Man charged with rape in Kips Bay apartment

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

A man was arrested for allegedly raping a woman inside a Kips Bay apartment last week. Osman Muratovic, 33, was arrested inside 227 East 28th Street after police said that he raped a woman who was his employee.

According to police, Muratovic made sexual advances towards the victim while she was cleaning a client’s apartment on Tuesday, November 6 at 1:49 p.m.

The victim said that she tried to ignore his advances but Muratovic then allegedly threw her down to the couch, then to the bed in the apartment. Police said that Muratovic then raped her.

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Robber threatens First Avenue CVS employee with needle

Robbery suspect

By Sabina Mollot

Police are looking for a man who, when caught shoplifting at the CVS store across from Stuyvesant Town, threatened an employee with a hypodermic needle.

The man strolled into the store, located at 253 First Avenue, on Wednesday, November 14 at 8 p.m. and began throwing items from the shelves into a garbage bag. When an employee confronted him in the aisle, the man pulled out the needle and told the worker to “step back.”

The man then fled with about $170 in merchandise.

The suspect, who is being sought for robbery, is described as black, in his 30s, about 5 ft. 8 ins. and 180 lbs. At the time of the incident, he was wearing a white sweatshirt, a black jogging jacket, a black skull cap and black sneakers.

Democratic lead too big for attempts at power grabs: Hoylman

State Senator Brad Hoylman with new Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (Photo by Avery Cohen)

By Sabina Mollot

Nearly a decade ago, Democrats won the State Senate, but their victory was short-lived, thanks to a coup orchestrated by a pair of renegades. When the party next regained power in numbers, this too was brief thanks to a power-sharing arrangement that was brokered between eight breakaway Democrats and Republicans.

But this time it will be different, State Senator Brad Hoylman is saying, due to some unexpected wins last Tuesday that gave Democrats too large of a lead to even try to play behind-the-scenes games with.

“We now have a 16-seat majority,” said Hoylman, “which is extraordinary and provides Democrats with a level of comfort going into vote. A 16-seat majority is a safeguard against Albany’s funny stuff. While there might be some disagreement in our conference, we are a united conference.”

The results of the election paved way for 16 new senators. Six of those senators had defeated candidates during the primary who were formerly members of the breakaway Democrat group known as the Independent Democratic Conference. The new crop of elected officials is also a more diverse bunch: the capitol now has its first Taiwanese-American lawmaker, its first Salvadorian-American, its first Indian-American, its first Colombian-American and its largest number yet of Latinos and women to serve. The Senate’s new majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, is the first woman to hold the position, effectively ending the three-men-in-a-room tradition of lawmaking.

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Letters to the editor, Nov. 15

Cartoon by Jim Meadows

Scofflaw cyclists are out of control

Dear Town & Village,

Please HELP!

On two separate occasions I have been knocked down by bicycles going the wrong way against the light! This has led me to look both ways on one-way streets and in all directions when crossing the street. Now I have come so close to having had been run over on sidewalks with bicycles riding on sidewalks, going the wrong way! Stuy Town is pretty strict about the rules regarding bicycles riding around the Oval (riders are approached by Public Safety Officers to dismount) but of course, they cannot be everywhere.

No one should be riding on sidewalks or riding the wrong way against traffic.

Something has to be done!

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Arts Club honors its old adversary

Arlene Harrison, president of the Gramercy Park Block Association, was recognized for her years of community service at the National Arts Club’s 120th anniversary gala. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images North America)

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

In an event no one in the neighborhood could have foreseen sans a crystal ball just a decade ago, the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park honored Gramercy Park Block Association President Arlene Harrison at the club’s 120th anniversary gala.

While Harrison and the club have enjoyed a positive working relationship in recent years, she was actively involved in investigations that resulted in the ousting of the club’s former president, O. Aldon James, for misusing the club’s funds and real estate.

Arthur Barnes, chairman of the gala held on Saturday, November 3 and a member of the club’s board of governors, said that the awards were specifically in recognition of community service and the award for Harrison was due to her long-standing relationship with the club and Gramercy Park.

“She’s a tremendously effective advocate of Gramercy Park,” Barnes said. “She’s been a member of the club for many years and we wanted to recognize her leadership within our community, including with the 13th Precinct only two blocks away, and with Brotherhood Synagogue and Calvary Church.”

