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New York State Assembly Speaker Silver Said To Surrender To FBI

New York State Assembly Speaker Silver Said To Surrender To FBI

By Patricia Hurtado, Bloomberg News (TNS)

NEW YORK — New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver surrendered to the FBI in lower Manhattan Thursday, where he was placed under arrest, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Sheldon Silver faces corruption charges linked to payments from a law firm that specializes in seeking reductions of real estate taxes, the New York Times reported.

The Times, citing people with knowledge of the investigation, said details on the charges or total amounts of payments weren’t clear.

The arrest of Silver, who has been speaker for more than two decades, would likely throw the state capital of Albany into disarray at the beginning of a new session of the assembly, according to the Times. State lawmakers who are arrested can continue in their job, although they are required to leave office if convicted of a felony.

Silver, 70, a Democrat, was in Albany on Wednesday where he attended Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address and had a prominent seat on the stage, the Times said. It’s not clear where Silver, who is from Manhattan, would be taken into custody, the newspaper said.

Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, didn’t immediately respond to phone messages from Bloomberg News seeking comment.

Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Silver, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Times named Joel Cohen as Silver’s lawyer. The attorney couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Silver failed to list payments from the law firm Goldberg & Iryami on his annual financial disclosure filings with the state, as required, the Times said.

Last month, Silver didn’t respond to questions about the investigation or his relationship with Goldberg & Iryami, including how he had been paid by the firm, when the payments began and what work he did, the Times said. In the past, he has maintained that he had properly disclosed all of his income, the newspaper said.

Silver took home at least an additional $650,000 as an attorney with the firm Weitz & Luxenberg, according to his 2013 financial-disclosure filings.
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Bloomberg reporter Freeman Klopott in Albany contributed to this report.

Photo: Azi Paybarah via Flickr

New York To No Longer Arrest For Small Amounts Of Marijuana

New York To No Longer Arrest For Small Amounts Of Marijuana

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

NEW YORK — Possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana no longer will be grounds for arrest in New York City under a new policy aimed at ending the lifelong stigma that can follow pot users, city officials announced Monday.

The new law, which takes effect Nov. 19, marks a substantial shift in policing in the nation’s largest city, where arrests for marijuana possession so far this year number more than 24,000. But both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said the policy change was not a sign they favored going the route of Colorado and Washington state, which have legalized some recreational marijuana use.

“It’s still against the law,” said Bratton, who held up a small plastic bag filled with oregano to demonstrate the maximum amount that a person could be caught with in New York City and avoid being arrested. “I’m not giving out ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ cards.”

De Blasio, a staunch liberal, also made clear he opposed marijuana legalization. “Any substance that alters your consciousness is a potential danger,” de Blasio said.

Under the new law, a person who is carrying 25 grams or less of the drug and not smoking it would be issued a summons rather than being arrested, taken to a police station, fingerprinted and photographed. Bratton said under some circumstances, a person could still face arrest. That could occur if the person with the marijuana was wanted on an outstanding warrant or if he or she was unable to provide identification to police.

A first offense would bring a fine of up to $100. Subsequent offenses could carry fines up to $300.

De Blasio said the shift was in keeping with his pledge to improve relations between the police and the city’s African-American and Latino communities, who were disproportionately affected by the department’s stop-question-frisk practices. Many of those stops led to arrests for small amounts of marijuana.

The mayor said such arrests often had “disastrous consequences” for individuals with otherwise clean records.

“When an individual is arrested even for the smallest amount of marijuana, it hurts their chances to get a good job. It hurts their chances to get housing. It hurts their chances to qualify for student loans. It can literally follow them the rest of their lives,” de Blasio said.

Bratton said the police department was hurt by the arrests too because it forced officers to spend “endless hours” in courtrooms while cases were prosecuted. “I don’t want them chasing down 25-gram bags of marijuana and tying themselves up in court,” he said.

The announcement came on the same day that new FBI crime statistics showed a drop in nationwide marijuana arrests in 2013. According to the FBI, 693,058 marijuana arrests were made last year, compared with 749,842 in 2012.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, Mason Tvert, said the drop in arrests was a positive step, but Tvert said it was wrong to arrest even one person for “using a substance that is objectively less harmful than alcohol.”

