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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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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

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

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."

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."