will pay $225,000 to New York State and is expected to serve four months of weekends as restitution for the crime. He will be on probation for five years. Officials said LaRocca billed the state for transporting Queens residents to and from Saint John’s Episcopal Hospital.

– Special to the Sun

CITYWIDE

CITY TO OPEN 36 NEW SECONDARY SCHOOLS

The city will open 36 new small secondary schools in September with themes like environmentalism, tourism, and journalism, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday. The plan includes 13 high schools, 13 schools with grades six through 12, and 10 middle schools. “Your future is ahead of you, and the high school you go to will matter,” Mr. Bloomberg told the students at JHS 50 in Brooklyn, which will house the Academy for Young Writers in September. Over the past three years, the Bloomberg administration has opened 149 new small secondary schools. The new schools the mayor announced yesterday will enroll about 4,800 students in September, bringing the citywide enrollment for new secondary schools to about 50,000. Almost half the principals who will lead the new schools are graduates of the mayor’s Leadership Academy.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LAWMAKERS, BUSINESS GROUPS TO PROTEST PROPOSED CIGARETTE TAXES

Elected officials and business groups plan to protest today the increases on cigarette taxes Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki have proposed. Critics of the tax hikes say that before the city and state raise cigarette levies, they must start collecting taxes from Native American retailers who have long been exempted. The opponents, including a City Council member, Oliver Koppell, and a state senator, Jeff Klein, cite a unanimous 1994 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state could legally tax Native American cigarette retailers. Following the decision, state lawmakers passed legislation imposing taxes on the retailers, which they say the governor has refused to enforce.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun