'Nighty night. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

My two sisters and I used to parrot this phrase we heard on 1960's television, before going to sleep as kids in our bedroom in Queens Village. We didn't think much about bed bugs or understand what they were. Maybe that's because the blood-sucking critters had been eradicated from most American homes and businesses by the 1950's.

That was then. This is now.
It's a new century.

In this age of the web and environmental consciousness, the bugs have returned with a bang.
The AMC Theatre in Times Square was temporarily shut down to address a bed bug problem.
The bugs have been spotted in a large, midtown library...at the book circulation desk.
An upscale Abercrombie and Fitch store briefly shut its doors to fumigate.
Nearly 34,000 calls to the New York City "311" helpline were placed last year, asking about bed bugs. They're taking up residence in luxury penthouses and housing projects.
What's going on here?

What's happening is we don't use toxic pesticides as freely as we did fifty years ago.

The bed bugs, which feast on human blood and appear to be the size of an apple seed, don't eat the bait many homeowners now leave out to get rid of other annoyances, like cockroaches.

The bugs are likely arriving back in the States via international travel, from other countries, hitching rides in luggage and handbags. They're tough little creatures, able to live up to a year without sucking fresh blood. The only good news is they don't pose a health risk, although they can leave behind some nice, red welts on your arms and legs.

They don't like heat, and one of the treatments used by Standard Pest Management in Astoria, Queens involves drastic temperature increases inside a home or commercial establishment, to try and kill the pests.

Gil Bloom, the owner of Standard Pest Management, recently served on the Mayor's Task Force on Bed Bugs. He told me, "They're nocturnal. They get into cracks you hardly see. They may be in the sofa or a recliner chair. Their eggs are small, white and oval."
Bloom also revealed a common refrain he tells customers now is: "If you only have cockroaches, you're lucky."

'Nighty night. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

They weren't happy to see us at one home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn this past week.

I was paying a return visit to a location I first stumbled upon in April 2001.
There was another visitor who showed up, as well--an investigator from the New York State Attorney General's office. He was there trying to serve a subpoena to a woman living at 222 Brooklyn Avenue. The woman is suspected of being a phony nun, who's based out of this 4-story building owned by the infamous LeGrand family. The nun operation--involving women who beg for money in busy, city locations--has apparently been going on for decades, and it's a story PIX 11 News first told viewers about more than nine years ago.

Back in the 1970's, the now-deceased Devernon LeGrand was convicted of killing two, teenage girls in he same, Crown Heights building--before dismembering their bodies and burning them at his upstate farm. He was also convicted of murdering an ex-wife.

Many other parishioners went "missing" at various points. LeGrand fancied himself a bishop, and police say he recruited teenagers to join his church, plying them with drugs and alcohol, using them as sex slaves, and then sending them out on the street to beg for money, dressed as nuns. He reportedly made up to $250,000 a year with this operation, and the "sister act" apparently continued long after he went to prison--and after he died in jail.

In April 2001, PIX 11 News noticed a nun begging for money near the World Financial Center downtown. We questioned various "nuns" at well-travelled commuter hubs and followed one of them home from her perch near the #7 subway in Grand Central Station. Turns out, Sister Vivian's home was the building located at 222 Brooklyn Avenue.

The New York Post recently ran a story about a nun begging for money in Little Italy, on Mulberry Street--snapping photos of "Sister Melindia" changing out of her habit into street clothes--and heading home to, you guessed it, 222 Brooklyn Avenue. That's when the New York State Attorney General sprang into action. His office sent investigators to the LeGrand home last week, and PIX 11 was there when one investigator returned this week with a new subpoena, for a different woman named Vivian.

Police say Devernon LeGrand fathered 46 children, and some of them still live at 222 Brooklyn Avenue. One of his sons, Minty LeGrand, spoke to PIX 11 News: "It's no secret that my father died in prison. He paid his debt to society." LeGrand added, "We don't want to relive the past. My father has over 300 grandchildren and great-grandkids that don't have to grow up under that umbrella. They need to live normal lives."

