Monday, June 12, 2000

Central Park Terror Gang of 15 strips, sexually abuses 4 women

By MARTIN MBUGUA, MICHELE McPHEE and BILL HUTCHINSON
Daily News Staff Writers

Groving gang of hooligans stripped four young women naked and sexually assaulted them in and around Central Park yesterday in a brazen, daylight rampage through the heart of the city, police said.Without warning, the pack of about 15 men swarmed the women — in the park and along Central Park South — first drenching them with water, then ripping off all their clothes and groping them during a 35-minute spree.

"I grew up here, but this was the worst I've ever seen in New York," said Rita Berlin, 26, who saw one of the victims standing at Central Park South and Sixth Ave. screaming.

"She came out of the crowd. She was naked, completely naked. We were mortified."One woman, a French tourist, was sexually assaulted in the park as her husband, who was restrained by several of the thugs, watched in helpless horror. Three of the victims also were robbed, cops said.

Police last night arrested two 24-year-old men and were looking for the rest of the gang.

Central Park South was bustling with sun-soaked evening strollers at 6:15 p.m. when the group of 15 men began their assaults on Central Park South, turning the posh strip into a gauntlet of terror.

They circled a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman, tore off their clothes and groped them, police said.

The gang then moved into the park, striking at 63rd St. and East Drive around 6:20 p.m. They pounced on the French tourist, 28, who was strolling with her 29-year-old husband, cops said.While several men grabbed the husband and held him, the others stripped the woman and sexually abused her, police said.

About a half-hour later, the marauding band attacked an 18-year-old tourist from England inside the park at 59th St. and Center Drive North.

Police did not immediately release the names of the two men arrested but said neither has a criminal record.Gloria Robinson, 46, of Queens, rushed to the Midtown North Precinct station house last night when she heard her son had been arrested in the attacks.

"I spoke to him," Robinson said of her son, a sporting goods store manager, whose name she refused to reveal. "He told me, 'Ma, go home, because I didn't do anything.' I was crying and he told me, 'Stop crying and go home.'"

Berlin, who works at Whiskey Park bar on Central Park South and Sixth Ave., said the tear-stained face of the terrified victim is an image she'll never shake."She was screaming, just screaming," Berlin said. "There was a gentleman holding her, covering her with his body."

Tuesday, June 13, 2000

Madness on Videotape
Graphic images of woman pawed,
pounced on; 2 held

By ALICE McQUILLAN, BARBARA ROSS and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Staff Writers

The wolf pack that sexually assaulted seven women in Central Park on Sunday was videotaped violating at least one of their helpless victims.

"Get that one!" they scream on the amateur video as they pounce on one woman and begin pawing at her clothes. "Take it off!"Deputy Chief Thomas Fahey confirmed that the videotape captured some of the mayhem that took place in broad daylight shortly after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Police search for suspects in sex attacks on six women by a group of as many as 25 men in Central Park on Sunday. Two men were in custody last night and cops were searching for up to 23 others who took part in four separate attacks.

"From what we've seen, we're sure there is one person in that thing that has come forward as a victim," Fahey said of the tape. "At least one assault is shown, and activity that we have to get a closer look at."He said the video broadcast last night on WNBC-TV, Channel 4, had been subpoenaed and that authorities expected to obtain the tape today. WABC-TV, Channel 7, also broadcast video depicting part of the rampage.

In an especially disturbing section of the 30-minute tape, a honeymooning French tourist who police said was stripped and groped is seen falling to the ground while her husband yells at her attackers.

In another equally graphic section, a woman is thrown to the pavement, and, as she flails about, someone yells, "Let her go! Let her go!""It's an overdose of testosterone and stupidity mixed in," a police source said.

The men under arrest — Tremayne Bain, 23, of Brooklyn, and Dave Rowe, 24, of Rego Park, Queens — were charged yesterday with sexual assault and robbery. But relatives of both insisted police were mistaken; several friends came forward to provide alibis and videos of the two that the friends say place the suspects elsewhere at the time of the attacks.

The two, who do not have criminal histories, were arrested after one of the victims, an 18-year-old British tourist, pointed them out to police.Moments after the woman was manually attacked by as many of six members of the gang, she flagged down two patrol cops at Central Park South and Center Drive North."Officers, those are the guys," she told cops, who swiftly arrested Bain and Rowe.Later, the shaken London college student, here on vacation, revisited her ordeal.

