A man named Stephen Vickers-Griffiths, 35, was apprehended on Long Island for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl back in February. He faces multiple charges including rape, attempted criminal sexual act, and more, per WPIX.
On Feb. 26th, at approximately 4:30 PM, the disturbing incident took place at the Pines Motor Lodge on Taylor Ave. Officials reported that the suspect was apprehended by the police the following day.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
A woman from Brooklyn, residing in a Flatbush apartment, has been accused of hiding a corpse in her freezer. Police have deemed the case a homicide. 45-year-old Heather Stines was taken into custody on Wednesday after a psychiatric evaluation, reports The New York Post.
Earlier, the police mentioned that Stines accused her husband of killing Kawsheen Gelzer during a drug-related argument in September. However, Nicholas McGee, Stines’ husband, who is currently imprisoned in Virginia, has not been officially linked to the body.
Neighbors and sources have verified that Gelzer, the man whose head and dismembered body were discovered in the apartment on Nostrand Avenue, was indeed the victim.
According to her and fellow tenants, Stines used to let the missing drug dealer stay in the apartment periodically, but she became wary in the last few months and didn’t allow visitors to go near her fridge
According to Williams, the woman had been a resident in the building for around six years and was initially from Kentucky. Williams mentioned that a caseworker would sometimes visit the couple, but their visits were not comprehensive.
Police discovered a gruesome scene in the apartment around 6:15 a.m. on Monday, based on a tip about a hidden body. The refrigerator was sealed with tape, and when the police tried to open it, the suspect attempted to stop them. Inside, they discovered body parts, including the head, on ice. The suspect, who was already wanted for petit larceny, was taken into custody.
Stines reportedly recognized the drug dealer in a photo and claimed that a tattoo on the dismembered body matched the missing man’s. A memorial with candles and photos has been created in the building’s lobby to remember Gelzer.
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Bellevue Hospital, a renowned public hospital in New York, has come under scrutiny for performing weight-loss surgeries on prisoners, resulting in claims of malnourishment, reports Business Insider.
According to a New York Times investigation, the hospital conducted 3,000 weight-loss surgeries this year, sometimes rushing inappropriate candidates through the process. Among the patients were at least 11 prisoners from the Rikers Island jail complex who underwent elective bariatric surgery. Bariatric surgery, a major operation that reduces the size of the stomach, requires patients to adhere to strict dietary changes, which can be nearly impossible in a prison setting.
Two prisoners, David Mustiga and Luis Perez, were elected for the surgery and complained of struggles with poor nutrition and complications following the surgery. Mustiga, weighing 300 pounds, felt pressured into the procedure without being informed about the challenges of recovering in jail. He lost over 100 pounds in less than six months and experienced hair loss.
Perez faced difficulty in consuming enough protein and suffered from vomiting. Christopher Miller, a spokesperson for Bellevue, claimed that prisoners were
“screened and assessed like all others”
and were kept at the hospital until they could eat the same food served in jail. The hospital’s bariatric surgeons have an incentive to perform more surgeries as they earn higher wages based on the number of operations they conduct.
“It’s all about the numbers,”
Dr. Carmen Kloer, who previously worked with Bellevue’s bariatric department as a medical resident, told The Times.
“They are just churning through cases.”
According to The Times, the hospital receives approximately $11,000, and sometimes even more, per procedure, which is usually funded by taxpayers since a majority of its patients are either on Medicaid or uninsured.
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A woman was found dead in her apartment in East Elmhurst, Queens, following an alleged fight with her tenant, according to PEOPLE.
The New York City Police Department received a call reporting the incident on Tuesday evening. When authorities arrived at the scene, they discovered 55-year-old, Zoraida Leo,
“unconscious and unresponsive with scratches on her face,”
reports reveal. Despite the efforts of emergency medical services, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
After an investigation, the police identified the suspect as 19-year-old Davi Vidal, who lived in the same apartment building as the victim. Vidal rented the second floor above Leo’s apartment. According to law enforcement, Vidal had allegedly stopped paying rent, which led to a confrontation between him and Leo.