When we asked Minty LeGrand about the so-called sister acts, he replied: "There are no nuns. We have no nuns." When we asked about Sister Melindia, he responded: "She's not a nun. She was dressed in a habit, not as a nun. Sister Melindia comes sometimes, and she helps to collect donations, which are applied to food we serve to kids in the area and to the tournaments I run for the kids." LeGrand claims his family still runs a Pentecostal church inside the building and said of the renewed press attention, "I pray to God you people would just leave us alone."

Mary Murphy
8/7/10

The neighbors didn't want to believe it, but the Office of the New York City Medical Examiner
has ruled 31 year old Leisha Jones committed suicide by fire, after slitting the throats of her three, older children--and allowing her 2 year old toddler, Jermaine, to die in the inferno she set last Thursday, July 22nd, in their Staten Island apartment. 4 children dead...along with their mother. We haven't heard about a crime like this in quite some time.

It's a stunning "360" in the story we first reported a week ago tonight. That's when police and fire investigators suspected 14 year old CJ Jones was the killer, because a razor blade was found under his body....and some people claimed he had a history of setting fires. The theory was he had slit the throats of 10 year old Melonie and 7 year old Brittany--his younger sisters--and then started the fire that killed his mother and baby brother--before slitting his own throat.

Now, CJ's death has been ruled a "homicide"--meaning the initial branding of him as a killer was nowhere near the truth. His body was found slumped over a bed in the back room. He suffered no smoke inhalation, meaning he was already dead by the time the fire was started. He also had undigested pills in his body, and further testing will likely indicate what type of pills they were. His mother also had pills in her body. His younger sisters--and baby brother--are also listed as homicide victims.

Mom did it. This time, four children gone...in the middle of the night. We've heard these stories before, a bit farther away from home. The "whys" still need to be answered. The end result: heartbreaking, yet again.

Mary Murphy
7/29/10

It's one of the more gut-wrenching stories I've been assigned to lately.

A mother and her four children discovered dead in a burning, Staten Island apartment; three of the older children had their throats slit.

When the story broke, on Thursday, July 22nd, the early evidence that leaked out suggested the oldest child--14 year old CJ--may have slit the throats of his younger sisters--Melanie and Brittany--set a fire that killed his 2 year old baby brother, Jermaine, along with his mother, and then killed himself with a razor. CJ's photo was plastered on the front pages of New York newspapers for a couple of days....with reports about some trouble at school and claims he had started fires before. And then the story began changing.

By Monday, July 26th, details about more of the evidence suggested CJ had undigested pills in his stomach, meaning he could have been drugged before HE was killed, by someone else.
There was no soot in his lungs, indicating he was dead before the fire started. His mother and baby brother had soot in their lungs. Finally, a portion of some kind of note was found fused to the butane lighter that was apparently used to start the fire. It said "am sorry". The early stories had shouted that CJ was the author of the note. The later stories reported the handwriting matched CJ's mother, 31-year old Leisha Jones, who worked sometimes as a security guard.

When I was sent to Staten Island this past Monday night, John Metz--who lived beneath CJ's family at 302 Nicholas Avenue--observed: "I think it's terrible they tarnished a 14 year old child--and made him out to be a monster." Another neighbor, Chante Fleming, remarked: "When they said CJ, I thought 'Bull'! I never saw him light any fires." Several neighbors talked about CJ's devotion to his younger sisters and brother, saying he was the father figure in a single mother household, often picking up his siblings from day care and school.

I reached CJ's biological father, Earlston Raymond, at his home in Kingston, Jamaica. CJ was born in the West Indies, and his mother moved her oldest son and the younger children--who had different fathers--from Jamaica, when CJ was 8. Earlston Raymond recalled talking to Leisha Jones and his son two days before the fire. He told me that Leisha was "talking fast" and didn't seem herself, speaking about some kind of plot to kidnap the family. Was the mother having some kind of psychiatric problems? Raymond told me she had a "high temper"--but neighbors described her as a good mom, who didn't raise her voice to the children.

Today, the Medical Examiner's office told me the toxicology testing is still pending on Leisha Jones, CJ, and the other children. Soon, perhaps, we will learn if the victims were drugged--by a killer who lived inside the household. It's still a mystery as to what really happened inside the second floor apartment at 302 Nicholas Avenue last Thursday, July 22nd. But the changing facts remind all of us it's very easy to create a monster--and harder to fix the damage to a reputation.

