CITYWIDE

MOTHER OF KILLED NYPD OFFICER SAYS SHE WILL SUE CITY

The mother of an off-duty police officer who was shot to death by a colleague in a case of mistaken identity has filed a legal claim indicating she intends to sue the city. The notice of claim was filed Wednesday by Cynthia Salichs, the mother of Officer Eric Hernandez.

– Associated Press

SEVEN CONNECTED TO ANTHRAX PATIENT TREATED AS PRECAUTION

Seven people have been given preventive antibiotics after a dancer connected to them accidentally became infected with inhalation anthrax from imported animal hides he was using to make drums, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. The seven people being treated may have been exposed to the hides.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WORKING ON WIRETAP REQUEST

BUFFALO – The Justice Department has asked for more time to answer an indicted Lackawanna businessman’s questions about whether agents used secret wiretaps while investigating him. A U.S. district judge, William Skretny, had given the government until February 27 to respond to the request by Mohamed Albanna, who is charged with two relatives of running an illegal money-transmitting business that sent more than $3.5 million from western New York to Yemen.

– Associated Press

REP. SWEENEY IN HOSPITAL; BLOOD PRESSURE CHECKED

Rep. John Sweeney, hospitalized Wednesday after complaining of migraines, will stay in the hospital another day so doctors can monitor his blood pressure. Mr. Sweeney, a Republican of Clifton Park, checked himself into Albany Medical Center after a press conference at the Port of Albany.

– Associated Press

STATE RELEASES ACTION PLAN FOR FLU PANDEMIC

An emergency plan released yesterday for any future pandemic in New York such as bird flu would include the closing of schools and businesses and speedy distribution of vaccines. The public would also be advised to stockpile two weeks of food and water rations if the prospect of a pandemic seemed likely, the state health commissioner, Antonia Novello. The measures, part of the state’s first flu pandemic plan, would largely be at the discretion of local health agencies.

– Associated Press

FALLEN SOLDIER’S MISSING DOG TAGS RETURNED TO FAMILY AFTER 35 YEARS

ITHACA – The return of a dead Vietnam War soldier’s lost dog tags brought a family full circle yesterday, exactly 35 years to the day of the attack in which he died. Siblings Franklin and Roberta Crawford said their only regret was that their father died last year without knowing Private First Class Douglas Crawford’s dog tags had been found.

– Associated Press

KILLER’S CONFESSION DEBATED BEFORE TRIAL

In a letter from prison, antiabortion extremist James Kopp stands by statements detailing his fatal shooting of an abortion provider, and says he wants to halt efforts to keep them out of his next trial. Kopp, who is imprisoned on a murder conviction, faces charges in U.S. District Court for allegedly violating a law protecting access to abortion.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

SEX ABUSE SUSPECT CONSIDERS PSYCHIATRIC DEFENSE

A writer accused of posing as a firefighter and sexually abusing a Manhattan woman on Halloween night will get nearly two extra months to decide whether he will present a psychiatric defense at trial, his lawyer said yesterday. Peter Braunstein, 41, an aspiring playwright and journalist who once wrote for Women’s Wear Daily, has pleaded not guilty to an indictment that charges him with arson, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, sexual abuse, and assault related to the attack.

– Associated Press

WORKER’S BLOWTORCH SETS PLAZA HOTEL STAIRWELL ON FIRE

A worker using a blowtorch accidentally set a stairwell at the Plaza hotel on fire yesterday, firefighters said. No one was hurt. The Plaza, at the edge of Central Park, is being renovated and partly turned into condominiums.

– Associated Press

BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN REFINERIES ARE LONG GONE, BUT THE OIL ISN’T

Big Oil left most of the Brooklyn waterfront decades ago, but the industry’s legacy still bubbles to the surface on Newtown Creek. The slow leak is just a hint of what refineries left behind during more than a century on the creek’s banks. Beneath the industrial yards and townhouses of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section lies an underground oil slick, spread out over an area as big as 41 football fields, containing more petroleum than the Exxon Valdez dumped off the Alaskan coast.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

HOSPITALIZED PATAKI MEETS WITH BLOOMBERG

Governor Pataki met with Mayor Bloomberg to discuss a range of issues yesterday morning even as Mr. Pataki remained hospitalized after undergoing surgery to correct a rare postoperative complication, the governor’s spokesman said.

– Associated Press

SPITZER: PATAKI ADMINISTRATION POISED TO VIOLATE LAW MARCH 1

Come Wednesday, state government will be breaking the law and begin costing taxpayers millions of dollars by choosing not to enforce legislation that would end the huge sales advantage that Indian tribes have over taxpaying competitors off reservations, the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said.

– Associated Press

CAMPAIGN VETERANS: DON’T COUNT SUOZZI OUT

While Eliot Spitzer has the endorsements, the money and a huge lead in the polls over Tom Suozzi in their emerging battle for the Democratic nomination for governor, veterans of such contests in the past said the attorney general shouldn’t get too confident. “Supporters of Eliot – and I am a big supporter – make a big mistake if they take Tom Suozzi lightly,” Mayor Koch said.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

FOUR ARRAIGNED IN TISSUE-STEALING SCHEME

The owner of a New Jersey biomedical firm and three co-conspirators were arraigned yesterday on charges related to the illicit sale of human bones and tissue that prosecutors said they unlawfully removed from cadavers. The owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, Michael Mastromarino, as well as Joseph Nicelli, Lee Crucetta, and Christopher Aldorasi made about $2 million by removing and selling human body parts, including bones, tendons, heart valves, and other tissue, prosecutors said yesterday. All four pleaded guilty to charges including body stealing, unlawful dissection, and forgery. Nicelli, the former owner of Daniel George & Sons funeral home in Brooklyn, routinely supplied Mastromarino with bodies, from which he extracted tissue in a secret “operating room” in the funeral home, prosecutors said.

– Special to the Sun