"They were trying to pull my top up and at the same time guys were trying to pull my shorts down," she told the WB, Channel 11. "I was touched everywhere, and it was really humiliating. There must have been 14 guys touching me."

Last night, the 18-year-old, the other two British tourists, and the other victims — two Long Island teens, a Manhattan fitness instructor and the French tourist who was assaulted while other attackers held her husband down — were talking to prosecutors and looking at more potential suspects in police lineups.

Rowe told cops he was at the park but denied attacking any of the women, according to a police source. Bain, who lives with his sister in Brooklyn, had not made any statements to police.

Cops said the two were among the herd of hoodlums who swarmed around three teenage British tourists after they wandered into the park just before 7 p.m. — and began blasting them with high-powered water guns.The older teens, both 19, were groped and then fled. But the younger woman could not outrun her attackers, who pounced on her, tore off her shirt and dragged her to the ground, police said.

As she struggled to escape, six of her attackers took turns manually assaulting her, police said. Before leaving, they stole $200 from the weeping woman and ran off.

The police officers who arrested Bain and Rowe also confiscated from another man a videotape taken at the parade that consisted of closeups of women's buttocks. Police did not arrest the man but were reviewing the tape to see whether any other suspects were visible.The 18-year-old said she could not identify any of the men who had assaulted her, but she said the two men in custody were among those who had been "touching her," a police source said.Rowe worked as a sales manager of a Champs sporting goods store. A manager there said he quit Thursday.

Mayor Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir insisted the attacks were an aberration and defended the Police Department. "It's unrealistic to assume that police officers can be everywhere at every time, at all times, particularly when they are dealing with a parade," Giuliani said.According to a reconstruction from police, the hoods struck first about 6:10 p.m., at Sixth Ave. and Central Park South.

There, Anne Peyton Bryant, a 29-year-old fitness instructor, was knocked off her skates; she told the Daily News that "they tried to pull my pants down."

Tuesday, June 13, 2000

Assault Can't Scare
Tourists Away

By BILL EGBERT and LEO STANDORA
Daily News Staff Writers

Visitors to New York have their guard up after Sunday's Central Park sex rampage but they're not about to be scared away."I don't see New York as any less safe," said Steve Beaty, 32, who's visiting from Tennessee with his wife and 17-year-old daughter."What happened was a freak thing. You had a shooting in a high school in Columbine [Colo.], but that doesn't mean the whole town is unsafe."

Ashleigh Wilson, 17, who came to New York with a church group from Topeka, Kan., to do volunteer work with the sick and homeless shrugged off the thought of danger.

"Our youth director told us the crime rate was up a little anyway, so I keep my eyes open, but I don't freak out about it," she said."Besides," she added, "we're not scared because we're doing God's work."Window shopping in the Times Square area, 17-year-old Olaya Arraztoa from Chile said defiantly, "I'm not worried at all."The chance of something like this happening to anyone again is so small that it's silly to be scared. It has nothing to do with how safe the city is."

Officials also were far from pressing the panic button. "New York City will welcome a record 34million visitors this year, thanks in part to our status as the safest large city in the United States," said Cristyne Lategano-Nicholas, head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Sunday's Attacks

A reconstruction of the sexual attacks against six women Sunday evening in Central Park, based on police interviews with the victims and witnesses:

1. 6:14 p.m. Sixth Ave. and Central Park South.
A crowd of at least 15 black and Hispanic men surround two women from Long Island, ages 16 and 18. The men spray the women with water guns and grope them. The men then tear open the shirt of the 16-year-old, rip her bra off and steal her pocketbook.

2. 6:20 p.m. 63rd St. and East Drive.
The gang, growing in size to as many as 25, circles a couple from France — a 28-year-old woman and her 29-year-old husband. The thugs chant "soak the girls." Several men hold back the woman’s anguished husband while others in the gang strip the wife, pin her to the ground and grope her.