Mary Murphy
7/28/10

Eileen Monetti's son, Richard, was just 20, when he caught a Pan Am flight from London on December 21, 1988, to make it home for Christmas. Flight 103 blew up 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland with 259 passengers and crew on board, an explosion that also killed 11 people on the ground.

Monetti's son was a journalism and political science major at Syracuse University in New York, one of 35 Syracuse students who perished in the terrorist plot. Last year, she was horrified when the convicted bomber, former Libyan intelligence agent, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was released from a Scottish prison for "compassionate reasons"---a medical finding that prostate cancer would kill him within three months. Nearly a year later, Al Megrahi is still alive--he could live 20 more years--and there are new suggestions that oil giant, BP, may have lobbied for his release, to help facilitate an oil deal with Libya.

Tonight, Eileen Monetti spoke to me from her home in Cherry Hill, New Jersey: "It was just simply a prisoner for oil deal," she said, "As long as we're all dependent on oil, this is the way it's going to be. All these oil-producing nations have us over a barrel."

The four U.S. senators representing New York and New Jersey met with the new British Prime Minister, David Cameron, during his visit this week to the United States. They want an investigation of the events leading up to Al Megrahi's release, but no one seems confident the former prisoner--now living at home in Libya--will ever go back to jail. As Eileen Monetti put it, "I don't think the British are about to invade Libya to get Al Megrahi back." Al Megrahi is the only person who was ever convicted in the bombing, although the Libyan government took "responsibility" for the explosion back in 2003, reaching an agreement to pay each American family who lost a loved one eight million dollars. The families then paid 2.5 million dollars in legal fees.

It's been suggested that Libyan leader, Moammar Khadafy, ordered the bombing to relatiate for
a U.S. air strike that killed his adopted, baby daughter. Now the accusation that British Petroleum--already facing massive, bad press for the Gulf of Mexico oil explosion and leak--may have helped the convicted bomber go free is re-opening old wounds. Eileen Monetti told me she refuses to let the Lockerbie bombing dominate her life anymore, adding I "try to live my life like my son would want us to live our lives." Still, she wishes to know the full truth about the series of events that led to the mass murder over Lockerbie: "I think I would still like to know that, before I die."

Mary Murphy
7/21/10

It was 1984, and George Steinbrenner already had two, World Series trophies to his credit--and a big office suite in the original, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. I was a 25 year old news writer for PIX 11, filling in, sometimes, as "on camera" reporter.

I wish I remembered the controversy that was swirling around the Boss at the time, but I don't.
That's surprising, because alot of my memory is encyclopedic, when it comes to the stories I've covered. It may have had something to do with Howie Spira, the gambler who accused Steinbrenner of paying him to dig up dirt on star slugger, Dave Winfield.

Anyway, I was sent to Yankee Stadium to get a "sound bite"--interview--with Steinbrenner, and I don't think the news desk had high expectations. They didn't know me--and I didn't know the Boss.

I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed when I entered the cavernous, glass-enclosed reception area of the Boss' outer offices. WPIX was the "Yankee station" at the time, so we had easier access getting in. That certainly didn't mean the Boss would come out to talk to me. But he did.

I remember he was warm. I remember that he gave me great, TV sound bites. I remember calling the news desk and telling the assignment editor I got Steinbrenner to talk. I remember feeling that this was a feather in my cap.

Eventually, I moved on to a full-time, staff reporter position at WPIX TV. And in 1986, George Steinbrenner was part of the celebrity committee that helped to refurbish the Statue of Liberty for her 100th anniversary in New York Harbor. There was a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral--and a lunch at the Plaza hotel. Bob Hope attended--and so did the former Chairman of Chrysler, Lee Iacocca.

After shooting video of the lunch at the Plaza, we were in for a special treat. Turns out George Steinbrenner would serve as conductor of the U.S. Military band that was set to entertain.
To say he threw himself into the role would be an understatement. He waved his arms enthusiastically to lead the band--and his head kept rhythm with the beat. For me, it's a moment that remains frozen in time, and it certainly made me smile. I remembered that moment today, when I heard George Steinbrenner had died, at the age of 80. And I remembered his kindness to me, giving me a "sound bite" he didn't have to bother with, when I was just a young reporter, starting out.

