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Reaching Beyond The ‘Bars’ For Ex-Cons 

By the time he was 16, Damien Greene already was an ex-con.

As an adult, the South Bronx native spent three years in prison for two drug-related felonies.

By 28, Greene was through with that life and wanted a change - but he could not go it alone.

“I wasn’t focused enough. Every time I got out of jail, I started doing the same things - selling drugs,” he said. “I did a lot of part-time work, and in between I was selling drugs.”

Greene is one of 110 ex-cons participating in the Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able Day program, which gives them an education and stable jobs.

To graduate, participants have to stay clean and are subject to weekly drug tests, a welcome challenge for Greene.

“I made a commitment to better myself, but I don’t think I would have been able to do it by myself,” said Greene, who entered the program in September and wants to run his own construction business one day.

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Highbridge: Past, Present and Future .. In The Making

THE last time Camille Taylor caught a whiff of fame was more than 60 years ago on the stage of the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Back then, Ms. Taylor was a spunky young woman who had moved to New York from Charlotte, N.C., and edged her way onto the black vaudeville circuit. Her stage name was Big Hat Millie, a nod to the wide-brimmed hats she favored.

But after her comedy career sputtered, Ms. Taylor settled into a quiet life in Highbridge in the West Bronx, a neighborhood where she has long been beloved as a foster parent, tutor, baby sitter and mother figure to generations of local children.

“All these people were hollering and cursing at the kids, but not me,” said Ms. Taylor, now 93 with shiny silver hair. “I always had patience. When I go out on the street, they yell: ‘Hi, Nana! Hi, Grandma! Hi, Mother Taylor!’ ”

Recently, however, this neighborhood fixture has gotten a taste of her old stage life. Ms. Taylor is one of 30 current and former Highbridge residents who have been interviewed for a new documentary, “Highbridge: Past, Present and Future.”

The film about this gritty, seldom-celebrated neighborhood, perched on a hill beside Yankee Stadium, is the brainchild of Jose Gonzalez, a 33-year-old video editor who has lived in the area for eight years. He started work on the documentary soon after the fire last March that killed 10 West African immigrants, nine of them children. The fire occurred just three blocks from Mr. Gonzalez’s apartment; his two sons had attended school with some of the children who died.

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Bronx Day Care Center Caring More Than Children

A grand jury indicted a mother, daughter and son on drug charges Friday after 7,000 heroin bags and other narcotics were found in a house that held a day care center.

Police last week found drugs including four pounds of a morphine-codeine mixture and the other drugs in several places inside the two-story building in the Sound View section of the Bronx, said New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan. The drugs were worth more than $163,000 on the street, she said.

Rosa Mercado, 52, her son, Ramfis Aquino, 26, both of the Bronx, and her daughter Chastese Mercado, 22, of Bushkill, Pa., are charged with first- and third-degree criminal possession of drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Brennan said Aquino was held on $300,000 bail and Rosa and Chastese Mercado were held on $100,000 bail. All face more than 20 years in prison if convicted.

The three pleaded not guilty to all charges.

It was unclear whether children at the day care center were exposed to any drug dealing.

Detectives with search warrants raided the rear living area of the two-story, three bedroom brick house on Feb. 15. Behind night tables and under floor boards they found some 7,000 heroin packed glassine bags, and two plastic bags containing more than eight ounces of loose heroin, Brennan said.

The prosecutor said police also found a bulletproof vest, bulletproof jacket and a box of live bullets.

From an open duffel bag in the kitchen, police recovered two kilograms of an opiate mixture used to make heroin and more than 500 empty glassine envelopes, Brennan said. She said they also found digital scales.

In New York City a kilogram of heroin costs $43,000 to $75,000 on the street, and an ounce of heroin can go for as much as $3,000, Brennan said. She said the 7,000-plus bags of heroin sell for $20 a bag.

SOURCE: NewsDay.com

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