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Settlement in ferry-crash death is $1.23M
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- His 10-year-old daughter was the light of his life -- and so were the Yankees.
So devoted to the Bronx Bombers was Joseph Bagarozza that he rushed to get home to Great Kills on Oct. 15, 2003, to see the Yankees square off against their hated rivals, the Red Sox of Boston, in game six of the American League Championship Series.The 35-year-old Manhattan-based commodities broker never made it.
He was one of 11 people killed when the ferryboat Andrew J. Barberi slammed into a maintenance pier near the St. George Ferry Terminal. Scores were injured.
On Wednesday, more than five years after the tragedy, his estate and the city reached a $1.23 million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit, city officials confirmed. The agreement came days before jury selection was to begin in Brooklyn federal court.
"The city extends its condolences to the family of Joseph Bagarozza and hopes that this settlement brings a measure of closure to them," said Kate O'Brien Ahlers, a city Law Department spokeswoman.
Saul Bienenfeld, a Manhattan-based lawyer for the estate, did not return telephone calls yesterday seeking comment.
A Brooklyn native, Bagarozza moved in 1972 with his grandmother, Rose Scavo, to Great Kills. He graduated from Susan Wagner High School and later attended the College of Staten Island, where he was a founding member of the Sigma Upsilon fraternity.
Afterward, he held various jobs in the commodities industry, before going to work for Universal Holdings.
Bagarozza loved music and played drums in his leisure time. He enjoyed watching football and baseball and was an avid Yankees fan.
"Joseph, as a person, was very energetic, always looking to help out," his stepfather, Joseph Fucile, told the Advance a day after the crash. "He was always willing to help his friends. He had some pretty special qualities in that sense."
Most of all, Bagarozza relished spending time with his family, especially his daughter, Kristen, his pride and joy. Kristen is now 15.
Together, they shopped, went to the movies, playground and park, and played miniature golf. Bagarozza would read to her and they'd go on class trips and vacations, court papers said.
He loved making her happy and tracking down gifts he knew she'd enjoy.
To date, the city has settled more than 130 cases, including nine wrongful-death suits, for more than $57.6 million, said Ms. O'Brien Ahlers. The payout jumps to almost $76 million for resolved cases, factoring in an $18.3 million award after trial for former Staten Islander James McMillan Jr., who was rendered a quadriplegic in the crash.
Nearly 40 cases remain open.
Frank Donnelly is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at fdonnelly@siadvance.com.
Immigrant faces 'death sentence' if convicted in mob gambling case
Sunday, June 22nd 2008, 11:42 PM
Schwartz for News
Abid Ghani
Everything came up snake eyes for Abid Ghani when he got busted for repairing mob-run Joker Poker gambling machines.
The legal Pakistani immigrant was hit with a felony gambling charge.
But he will face a harsher sentence than Gambino crime family big shots - deportation back to his homeland.
"It will be like a death sentence," Ghani, 42, of Brooklyn, told the Daily News. "A person like me will be shot for sure. They think you've sold yourself to America or you're a spy. I'd rather be dead here than alive there."
Ghani is fighting the charge and will go on trial next month, even though he would probably be sentenced to nothing more than probation.
A guilty verdict on any felony charge will result in almost certain deportation.
He says that is far worse than the prison terms faced by many of the 51 Gambinos who have already pleaded guilty in the massive case.
When he was a teenager, Ghani was wounded by a car bombing in his hometown of Peshawar. After attending technical college, he immigrated to the U.S., looking for his dream job in the technology field.
He has a green card and his application for citizenship is pending. "I am constantly studying and educating myself. I am Microsoft-certified in computers," he said proudly.
But Ghani's job repairing cash acceptor devices in vending machines in Brooklyn became a nightmare. He was arrested last February and spent eight days in jail.
The indictment even notes a nickname - Han - for Ghani, along with other mob monikers such as Jackie Nose, Fatso and Greaseball.
"I don't even know what the Mafia is," Ghani insisted.
Prosecutors counter that Ghani, who is single, was picked up on wiretaps discussing the gambling machines and note they could have charged them with a lesser crime. Judge Jack Weinstein has scheduled a trial for Ghani and Eddie James, another Joker Poker repairman, on July 21 in Brooklyn Federal Court.
"This is a relatively simple case," Weinstein said in court last week. Except when the stakes are so high for Ghani.
"The government understands his situation and they sympathize," said defense lawyer Saul Bienenfeld. "But they can't help me."
Student Sues NYPD For $1M After Hernia Hell
NEW YORK (CBS) ― A Yeshiva University student is suing the NYPD after he claims he was put through a painfully miserable experience when he was arrested for possessing a controlled substance, which turned out to be medication he was prescribed following surgery for a hernia.Two pills of the painkiller Vicodin led to a jail cell for Simon Weiss. The 22-year-old student lives across the street from a park that's known as a drug location and after he left his home to go for a drive on May 9 -- just a day removed from surgery -- he says he walked with a bit of a limp and believes police may have thought he was under the influence of drugs. A short time after he got into his car, he was pulled over.