I covered three, World Series parades, when the Yankees had their great run in the 90's.
For the 2nd parade, in 1998, I rode on a flatbed truck and had the same "vantage point" as the star players riding up the "Canyon of Heroes". I recall looking down the side streets, as we traveled up Broadway, and seeing dozens of rows of people squeezed in at every corner. It was an amazing glimpse of humanity, and I remember gazing up to the sky and saying "Thank you, God" for an experience like this. Tonight, when I wrote my story about George Steinbrenner's life and times, I found vintage footage of the Boss talking about the night Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a single World Series game. He talked about Jackson pointing up at the sky, after the final homer, perhaps acknowledging a heavenly power. But then came the punch line: "But then I thought he might be pointing up to me, because I was in the box." It was classic Steinbrenner, and a great moment in the piece.

My son was born in 1996, the year the Yankees reclaimed their dynasty, after an 18 year dry spell. Beginning that year, George Steinbrenner would win five, more World Series titles, before his death in July 2010. He was born on the 4th of July, so it's worth noting he was a =real= Yankee Doodle dandy!

Mary Murphy
PIX 11 News
7/13/10

Police in Sivas, Turkey are working to identify the body of a man who apparently jumped from the 9th floor of a building, at a construction site. A note found near the body refers to Riza Cosa, the Hicksville, Long Island husband wanted for questioning in the murder of his wife...and the disappearance of his Canadian girlfriend.

Cosa's wife, Angela Perez, was last seen alive at the Chase branch in Wantagh, Long Island, where she worked as a personal banker, on July 28, 2009. Co-workers reported her missing that same week. On July 31, 2009, her estranged husband, Riza Cosa, took a one-way flight to Turkey, his native country.

Last week, Perez' body was found in New Cassel, Long Island, wrapped in garbage bags, wedged between a 40-foot metal container and a chain link fence, at a job site where her husband used to work as a welder. This week, police revealed a woman Cosa was dating from Canada vanished last summer, about a month before Cosa's wife disappeared. 33 year old Hatice Corbacioglu crossed the border into the United States on June 15, 2009, telling family she was going to visit Riza Cosa in New York. Someone using Hatice's name went to the Turkish Consulate in New York City on June 18, 2009. Hatice's Canadian family never heard from her after June 15, 2009--but Cosa called them a number of times, claiming Hatice had traveled to Turkey....another time, telling them she had visited a friend in Saudi Arabia.

Nassau County police are eager to find out the contents of the note found near the body of the man in Turkey. One report says the letter made reference to financial concerns.

Mary Murphy
5/21/10

The city has banned residents from using balconies in 16 apartment buildings, just as the warm weather arrives.

The order comes two months after Conor Donohue, a 24-year old tenant at 330 East 39th Street in Manhattan, fell to his death, when a balcony on the 24th floor gave way. The initial investigation had found a metal railing became loose from the concrete base.

The New York City Buildings Commissioner, Robert LiMandri, told PIX Investigates his agency discovered that 800 buildings, over six-stories high, had not filed safety inspection reports, as required by city law. His inspectors have visited 530 of those buildings, so far, to check the balconies. LiMandri told PIX 11: "In some cases, we found crumbling concrete. In other cases, things were minor."

The inspectors are paying close attention to buildings, with balconies, constructed between 1970 and 1990. The building where Donohue plunged to his death was built in the 70's...and the agency is looking at possible patterns in the way the balconies were attached to the buildings.

LiMandri told PIX 11 inspectors still have 300 more buildings to check out.

Mary Murphy
5/18/10

NYPD Officer, Emmanel Tavarez--accused of giving police jackets, handcuffs, and bulletproof vests to crooks, so they could rip off drug dealers--is not really a housing police officer, as described in federal documents. He has spent most of his eight year career as a transit police officer.

