CITYWIDE

Pataki, Silver Spar Over Moynihan Station’s Future

Governor Pataki and Speaker Sheldon Silver sparred yesterday over the future of Moynihan Station at a press event to celebrate a ground breaking for the expansion of the Javits Convention Center. Final approval of the $900 million Moynihan Station project to convert the Farley Post Office building into a transit hub was delayed again last week by Mr. Silver.Yesterday, Mr. Silver said that he would not approve Moynihan Station until it contained a grander plan to build a new Madison Square in the back of the post office and renovate the existing Penn Station. Mr. Pataki compared Penn Station to a “subterranean rat passage” and urged Mr. Silver to approve the plan for Moynihan Station that will come before him at a Wednesday meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board. Messrs.Pataki and Silver, along with Mayor Bloomberg and City Council speaker Christine Quinn were on hand yesterday to announce the start of construction on the $1.68 billion plan to increase and expand the Javits Center, which is expected to be completed by 2010.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

Queens Day Care Worker Accused of Sexually Abusing Boy, 4

A teacher’s aide who had her eye on a 4-year-old boy separated him from the other children during nap time at a day care center, led him into a bathroom and sexually abused him, prosecutors said. The little boy was abused three times at a licensed private day care center in Queens earlier this year at the hands of Khemwatie Bedessie, who had worked there for years, Richard Brown, Queens district attorney, said yesterday. The abuse occurred early in the morning, when fewer people were at the center, or at nap time, when the other little children were sleeping, and it was discovered when the preschooler told his mother, Mr. Brown said. “These are serious and disturbing charges, which allege that a teacher’s aide who had been working at a day care center for about four years betrayed the trust of a 4-year-old child and his parents, who had entrusted their child to her care, supervision, and welfare,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. Ms. Bedessie, who worked at Veda’s Learning Center, was arraigned yesterday in state Supreme Court on charges of rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child. Ms. Bedessie, who is from Guyana, pleaded not guilty and was released from jail after posting $100,000 bail. She could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. A woman who answered the telephone at Ms. Bedessie’s Queens home said the family had no statement and had been told by an attorney not to speak to reporters. She wouldn’t identify the family’s attorney.The telephone for Veda’s Learning Center, in the South Ozone Park section, had been disconnected.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

Nightclub Dispute Turned Deadly

A 37-year-old man died after being shot during a fight outside a Manhattan nightclub yesterday. Police said a dispute broke out inside Club Hush on West 44th Street in Hell’s Kitchen around 3:15 a.m., but spilled onto the street outside where shots were fired. The victim, Gerard King, was shot in the chest and leg. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and died several hours later from his injuries. On Sunday, two people were stabbed in a dispute at the same club, police said. Both investigations are ongoing.

— Special to the Sun

Body Pulled From Hudson River

Police retrieved the body of an unidentified man from the Hudson River yesterday, authorities said. Police said the body was spotted around 1:53 p.m. yesterday off the shore near West 26th Street in Chelsea. The unidentified Asian male was pronounced dead on the scene. As of last night, police had still not identified the body.

—Special to the Sun

Man Sentenced To 50 Years for 2005 Double-Homicide

A Brooklyn man convicted of strangling his girlfriend and decapitating her son was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison yesterday. Christopher Patterson, 33, pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder earlier this month in the August 2005 double-homicide, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced. According to prosecutors, Patterson strangled 46-year-old Patricia Whitley, and decapitated her 9-year-old son in the Coney Island apartment they shared with Patterson. After the woman’s 14-year-old daughter called 911, police discovered Patterson on the couch there. Police also found the woman’s body in her bed, bags containing her son’s remains, and a bloody machete and knife in the apartment.

— Special to the Sun

STATEWIDE

Deadbeat Parents’ Pictures To Be Published In Newspaper

WHITE PLAINS — Parents who have skipped out on child support payments may find their picture in the newspaper as Westchester County tries to shame them into compliance. The faces of four elusive deadbeat dads who owe a total of $193,000 are to appear today in an ad in the New York Post, County Executive Andrew Spano said. He said Westchester is the first county in the state to use the method. “We have many ways of making them pay — suspending their driver’s licenses, garnishing their pay, even arresting them,” Mr. Spano said. “But we hope this latest method will shame them and others who see the ad into doing the right thing.” The ad cost $6,624. The county will look at the results, then consider taking out more ads featuring other parents, a spokeswoman for Mr. Spano, Victoria Hochman said. Ms. Hochman said the county chose a New York City paper because many of the parents’ last known addresses were in the city. Mr. Spano said the county collected $58 million last year in child support, up $2 million from the year before.

— Associated Press