IN THE COURTS

FOUR TEENAGERS ARRAIGNED IN DEATH OF NYU STUDENT

Four teenagers accused of chasing a New York University student into the path of a car that killed him have been arraigned on charges of second-degree murder. The four, one arraigned late Sunday and three arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court, remained jailed without bail pending their next court appearances. Andre Johnson, 15, Humberto Guzman, 13, and Denzell Fell, 13, were told to return on May 14, and Hassan Mayfield, 15, on May 13. The four, arrested Saturday, were charged as adults, but if convicted they would be sentenced as juveniles.

– Associated Press

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGE

WHITE PLAINS – An assistant principal at a New York City high school pleaded guilty yesterday to distributing child pornography to entice children into meeting him for sex, prosecutors announced. Steven Mark Rubinstein, of the Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers, was ordered detained after he admitted in U.S. District Court he had online chats with two people he thought were 13-year-old girls, prosecutors said. In reality, he was trading sexually explicit messages in Internet chat rooms with undercover officers from his work station in the school and a home computer in Poughkeepsie, a release from the U.S. attorney’s office said.

– Associated Press

COURT: PROGRAM CAN’T BE SUED FOR CAUSING ARREST OF IRISH WORKERS

A work training program that reported an Irish couple to federal investigators after an employer said they were threats to national security cannot be sued for causing their incarceration, a federal appeals court said yesterday.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

MURTHA CALLS FOR ‘REDEPLOYMENT’ OF TROOPS FROM IRAQ

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Rep. Carolyn Maloney of Queens, both Democrats, addressed several hundred New Yorkers at a “town hall”-style meeting yesterday as Mr. Murtha reiterated his call for a “redeployment” of troops from Iraq and a reallocation of funds from the Iraq war to the war on terrorism. Speaking at the Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist in Midtown, Mr. Murtha said yesterday that the funds saved by redeploying forces in Iraq could be used elsewhere on the terrorism front.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CELEBRITIES, OFFICIALS BREAK GROUND ON HIGH LINE PARK

An abandoned elevated railroad that slices through the West Side of downtown Manhattan is on track to becoming the 1 1/2 -mile-long park that activists, public officials, and even some celebrities have envisioned for years. Yesterday’s ground breaking on the park, which is expected to open in 2008, drew a crowd that included fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, actors Kevin Bacon and Edward Norton, plus Mayor Bloomberg, and Senators Clinton and Schumer.

– Associated Press

MEMORIAL HELD FOR DANA REEVE

Barbara Walters, Senator Clinton, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the New York Yankees manager, Joe Torre, were among the celebrities paying tribute to Dana Reeve at the singer-actress’s memorial service at the New Amsterdam Theatre yesterday. Reeve died of lung cancer at age 44 on March 6, a year and a half after her husband, “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve. Reeve, who lived in Pound Ridge, had devoted herself to her husband’s care and became an activist in the search for a cure for spinal cord injuries after he suffered near-total paralysis in a horse-riding accident in 1995.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

FASO MISSED DEADLINE FOR REGISTERING FOR DONATIONS

A former state Assembly member who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, John Faso, missed the cut-off for registering more than $200,000 in donations for the January 15 financial filing, according to campaign records. The State Board of Elections set a January 11 deadline for candidates to register their donations in time for the January 15 periodic filing. Mr. Faso, according to campaign finance records submitted to the Board of Elections, registered dozens of donations a day after the deadline. The records show that he registered more contributions on January 12 than any other day covered by the filing, a sign of a last-minute push to hit the $1-million mark in donations. A spokeswoman for Mr. Faso denied that the candidate had missed any deadline and said all records were properly submitted for the January 15 filing.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NATION’S LONGEST-SERVING STATE LEGISLATOR TO RETIRE

A Republican state senator, John Marchi, the longest serving state legislator in the country, will not run for office again, the senator said yesterday. Mr. Marchi, 84, an assistant majority leader, has served in the Senate since 1957, holding numerous leadership positions and playing a key role in legislation on education, state financial oversight and the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill. There had been speculation over Mr. Marchi’s future at the Capitol after he was taken to an Albany hospital last month for bleeding in his esophagus.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

ACTRESS PALTROW GIVES BIRTH TO BOY, MOSES

It’s a boy for Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. Moses Martin, the couple’s second child, was born during the weekend in New York City, the office of Ms. Paltrow’s publicist, Stephen Huvane, said yesterday. No other information was released.

– Associated Press

ELTON JOHN CLEANS HIS CLOSET FOR CHARITY

Elton John is selling thousands of pieces of his personal wardrobe to raise money for his AIDS charity. The sale, which runs today through Saturday, includes 10,000 coats, sweaters, suits, and other garments worn by Mr. John and his partner, David Furnish. A temporary shop, Elton’s Closet, was set up in the concourse of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan for the sale. Proceeds benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

POLL: NEW YORKERS SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

New Yorkers are more likely to support gay marriage now than they were in recent years, according to the results of a poll released yesterday. The gay rights group that commissioned the poll, Empire State Pride Agenda, announced that the data found that 53% of New Yorkers support same-sex marriage while 38% of New Yorkers do not. In 2004, a similar poll found 47% percent of New Yorkers to be in support of same-sex marriage and 46% against it. The topic of gay marriage will likely receive increased public attention in New York in the coming months. For the last two years several lawsuits filed by gay couples who were denied marriage licenses have been rising through the courts. The state’s highest court is scheduled to hear arguments in four such cases on May 31. Gay rights advocates have pledged to begin lobbying the Legislature to establish same-sex marriages if the Court of Appeals rules that the state constitution does not afford gay couples the right to marry.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

WOMAN QUESTIONED IN SHOOTING OF HUSBAND

New Jersey police are holding a woman in connection with the shooting of her husband in Brooklyn. Todd Jamison, 43, was in stable condition at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center as of early yesterday evening, police said. On Monday at 10 a.m., Mr. Jamison was driving to a bank in East New York when his wife, Alison Jamison, 42, allegedly pulled up next to him in front of a school, J.H.S. 166, at 800 Van Sicklen Ave. She fired her service weapon several times, striking her husband at least four times. Police said they captured Ms. Jamison at Budget Rent-a-Car at Newark Liberty International Airport. Mr. Jamison retired from his position as a community affairs officer in the 70th Precinct in Kensington in January 2005 after a two-decade career. Working in the same precinct, Ms. Jamison was scheduled to return to work today after a vacation. New York police are awaiting her extradition.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

41 CHARGED IN DRUG SWEEP

A 10-month investigation resulted in the arrest of 41 middle- and top-level drug dealers operating in two Queens housing developments, the police commissioner and Queens district attorney announced yesterday. Police seized five guns, 100 envelopes of heroin, 8 ounces of marijuana, 2 ounces of cocaine, and almost $4,000 during the investigation in Baisley Park Housing Development and Jamaica Houses, the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said. The defendants are charged with various drug-related crimes, the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, said. Police are searching for at least 20 other drug dealers, Mr. Kelly said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

RETIRED PORT AUTHORITY OFFICER SHOT DEAD

A retired Port Authority police officer was fatally shot last night in the parking lot of a Staten Island strip mall, police said. Steven Vitale, 55, was going to a Chinese restaurant on Richmond Hill Road with his wife at 7 p.m. yesterday when police said another driver followed him there and opened fire. Vitale died at Staten Island University Hospital a short time later. Meanwhile, police – who were looking for the gunman last night – said they found his 2005 green Honda Element in a driveway at Travis Avenue and Kelly Boulevard.

– Special to the Sun