He has been charged with murder and is being held without bail as reported by the New York Daily News.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
A man from New York has won a $10 million lottery prize for the second year in a row. Wayne Murray, a resident of Brooklyn, recently struck gold with a 200X scratch-off game, according to officials from the New York Lottery per the PEOPLE.
Murray previously secured a $10 million prize in August 2022, after playing the Black Titanium game scratch-off ticket. It’s worth noting that both of Murray’s winning tickets were purchased at the H&A Gas & Convenience store on Ave. H in Brooklyn, as confirmed by New York lottery officials.
Murray chose to receive his winnings in a single lump sum payment of $6,122,400, after mandatory withholdings, following both of his stunning victories. “It feels very humbling and liberating,” Murray told lottery officials at the time of his first win. After his second win, Murray told the NY Post he wanted to remain
“discreet.”
According to the New York Lottery, the chances of winning the 200X scratch-off game are 1 in 3.64 million, while the odds of winning the Black Titanium game are 1 in 3.53 million.
“Twice in a row — what are the odds? You can’t even think about it. It’s not comprehensible,”
Hassan Nabil, the clerk at the convenience store where Murray scored the two winning tickets, told the New York Post.
“It’s a game for him, so he just keeps playing.”
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A woman from Greenwich, Connecticut is taking legal action against the fast-food salad chain, Chop’t, claiming that she discovered part of an employee’s severed finger in her meal, Insider reported.
Allison Cozzi visited a Chop’t location in Mt. Kisco, New York on April 7 when she realized she was
“chewing on a portion of a human finger”
that had been mixed into her salad, according to her complaint.
The complaint, filed on Monday in a Westchester County court, states that earlier that day, a manager at the store accidentally chopped off a piece of their finger while cutting arugula and left for the hospital. Shockingly, the contaminated arugula was then left on the service line and served to customers, as alleged in the lawsuit.
Cozzi alleges that the restaurant’s negligence resulted in her sustaining injuries, including,
“severe and serious personal injuries, including shock, panic attacks, migraine and the exacerbation of migraine, cognitive impairment, traumatic stress and anxiety, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and neck and shoulder pain.”
According to the complaint, the Westchester County Department of Health has cited the restaurant for a health code violation. In September, the Chop’t location was fined $900 for not adhering to a code that mandates food establishments to operate in a way to
“avoid imminent health hazards.”
This information was obtained from the complaint and publicly available records reviewed by Business Insider.
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Drew Dixon has filed a lawsuit against Grammy-winning music executive Antonio “L.A.” Reid, reports Fox News. Dixon claims that he sexually assaulted her on two occasions in 2001 and hindered her career when she rejected his ongoing advances.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in a New York federal court. Dixon, who worked under Reid’s leadership when he served as the chief executive of Arista Records, alleges that Reid not only reduced her budget but also sidelined artists once she declined his continued harassment. Dixon left Arista in 2002 and asserts that her promising career in the music industry was abruptly halted due to Reid’s actions.
“This litigation is not only about the horrific physical assaults that Ms. Dixon had to endure but it is also about the irreparable damage done to the rare and blossoming career of an extraordinary talent,”
the lawsuit said.
Dixon is seeking unspecified damages in her lawsuit against Reid. Dixon filed her lawsuit under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act, which was enacted last year. This law allows individuals who have experienced sexual abuse to sue within a one-year window, even if the original statute of limitations has expired. The deadline for filing under this act is November 24th.
In 2017, Reid stepped down as CEO of Epic Records following allegations of sexual harassment made by a former female assistant. Reid told The New York Times at the time,
“I’m proud of my track record promoting, supporting, and uplifting women at every company I’ve ever run. That notwithstanding, if I have ever said anything capable of being misinterpreted, I apologize unreservedly.”
