New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

A 16-year-old boy drove a car down a residential Brooklyn street, traveling more than 60 mph. He lost control and swerved into a parked car, a tree, and a house. A 13-year-old girl in the back seat was killed, police told a New York Criminal Lawyer.

The driver and his friend, also a 16-year-old boy, were not seriously injured in the crash on East 23rd Street at Avenue P in Midwood. The driver was given a Breathalyzer test and passed it.

The young girl in the back seat was taken to Kings County Hospital where she died of massive head injuries. The girl and the driver lived at the same address, but police would not tell New York Criminal Lawyers how the two were related.

Some leaders of a notorious pagan motorcycle gang were arrested, even as they were allegedly plotting to kill their rivals, according to a New York Criminal Lawyers. Federal authorities raided the gang’s headquarters, a Rocky Point tattoo parlor, to make the arrests.

In the end, 19 suspects were charged, some of them appearing in federal court in Central Islip.

Some of the arrests took place in the Rocky Point tattoo parlor that served as the club’s headquarters on Long Island, and included the man who was once president of the Long Island chapter. He now oversees chapters on Long Island, Sullivan County, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. His successor as president of the Long Island chapter was also arrested.

The would-be bomber of Times Square, Faisal Shahzad, received a life sentence in prison for trying to detonate a car full of explosives, according to a New York Criminal Lawyer.

Shahzad’s comment to his sentencing was “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great”. “Brace yourself because the war with the Muslims has only just begun,” he said to the judge right before sentencing. “The defeat of the US is imminent and will happen in the near future.”

Shahzad is a 31-year-old father of two and a naturalized American citizen who lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, New York Criminal Lawyers have learned. He pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to 10 felonies, including international terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

All that’s left is the sentencing – which could be the death penalty.

A man convicted of breaking into a home has been convicted of capital murder in a case involving the horrific killings of a Connecticut nurse and her two daughters, sources tell New York Criminal Lawyers. The conviction was difficult for family members, including the father who survived the attacks, but now they must suffer another trial, in which a jury must decide whether the murderer should be put to death.

The 47-year-old crack addict and career burglar raped and strangled the nurse after binding her wrists and ankles in her living room. He also helped his 29-year-old accomplice murder the daughters, ages 17 and 11 by tying them to their beds, dousing them with gasoline and burning them alive. Both died of smoke inhalation, sources told a New York Criminal Lawyer.

The Rutgers freshman who jumped off a bridge apparently due to video voyeurism had faced the problem previously, New York Criminal Lawyers have learned. He had already complained to a dorm advisor and two other officials that his roommate spied upon his gay tryst and streamed it live with a webcam.

The deceased 18-year-old student wrote about his difficulties with his roommate on a gay message board. He had tried multiple times to have some action taken because of the voyeurism. There was no hint of suicide in his posts, but he was clearly upset and no longer wished stay with his roommate.

The 18-year-old young man said in the messages that he went to the dorm adviser to get a new room once he learned about the first streaming incident. His roommate had invited followers on Twitter to watch a second sexual encounter. “He seemed to take it seriously,” the student wrote in a post, according to a New York Criminal Lawyer. Fifteen hours later, he plunged into the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge.

A Brooklyn bartender died in a stabbing when he confronted an ex-con over a fight between their dogs, police sources told a New York Criminal Lawyer. The fight between the dogs occurred outside a country-and-Western bar on Vanderbuilt Ave. in Prospect Heights.

The victim had his miniature black-and-brown pinscher tied to a fence near a salt-and-pepper poodle. The poodle was owned by a 36-year-old patron of the bar, an ex-convict. The leashes of the dogs twisted together and the dogs began to fight. The ex-con, who had already served seven years in prison for manslaughter, came out with his wife to check on the dog. The 41-year-old bartender also came out to see what was happening.

A witness reported to a New York Criminal Lawyer that the argument was initially very strange. “They were arguing about whose dog can beat whose dog,” the witness said. “Dude! You pushed my wife’s hand!” the witness said he heard the ex-con yell. “No, I didn’t,” the bartender replied, according to the witness. It was only a few minutes later that the bartender was stabbed twice. He died later at Kings County Hospital.

Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards was caught driving under the influence when he was pulled over by police on the Westside. He had double the legal limit of alcohol in his system, authorities told a New York Criminal Lawyer.

The 27-year-old pro football player was arrested early in the morning and charged with DWI, after being pulled over because his Range Rover had overly-tinted windows. Police told a New York Criminal Lawyer they smelled alcohol and gave Edwards a Breathalyzer test. He registered 0.16, which is twice the state’s legal limit of 0.08. He also failed a sobriety test at the scene.

“I had a couple of drinks,” he told the police, according to a report by New York Criminal Lawyers. There were four other passengers, two of them also football players. None of them were charged with any crimes. Edwards was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and operating a vehicle while impaired.

Two men and a woman breaking into a Manhattan gym locker to steal credit cards, a man trying to rob a bank with only a note, a gunman robbing a store in Queens – what do these three have in common? Yes, they’re all criminals, but these weren’t the same people in each instance.

The common thread – they all wore Yankees caps. It’s a strange new trend New York Criminal Lawyers have noted: dozens of men and women who commit crimes against their fellow New Yorkers do so while wearing Yankees caps or clothing.

More than 100 people who have been suspects or persons of interest in connection with serious crimes in New York City have been caught wearing some sort of Yankees paraphernalia, since 2000, New York Criminal Lawyers learned from police sources. No other sports team has nearly as much popularity among the criminal set.

A federal judge barred prosecutors on Wednesday from using a witness in the first trial of a former detainee of Guantanamo Bay, sources told a New York Criminal Lawyer. The decision has sparked further debate in the issue over whether terrorist detainees should be prosecuted in civilian court.

The trial of the alleged terrorist, charged with participating in the 1998 bombings of United States Embassies in East Africa, is seen by many as a test the Obama Administration’s determination to move other detainees to federal court and shut down Guantanamo.

The judge in charge of the case, from the United States District Court in Manhattan, has denied requests from the defense to dismiss the case because the defendant’s right to a speedy trial has been violated and due to accusations of torture.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog has stated that the timing of a fraud lawsuit against Goldman Sachs was “suspicious”. The statement seems to imply SEC agents attempted to distract attention from a report criticizing the SEC for failing to detect an alleged Ponzi scheme, according to New York Criminal Lawyers.

Lawmakers have asked the SEC Inspector General to look into the filing of the SEC suit against Goldman, who settled the case for $550 million. That same day, the SEC released a report from the Inspector General that concluded the agency had missed a number of chances to catch the perpetrator of an alleged $7 billion fraud, sources told a New York Criminal Lawyer.

The Inspector General was questioned at a Senate Banking Committee hearing regarding the timing of the Goldman suit. “It would strain credulity to think it was coincidental.” He also said: “I can’t give you a conclusion right now, but it was suspicious.”