3. 6:48 p.m., 59th St. and Center Drive North.
An unknown number of men attack three teenage women, tourists from England. Two 19-year-olds are groped. The third victim, an 18-year-old, gets separated from her friends. Her shirt is ripped off, she is knocked to the ground and her skirt is lifted up. She is then manually assaulted by at least six men. The men steal $200.

4. Minutes later, 59th St. and Center Drive North.
The 18-year-old British tourist flags down two patrol cops. She points out two of her alleged attackers. Police arrest the two suspects, ages 24 and 23. A search begins for the others.

'Cops Just Stayed There'
Witnesses say police
didn't stop assaults

By ALICE McQUILLAN, SCOTT SHIFREL and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Staff Writers

verwhelming evidence mounted yesterday that dozens of city cops sat by and did nothing as a wolf pack rampaged through Central Park sexually assaulting at least 16 women.
New videotapes surfaced showing police assigned to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade chatting by barricades at the park's edge while the attacks were occurring nearby.

Several witnesses came forward telling of cop indifference to the chaos around them, corroborating the allegations of two of the victims and the mother of a third."I looked over and saw people squirting girls with spray guns," said David Grandison, a producer for SoHo-based Pseudo.com, who said he was standing by police barricades at Fifth Ave. and 59th St. on Sunday when he heard a roar from the park entrance less than 100 feet away.

"I went over with my camera and started shooting, but the cops just stayed there," Grandison said. "I saw girls getting groped, getting pushed down. The cops knew what was going on because the girls were mad and angry and walking right past them."

Anne Peyton Bryant, a fitness instructor, recounts the horror in Sunday's assault.
Anne Peyton Bryant, 29, said she fled to The Plaza hotel across from the park after she was attacked and couldn't understand why police weren't going after the mob.

"The road was absolutely clear, there was no car on that street," she said. "There was no reason those officers couldn't see the commotion going on at the park."

Another witness, Tyrone Galimore of New Rochelle, videotaped a row of reclining police officers assigned to the parade sitting on benches, seemingly within earshot of the havoc in the park."I think they should have been more aggressive," Galimore said.Privately, veteran cops blamed a department policy of giving more space to Puerto Rican parade revelers to avoid confrontations with a mostly white police force.

"The most strictly enforced parade in the Police Department is the St. Patrick's Day Parade," said one police official. "There, you can't sip a beer in the doorway of a bar. But at the Caribbean Day parade you can smoke a joint on the street, and they won't touch you because the politicians are afraid of a backlash."
"They didn't seem to take the complaint seriously," Bryant said. When police finally did begin investigating, she said, they told her not to tell anybody how the cops had treated her.

"They tried to muzzle me," Bryant said. "They tried to silence me by telling me I was a sexual assault victim and that I could be a victim again if I showed my face in the press."Stung by the charges that cops' lack of response may have allowed the thugs a full 30 minutes to run wild, police officials have launched a full-scale internal investigation.

"Legitimately, there are questions about some cops that didn't respond correctly," said Mayor Giuliani, who had defended the department Monday. "If caught, they will be significantly punished for it — because if they did it, it's outrageous and they shouldn't be cops."Investigators planned to show the victims mug shots of the cops assigned to the southeast corner of the park, where the attacks took place in broad daylight.

"We have all of the post assignments," Police Commissioner Howard Safir said. "I have directed our Internal Affairs Bureau to identify every police officer who was working in that area, to interview both the victims and police officers and find out exactly what happened."

In an apparent attempt to counter the negative publicity, the Giuliani administration offered to arrange interviews for at least four news organizations with French honeymooners who were attacked in the park.But to obtain an interview, the news outlets had to agree to ask the couple only about the performance of the officers who took care of them and to keep secret City Hall's role in arranging the interviews.

City Hall withdrew the Daily News' invitation to interview the couple after the paper said it intended to make it clear that the chat was arranged by the city and certain questions were off-limits.

About 4,000 cops were assigned to patrol the parade, concentrated along the Fifth Ave. Of those, about 950 were assigned to Central Park.Safir admitted that was not nearly enough. "Next year, we will have a lot more cops in that area," he said.But Giuliani and Safir denied that Puerto Rican paradegoers were treated differently from revelers at other ethnic extravaganzas.Citing statistics such as 2,500 cans of beer confiscated, 100 bottles of booze seized and 700 summonses issued, Giuliani added: "This was not a police department that was asleep that day."