"I didn't have the bottle with me, but I had two Vicodin with me," Weiss told CBS 2. "I told [the police officer] I had an operation, I showed him the scar. He said he doesn't care about it. ... I didn't know I'm supposed to take the prescription with me."
Weiss told CBS 2 he brought the pills with him in case he started feeling pain, but after he was arrested, he says police took the pills and he was kept in a jail cell without the medication for 12 hours. His attorney claims that his roommate brought the prescription and discharge information to the police station, but the officers apparently ignored him.
He also says that Weiss' doctor who prescribed the pills called the desk seargeant, but the arresting officer continued to ignore the order. That's when Weiss says he began to feel discomfort.
"Around 1 o'clock in the morning I'm feeling like I'm going to pass out from the pain and they didn't even care, and I was even yelling there and all that," he said.
Finally, in the middle of the night, after he says he begged for help, Weiss was transported by ambulance to Coney Island Hospital where a doctor there gave him a vicodin. Criminal charges were later dropped against Weiss.
Weiss has now filed a notice of claims against the NYPD for $1 million.
"[The officer] had so many opportunities to release Simon from custody, when he saw the bandaged scar, when he saw the prescription and discharge papers, when he heard from Dr. Friedman that Simon was indeed permitted to possess the Vicodin and finally when the doctor at Coney Island Hospital confirmed that Simon was being truthful and gave Simon a Vicodin for his pain," Weiss' lawyer Saul Bienenfield said in a statement.
"The fact that [the officer] continued to keep my client in custody is egregious and warrants [the officer] to be censured for his actions," he added.
The NYPD is awaiting the legal papers before responding to the claims made in the lawsuit.
$11 MIL IN 'TORN BEARD' ARREST
By ALEX GINSBERG
January 3, 2007 -- A Hasidic man who claims his beard was torn and his reputation shredded when an NYPD sergeant improperly arrested him during a wild riot last spring is demanding $11 million from the city and the department, The Post has learned.
In court papers filed last week, Chaim Appel, 38, claims that he was tossed against the hood of a car, his face bruised and his glasses smashed, before he was cuffed and hauled off to jail while his 9-year-old son looked on.
"The major injury is total, total embarrassment," said his lawyer, Saul Bienenfeld. "Every time he walks into shul, they say, 'There's the guy they arrested during the riots.' "
Cops said Appel tried to trip the sergeant during a tense standoff last April 4 between the officers and a mob angrily protesting the ticketing of an elderly bakery owner at 47th Street and 16th Avenue in Borough Park.
But prosecutors dropped the charges, which included attempted assault, menacing, harassment and obstructing governmental administration, at Appel's first court appearance in May following his arraignment.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA declined comment, saying all records in the criminal case have been sealed.
Bienenfeld said Appel, a law student and paralegal, was with his son, returning home from an optometrist's office, when they were caught up in the riot.
Father and son tried to take shelter in a vestibule, but were pushed by a surging crowd into the sergeant, Thomas Gulotta.
Bienenfeld said Gulotta caught Appel by the beard, yanked it partially off, then slammed him down onto a hood of a car.
The suit claims Appel suffered bruising and substantial pain as a result of the rough treatment.
Following the incident, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Appel had tried to trip Gulotta.
The suit, filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court, also demands damages for Appel's son, Shlomie, who allegedly saw the arrest and was left alone when his father was hauled off.
Bienenfeld said cops ignored his client's pleas that he be allowed to make arrangements for the boy's safe return home.
"His son is really traumatized by this," said Bienenfeld. "He watched his father before his eyes get beat up by a cop. He's petrified of cops."
The lawyer said Appel filed suit only after interviews with the Civilian Complaint Review Board and detectives from Internal Affairs appeared to go nowhere.
Some 20 fires were set during the riot, and police cars were vandalized.
The department's highest ranking uniformed officer, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, was accusing of telling cops to, "get these f- - -ing Jews out of here."
Esposito later apologized for using profanity, but maintained that he had said "people" instead of "Jews."
The Police Department declined comment.
The City Law Department said it had not yet received the papers and could not comment.
In the days following the rioting, leaders in the Hasidic community criticized the police handling of the matter as heavy-handed.
Mayor Bloomberg defended the cops and told reporters, "From what I can tell, the Police Department acted appropriately."
