POLICE BLOTTER

GIRL DIES AFTER BEING PINNED UNDER SCHOOL BUS

An 8-year-old Brooklyn girl died yesterday after being pinned underneath a school bus, police said. Police said Amber Sadiq was crossing Nostrand Avenue near Crown Street shortly after 3 p.m. when the parked school bus started rolling up the street and struck her. Emergency responders used a crane to lift the bus off the trapped girl, a second grader at the nearby P.S. 161, but she was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital at 3:40 p.m., police said. Last night, police said the bus driver had stepped off the bus and secured it while he went to find something to eat. Investigators last night were planning to question a 9-year-old boy who may have snuck into the bus and released the parking break, police said.

– Special to the Sun

TRAFFIC AGENT ARRESTED FOR ISSUING FALSE TICKETS

A Manhattan traffic agent was arrested for issuing summonses to vehicles that were not violating parking laws, police said. The traffic enforcement agent, Nivea Cloud, 30, was charged with 27 counts of falsifying business records, 27 counts of offering official records for filing, and official misconduct. An individual who received one of the summonses may have reported her, prompting the internal affairs investigation police said led to her arrest. Police said Ms. Cloud was an agent from July 2003 until her resignation yesterday. The parking summonses were voided, police said.

– Special to the Sun

TEENAGER, OUT TO GET ICE CREAM, DIES AFTER HARLEM SHOOTING

A teenager was fatally shot blocks from his home after he stepped out to get some ice cream, police and his father said. Kelly Rush, 19, was shot three times in the chest early Sunday after a dispute on a street in the Harlem section of Manhattan, said police spokesman Martin Speechley. He was pronounced dead a few hours later at Harlem Hospital.

– Associated Press

POLICE RULE NEW JERSEY MAN’S DEATH AS A HOMICIDE

The medical examiner said the death of a New Jersey man who was found unconscious in Chelsea early Sunday is a homicide, a spokeswoman said. An autopsy showed the cause of death was blunt force injury to the head, which caused a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging, the spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said. Thomas Whitney Jr., 24, of Hoboken, died Sunday after EMS found him unconscious earlier in the morning at the intersection of West 19th Street and Sixth Avenue, police said. As of yesterday, police said no arrests had been made, and an investigation is ongoing.

– Special to the Sun

ATTEMPTED-MURDER CHARGE IN SHOOTING OF OFFICER

WHITE PLAINS – A man accused of shooting a policeman in the foot as they struggled for the officer’s gun has been charged with attempted murder. A Westchester County grand jury indicted Michael Mitchell, 33, of the Bronx, on charges including first-degree attempted murder and attempted aggravated murder, a district attorney, Janet Di-Fiore, said yesterday.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

WTC FOUNDATION HEAD GOES ON 15-CITY TOUR FOR MEMORIAL

The head of the foundation raising money for the World Trade Center memorial is beginning a 15-city tour to build support for it but said fund-raising is still off until its budget and design issues are resolved. The president of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Gretchen Dykstra, was to meet with high school students in East Hartford, Conn., and business leaders in Hartford, Conn., today. Over the next six months she plans to tour other cities including Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix, and San Diego.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

McGREEVEY, PARTNER MAY MOVE TO NEW YORK

TRENTON, N.J. – Governor McGreevey and his new partner are still house hunting, and have broadened their search to include possible digs in New York City. A spokesman for the couple said the nation’s first openly gay governor and his investment adviser partner of several months plan to rent an apartment in Manhattan while looking for more permanent quarters in New York or New Jersey. They had been eyeing a house in Plainfield, a gay-friendly city in central New Jersey, but the deal recently fell through. “They have sold the loft in the city and are going to rent an apartment in the city until they decide where they are going to live,” Jonathan Capehart, who handles publicity for Mr. McGreevey and his partner, Mark O’Donnell, said.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

HIGH COURT REJECTS APPEAL IN SUBWAY-PUSH HOMICIDE

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal in the case of a mentally ill man whose conviction was overturned in the 1999 death of a woman pushed into the path of a subway train. The state of New York had asked the high court to review the case of Andrew Goldstein, in which the prosecution’s psychiatric expert was permitted to testify about statements made to her by people who did not testify at trial.

– Associated Press

NINE WEST SETTLES SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWSUIT FOR $600,000

Shoe retailer Nine West and its parent company will pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that female employees were groped, subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, and taunted about their Hispanic origin, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said yesterday. The EEOC sued in Manhattan federal court in October 2004 after a female employee of Nine West filed charges with the commission on behalf of herself and co-workers at the company’s corporate office.

– Associated Press

GOVERNMENT SAYS GOTTI IS WORKING FOR THE MOB

A federal grand jury charged John “Junior” Gotti yesterday with committing a series of mob-related crimes in the last year, despite his claims that he quit organized crime years ago. A rewritten indictment made the new accusations against Gotti as the government positions itself for the July 5 start of Gotti’s third trial on racketeering charges. Juries deadlocked at two previous trials in the last year.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

REGENTS CALL FOR STRICT RULES ON FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS

ALBANY – The state Board of Regents is scheduled to call today for strict rules governing the operation of for-profit colleges after accusations of cheating to get more student aid money, poor academic results, and other problems. The Regents are expected to ask the state Legislature to require greater oversight of the schools, a state Education Department spokesman, Tom Dunn, said.

– Associated Press

HEAD OF JUDGE-POLICING PANEL RESIGNS

ALBANY – The new chairman of the state commission that polices the ethics of New York judges has resigned from the commission in the face of a complaint that involves members of his Binghamton law firm. A statement posted on the Web site of the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct noted Alan Pope had been a member of the commission since 1997. He had been chairman only since April 1.

– Associated Press

ALBANY

LAWMAKERS AGREE TO EXPAND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW

Lawmakers said yesterday they have agreed to require payment of attorney’s fees to people whose requests for records under the state Freedom of Information Law are denied without justification or are wrongly delayed. A Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, said that under the bill, taxpayers would still not have to pay for frivolous lawsuits related to FOIL requests.

– Associated Press

TRISTATE

CAT OWNER FACES TRIAL RATHER THAN HAVING HER CAT EUTHANIZED

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Janet Kettman says she and her neighbors on Sunset Circle are always looking over their shoulders in fear the stalker will strike again. “He attacks from the back,” Ms. Kettman said yesterday. “You never see it coming. He has six toes on every foot, which constitutes a very formidable weapon.” Ms. Kettman said she was attacked twice by Lewis the cat, whose owner was due back in court today on a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment. The cat’s owner, Ruth Cisero, recently withdrew her bid for special probation and opted for trial because she would have had to allow Lewis to be euthanized.

– Associated Press