The NYPD Chief of Housing Police, Joanne Jaffe, called PIX 11 News on Friday afternoon, after seeing my "live" report from South Jamaica Houses in Queens Thursday night. We did the report there, because federal paperwork indicated 30 year old Officer Tavarez worked in the Housing Bureau's "Viper Unit"--where cops monitor surveillance cameras in the city's housing projects. Tavarez DID work there, but only since December 2009, when he was put there on modified duty, without his gun, as the federal investigation of his activities intensified.

Chief Jaffe explained to me many officers are transferred to the "Viper Unit" when they're placed on modified duty. It's a place where they can perform a function for the department, without needing to use their guns. Chief Jaffe was upset that her roughly two thousand housing police officers were getting tainted by the bad press surrounding Tavarez, who did not serve as a "full duty" cop in her bureau. She told me residents were calling from South Jamaica Houses on 160th Street and 107th Avenue in Queens, complaining that bad cops were being utilized to patrol their community.

Chief Jaffe wanted to set the record straight. Officer Emmanuel Tavarez did not serve as a housing police officer, in the real sense of the word.

The federal indictment against Tavarez says he was part of a robbery crew that stole more than a million dollars in cash and narcotics from drug dealers, in a two year period. He's also accused of helping to distribute drugs like heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Four of the defendants listed with Tavarez in the indictment are related to him by marriage. Federal prosecutors say
the crew had a phony police car, rigged with sirens and lights, to carry out "raids" against drug dealers. They say Tavarez even loaned his police gun to a member of the crew at times.
Duct tape was also utilized to tie people up, according to the prosecutors.

Tavarez pleaded "not guilty" in a strong, clear voice in Brooklyn Federal Court on Thursday afternoon. He is being held in federal custody, pending a bail hearing next week. Prosecutors are concerned he would be a "flight risk" if released on bail, because he has family ties in the Dominican Republic.

Mary Murphy
5/8/10

The two men arrested this week in Dubai, accused of pledging allegiance to Al Qaeda, both have Brooklyn connections....and impressive business credentials.

Wesam el-Hanafi, 33 years old, was born and raised in Brooklyn to parents with an Egyptian background. His youngest brother, Ahmed, revealed to PIX 11 News that Wesam called him from Dubai a few days ago and told him he'd been arrested. "Everybody's just shocked," the younger el-Hanafi told PIX 11, "He's been living here forever and this came out of nowhere."
The brother told us Wesam was "just a regular Muslim."

Wesam el-Hanafi is a computer engineer who attended Baruch College and played on the basketball team. He also worked for the Lehman Brothers financial firm, at one point. His brother told us Wesam married in the United States and has children, later moving his family to Dubai.

The second suspect, Sabirhan Hasanoff, 34, was born in Australia and later moved to the United States, living at various times in Brooklyn and Queens. Hasanoff also attended Baruch College and worked as a certified public accountant for the prominent firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, between 2003 and 2006. He, too, was arrested in Dubai.

The two suspects appeared in Federal Court in Virginia, when they were first brought back to the United States. Among the charges against them: federal prosecutors say el-Hanafi ordered 7, Casio digital watches on the internet and had them delivered to his family home in Bath Beach, Brooklyn. These watches have been used as "timing devices" for explosives. Police Commissioner, Raymond Kely, did not give many details about the case but made this observation: "There are people among us who are plotting with Al Qaeda."

There's strong reaction tonight to the front-page, New York Times story that says =more= inspectors could be caught up in the scandal involving "phony" results for asbestos and lead testing.

Saverio Todero, a safety inspector from Queens, recently pleaded guilty to "faking" test results on more than 200 buildings. In fact, he didn't even =do= any testing!

Todero essentially "cleared" the buildings for renovation or demolition, meaning owners didn't have to spend money on costly "asbestos abatement". His actions put thousands of people at risk in buildings that could have been filled with asbestos and lead dust. Inhaling asbestos can cause cancer. Exposure to lead can cause neurological damage in young children--and blood pressure problems in adults.

PIX 11 spoke to an environmental health scientist today, who told us it's not difficult to "fudge" the reports. Dr. Kenneth Balbi said, "You take a scanner, scan an old lab report, and then put in some new data." Balbi also said corrupt inspectors have been around for years, willing to
do "quickie" jobs at a much cheaper cost than legitimate inspectors: "Greed is really part of the main function. They used to be called 'drive by' inspections, where the individual would just drive by a property and look at it and say it was safe."