“Every year we see millions of violent crimes attributed to alcohol, and the evidence is clear that marijuana is not a significant contributing factor in such incidents,” Tvert said. “Yet our laws continue to steer adults toward drinking by threatening to punish them if they make the safer choice.”

AFP Photo/Frederic J Brown

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U.S. Activist Arrested For Feeding Homeless Vows To Continue

U.S. Activist Arrested For Feeding Homeless Vows To Continue

Miami (AFP) – A 90-year-old activist arrested for serving meals to the homeless in Florida vowed Thursday to continue his charitable work, even if it means going to jail.

Arnold Abbott was detained on two separate occasions this week along with two pastors from local churches in Fort Lauderdale for handing out food to the city’s homeless.

The activists were arrested after violating a city ordinance passed last month that places new restrictions on distribution of food to the homeless in public places.

However Abbott said Thursday he would continue his practice, telling NBC in an interview: “I’m awfully hard to intimidate.

“I certainly will follow this through until we beat them,” he said. “You can’t sweep the homeless under the rug.

Abbott could be jailed for up to two months and fined $500 if he is found in breach of the law.

The ordinance requires feeding sites to be more than 500 feet (152 meters) away from each other and 500 feet from residential properties.

Only one group distributing food to the homeless is allowed to operate on an individual city block at any one time.

Fort Lauderdale police have defended the arrests of Abbott and the two pastors, saying they are only enforcing the law.

“We would like to emphasize that the purpose of the ordinance is not to prevent the feeding of the homeless, but to balance the needs of the entire population of the city,” police said in a statement.

City officials meanwhile have scrambled to manage the public relations fallout from the arrests.

“We’re not a city that lacks compassion or lack kindness,” Fort Lauderdale mayor Jack Seiler said.

“We just feel that if someone is homeless on the streets of Fort Lauderdale, we need to get them off the street and in the right places where they can improve their position, their situation.”

Homeless rights activists say the case highlights an increasing trend by local governments across the United States to crack down on food distribution networks for the needy.

“Since January 2013, 21 cities have successfully restricted the practice of sharing food with people who are experiencing homelessness while at least 10 others have introduced ordinances that are pending approval,” the National Coalition for the Homeless revealed in a report.

AFP Photo/Spencer Platt

Police To Discuss Arrests Made In Hit-And-Run Deaths Of Three Girls

Police To Discuss Arrests Made In Hit-And-Run Deaths Of Three Girls

By Louis Sahagun and Marisa Gerber, Los Angeles Times

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Santa Ana police are expected to release more information today regarding the arrests made in the hit-and-run deaths of twin sisters and their friend on Halloween night.

Police officials have so far declined to release any information on the suspects, saying only that several arrests were made at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. More details are expected at a news conference today at 11 a.m. PT.

Police said earlier that they were looking for the driver and another person who were in the Honda CR-V that plowed into Lexia and Lexandra Perez and their friend, Andrea Gonzalez, Friday night as they crossed the road at Old Grand Street and Fairhaven Avenue.

The 13-year-old girls were struck in the crosswalk at about 6:45 p.m. by a driver “going at a high rate of speed,” police said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver and a passenger of the CR-V left the vehicle in a nearby Big Lots parking lot and fled the scene, police said.

Andrea’s brother, Josafat Gonzalez, 21, said of the arrests: “It won’t bring my sister back, but the people who committed such a terrible crime will get their time in court and justice will be served.”

It was a particularly deadly weekend in Orange County, where a total of five pedestrians and cyclists were struck and killed since Halloween night.

In Irvine, Calif., a father and son were also hit in a crosswalk while trick-or-treating Friday night. John Roger Alcron, 65, died from injuries while his 4-year-old son was in critical condition. The driver has cooperated with police and was released after questioning.

On Saturday, 44-year-old Daniella Palacios was struck and killed in Anaheim while riding her bike. The incident occurred about 9 p.m. near the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and La Palma Avenue, said police Lt. Bob Dunn. A witness told officers they saw a white pickup flee after the collision.

MCT Photo/Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times

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