Still, it was a department that went to bed early. Because the parade ended about two hours ahead of schedule, some officers on overtime were sent home early.

Factors That May Have Contributed
To Central Park Sex Attacks

Unofficial Police Department policy of giving extra space to revelers at National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Insufficient number of cops assigned to Central Park, where the attacks took place.
Victims and eyewitnesses say cops didn't take complaints about the attacks seriously.
Overtime staff sent home early after parade ended two hours earlier than expected.

Faces of 8 Most Wanted
Cops eye video to ID attackers

By ALICE McQUILLAN
and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Staff Writers

Cops looking for members of the wolf pack that sexually assaulted more than two dozen women in Central Park focused yesterday on eight faces in the crowd.

Their sometimes blurry images were lifted from 10 amateur videotapes of the chaos that followed the National Puerto Rican Day Parade — as police began publicly second-guessing how they managed the mayhem.In a rare admission, Police Commissioner Howard Safir said cops may have erred in sticking to their game plan for patrolling Sunday's parade."I would hope that when supervisors see a large amount of people moving into another area, they would redeploy more officers there," he said. "That apparently was not done."

Internal Affairs investigators have asked every captain, inspector and deputy inspector assigned to the parade to come in for questioning."If I find a police officer who observed this activity and took no action, I'm going to fire him," Safir said.

Meanwhile, two women who say they were attacked suggested that the rampage may have started while the parade was going on.

A 22-year-old woman said she was attacked at 2:30 p.m. inside the park between 67th and 70th Sts., and a 20-year-old said she was assaulted at 3:45 p.m. at the park entrance near Fifth Ave. and 80th St.Investigators at first thought the attacks began about 6 p.m., about an hour after the parade ended."It's horrendous," said Mayor Giuliani, who met yesterday with seven of the 26 victims. "I said we will do everything we could to find the people who were responsible for it."

Police are offering a $10,000 reward per head for information leading to each suspect's conviction.Two men have been arrested in connection with the attacks, and a police task force of 50 detectives is looking for dozens more.

At least four tourists were assaulted, including an 18-year-old British woman who said that as many as six men manually raped her and a French honeymooner who was stripped and assaulted while other thugs pinned down her screaming husband.

Six of the suspects have been identified by victims who were sexually attacked, and three others were seen on videotape committing criminal acts.One image is that of a man — wearing headphones and a white T-shirt with "New York" emblazoned on it — attacking a woman.

"She's got most of her clothes ripped off, and he reaches over and tries to pull off her shorts," a high-ranking police source said.Another man wearing a Puerto Rican flag as a bandana can been seen grabbing a woman's buttocks and breasts.
The face of a ninth man cannot be seen, but the distinctive tattoos of a winged black panther and a gun are visible on his right arm."You see his back, and you see his arm go forward and grab a handful of a girl's naked rear end," the source said.

Giuliani said police also plan to interview some of the those who shot the videos whose disturbing images were broadcast on local television and appeared in city newspapers."One of the victims told me that she thought at least in the particular case of the person doing the video, she thought the person was involved in it," Giuliani said

Jose Mercado, whose videotaped images appeared in the Daily News on Wednesday, said cops questioned him yesterday."They just wanted to know what I saw, which is basically what I got on footage," said Mercado, 24, of Manhattan. "The only thing they asked me was where I was and ... what I was doing at the time."

Cops have been criticized by some of the victims, who said police ignored them when they complained about the abuse. Also, some of the videotapes show police chatting by the park's edge while the attacks were going on nearby.

Two of the victims, Josina Lawrence, 21, and Ashanna Cover, 21, both of Somerset, N.J., blasted the cops for brushing them off.Lawrence said that when she told a police officer she had been sexually assaulted, the cop replied, "Well, I'm directing traffic.""Can't we be escorted, or something?" Cover said she asked. But the officer refused to leave his post.

Lawrence and Cover appeared with the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday to announce their intention to sue the city for $5 million apiece.