Additional reporting by Erika Martinez
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New York Post
NICK DOES A BANG-UP JOB ON PHONE FOTOG
By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH, CHRIS WILSON and BILL HOFFMANN
July 30, 2006 -- NICK Lachey wasn't ready for his close-up early Friday morning. Younes Renak, 18, an Upper East Side native home for the summer from Penn State, claims Lachey roughed him after he tried to snap a
cellphone picture of the pretty-boy singer around 2 a.m. Renak says Lachey went bonkers and began pushing him around inside an elevator at the fashiona ble Rivergate apartment building on East 34th Street where Lachey's TV hottie friend, Vanessa Minnillo, lives. "It was a cellphone [camera], it wasn't a paparazzi kind of thing," Renak's lawyer, Saul Bienenfeld, told The Post's David K. Li. "We're talking about an 18-year-old kid taking in life in the big city." He said Renak might sue. But reps for the ex-Mr. Jessica Simpson say Renak started pestering Lachey at a tore and then followed him into the building and the elevator. "We believe it was a lot more than a young man trying to take a picture," said Lachey's lawyer. Mitch Schuster. His publicist, Ken Sunshine raged, "This harassment with camera phones - it's just out of control." Renak says he still has his cellphone and pictures of Nick, although he declined to share them with us.
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DADDY WHACK FUROR - GAL SUES MOB COPS
New York Post - New York, N.Y.
Author: JANON FISHER
Date: Jun 25, 2006
A Luchese soldier told his daughter before his , "If I ever die mysteriously, the police had something to do with it." And Mary Ann DiLapi, the daughter of slain gangster Anthony DiLapi, had planned to testify to that during the trial of mob cops Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito in April. But the feds switched their strategy at the last minute and didn't call her to the stand, said DiLapi's lawyer, Saul Bienenfeld.
Now DiLapi, 47, is suing the convicted hit-men cops and the NYPD for $50 million in Brooklyn federal court.
In 1990, just months before Eppolito retired from the NYPD, according to the suit, he and Caracappa hunted down the location of DiLapi, who was on the run from Brooklyn mob boss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.
"He was trying to get out of the life," Bienenfeld said. Casso interpreted his retirement as disloyalty and wanted to rub him out.
Caracappa ran DiLapi's name through a department database to get his address and turned it over to Casso, according to the suit.
On Feb. 4, 1990, a masked man shot DiLapi nine times in an underground garage in California.
The NYPD is culpable in DiLapi's , the suit charges, because Eppolito had been suspended six years earlier after the FBI accused him of passing sensitive files pertaining to an organized-crime investigation over to a known criminal.
There are now five families suing Caracappa and Eppolito, who were convicted of conspiracy to DiLapi and seven others.
"They took a lot of people's fathers away, and that's something they're going to have to pay for," said DiLapi in a telephone interview from her home in Salt Lake City.
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'GYNO' PERV LURED VICTIMS WITH JOB AD: DA
New York Post - New York, N.Y.
Author: ALEX GINSBERG and MARK BULLIET
Date: Dec 16, 2005
(Copyright 2005, The New York Post. All Rights Reserved)
A phony gynecologist who lured unsuspecting women to Queens hotel rooms for "exams" netted his prey by advertising a doctor's- assistant job with an employment agency, prosecutors said yesterday.
Alan Psaty, 55, the son of a former Queens assemblyman, allegedly placed the ad with Brooklyn-based agency Rose Hill Inn, claiming he was a doctor named Richard Rubin and that he was looking for an assistant - preferably a female immigrant.
"Masquerading as a medical doctor, the defendant is alleged to have intentionally taken advantage of the implicit trust that is the foundation of the doctor-patient relationship to ually assault and exploit vulnerable women for his own ual gratification," said Queens DA Richard Brown.
"Such exploitation cannot be tolerated."
The husband of one of Psaty's alleged victims said, "He's a pervert. . . . This guy, he's going to get what he deserves. Karma is a very strong thing."
Psaty, a waterproofer from Cedarhurst, L.I., was taken to Queens Hospital Center Wednesday night after he complained of chest pains during a police line-up, sources said.
He was to be arraigned at the hospital today on charges of aggravated ual abuse and unauthorized use of a professional title. His lawyer, Saul Bienenfeld, declined comment.
Psaty's father, Martin Psaty, served one term in the mid-'60s in the state Assembly. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
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Long Island
Former senator plans to sue LIRR over gap fall
BY REID EPSTEIN
Newsday Staff Writer
October 26, 2006, 3:32 PM EDT
Former State Sen. Carol Berman, who fell into a gap at the Long Island Rail Road's Lawrence station, has filed a notice of claim, announcing her intention to sue the railroad for $1 million, her attorney announced Thursday.
Berman, 83, fell into a 10-inch space between the station platform and the train on Sept. 28. She suffered a broken leg and bruised ribs in the fall, according to Saul Bienenfeld, her attorney. Berman, of Lawrence, is now confined to a wheelchair and is unable to walk "more than a few steps," Bienenfeld said.
The suit is the second announced this week against the LIRR.
On Monday, Peter Smead, whose 18-year-old daughter Natalie Smead was killed in August when she fell into a gap at Woodside and was struck by a train, filed a notice of claim stating he intended to sue the railroad for $5 million.
