Police Blotter
Seek sex-abuse suspect
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and police
officials joined on Tuesday evening at Eighth Ave. and 14th St. to distribute fliers offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect who sexually assaulted a woman on the night of April 30 after pushing his way into her apartment in the neighborhood. The suspect, described as Hispanic, about age 30, between 5 feet 5 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 175 pounds, with dark hair in a long ponytail and wearing a tight, white “do-rag” on his head and a white restaurant tunic, fled when the victim screamed. The victim’s family is offering a $3,000 reward and Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,000 reward. Information on the case may be phoned to 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and callers should refer to Crime Stoppers poster No. M-751.
Multiple burglaries
Police arrested Marlon Cole, 19, last week in connection with several burglaries in the East Village, Noho and the Lower East Side after his DNA was matched to DNA left at two crime locations.
Cole and an accomplice not apprehended entered four apartments in the East Village between Jan. 12 and July 10 of this year, police said.
On Jan. 12 they climbed through a window into an apartment at 78 Orchard St. at 8:30 a.m. and took a PlayStation, 50 DVD’s, three computers and a cell phone, according to the charges. Cole’s DNA was found on a flashlight that the suspects left at the apartment. On April 22, they entered an apartment at 10:20 p.m. at 145 Second Ave. and made off with a computer, camera, backpack, calculator and a watch, the charges say. A half-hour later, they entered an apartment at 211 E. 10th St. where a woman resident spotted someone making off with a watch, a computer and a camera, police said. Cole’s DNA was found on a glove left at the site, according to the charges.
On July 10, a resident of 6 Bond St. told police she saw Cole in her apartment around 11:45 p.m. with his hand inside her bag and a shopping cart with her computer and other property nearby, according to the charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney.
The suspect told police that his accomplice was named “Ricardo.” Cole was being held in lieu of $25,000 bail pending an Aug. 16 court appearance on four counts of burglary.
Credit cards got around
A man attending a morning meeting at 214 Sullivan St. on July 20 discovered that his wallet was missing and learned later that it was found on the street nearby with credit cards missing, police said. Later that day police arrested Clifford Arens, 45, for shoplifting 20 blocks away in a Rite Aid store at 308 Grand St., and found the victim’s credit cards on him. Arens was charged with shoplifting and theft of the credit cards.
Sex abuse in lounge
Police arrested Paul Michowicz, 44, on July 25 and charged him with the sexual abuse of a 22-year-old woman in the restroom of Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard St. The suspect and the victim were chatting while on the queue at the unisex restroom, entered together and began kissing until Michowicz fingered the victim’s genitals without her consent. She ran out and alerted Gallery bouncers who apprehended the suspect and held him for police. Michowicz was freed on $3,500 bail pending an Oct. 21 court appearance.
Seek sham nun
State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking to serve a subpoena on Melinda LeGrand, who has been soliciting donations from pedestrians in Soho and Little Italy while dressed as a nun. The New York Post exposed LeGrand’s nun pose last week after following her to her “church,” St. John’s Pentecostal of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, where she doffed her habit in the street. The church has no religious accreditation and is not registered as a nonprofit charity. “The Reverend” Noconda LeGrand, a convicted rapist according to the Post, is Melinda LeGrand’s husband and runs the operation. She has been arrested before for the nun scam but authorities have not been able to shut down the operation.
Mouth-to-muzzle resuscitation
One of the firefighters who responded to an apartment fire on the third floor of a five-story building at 307 Spring St. at the corner of Greenwich St. around 2:30 p.m. Thurs., July 22, found two puppies in the apartment, one of which was not breathing. Outside, he preformed C.P.R. on the unconscious animal and it revived. The two puppies were among a litter of four; all of them were saved. The fire was declared extinguished shortly after 3 p.m.
Bar burglary
Police arrested Edward Wilson, 27, on Fri., July 23, for burglary after an employee of The Spotted Pig, 314 W. 11th St., found him in the bar around 6:30 a.m. with three bottles of liquor. The suspect had entered the place around 6 a.m. through a basement hatch at sidewalk level, police said.
Pill-packing pilferer
The driver of a truck belonging to Modern Kitchen and Bath Designs was making a delivery to 105 Christopher St. at 8:40 a.m. Fri., July 23, when he spotted a man walking away with a box containing a kitchen cabinet, police said. The driver yelled at the suspect, who dropped the box and fled. Police arrested Charles Graham, 50, a short time later and charged him with third-degree burglary. The suspect was also charged with illegal possession of 61 lithium pills and eight Seroquel pills without prescriptions. Lithium is used to control bipolar disorder and Seroquel is used to control schizophrenia. Graham was also charged with misdemeanor assault for hitting a victim with an umbrella at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park two days earlier.
Chelsea Hotel art theft
The manager of the renowned Chelsea Hotel, whose lobby at 222 W. 23rd St. is filled with paintings by prominent artists who lived in the place at one time or another, told police last week that between noon July 2 and noon July 16 someone had stolen “Trio 11,” a painting by the late Herbert Gentry (1919-2003) that hung in the lobby near the front door. The painting, valued at $10,000, measures 51 inches by 39 inches. Gentry, born in Pittsburgh, had painted in Paris and Sweden and lived in the hotel from 1969 until shortly before his death.
‘Flower bandit’ is plucked
The bank robber who earned two weeks of fame by hiding his demand notes in a bouquet and in a flowerpot while holding up two Chelsea banks was arrested Wed., July 21, in a relative’s house in Brooklyn.
Edward Pemberton, 44, who worked odd jobs in Manhattan’s Flower District on Sixth Ave. between 24th and 29th Sts., has a long record of arrests for robbery and drug violations over the years.
He used a plant in a flowerpot to hide his demand note on July 8 when he held up the Capital One bank branch at 401 W. 23rd St. and made off with $2,320, according to police. He pulled a more flowery variation on Thurs., July 15, when he walked into the Bank of Smithtown branch at 127 Seventh Ave. at 18th St. with a bouquet of flowers. After the Smithtown teller gave him $440, he gave her the bouquet of chrysanthemums, African daisies, gladiolas and baby’s breath before he fled. On his way out he dropped a dye pack that the teller included with the cash.
Police indicated that he was responsible for other bank robberies. Pemberton was being held in lieu of $250,000 bond pending an Aug. 18 court appearance.
Albert Amateau