Thursday, June 15, 2000

Finest Say There's
A Double Standard at Parades

This story was reported by: MAKI BECKER, BILL EGBERT,
TARA GEORGE, MELISSA GRACE and ROBERTO SANTIAGO.
It was written by: BILL HUTCHINSON

Rank-and-file officers interviewed yesterday conceded there is an unspoken double standard in patrolling the National Puerto Rican Day Parade — a practice of soft enforcement that may have enabled the sexual mayhem in Central Park.

While no one was aware of official orders coming from the top, some cops said the hands-off approach is fueled by political correctness and the deteriorating relationship between cops and minorities.But all of the cops doubted that cries for help went ignored.In response to criticism about how the Police Department handled Sunday's rampage, a team of Daily News reporters interviewed cops from Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Twenty-eight cops responded to the questions, speaking under the condition of anonymity."During the St. Patrick's Day Parade, there's a real big crackdown on alcohol," said a 13-year NYPD veteran. "You have chiefs and inspectors looking for people drinking.

"That doesn't go on during the Puerto Rican or West Indian parades unless its extremely, extremely obvious."Some of the cops noted that enforcement at the St. Pat's parade had been increased after 1998, when a wild brawl ended in a teen's death.

But they contend a softer tone has been taken at ethnic events like the National Puerto Rican Day and the West Indian Day parades, where public drinking and marijuana smoking produce more warnings than arrests.Another officer, an 8 1/2-year veteran who was assigned to Lexington Ave. during Sunday's parade, added, "Things that would be disorderly conduct on a regular day, we just give a warning."

A 38-year-old officer based in the Bronx said his bosses normally are more concerned with parades running smoothly than antagonizing revelers by enforcing misdemeanors."I've seen people smoking weed at the Caribbean Day parade, and they [the bosses] say lay off doing anything," he said. "They just want things to run smoothly."On Sunday, a pack of roving hooligans attacked as many as 26 women in and around Central Park, ripping off their clothes and groping them. Witnesses complained of public drunkenness and pot smoking prior to the attacks.

They also claim that there were no cops in sight of the attacks, and that several officers told of the crimes failed to react."One thing that bothers a lot of us is that everyone seems to be condemning the police, but we weren't the ones attacking woman in the park," said a seven-year veteran of the force, assigned to Manhattan."People seem to forget there was a gang of guys running through the park molesting women. Where's the outrage about that?"All the officers said they did not believe reports of cops failing to react when victims told them they were attacked.

"If someone had approached me with their clothes off, I don't see how it's possible to ignore them," said a Bronx cop who worked Sunday's parade."I don't know how those cops were approached [by the victims]," he said. "There was so much going on. There were so many girls dressed inadequately. There were so many boys doing their nonsense. They charged the barriers at times. Sometimes you would step back because it was one cop against hundreds."

One cop, from Brooklyn North, said he went to the Puerto Rican Day Parade last year as a spectator and couldn't believe some of the things he witnessed."There are hundreds of young males who go, and they feel it's a free-for-all day and they are allowed to do what they want," he said."They drink and smoke and they stand in gantlets of 15 to 20 people. So anyone who wants to walk north or south is forced to walk through these gantlets.

"I saw women were walking by, and these guys are just grabbing at them and groping. This goes on every year. There are women who live in the city getting abused like this, and the cops posted on the side, they can't see 8 feet in the crowd."Cops said that much of the criticism they've taken in the aftermath of Sunday's attacks is the result of civilians not understanding the varied duties police have at parades.

"We have different details," a Queens officer said. "We're doing traffic. Another group does crowd control. Another is backup. Another one is confiscation."I'm not going to confiscate if I'm on traffic detail at Fifth [Ave.] and 42nd [St.]. If I let traffic get in, I'm hung out to dry. They direct you, 'Don't let ... one car down the block.'"

Most officers predicted enforcement would be a lot stricter next year."I guarantee you, next year it's going to be different at the Puerto Rican Day Parade," one Manhattan cop said. "Next year, it will be a whole different ballgame."

Friday, June 16, 2000

New Steps Needed
To Police Parade

The disgusting assaults on more than two dozen women in Central Park by a bunch of hoodlums after last Sunday's annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade have enraged all New Yorkers.Almost as disturbing as the attacks have been the allegations by several victims that some cops on the scene were callous and snail-like in responding to appeals for help.

