Talk Bronx New York

Heckman for News

Five-year-old Joshua Saunders

A devastated Bronx  father lashed out Sunday at the hit-and-run driver who left his 5-year-old son near death, calling the missing driver “a coward and a maniac.”

Ruel Saunders, 41, raged at the driver as little Joshua Saunders remained on a ventilator in critical condition.

“I want them to come forward and be responsible for what they’ve done to my son,” the father said as he stepped out of the pediatric intensive care unit at Jacobi Medical Center.

Joshua was playing baseball at a Williamsbridge barbecue Saturday when he went onto E. 214th St. near Bronxwood Ave. to fetch a ball.

The green Nissan Pathfinder struck him about 6:30 p.m., dragging him roughly 50 feet, police said. Witnesses said the driver stopped briefly before fleeing.

Saunders said he remains hopeful his son will again play ball.

“I think he’s going to pull through,” Saunders said.

Cops encourage tipsters with information to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers tip line at (800) 577-TIPS

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A man busted for trying to jump his fare at the 116th Street 6 train station was connected to the rape of an elderly woman in the Bronx. (DNAinfo/Nicole Bode)

 By Nina Mandell

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — A man reportedly busted for trying to jump his fare at a Harlem subway station has been arrested and charged with raping a 79-year-old woman.

Shon Holland, 40, was nabbed by cops who saw him duck under the turnstile Friday at the E. 116th Street 6 train station in East Harlem, the Daily News reported.

Police reportedly ran his name and saw that Holland was wanted for violating an order of protection taken out by his former girlfriend.

After taking him into custody, police found that his DNA matched DNA found on the elderly Bronx victim’s clothing, the News reported.

Holland, who has a long list of previous run-ins with the law, was charged with rape, assault and violating an order of protection, according to NYC Department of Corrections records.

Holland allegedly followed the 79-year-old woman into her Bronx building, punched her in the face and raped her.

He’s scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 2, but is currently being held without bond, the News added.

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 As NY1 wraps up its week-long look at the history of the Bronx, we dig into the storied past of Van Cortlandt Park. Borough reporter Dean Meminger filed the following report.Van Cortlandt Park in the North Bronx is truly a scenic getaway for residents. But many don’t know about the long history of the park. The Van Cortlandt family first acquired the property shortly before the year 1700 when it was part of Westchester County. The family was one of the richest in colonial New York.

“They grew wheat and timbered, cut down trees and turned them into lumber for construction. They were also brewers,” says Laura Carpenter of the Van Cortlandt House Museum.

The Van Cortlandt family’s house, built in 1748, is the oldest in the borough. Now a museum, it stands on the park’s southwest corner where there are reenactments of the colonial era.”The Van Cortlandts had slaves. It was extremely common even in the north. Because of the large operation that was going on here it would have been virtually impossible to run it with out slaves,” says Carpenter. “Some slaves lived in the house; they would have been the household slaves.”

There were also plenty of Revolutionary War battles against British troops in the New York area. And many notables stayed in the Van Cortlandt house.

“George Washington stayed here three times,” says Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan. Read more..

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The daughter of a 62-year-old Bronx woman whose eyes and organs were harvested against her will sued a city hospital Thursday for $5 million.

Jo Drever says doctors at Jacobi Medical Center never bothered to ask her consent before removing her mother’s body parts after she died unexpectedly of a heart attack on Aug. 25, 2009.

Drever said she didn’t find out until the morning after her mother, Margaret Lanza, died that her organs had been harvested. She was cleaning out her mother’s Bronx apartment when she received a call from the New York Organ Donor Network thanking her for the donation.

“To get that phone call, it was just devastating,” Drever said.

The city, Jacobi Medical Center and the New York Organ Donor Network are named as defendants in the suit filed yesterday in Bronx Supreme Court.

In a separate suit, Drever’s lawyer, Bonita Zelman, is suing the state for mistakenly entering Lanza’s name as an organ donor on her driver’s license renewal.

“This is a clear case of illegal organ harvesting and stealing body parts without consent,” Zelman said. Drever “had no idea after she left that hospital room to make funeral arrangements they would march in there, take her mother’s organs and mutilate her body.”

Weeks before her mother’s death, Drever said she helped her do the paperwork for her license renewal. She said her mother made her double-check to make sure she hadn’t agreed to donate her organs when she died.

Zelman said after Lanza’s death, her daughter found a letter from the state Department of Motor Vehicles thanking her for agreeing to be an organ donor and outlining her rights.

The license Lanza had when she was admitted to Jacobi did not list her as an organ donor, but her renewal did, Zelman said.

“God only knows how many other people this has happened to,” Drever said. “I want someone to take responsibility for this.”

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Hagen for News

State Sen. Pedro Espada owes the state Board of Elections $10,310

 ALBANY - Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. is a deadbeat on thousands of dollars in state fines despite repeated promises to pay up, state officials charge.

The Bronx Democrat still owes the state Board of Elections $10,310 for failing to turn over timely financial disclosure forms, board spokesman John Conklin told the Daily News on Tuesday.

Espada had vowed to pay off the full balance of his penalty - $13,553 - when Senate President Malcolm Smith threatened to take formal action against him last year.

He’s coughed up a paltry $3,243 since his promise.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “After repeated promises to do otherwise, the majority leader is still in violation of the state election law.”

Espada racked up the fines two years ago for failing to register 41periodic campaign spending reports as required by law.

He’s since handed over just 20 backdated reports, Conklin said.

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