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
A New York man has been arrested for allegedly firing shots on a subway platform on Tuesday night, reports Fox News.
The incident occurred when a 49-year-old homeless man attempted to mug a 40-year-old woman near the exit. The NYPD identified the suspect as 43-year-old John Rote and managed to apprehend him on Wednesday afternoon. Rote reportedly overheard the mugger, Matthew Roesch, demanding money from the woman.
To intervene, Rote fired shots, but fortunately, no one was injured. Surveillance images show Rote calmly leaving the scene with a tote bag, a green bookbag, and a tablet. He now faces multiple charges.
“I want to be clear: we don’t tolerate this kind of conduct in NYC Transit, period,”
the city’s top transit official, Richard Davey, said in a statement after Rote’s arrest.
“Once again cameras recorded a perpetrator, and we are grateful the NYPD made an arrest within hours. Thank goodness nobody was hurt here – but what occurred was outrageous, reckless, and unacceptable.”
Transit crime in the city has decreased by 3.6% this year, following a surge during the pandemic and George Floyd protests. However, compared to last year, crime rates are still 29% higher.
Some attacks have been brutal, with travelers being shoved in front of moving subway cars. Last month, Sabir Jones, a 39-year-old repeat offender with mental health issues, was arrested for pushing a woman into a departing train, causing life-threatening injuries. Over the past two years, 37 people, including Michelle Go at Times Square station, have been pushed onto subway tracks, according to FOX 5 New York.
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According to state police, a landlord in upstate New York has been arrested for allegedly attempting to persuade a potential tenant to pose nude in order to secure a higher position on the waiting list for a new apartment, reports the NY Post.
The landlord, 58-year-old John Daly, has been charged with third-degree coercion after authorities claimed that he was attempting to convince Keri Chew to undress for a better chance at securing the new residence in his building located in Washington County.
“Daly advised me that there was a long ‘wait list’ of potential tenters to rent the apartment,”
Chew said in a police statement obtained by The Post Star.
“Daly then told me that if I wanted to be moved to the front of the list and move in today, he ‘expected’ me to get naked and allow him to take pictures of me,”
she said.
Authorities responded to a report of a dispute at the building in Dresden, New York, around 4 p.m. on November 1st. After interviewing Chew on-site, she disclosed the distasteful proposition made by the landlord, leading to Daly being charged with a misdemeanor, as stated in a press release by state police.
If found guilty, Daly could serve a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
According to the Post Star, Daly is the owner of hundreds of properties in Washington and Warren counties.
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A New York judge has ruled that the Universal Music Group (UMG) must hand over more than half a million dollars in music royalties belonging to R&B singer R. Kelly to his sex abuse victims, reports the NY Post.
The decision by US District Judge Ann Donnelly follows Kelly’s conviction for sexually abusing women, underage girls, and boys over many years, resulting in a 30-year prison sentence. The order requires UMG, Kelly’s music publisher, to pay $520,549 to cover outstanding restitution and fines. The money must be delivered within 10 days, as stated in the court documents per The Post.
As a result of UMG’s agreement, prosecutors have announced that they will drop their attempt to seize over $1.5 million in royalties from Sony. However, the abuse victim involved in Kelly’s child pornography conviction in Chicago is seeking the $4 million in Sony royalties awarded to them. The ‘Bump n’ Grind’ singer still owes more than $42,000 in fines and restitution in that case.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, plans to appeal both of his convictions and will seek to have the payments returned to her client.
This ruling comes after Judge Donnelly previously ordered Kelly to surrender nearly $28,000 from his prison inmate account to compensate his victims. The defense had argued against this move, claiming that prosecutors had taken unprecedented actions by freezing all but $500 in Kelly’s account.
In addition to his New York conviction, Kelly was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison in a separate Chicago case. However, most of his time will be served concurrently with his 30-year sentence. Currently, Kelly is incarcerated at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, having been transferred from a Chicago correctional center in April.
#Clique, what are your thoughts?