New York Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

MANHATTAN


NEARLY 300 MORE BONE FRAGMENTS FOUND ON TOP OF WTC SKYSCRAPER


Three hundred more human bone fragments were recovered in the past four days from the roof of a skyscraper badly damaged by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the collapse of the World Trade Center, officials said yesterday. Workers have been going through the former Deutsche Bank building to remove toxic chemicals and trade center dust before they begin dismantling it floor by floor. They found 10 bone fragments on the rooftop when the cleanup began last fall and had found more than 80 in recent weeks.


– Associated Press


U.N. OFFICIAL JUMPS TO HIS DEATH


A United Nations official, Jose Campino, jumped to his death yesterday from a roof of a high-rise building located across the street from the United Nations headquarters. Campino worked in the Africa division of the Department of Political Affairs, and was described by a U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, as a 53-year-old mid-level official, and a Portuguese national. Ms. Okabe said that members of the political department were notified yesterday about what she described as a “death in the family.” The incident occurred outside U.N. jurisdiction and therefore was handled by the New York Police Department, rather than by Turtle Bay’s own security detail, Ms. Okabe said.


– Staff Reporter of the Sun


SIX SICKENED AT POSTAL FACILITY


Six workers were sickened by noxious fumes emanating from a package of strong cleaning solvent inside the U.S. Postal Service’s Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in Manhattan, but none required hospitalization, a Fire Department spokesman said yesterday.


– Associated Press


PRIEST TRIES TO SAFEGUARD CROSS AT WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE


Days after the terror attack on the World Trade Center, a steel cross emerged from the smoking rubble of ground zero as rescuers searched for the remains of thousands of people. This was not meant to be a cross when the center was constructed – just intersecting beams in the building’s structure. But after a rescuer discovered it, many workers considered it a godsend amid the chaos on the 16-acre site. “I thought, God did not abandon us at ground zero,” the Reverend Brian Jordan, a Franciscan priest who on September 11, 2001, lost his mentor, the Reverend Mychal F. Judge, chaplain of the city’s Fire Department, said. As reconstruction starts on the decimated site, Rev. Jordan is trying to ensure no one has the power to remove the cross.


– Associated Press


CITYWIDE


MAN SITTING ON SUBWAY TRAIN FOUND TO BE DEAD


A man who remained in his seat after his subway train pulled into the last stop in Coney Island yesterday was found to be dead, police said. The man, whose name was not immediately known but was described by police as in his 50s, was found sitting in the front car of an N train at 1:55 a.m. When police checked to see why the man wasn’t getting off at the Surf and Stillwell avenues station, they discovered that he was dead. The man did not appear to have any injuries, police said.


– Associated Press


SURVEY: POLICE TOO AGGRESSIVE ON GOP CONVENTION DEMONSTRATORS


An overwhelming number of New York City voters approve of the job police are doing but many believe they were “too aggressive” in dealing with demonstrators during the 2004 Republican National Convention, according to a poll released yesterday. Forty-nine percent of the 1,316 poll respondents said police were heavy-handed with anti-GOP protesters, while 35% said they were not, the Quinnipiac University poll said. The rest were undecided.


– Associated Press


IN THE COURTS


MOTHER WHO LET DAUGHTERS HAVE SEX WITH LAWYER PLEADS GUILTY


A woman who let her two underage daughters have sex with a wealthy lawyer for money pleaded guilty yesterday to endangering the welfare of a child. The 38-year-old woman, in exchange for a sentence of 90 days in jail, admitted that when her daughters were young teens she let them have paid sex with James Colliton, 42, a lawyer formerly at the prestigious Manhattan firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The woman, whose name was withheld to protect her daughters’ identities, also admitted that one girl was just 13 when she began virtually living at Mr. Colliton’s East 57th Street apartment in 2004.


