Talk Bronx New York

The seat of City Councilman Larry Seabrook remains empty during Thursday’s session.

 Indicted City Councilman Larry Seabrook was a no-show at Thursday’s Council meeting - leaving the spotlight on one of his Bronx colleagues still in the cross hairs.

Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo, whose nephew Richard Izquierdo was indicted on charges of looting nonprofit groups she funded, hid behind a wall of aides and security officers as she entered and left the Council.

“I have no comment, no matter what you ask,” Arroyo said.

Sources say Arroyo is a target of the Department of Investigation’s probe of the Council’s $48.8 million pork budget, in which at least seven members have been caught steering tax money to nonprofits and community groups that benefit their relatives.

Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said she has made the pork process more transparent since she became speaker four years ago - and insisted none of the abuses could happen now.

“All of those allegations occurred before the reforms we put in place,” Quinn said. “I do not believe that what is alleged to have happened could happen today under our new system.”

Investigators are less convinced. They have expanded their probe to include two Bronx Assembly members suspected of misusing state funds.

One is Arroyo’s mother, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, who sent money to Izquierdo’s nonprofits. Prosecutors say he stole more than $180,000, using some of it to pay for tropical trips for the mother-daughter duo.

Assemblyman Peter Rivera is also the subject of an ongoing investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo is looking into allegations highlighted by the Daily News regarding Rivera’s ties to a now defunct nonprofit in the Bronx called Neighborhood Enhancement for Training Services (NETS).

Rivera sponsored $1.3 million in “member items” for NETS, which happened to employ some of his campaign workers, including his son. NETS bought and renovated a building that sits empty. It’s unclear where much of the public money went. Read more..

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A Bronx man, beaten by two female cops when he tried to stop them from attacking another man out of road rage, is suing the city, the NYPD and the officers.

Cyle Perry-Osby, 27, says cops pointed their gun at him, beat him with a baton, punched him and sprayed him with Mace after he tried to break up a fight between them and a motorist, Marlon Smith, 25, on Aug. 15, 2008, according to a Bronx Supreme Court lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Bronx Transit Officers Koleen Robinson, 24, and Michelle Anglin, 37, have already been indicted on charges of felony assault and official misconduct for beating Smith so badly that he needed 25 staples to close his head wound - all because his car door was blocking their driving path.

They are also charged with attacking Perry-Osby after he came to Smith’s aid.

Perry-Osby’s suit alleges he “was wantonly … maliciously, relentlessly, illegally and brutally assaulted, attacked, beaten, struck and threatened with a deadly weapon, pushed and battered by [Robinson and Anglin].”

The officers face up to seven years in prison if convicted. They were immediately stripped of their badges and guns after the incident. Read more..

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A Bronx narcotics detective was indicted Monday on charges she juiced the truth about a big pot bust - lies that got the case against the dealers tossed out.

Detective Debra Eager, a 15-year NYPD veteran, said on the stand that she and her partner saw two drug suspects toting boxes into a Holland Ave. apartment.

Eager, 41, said she followed the duo into the building, heard them enter an apartment and then made an arrest.

Her testimony, however, “was starkly contradicted by video surveillance” at the building, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson said.

And even though the boxes contained 33 pounds of marijuana, the charges against the suspects were dismissed because Eager allegedly distorted the details of the bust.

She was indicted on three counts of first-degree perjury, each carrying up to seven years in prison. She was also suspended without pay. Read more..

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 Thomasa Sabeo, Fermin Arzu’s longtime girlfriend, holds a photo of her beloved who was shot dead by a Bronx cop in May.

Off-Duty Cop To Be Indicted In Shooting Death Of Bronx Man

The off-duty cop who shot and killed an unarmed drunken driver in the Bronx last May was indicted on a manslaughter charge Tuesday, sources said.

NYPD Officer Raphael Lora was told to surrender Wednesday morning at Bronx Supreme Court, where the grand jury indictment is to be unsealed, his lawyer, Stuart London, said.

First-degree manslaughter carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Lora is accused in the May 18 shooting of Fermin Arzu, 41, a Honduran immigrant who worked as a porter and a musician in several bands.

“I hope he feels remorse,” Arzu’s longtime girlfriend, Thomasa Sabeo, 46, said tearfully at the apartment they once shared. “He took an innocent life.”

Arzu “was a humble, hardworking man,” she said. “We came here from Honduras looking for a better life.

“We have been patient, until now.”

The Arzu family’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein, echoed Sabeo’s sentiments, adding, “This is the beginning of the journey for justice for this family.”

A man reached at Lora’s home declined to comment.

Arzu had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit, when he crashed a red minivan into a parked car across from Lora’s home in Longwood, cops said.

Lora rushed to the vehicle, identified himself as a cop and asked for Arzu’s license, London said.

When the minivan began to move, dragging the officer, Lora fired, the lawyer said.

“On the evening in question, my client acted professionally,” London said. “His intention was to render aid, to assist an individual who was intoxicated.”

“My client needed to protect himself from deadly force by discharging his weapon,” he continued. “He was concerned that he was going to be dragged underneath that vehicle.”

The cop fired five rounds at the minivan as it went down the street.

One bullet hit Arzu in the back.

Arzu’s vehicle hit another parked car, caught fire and mounted the sidewalk, finally stopping at the brick wall of a church.

His relatives plan to pack the courtroom Wednesday, bearing photos of their lost loved one.

“We want to be there to get the justice we deserve,” Arzu’s 22-year-old niece Reina Suazo said Tuesday night. “He deserves many years in prison.”

SOURCE: NY Daily News

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