CITYWIDE

HUMAN REMAINS FOUND IN BUILDING NEAR WTC SITE

Construction workers cleaning toxic waste from a vacant skyscraper across from the World Trade Center site have found four more human body parts in the building, after finding 10 bone fragments on the rooftop last fall, officials said yesterday. The city medical examiner’s office will once again extract DNA from the remains recovered from the former Deutsche Bank building and try to match it against a database of the 2,749 people killed at the trade center during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office, Ellen Borakove, said.

– Associated Press

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE RECOMMENDS CLOSING 31 PARISHES, 14 SCHOOLS

In its most dramatic effort in more than 150 years to cater to the region’s changing Catholic demographics, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese is recommending the closure of 31 parishes and 14 schools, the New York Times reports today. Seventeen of the 31 parish closures are proposed in Manhattan in the Bronx, a result of the borough’s changing make-up, according to the article. Five new parishes are also planned in some of the areas around the city that have rising numbers of Catholics, including Staten Island, Orange County, and Dutchess County, the article said. Some of the spots will be sold – others will be converted into smaller chapels or community spaces, the article said. The final decision will follow a round of discussions with the communities that will be affected, a spokesman for the Archdiocese told to the New York Times.

– Special to the Sun

MAYOR BLASTS CONGRESS FOR MULLING ‘GOD-AWFUL’ GUN LEGISLATION

Mayor Bloomberg blasted Congress yesterday for considering what he called a “God-awful piece of legislation,” one that would bar federal gun sales data from being used against dealers who sell weapons later used in crimes. Mr. Bloomberg railed against the bill offered by Rep. Lamar Smith, a Republican of Texas, telling a House Judiciary Subcommittee that it would lead to more shooting deaths of police officers and civilians.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

OFF-DUTY OFFICER CHARGED WITH DWI IN DEADLY CRASH

An off-duty housing officer is accused of driving into and killing an artist, Julio Alberto Ortega-Moncada, 31, snapping photographs on a closed roadway of the Queensboro Bridge yesterday. After ending his shift at the housing unit stationed on East 123rd Street, the officer, Brandon Colon, 30, drank until he became intoxicated and then got behind the wheel of his Ford Explorer, law enforcement officials said. At a little after 3 a.m. he swerved his vehicle around a series of orange cones to gain access to the south outer roadway of the 59th Street Bridge, an area temporarily closed for cleaning, police said. He was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated and was expected to be arraigned by this morning. A member of the Police Department for more than five years, Officer Colon was suspended.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TEACHER ARRESTED IN FAKED DEPLOYMENT

A Bronx special education teacher was arrested yesterday for telling school officials he was being deployed to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts when he actually traveled to Brazil for personal reasons, investigators said. James Thomas, who is also the pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, was charged with forgery, false records, and larceny. Rev. Thomas, a teacher at the Fordham Leadership Academy for Business and Technology, received $828 in salary for four days in October during which he claimed that he had been on active military duty in New Orleans, according to Richard Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools.

– Associated Press

MAN CHARGED WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY FOR SEVERING PIT BULL’S TAIL

A Brooklyn man was charged with animal cruelty yesterday for allegedly cutting off part of his pit bull’s tail by striking her with a dumbbell and then failing to take the injured dog to a veterinarian.

– Associated Press

MAN ARRESTED IN FATAL STABBING OF REVEREND

Homicide detectives investigating the fatal stabbing of a reverend and civil rights activist arrested a man, who said the victim had asked him for sex and grabbed his crotch. The Reverend Philip Mann, 68, was found lying on the floor of his East Harlem apartment with a stab wound to the chest around 5 p.m. Monday. Police said yesterday they were charging David Jordan with second-degree murder. Mr. Jordan, 44, told television reporters that Mann asked him to have sex and he refused.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

WITNESS DESCRIBES DIGGING GRAVE OF ALLEGED VICTIM OF ‘MAFIA COPS’

A tow truck driver testified yesterday that he was forced to dig the grave of a jeweler who was allegedly kidnapped and killed in 1986 by two decorated detectives moonlighting as hit men. A gangster involved in the Brooklyn slaying “told me that I had to help bury the dead man,” Peter Franzone said at the federal trial of so-called “Mafia Cops” Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa.

– Associated Press

COURT: POLICE DISCIPLINE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE BARGAINED

ALBANY – New York City and other localities do not have to make police discipline a subject for contract talks with unions if there are local laws providing for how such cases will be handled, the state’s top court ruled yesterday. The 6-0 ruling from New York’s Court of Appeals, upholding lower appeals court actions, stemmed from a disputed decision by New York City officials in 2000 in which they refused to bargain over provisions covering police discipline even though the expiring contract had dealt with such issues.

– Associated Press

LAWYER: PROTEST VIDEOTAPING IS NEEDED TO FIGHT TERRORISM

Police video surveillance of demonstrators is a crucial safety measure to deter terrorists, a city lawyer told a judge hearing a challenge to the practice yesterday. “The presence of police with video cameras at these events has a deterrent effect,” a city attorney, Gail Donoghue, said.

– Associated Press

EXECUTIVE PLEADS GUILTY TO EMBEZZLING MONEY TO PAY DOMINATRIX

A charity foundation’s former accountant, accused of embezzling heart disease research funds to pay an Ohio dominatrix to beat him, pleaded guilty yesterday to grand larceny and admitted that he stole more than $237,000. Abraham Alexander, 45, of East Meadow, N.Y., admitted he stole the money from the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

– Associated Press

DEFENDANTS DENY FAULT IN DEADLY BOAT ACCIDENT

ALBANY- Defendants accused of helping to capsize a boat, killing 20 elderly tourists last year on an Adirondack lake, argued in court papers they weren’t at fault and the accident was caused by events beyond their control.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

MEDICAID FRAUD RECOVERY INCREASES, BUT CRITICS SAY IT’S NOT ENOUGH

ALBANY – Investigations into Medicaid fraud last year netted more than four times the money recovered the previous year, but critics say the state needs to go much further in reforming the state’s costly program. The state attorney general’s office yesterday announced its Medicaid Fraud Control Unit recovered $274 million in 2005, compared to $63 million the previous year. The announcement, from aides to the state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, comes as the state Legislature continues to grapple with how to best root out fraud in the state’s Medicaid system.

– Associated Press

POLICE OPERATION NETS 169 FUGITIVES

ALBANY – A police sting has led to the capture of 169 of the state’s most dangerous fugitives living in the Albany region, bringing the total number of criminals arrested in the ongoing effort to nearly 500 statewide, officials said yesterday. The sting was part of Operation Rolling Thunder, a collaboration among local, state, and federal agencies that began in November.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

SILVER: LEGISLATURE WOULD BOOST PATAKI’S FUNDING OF CITY SCHOOLS

The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said yesterday that he expects the Legislature’s 2006-07 budget to include $410 million to $450 million more in operating aid for New York City schools. Governor Pataki has proposed $104 million more standard school aid for New York City schools. Mr. Pataki also proposed a separate fund that could, if enacted, provide another $225 million to New York City schools.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

OFFICER RESCUES CHOKING CHILD AFTER NANNY STRUCK BY CAR

The baby was blue, and the nanny was sprawled in the middle of Second Avenue with a bone sticking out of her leg. Officer Edgar Louisjuste rushed the choking child to a friend’s van, called an ambulance for the nanny, and gently patted the 1-year-old boy’s back until he vomited – and started breathing again. Both the child and his injured nanny were at the same hospital.

– Associated Press