But anyone who has attended the Puerto Rican Day Parade the past few years, or the huge 116th St. Festival in East Harlem that occurs the day before the parade, could see signs of trouble brewing at both events.Trouble with the way the events are organized. Trouble with the way they are policed.

This is not to suggest that organizers of the events can be held responsible for tiny bands of troublemakers. But flagrant sexual harassment of women has been growing and has been largely unchecked at both events for some time."The crowds at both the parade and the festival have been getting younger and younger," said David Acosta, an East Harlem businessman who helped to found the festival.

Nowadays, the festival that Acosta started as a small neighborhood event draws a few hundred thousand people. And some of the newcomers are up to no good."Lately there's been more of that hip hop youth subculture coming out," said Aurora Flores, whose public relations firm overlooks the 116th St. Festival.East Harlem lawyer Gloria Quinones said she stopped attending the festival a few years ago because a wilder group of people started to make the event uncomfortable. This year, some friends who were visiting from Puerto Rico left the festival after a group of rowdy young men accosted them.The same problems now beset the parade, which I have attended since 1969.

As it grew enormously, to an estimated 2 million people, the parade became the place to be for all the city's young people, especially Hispanic and black youth."It's like one big day of courtship," said Julio Pabon, a 20-year-old who always goes with his friends to look for girls.

But the sheer size of the crowds, and the way the police and parade organizers allow people to be jammed on top of one another on the narrow sidewalks along Fifth Ave. from 59th St. to 86th St., have created dangerous and intolerable situations.

Imagine being packed like sardines at rush hour for three or four hours under a blazing sun. Then imagine groups of teenagers taking advantage of the situation to grab women's buttocks or press against their breasts as they pass in the crush of the crowd. Or men spraying water guns or surrounding women and fondling them, or tossing lighted cigarettes at perfect strangers.That's what the parade has become along Central Park — a humiliating and exhausting experience for too many people.

Parade organizers, meanwhile, have paid no attention to how they run their event. They're too busy raking in the money — $20,000 apiece from the corporations that sponsor floats, $100,000 in television rights, thousands more in advertising and dinners and pageant raffle sales — to worry about the spectators.The police and the politicians are no better. This talk that cops are told to treat the Puerto Rican Day Parade and West Indian American Day Carnival Parade with kid gloves while they've cracked down on the St. Patrick's Day Parade is "nonsense," according to Sgt. Anthony Miranda, president of the Latino Officers Association."If there's a crime in front of you, you are obligated to take police action," Miranda said. But many of his colleagues, Miranda said, hate having to work the parade, so they respond with a lax or surly attitude.

Even parade organizers have complained to me of how uncooperative some police are on the day of the parade, and how many people are forced by police to walk a half-dozen or more blocks just to be allowed to get near the parade.Given the failures of both organizers and police, it is amazing that we had gone all these years without major violence.

The solution is not a new police crackdown on the parade, which remains one of the city's most colorful attractions. Simple good management will do. The parade route should be moved farther south, between Union Square and 59th St., where the sidewalks are wide enough to accommodate larger crowds.

And cops should be reminded they can be respectful while being firm. That they should be keeping a lookout not only for people who drink alcohol, but for lowlifes who believe any woman in tight shorts or a halter is fair game.

Friday, June 16, 2000

3 Good Cops Came to Aid
Of Abused Women

By MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Staff Writer

Officers Edwin Negron and Tyrone Franklin were writing parking tickets on 59th St. on Sunday when suddenly, a naked, crying woman ran out of Central Park and into their arms.

She was soaking wet, with fierce, red scratches on her chest and legs. Her husband, his knees bruised and swollen, was trying to cover her up.

Negron and Franklin helped the couple, honeymooning French tourists, into a police scooter. Another officer assigned to Manhattan Traffic Task Force, James Gonzales, gave the woman an NYPD T-shirt as a mob surrounded the scooter."Both of them were very upset. The people were surrounding the scooter to get a peek. It was bad," Gonzales said. "But we still didn't know what was going on, that there were other victims in the park.""When someone asks you for help, you forget your assignment and respond," Negron said yesterday.

