IN THE COURTS

JUDGE PROMISES LIFE IN PRISON FOR MAFIA DETECTIVES

A federal judge, after telling a pair of decorated former police detectives yesterday that they faced life imprisonment for serving as hit men while on the payroll of a Luchese crime family underboss, delayed imposition of their sentences pending a hearing later this month. In a dramatic day inside a Brooklyn courtroom, a U.S. district court judge, Jack Weinstein, said the sentences were pending until a June 23 hearing at which Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa will argue they received inadequate legal representation at their racketeering trial.

– Associated Press

JUDGE DISMISSES LAWSUIT CHALLENGING ‘DOUBLE-CELLING’ OF PRISONERS

ALBANY – A federal judge has tossed out a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of New York state prisoners forced to share cells with other inmates, ruling the practice does not violate the U.S. Constitution.

– Associated Press

PRODUCE COMPANY TO APPEAL RULING BLOCKING MOVE NEAR MARKET

A fruit and vegetable distributor said yesterday that it would appeal a judge’s ruling that it can’t relocate to a city-owned site across the street from a massive wholesale produce market. A Bronx state Supreme Court judge, Lucy Billings, on Friday confirmed a ruling she had made last month that blocked the city’s plan to lease the site to Baldor Specialty Foods Incorporated.

– Associated Press

CITYWIDE

McGOVERN, QUINN TO TOUT SCHOOL MEALS FOR YOUNGSTERS

A former presidential candidate, George McGovern, is appearing this afternoon with the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, to encourage more public school children to take advantage of school breakfasts and summer meals. Mr. McGovern, a senator from South Dakota who made an unsuccessful bid for president, is the national spokesman for the “got breakfast?” of the National School Breakfast Program. In New York City, only 18% of the 1.1 million schoolchildren take advantage of school meals.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

GIULIANI SAYS TERROR FUNDING CUTS ARE WRONG

Mayor Giuliani blamed poor decision making and “a certain level of incompetence” for the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to slash the city’s anti-terrorism funding. But Mr. Giuliani said he didn’t believe political considerations had led to the 40% cut, and said he was encouraged by the willingness of the Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, to review the agency’s decision.

– Associated Press

MANHATTAN

PALE MALE PERCHES IN HELEN GURLEY BROWN’S WINDOW

Never let it be said that Pale Male, New York’s famous high-rise hawk, is not a cosmopolitan sort of bird. To prove it, he’s been hanging out lately with the original Cosmo Girl and magazine editor, Helen Gurley Brown. A television news engineer who has turned the red-tailed hawk and his mate, Lola, into a full-time hobby, Lincoln Karim, says that after the pair failed to produce any progeny for the second year in a row, they left their famous nest 12 stories above Fifth Avenue and began flying around nearby Central Park. When Pale Male picked out a perch on a 24th floor tower of the exclusive Beresford Apartments on the other side of the park, Lola followed. Mr. Karim later gave copies of his photos to a Beresford doorman, to be delivered as a courtesy to the tenants whose top-floor window had become the hawks’ favorite away-from-home roost. That turned out to be Ms. Brown, 84.

– Associated Press

POSTHUMOUS MASTER’S DEGREE AWARDED TO IMETTE ST. GUILLEN

The mother and sister of slain graduate student Imette St. Guillen each hugged the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice yesterday as they accepted her diploma posthumously during commencement ceremonies at Madison Square Garden. Maureen St. Guillen held up a photo of her daughter, who was brutally murdered earlier this year, then left the podium without speaking.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

POLICE ARREST GIRL WHO KIDNAPPED BOY

The young boy, Brandon Aponte, 3, who was kidnapped from his father while he worked on a tattoo at his parlor in the Bronx was back safe with his family early yesterday morning, police officials said. Mr. Aponte was taken by Tatiana Morales, 13, on Sunday afternoon. After she didn’t return with the child, Brandon’s father, Zeus Aponte, called police. Early yesterday morning, two women went to the 67th Precinct and told police that Tatiana usually spent time at 158 Martense St. in East Flatbush. Officers dispatched to the address spotted the boy outside an apartment building with Tatiana and another woman, Cazzion Cruz, just down the street at 61 Martense St. Brandon was in good health. Police arrested Tatiana on charges of kidnapping in the second degree and unlawful imprisonment. She will likely be turned over to Family Court, where she will face the charges as a juvenile.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN’S DEATH RECLASSIFIED AS HOMICIDE AFTER AUTOPSY