– Associated Press


MAN SENTENCED IN SLASHING OF POLICE OFFICER


A man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for slashing a police officer’s throat with a carpet knife, narrowly missing a critical artery. Radcliffe Meeks, 33, was convicted last month of attempted murder and aggravated assault, among other charges. He was sentenced Wednesday at state Supreme Court in Queens. Prosecutors said police were responding to a call of a man with a gun on March 22, 2005, when they approached Meeks. A struggle ensued, and Meeks slashed Officer Robert Burns on the left side of his face, from his throat to his ear, and on his hand, authorities said.


– Associated Press


REPUBLICAN BUSINESSMAN’S CLAIMS AGAINST APA CALLED ‘NONSENSE’


Calling the claims “nonsense” and “irrelevant,” the state Attorney General’s office has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a prominent Republican businessman who claims his new house was maliciously targeted for permit enforcement by the Adirondack Park Agency. In court papers, an assistant attorney general, Susan Taylor, said Arthur Spiegel’s half-built house, with “fabulous” views of Lake Placid and Whiteface Mountain, violated three provisions of its APA permit.


– Associated Press


MAN SENTENCED IN OVERDOSE DEATHS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS


A man who admitted giving cocaine to two college students who died from drug overdoses in his apartment pleaded guilty yesterday in exchange for a three-month jail sentence and five years probation. Alfredo Morales, 34, pleaded guilty to attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance. He admitted he gave cocaine to Mellie Carballo, a Hunter College freshman, and Maria Pesantez, a New York University sophomore.


– Associated Press


ACLU SAYS PATRIOT ACT EXCLUDES MUSLIM SCHOLAR FROM U.S.


A judge said yesterday he was troubled because American authorities have not decided whether a leading Muslim scholar can enter America to make appearances before organizations that have invited him. A U.S. district judge, Paul Crotty, said he would consider ordering the appropriate government authorities to decide on the status of Tariq Ramadan so he can resolve a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.


– Associated Press


GROUPS ASK JUDGE TO TOSS OUT RESTRICTIONS ON AIDS FUNDING


A U.S. government ultimatum making federally funded health groups providing HIV prevention services pledge opposition to prostitution has “spawned a First Amendment nightmare,” a judge was told yesterday. Lawyer Rebekah Diller, asking the judge to reject the measure, said three American public health organizations serving as key partners in government efforts to stem the spread of AIDS internationally and receiving government funding want to speak freely.


– Associated Press


SOCIALITE SENTENCED TO THREE TO NINE YEARS FOR THEFT


A socialite who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $2 million from her boss, a business associate of Revlon cosmetics mogul Ron Perelman, was sentenced yesterday to three to nine years in prison. Catesby Kilmer pleaded guilty October 3, 2005, to grand larceny, admitting she stole millions of dollars from the vice chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Incorporated, Howard Gittis, during the 10 years she was his personal assistant. Mr. Perelman is chairman of the holding company. The sentence imposed by a state Supreme Court justice, Daniel FitzGerald, means Kilmer must serve at least three years before she is eligible for parole. The judge also ordered her to make restitution of $2.25 million. – Associated Press


ALBANY


BRUNO SAYS PATAKI’S BUDGET VETOES WILL CAUSE PAIN AND SUFFERING


The Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, said yesterday that Governor Pataki’s budget vetoes would “create a lot of pain and potential suffering for the people of New York State.” Mr. Bruno said Mr. Pataki’s decision to cut $2.9 billion from the state budget would cost New York residents about $4.1 billion in tax cuts over the next several years, close struggling nursing homes, and slow job creation.


– Associated Press


STATEWIDE


SERIAL KILLER DIES AFTER BECOMING ILL IN PRISON


A serial murderer who served time on death row before New York abolished capital punishment died of natural causes yesterday, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction said. Robert Shulman, 52, died at the Albany Medical Center at 3:15 a.m., a correction spokeswoman, Linda Foglia, said. Shulman was convicted in March 1999 by a Suffolk County jury of first-degree murder in the deaths of three women. The following year he was convicted in Westchester County of murdering two victims whose bodies were found in Yonkers.


– Associated Press


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