Amid an investigation into allegations that some officers ignored pleas for help during Sunday's Central Park rampage, Negron, Franklin and Gonzales emerged as cops who did their jobs under trying circumstances.Minutes after the French couple was put in an ambulance, three young women, English tourists, exited the park. They also were soaking wet, crying and partially unclothed.The victims told the cops that a gang of men had grabbed, stripped and groped them.Negron and Franklin radioed for backup. Other cops responded and raced into the park looking for the wolf pack as the two officers escorted the British teens into an ambulance.

Suddenly, one teen gasped and pointed to a group of about 15 young men calmly walking out of the park at 59th St. and Sixth Ave. She yelled: "Officers, those are the guys!"

"I started to follow these guys, and when they spotted me, they ran," Negron said. "I chased them three blocks."The suspects fled toward the N and R subway station at 59th St. and Fifth Ave., with Negron and Franklin in pursuit.When they caught up to Tremayne Bain, 23, and David Rowe, 24, another officer brought the British tourists over. "Those two," one victim said. "The guy in the plaid shirt [Bain] and the guy in the Knicks shirt [Rowe]."

Both have been charged with sexual assault.NYPD spokeswoman Marilyn Mode praised Negron and Franklin yesterday. "They responded immediately to the situation," she said. "They reacted in the manner we expect police officers to react in."

Friday, June 16, 2000

Outraged Latinos Slam
Park Wolf Pack Attacks

By MARTIN MBUGUA
Daily News Staff Writer

Latino community leaders yesterday joined a chorus of condemnation of the mob attacks on women in Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

"That kind of wolf pack behavior should be denounced by everyone," said Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, president of Hispanic Federation, a coalition of 66 community-based organizations in the tristate area."I am outraged," Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) said in a statement issued with Rep. Jose Serrano (D-Bronx). "Some bad apples have tarnished the reputation of the entire New York community."Parade organizers said the attacks do not represent the tone of Sunday's event and that they gave a bad name to the parade and Puerto Ricans.

"These were ... people that just came to put the name of Puerto Ricans down," said Mike Garcia, the parade coordinator."This is the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life, and I am 74 years old," he said. "I have lived in the City of New York for 52 years, and I've never seen that."

At a press conference in Central Park on Wednesday, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer said the "mindless, dehumanizing attacks" fit the definition of hate crimes.During the conference, Fernando Mateo, president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, apologized to the victims.

Yet some onlookers disagreed with the public apologies."I don't think they should be taking the blame," said Melissa Rios, an 18-year-old student at Manhattan's Landmark High School who stopped to listen to Mateo's remarks. "It is the fault of those who did it."

Rios said she watched the parade but did not see anything unusual from her spot at Fifth Ave. and 77th St.Cortes-Vazquez explained that the apology was necessary as part of taking responsibility.

"We don't have any reason to be apologetic about anything other than these are heinous acts and we, as a community, are saying that is what they are and they should be treated as such," she said."When the leaders of a community say, 'Not in my house you won't,' it's a very powerful message."

Friday, June 16, 2000

Victims Call Bx. Man Ringleader Manhunt on as police arrest five more suspects

By BILL EGBERT, MICHELE McPHEE
and CORKY SIEMASZKO
Daily News Staff Writers

The victims of the Central Park wilding identified an 18-year-old Bronx man as one of the ringleaders yesterday as cops nabbed him and five more suspects.

"Get 'em! Get 'em! Surround them!" Manuel Vargas was heard saying on one of the videotapes that showed the suspects sexually assaulting women in the park after Sunday's National Puerto Rican Day Parade, a police source said.Vargas, 18, of Sheridan Ave., the Bronx, surrendered to detectives yesterday, authorities said.Photos of several suspects — which appeared in yesterday's Daily News and other media — sparked a flurry of calls to the police Crime Stoppers hotline.

Police released the photos of 15 more suspects yesterday, including one man with a Puerto Rican flag shaved into his head, a ring in his left nipple and a multicolored lion tattoo on his back.Manhattan Chief of Detectives William Taylor said police were looking for as many as 60 suspects but that they don't appear to be part of an organized gang.

"It looked like a wilding," Taylor said. "Somebody categorized it as a frat party that went wild. It's crazy behavior. Absolute, total savagery. They attacked these ladies for no reason."