PIX 11 also spoke to an asbestos inspector who's been doing his job for more than 20 years and defended his work. "It's a moral issue," Erroll Cushnie told PIX 11. "If you're a moral person, then you're not going to do it."

A homeowner on 267th Street in North Floral Park, Queens showed PIX 11
News surveillance video, from his home security camera, to illustrate the trouble he and his neighbors are having with a new home for young, autistic men.

The video shows several incidents that have alarmed homeowners on 267th Street, including one where two caretakers were stabbed with pens inside the group home. One of the young residents then ran outside, kicking tail lights in on neighbors' cars. The security video shows an ambulance pulling up on March 19th, to take away two workers on stretchers. The staff then rounds up a group of the men who ran out onto the street. The video also shows a police officer escorting one, young man away.

Mike Antonopoulos, who made the video available to PIX 11, told us the "last straw" came on Sunday morning, April 18th, when he was leaving his house, using the side door, with his two children, in a fenced-in yard. "I was walking with my six year old son and nine year old girl," Antonopoulos told PIX 11. "As soon as I opened the door, I saw this gentleman sitting here with his pants down, holding a pink balloon. He tried to push himself into the house."

PIX INVESTIGATES has learned parole officers in parts of the city are wearing bullet-proof vests INSIDE their offices, until metal detectors arrive at their work sites, possibly by next week.

The officers are reacting to the shooting of a colleague, Samuel Salters, at the Brooklyn office last Thursday, located at 333 Schermerhorn Street. Paroled killer, Robert Morales--who apparently didn't like the strict curfew imposed on him--admitted that he shot Salters. He told reporters outside the 84th Precinct last week, "Unfortunately, he ain't dead. That was the plan."

The president of the parole officers' union--Manuelita Clemente--has been lobbying for metal detectors a long time. She represents 2,200 officers statewide and says the stress of the job is wearing on many of them. "We have eight or nine officers who dropped dead last year, because of heart attacks," Clemente told PIX 11.

The metal detectors will be installed at three locations, for now: the Brooklyn office, the Queens site--located on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica--and the Bronx office at 82 Lincoln Avenue in Mott Haven.

Mary Murphy
4/21/10

U.S. Congressman, Gregory Meeks--who represents the 6th district in Queens--has notified House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, that he's under subpoena by a federal grand jury. Prosecutors are seeking records dating back to 2000.

Rep. Meeks sent a notice to Speaker Pelosi this week, when lawmakers returned from spring recess. The letter was read into the record on the House floor.

Meeks, who earns a congressional salary of $174,000 a year, has been under investigation for
his ties to non-profit charities and also the large home that was built for him several years ago.
When PIX 11 sat down with Congressman Meeks recently in his district office in Jamaica, he denied any wrongdoing: "I've done nothing unethical, nothing illegal. What I do is support the constituency in my community."

Members of Congress are required to notify the House of Representatives when they're subpoenaed. Meeks' letter to Nancy Pelosi follows:

Dear Madam Speaker,

This is to notify you formally, pursuant to Rule VIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, that my district office has been served with a subpoena for documents issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on March 30th, Rep. Meeks told PIX 11 he thinks he's being targeted by a conservative group called the National Legal and Policy Center, which has been poring over his financial disclosure filings.

Mary Murphy
4/16/10

Politics, like life, is all about relationships....and federal prosecutors are looking at the relationship between three, political heavy hitters in southeastern Queens...and their real estate interests.

U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, who replaced the prominent Rev. Floyd Flake in Congress in the late 90's, is the only one talking publicly about a case that's also ensnared State Senator, Malcolm Smith, the temporary President of the State Senate in Albany.

PIX 11 News asked Congressman Meeks whether he ever benefitted financially from the New Direction Local Development Corporation, which received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and funding over the last decade. "Not at all! Not at all," Meeks told us. "Or any organization! I won't do that. It's unethical."