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Police Watch: Man charged with Union Square assault, Woman punched on East 22nd

MAN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT OF WOMAN IN UNION SQUARE
Police arrested 25-year-old Gage Quinones for an alleged assault in front of 24 Union Square East on Wednesday, November 7. The victim told police that after she smoked meth with Quinones that morning, they got into an argument that escalated into a fight when Quinones allegedly punched her in the mouth, causing a cut on her bottom lip. Quinones was also charged with criminal contempt.

Quinones has been arrested multiple times within the 13th Precinct, usually in or around Union Square, in the last few years. He was charged with assault in 2016 after police said that he hit a man in the back of the head with a brick, breaking four bones. He also allegedly mugged someone in Union Square in 2014 and assaulted someone with a bike lock in the park this past June.

MAN ALLEGEDLY PUNCHES WOMAN ON EAST 22ND STREET
Police arrested 38-year-old Rashawn Duran for an alleged assault in front of 33 East 22nd Street on Sunday, November 11 at 11:04 a.m. The victim told police that she was walking down the sidewalk when Duran allegedly punched her in the face, causing swelling and bruising. The victim said that there was no previous altercation between them before the alleged assault. Duran was stopped in front of 29 East 22nd Street and the victim and a witness positively identified him. The victim was treated on the scene and removed to Bellevue Hospital.

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Opinion: Wait til next year

By former Assemblymember Steven Sanders

The elections are mercifully over. This campaign cycle has been brutal. The mud has been splattered about like graffiti on the side of a building. We all need a break from politics!

Yet for the past month I have detected a different angst in the city, a melancholy unrelated to the fallout of the bitter partisan sniping. A pain that goes to our very core as a city. The shared love for our baseball teams.

Four weeks ago the Yankees walked off the fabled field at Yankees Stadium, losers to their perennial rival, the Red Sox from Boston. And worse still, the Red Sox went on to win their fourth World Series Championship of this century, twice as many as the Yankees. Thus wresting the title away from the Bronx Bombers as “team of the (21st) century”… at least so far.

Mayor de Blasio is ok with this revolting development, since in spite of his New York leadership position, his baseball allegiance remains with the boys from Beantown. Grounds for impeachment? If only.

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Veterans Day Parade celebrates end of WWI

Photos by Sabina Mollot

By Sabina Mollot

On Sunday, around 25,000 veterans, active military personnel and their supporters marched up Fifth Avenue from 23rd Street for New York City’s annual Veterans Day Parade.

The city’s parade, which is the largest in the country, this year celebrated the centennial of the end of World War I, with the army the featured branch of the military.

Prior to the march, speakers mentioned how that war presented a number of firsts, including women joining the ranks. Additionally, one tenth of the military during what was then known as “The Great War” or “The World War” were residents of New York State, half of those New Yorkers from the city.

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Burglar takes accessories, electronics

Burglary suspect

Police are looking for a man who burglarized an apartment in Chelsea on Tuesday, October 30 at 11 a.m.

The man got into the apartment, on West 21st Street and Sixth Avenue, through an unlocked door, and once inside, swiped watches, headphones, earphones, sunglasses, a laptop, a wallet and a backpack. The burglar then fled the building, heading north on Sixth Avenue.

The suspect is a light-skinned man with glasses, and was last seen wearing a black knit cap, a black jacket, blue jeans and black boots.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at nypdcrimestoppers.com, on Twitter @NYPDTips or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

Alleged mailbox fishing pair arrested

The suspects allegedly used a plastic bottle covered in a sticky substance to get mail out of the mailbox.

By Maria Rocha-Buschel

Two people were arrested after police spotted them allegedly “mailbox fishing” near Union Square last week.

Keimy Disla Medina, 24, a 17-year-old boy and another teenager were stopped in front of 353 East 17th Street on Friday, November 2 at 1:18 a.m. while they were allegedly trying to steal from a mailbox at the location.

Police said that the three suspects had rigged a plastic bottle filled with liquid that was attached to a string and covered in a sticky substance to get mail out of the mailbox. When the suspects were stopped, police said that they were found to be in possession of multiple pieces of mail not addressed to them and were allegedly in possession of burglary tools.

Medina and the teen were charged with burglar’s tools, petit larceny, criminal tampering, fraud and possession of stolen property. Police said that the second teenager was issued a juvenile report but was not arrested.

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Former physician’s assistant who worked in Gramercy pleads guilty to sexually abusing patients

Kenneth Ferranti

By Sabina Mollot

On Thursday, Kenneth Ferranti, a former physician’s assistant who worked at Hennessey Dermatology in Gramercy, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of two male patients.