A Manhattan man who died over the weekend was strangled to death, police said yesterday. Napolean Kims, 75, was found inside his apartment on Second Avenue near 106th Street shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday by his 36-year-old grandson, who lived with him. Initially, police reported no visible trauma to the man’s body, but reclassified his death as a homicide after an autopsy indicated he had been strangled. Police said Kims was found unconscious, and was lying facedown in the living room. There were no signs of forced entry, police said.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN MOTHER SHOT AFTER INTERVENING IN SON’S DISPUTE

A Brooklyn woman was shot yesterday after trying to break up a fight between her son and several other men, police said. Police said the 52-year-old woman was trying to help her 22-year-old son, who was involved in a dispute with three or four other men on Park Place in Crown Heights at about 12 p.m. yesterday. After being shot once in the back, the woman was taken to Kings County Hospital, where doctors operated on her yesterday, police said. She was listed in stable condition last night. Police said the men targeted her son after a fight earlier in the day. Last night, police said arrests were pending.

– Special to the Sun

40-FOOT WALL COLLAPSES IN BROOKLYN

A 40-foot-by-3-foot section of a parapet wall on top of Autozone in Brooklyn collapsed yesterday, Fire Department officials said. No one was injured when the wall fell at 4:57 p.m. Fire officials had the scene under control and cordoned off by 6:06 p.m. There was no indication of what caused the collapse yesterday evening. The collapsed portion was about half the width of the building, officials said.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

RAPPER ACCUSED OF SPEEDING, DRIVING WITHOUT LICENSE WHITE PLAINS – The rap star DMX has again been charged with traffic infractions, this time after being pulled over in downtown White Plains. DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was stopped Friday afternoon for driving his 2001 Chevy Suburban at unreasonable speeds and making unsafe lane changes, the deputy commissioner, Daniel Jackson, of the White Plains police said yesterday. Once he was stopped, police found he was not wearing a seat belt and did not have a driver’s license, Mr. Jackson said.

– Associated Press

STATEWIDE

ANTI-FRAUD EFFORTS FAULTED IN REVIEW

The Pataki administration has not done enough to combat Medicaid fraud and waste, according to a federal review that faults the state for too many staff cuts and too little enforcement. “Being in compliance with the minimum regulatory standards is not the same thing as having an effective fraud and abuse program,” concluded the report made public yesterday.

– Associated Press

HISTORY BUFFS FIND SKELETONS AT BIRTHPLACE OF ARMY

FORT EDWARD – A husband and wife team of amateur archaeologists have unearthed human skeletons, believed to be about 250 years old, at a burial site here on the Hudson River island that’s considered the birthplace of today’s U.S. Army Rangers. Richard and JoAnne Fuller said it’s very likely the remains found on private property date back to the French and Indian War, when Rogers’s Rangers earned a place in American military lore while operating out of Fort Edward. The couple said the skeletons appear to be buried in an unmarked cemetery that is not on any Colonial or contemporary maps.

– Associated Press

MAN FENDS OFF CHARGING COYOTE, SAVES DOG

CROTON-ON-HUDSON – A 75-year-old man says he saved a small dog from a charging coyote near his suburban home by bashing the predator on its head with a flashlight. Herbert Doran, who is taking care of an 11-year-old bichon frise named Jenna while his daughter travels, said yesterday that he didn’t see the coyote until the animal, its teeth bared, was 25 or 30 feet from the dog, a type of toy spaniel. “When he went down to grab her by the neck, luckily I had my flashlight and I bopped him on the head,” Mr. Doran said. “I was surprised, frankly, that he didn’t bite me. He stood frozen for two or three seconds, then he slowly backed off and turned around.”

– Associated Press