The Daily News recently reported that Meeks' large home--located on a big piece of property between two, city blocks in Jamaica, Queens--was being looked at by federal prosecutors.
Records relating to Rev. Floyd Flake's housing network, subsidized by federal money, have reportedly been subpoenaed. And documents from the district office of Senator Malcolm Smith, dating back ten years, have reportedly been requested, as well. Senator Smith has
hired top "legal gun" Gerald Shargel to represent him. Shargel told Pix 11 News: "There's not a piece of paper which would implicate Senator Smith in any wrongdoing. Senator Smith has done absolutely nothing wrong. He has represented his constituency in a perfectly appropriate, competent, and stellar way."

Pix 11 News tried to get a meeting with Rev. Floyd Flake at his large cathedral in Queens, but our call was not returned. Back in 1991, a federal judge threw out corruption charges against Flake, then a U.S. Congressman, ruling prosecutors had not proven their case.

Mary Murphy
4/13/10

Baruch Lebovits never graduated from a rabbinical academy, but the prominent businessman from Borough Park, Brooklyn was involved enough in the community that his supporters gave him the title anyway.

His lawyer said for many years, the father of seven worked with kindergarten children.

Tonight, he's facing up to 32 years in prison...for sexually abusing a 16 year old boy multiple times, beginning in 2004. That means 1 1/3/ to 4 years for each act of oral sex, in the rabbi's car, to run consecutively.

The extremely harsh sentence, for a person never in trouble with the law before, was meant to send a message to sexual predators. It was imposed by Judge Patricia DiMango in Brooklyn Supreme Court, before a courtroom packed with members of the Hasidic,Orthodox Jewish community.

Some in the court were young men who say they, too, are survivors of sexual abuse that began when they were boys. Joel Engelman of the Jewish Survivors Network told Pix 11 News:
"Hopefully, this really sends a message to the community that the ways of old, protecting the abuser, will not work." Engelman confronted his former principal from Williamsburg on the street multiple times, charging the man sexually abused him when he was just eight years old.

Joe Diangelo, who was born with the name Joel Deutsch and changed it, talked about the suicides...and suicide attempts....among abuse victims. "In the past year, I've had five friends that committed suicide. They felt helpless and hopeless."

Rabbi Lebovits' victim, now 22 years old and a recovering drug addict, told the court: "Some people are telling me I'll regret going to the police....I feel every day Baruch Lebovits is in jail is a day kids in our community are safe."

Mary Murphy
4/12/10

VIDEO: TOP GUN PR FIRM HIRED BY BALCONY LANDLORD

The midtown real estate firm that's under investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, after a young tenant fell from a "high rise" balcony and died at one of its properties, has retained a prominent, public relations firm to combat the bad press.

Bill Cunningham, who works for the Dan Klores firm, is now the spokesman for "Pan Am Equities"--which owns the building at 330 East 39th Street--where 24 year old Conor Donohue fell to his death from a 24th floor balcony on March 14th. Cunningham once served as Director of Communications, in the early years of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration.

Cunningham told PIX INVESTIGATES that Pan Am Equities hired an engineer to do an inspection at the East 39th Street building in 2008, but the Department of Buildings had a dispute with the engineer over how the report was filed. And Cunningham provided PIX INVESTIGATES with "Notices of Violation" sent to Pan Am Equities at an OLD address downtown, which the company moved from in 2007. Pan Am Equities is now located at 18 East 50th Street, across the block from St. Patrick's Cathedral.

PIX INVESTIGATES reported this week the real estate firm has =at least= ten buildings that received violations from the Department of Buildings, for not filing timely "inspection" reports with the city agency.

One tenant at a property at 153 East 32nd Street told us a company representative showed up at his apartment last week, asking to check the window railings. And another tenant, Marcelo Santos, defended Pan Am Equities, saying someone always turned up every spring...to check his balcony.

Mary Murphy
4/8/10

PIX INVESTIGATES has confirmed at least TEN buildings in Manhattan owned by the landlord of 330 East 39th street did not have their five year "safety inspections," as required by city law.

Pan Am Equities is the corporation that owns the East 39th Street building, where 24 year old Conor Donohue fell to his death from a defective, 24th floor balcony on March 14th.

PIX INVESTIGATES tried to get some answers at the company's headquarters at 18 East 50th Street but was turned away. An attorney we tried to reach did not return our phone call.

