Court Cases
CON MEN, CORPORATION PLEAD GUILTY IN DEED FRAUD SCHEME TO STEAL HOUSES IN QUEENS, NASSAU
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Russell Carbone and Terrell Hill pleaded guilty to a wide-ranging scheme to steal residential properties by filing forged deeds with city officials. As part of the plea, the court voided deeds to seven homes in Queens and two in Nassau County so they could be returned to their…
QUEENS MAN INDICTED IN VOTER FRAUD CASE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Abdul Rahman was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with falsifying business records, criminal possession of a forged instrument and other crimes for submitting falsified absentee ballot applications for the Democratic primary election in August 2022. District Attorney Katz said: “Every vote has to count. Election integrity…
FAMILIAL DRUG TRAFFICKING RING DISMANTLED
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that 11 defendants were arraigned on drug and gun charges following a 15-month investigation into a sprawling drug trafficking organization that reached from Jamaica to suburban Suffolk and Westchester Counties and involved several members of the same family. The investigation included a series of undercover drug buys inside a…
MANHATTAN MAN CHARGED WITH FELONY HATE CRIME AFTER TARGETING SIKH ON MTA BUS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Christopher Philippeaux was arraigned last night, accused of taunting, punching and trying to knock off the traditional Sikh turban of a fellow bus passenger. District Attorney Katz said: “We will hold accountable those that would attack others based on their religion. Freedom of religion and expression are foundational…
MAN CHARGED WITH ASSAULT FOR BITING OFF POLICE OFFICER’S FINGERTIP
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Lenni Rodriguez Cruz was arraigned today, accused of leading police on an extended high-speed car chase through a public park and 20 red lights, as well as injuring a motorist and a police officer whose fingertip he is alleged to have bitten off. District Attorney Katz said: “The…
BROOKLYN MAN SENTENCED FOR STALKING WOMAN AND SETTING HER FOREST HILLS APARTMENT ON FIRE AFTER SHE ENDED RELATIONSHIP
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Steven Somerville was sentenced to 27 to 29 years in prison for repeatedly stalking and threatening a woman who broke off their relationship and then setting her apartment on fire. The woman was not home at the time of the blaze, having fled with her three children to…
UNLICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST CHARGED WITH CAUSING PATIENT’S LUNGS TO COLLAPSE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Yong De Lin was arraigned today, accused of administering acupuncture treatments he was not licensed to perform that caused a woman’s lungs to collapse. District Attorney Katz urges anyone who has received acupuncture treatments from Lin, who worked from a medical office in Flushing, to contact her office’s…
AFTER EXHAUSTIVE INVESTIGATIONS, DA KATZ MOVES TO VACATE THREE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz filed motions today with defense attorneys to vacate three wrongful convictions. In each case, new evidence came to light: In the case of Earl Walters, fingerprint evidence implicates other men in the 1992 abductions and robberies of two women for which Walters served 20 years in prison. A review of…
MAN CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER FOR WHITESTONE ATTACK ON BLACK LIVES MATTER DEMONSTRATORS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Frank Cavalluzzi was convicted of nine counts of attempted murder for attacking peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators in June 2020, first charging at them wearing a glove with serrated blades and then attempting to run them over driving his SUV on the sidewalk. District Attorney Katz said: “A…
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR INDICTED IN MURDER OF 10-YEAR-OLD BOY IN FAR ROCKAWAY
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Ashram Lochan was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with murder in connection with a 2021 shooting, apparently sparked by a dispute over a shared driveway, that killed 10-year-old Justin Wallace and seriously injured his cousin, 29-year-old Kyle Forrester. Lochan allegedly acted in concert with Jovan Young,…
BRONX MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN SMOKE SHOP SHOOTING
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Albert Edwards was arraigned on charges of murder, robbery and weapon possession in the March 18 robbery of a Richmond Hill smoke shop during which a 20-year-old employee was fatally shot. District Attorney Katz said: “A young man lost his life in a senseless act of gun violence….
DOCTOR CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ASSAULTING PATIENTS IN HOSPITAL, RAPING ACQUAINTANCES AT HIS HOME
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Dr. Zhi Alan Cheng was arraigned today on a 50-count indictment charging him with sexually abusing three patients at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital and raping three other women in his Queens home. Cheng was previously indicted in December for allegedly raping a female acquaintance in his apartment. Cheng…
QUEENS WOMAN INDICTED IN FATAL CRASH THAT KILLED ONE, SERIOUSLY INJURED ANOTHER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Semone Douglass was arraigned today on an indictment charging her with manslaughter, assault and leaving the scene in connection with a high-speed car crash on the Van Wyck Expressway that killed a passenger in another vehicle and seriously injured its driver. District Attorney Katz said: “We have all…
QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH MURDERING HIS MOTHER AND BROTHER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Roscoe Danielson was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with two counts of murder and concealment of a human corpse in connection with the shooting death of his younger brother and stabbing death of his mother. His brother’s body was found in a black plastic garbage bag…
BRONX WOMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER FOR HIGH-SPEED CRASH THAT KILLED PASSENGER IN UBER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Melissa Rodriguez-Lopez was arraigned today on an indictment charging her with murder and manslaughter for a high-speed car crash that killed a passenger in an Uber allegedly struck by Rodriguez-Lopez while drag racing at up to 123 miles an hour on the Whitestone Expressway. District Attorney Katz said:…
MAN ARRAIGNED IN SCOOTER SHOOTING SPREE THAT LEFT ONE DEAD AND TWO OTHERS WOUNDED IN QUEENS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Thomas Abreu was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with murder and five counts of attempted murder after allegedly going on a shooting spree while riding a scooter and killing an 86-year-old man and wounding two others in Queens. District Attorney Katz said: “This is a chilling…
BOYFRIEND OF WOMAN KILLED AND STUFFED IN CAR TRUNK PLEADS GUILTY
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Kareem Flake pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing the 26-year-old mother of his two children in November 2020. The victim’s remains were discovered four months later in the trunk of an abandoned car belonging to the defendant. District Attorney Katz said: “This young mother was brutally murdered and…
MAN CHARGED WITH RAPE AND ASSAULT IN ATTACK ON WOMAN
Allegedly Took Victim on Motorcycle Ride, Then Attacked Her Faces Up to 25 Years in Prison Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Tony Kempsey was arraigned for allegedly raping a 49-year-old woman on an Elmhurst street after giving her a ride on his motorcycle and then beating her. District Attorney Katz said: “This kind…
QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSING ARSENAL OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS, INCLUDING GHOST GUNS AND AMMUNITION
Faces up to 15 Years in Prison Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Zhili Song of Flushing was arraigned on weapons possession and other charges after a search warrant executed at his basement apartment in his parent’s home uncovered a cache of firearms, including ghost guns, and ammunition. District Attorney Katz said: “The arsenal…
QUEENS MAN INDICTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER IN SHOOTING OF NYPD OFFICER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Devin Spraggins was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned today on two counts of attempted murder in the first degree and other charges in connection with the April 5 confrontation with NYPD officers in which rookie Officer Brett Boller was shot. District Attorney Katz said: “The brazen…
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