Ferranti, a 40-year-old resident of Jersey City, abused the patients in February and August of 2017. Along with sexual abuse in the third degree, he also pleaded guilty to forcible touching and perjury for lying about the incidents during his testimony.

“As a physician’s assistant, this defendant garnered trust and confidence from the many patients left in his care,” said District Attorney Cy Vance. “But on at least two occasions, when these same patients came to him in need of medical attention, he violated that trust and abused them under the guise of providing medical treatment. That he later perjured himself before a grand jury as he testified about the abuse only exacerbates this terrible crime, and I thank my office’s prosecutors for holding him accountable.”

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Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village under-enrolled for rent freeze programs

By Sabina Mollot

Stuyvesant Town is among the top ten neighborhoods with the most people who are eligible for a rent freeze intended for the disabled or seniors that haven’t enrolled in the programs, according to the Department of Finance.

The stats were part of a report that was released by the DOF on The Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE). The report also said that as many as 155,366 households in the city may qualify for Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) or DRIE and out of that number, 61,319 actually receive the benefit while 94,047 additional residents are not enrolled but could be eligible. The utilization rate for SCRIE is 43 percent while it’s 27 percent for DRIE. Possible reasons for not getting enrolled, the department believes, include language barriers, insufficient public communication and negative sentiment about government assistance.

Along with Stuyvesant Town, which was counted alongside Turtle Bay, other neighborhoods believed to be the most under-enrolled for SCRIE/DRIE include the Upper East Side and Upper West Side, Coney Island, Kingsbridge Heights/Moshulu, Riverdale/Kingsbridge, Throggs Neck/Co-op City, Kew Gardens/Woodhaven, Flushing/Whitestone and Highbridge/S. Concourse.

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Letter to the editor, Nov. 8

Cartoon by Jim Meadows

Voting is not a duty

Re: Letter, “State elections can impact this area,” T&V, Nov. 1

To the Editor,

The Hon. Ms. Dankberg opens her letter encouraging people to vote. As district leader, she correctly asks them to bring friends. But she contradicts herself when she signs off, thanking them in advance for doing their civic duty.

Voting is not one’s civic duty. It is a right and a privilege in our nation. What is a civic obligation, however, is jury duty. If one doesn’t vote, that’s their business. But if one skips jury duty, one could have problems.

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Stuyvesant Town’s female Boy Scout looking to ‘Connect a Pet with a Vet’

Nov8 Sydney Ireland

Sydney Ireland

Since the Boy Scouts started allowing in younger girls ages 5-10 this September, 56,000 have joined. While this should be wonderful news, the Scouts have yet to recognize the contributions by girls who have already been in the program, albeit unofficially, for years. This means that Sydney Ireland, a Stuy Town resident and female Boy Scout who is currently close to completing her Eagle project, is expected by the Boy Scouts to start the program over in February, when girls will be allowed to officially join.

That said, Sydney is still fighting to have her work (over a decade’s worth) with the program recognized.

On Sunday, she will be involved with a Connect a Pet with a Vet project. Working with Bideawee pet adoption on 38th Street, just east of First Avenue, and veterans groups, including Backpacks for Life and 100 Memorial Run, Sydney will be raising money to cover the adoption costs for veterans. Donations can also be made online.

Bideawee is also hoping for donations of leashes, harnesses, dog and cat toys and clean towels. The Irelands’ family dog, Scout, came from Bideawee.

Veterans Day walk will celebrate centennial of end to World War I

On Sunday, November 4, StuyTown Property Services held a now annual event in which residents were invited to plant flags in the Oval lawn to commemorate Veterans Day. Once placed, the flags formed the words “Thank you.” Participants also listened to live music and enjoyed hot chocolate. Those who missed the flag installations can still attend a brief ceremony on Sunday, November 11 from 9-9:15 a.m. All residents are invite to gather at the Oval Fountain for a flag-raising and musical tribute of Taps for veterans and their families. (Photo by Hermann Reiner)

This Veterans Day, Sunday, November 11, 2018, commemorates the centennial of the end of World War I, and the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) will host a free walking tour to explore this historic moment. The tour will be led by historian, author, and professional tour guide Miriam Berman, and meet at 11 a.m. in front of the Flatiron building.

Flatiron’s Madison Square has been the site of New York City’s annual Veterans Day memorial ceremony and parade since its inception, the largest such observance in the country. The ceremony takes place at the Eternal Light Memorial Flagpole with remarks from city officials after which the parade commences.

Originally established as Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 marked the end of World War I combat on land, sea and air.

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