Tenants at the 38-story building on East 39th Street have not been able to use their balconies since the March 14th accident. We spoke to three, young women who share an apartment on the 31st floor. One of them, 25-year old Carly Shanahan, showed us the balcony door that was bolted shut with a screw. The balcony affords beautiful views of the East River and Empire State Building.

Shanahan told us building management never formally acknowledged the death of Conor Donohue. "As a tenant, it doesn't feel good. You don't feel safe, you don't feel secure, in a building that doesn't even address the fact someone's passed away and died in our building." And Shanahan complained about the e-mail from the manager of New York Tower, that offered a one-time only "rent credit" of $50.00.

Shanahan's roommate, 24-year old Christine Haddad, warned tenants of other "high rises" to make sure their buildings are up to code. "It's definitely an eye-opener, when someone dies, the same age as you."

Mary Murphy
4/6/10

We report the crane accident, no one's injured, and then it's on to a new story. Right?

But our Managing Editor, Dave Manney, wanted to know the anatomy of this particular crane collapse, which happened on a warm Saturday night, March 27--with the rig smashing right into the city's Department of Investigation at 80 Maiden Lane downtown. The irony here is that DOI has made headlines investigating crane inspectors in the last couple of years. The crash claimed no lives but forced the evacuation of several, nearby residential buildings.

In this case, Department of Buildings inspectors were on the scene, as the crane was assembled Saturday morning. An engineer who watched all the activity from a building across the street claimed the crane operator, Christopher Cosban, was very thorough. PIX INVESTIGATES obtained photos of the multi-ton "cooling towers" that were hoisted to the roof of 80 Maiden Lane for the air conditioning system, before the crane operator and his colleagues quit for the day. At that point, DOB inspectors were no longer required to be at the site, and the Buildings Department faulted the crane operator for not securing the equipment properly.
A co-worker of Cosban's we met at Skylift Contractors Corporation in Greenpoint, Brooklyn blasted the suspension of Cosban's license: "He's a great operator," the man fumed. "And I think it's very unfair what they're doing to him. He's amazing That's his first-ever accident."

Rose Gill Hearn, Commissioner for the Department of Investigation, sat down for a one-on-one interview with me and told me the agency would be looking at "surveillance" video from the site Saturday night--to look at the behavior of employees on the scene, in the hours leading up to the crane collapse. There's also the possibility of mechanical failure being involved. DOI is also checking whether a permit was obtained from the city's Department of Transportation
for an "oversized" load to operate on Maiden Lane.

VIDEO: MEEKS, THE MONEY AND THE MINISTER

Gregory Meeks, the Democratic U.S. Congressman representing parts of south Queens, told PIX INVESTIGATES today his staff should have done more research on a Brooklyn minister and his non-profit group, which was seeking five million dollars in tax money to work with ex-prisoners. "I know nothing about the group or organization," Meeks acknowledged. "My staff made the mistake...and, as a result, we submitted the request, unbeknownst to me. But the buck stops with me, so therefore, I take that responsibility." The minister, Reverend Allen Hand, Senior, later told PIX INVESTIGATES the five million dollars was supposed to be used in four, congressional districts to teach "disaster-preparedness".

Meeks withdrew the funding request, after fellow Congressman, Ed Towns, contacted him.
Ed Towns represents the 10th District in Brooklyn. That's where the Trinity Community Development and Empowerment Group filed its tax-exempt papers as a non-profit several years ago. The group listed its address at an apartment with "boarded up" windows on Sheffield Avenue in East New York. The group's founder, Rev. Allen Hand, Sr. spoke exclusively to PIX INVESTIGATES about the funding being withdrawn. "Whether we have Meeks or Towns or anyone elses money, our program still continues. The group received $500,000 last November, so we asked why it needed five million dollars now. "We're also interested in Homeland Security." the minister told me.

A congressional aide for Congressman Towns is listed as 1st Vice President on Trinity's letterhead, and Towns made the decision to withdraw the multi-million dollar funding request, after reporters started asking questions about the employee, Christopher Lundy.

Meeks has been facing questions about non-profit groups he's supported in Queens. He told me today, "Let me be clear. Gregory Meeks has no relatives and no friends on any board or non-profit that Gregory Meeks has ever funded."