As the arrests were announced, police officials disclosed that no one — not a victim or a witness — called 911 as the thugs sexually assaulted dozens of women."In this day and age, why did no one call 911 from a cell phone?" Deputy Police Commissioner Marilyn Mode asked. "We know there were cell phones because the suspects were stealing them."Her remarks came after several victims criticized police officers whom they spoke to in person for responding slowly to complaints about the violence that followed the parade.

Mayor Giuliani insisted that the victims he spoke with praised cops."The Police Department should be congratulated for moving so quickly," he said. "A number of the victims, more than not, described to me effective police work."

The number of women who told cops they had been assaulted by a gang of men congregating in the southeast section of the park rose to at least 37 yesterday.Some of the victims were as young as 14. Five were tourists, including an 18-year-old British woman who said that as many as six men groped her private parts,, and a French honeymooner who was stripped and assaulted while other thugs held down her husband.

Vargas, the alleged instigator, turned himself in at an undisclosed location in the Bronx, police said.The superintendent of his building, Victorino Vargas, no relation to the suspect, said the teen had lived in the apartment house with his parents for about 10 years."I saw him yesterday. He said hello. He's a nice guy," Victorino Vargas said. "I never had any problems with him."

Yesterday, police also nabbed Isaias Lozano, 20, of Queens, at his girlfriend's house. John Taylor, 24, of Queens, was arrested at his mother's home. Manuel Nunez, 18, was nabbed at his home in the Bronx.Steven Burt, 32, of Jersey City, who was wearing a white T-shirt with "New York" emblazoned on it when he allegedly was caught on camera attacking a woman, turned himself in to his parole officer after spotting his image in a newspaper, police said.The sixth suspect arrested was identified as Roberto Camacho of Inwood, L.I., who escaped out a back window while cops were questioning his mother Wednesday. He turned himself in yesterday.

John Taylor's 15-year-old cousin Yolanda denied that the young man she calls John-John abused anyone. She insisted that he actually helped some of the women."John-John pushed one girl out of the middle of the crowd because people were touching her," she said.Two suspects were arrested Sunday after the British tourist pointed them out to police.David Rowe, 24, of Queens, and Tremayne Bain, 23, of Brooklyn, were charged with second-degree aggravated sexual abuse, first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree robbery.

The police are offering a $2,000 reward for the arrest and indictment of any suspect, and the city is offering a $10,000 reward for each suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Saturday, June 17, 2000

Call for Laws to Protect Women

By MELISSA GRACE
Daily News Staff Writer

The wolf pack attacks in Central Park were hate crimes against women, and federal laws need to be toughened to protect against gender-based crimes, Rep. Carolyn Maloney said yesterday."The wolf gang went after these women simply because they were women," Maloney said of the sexual assaults against more than 30 women Sunday. "And they humiliated them because they were women."Speaking at a press conference with representatives of the National Organization for Women, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress, Maloney (D-Manhattan) called on Congress to expand legislation to include gender, sexual orientation and disability-related crimes. The group called for a revival of the Violence Against Women Act.

Former Brooklyn Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman said federal legislation is needed to combat the pervasive, underlying "attitude that women are just sex objects. It's deep in our culture." Gov. Pataki said on WCBS-AM radio Thursday that he will propose legislation making gang sexual assault a felony punishable by three to five years in prison.

Saturday, June 17, 2000
Parade Bigs: Never Again

By HELEN PETERSON
Daily News Staff Writer

National Puerto Rican Day Parade board members will meet today to try to come up with ways to prevent a repeat of the Central Park rampage that followed Sunday's celebration. "The groups and the sponsors that are marching and participating in the parade always comply with our rules and regulations," said Maria Roman, parade vice president. "It is the followers that we have to find a way of addressing. That crowd that comes in that is not part of the parade." Roman said she was devastated and outraged by the soaking, stripping and groping of dozens of women in Central Park after the parade.

"The water guns, they have to be eliminated," she said. "It is not fun anymore. Now it is getting out of hand. These are little things." But Roman and others were quick to point out that most of the attacks did not occur during the parade. "What we would need is more [police] protection in the park," said Federico Perez, the parade's director of public relations.

Roman said she expects a "team effort" between the community and police to ward off future problems. "Maybe we have to make some zero-tolerance policy on the groups that are not projecting the cultural pride. We don't want to see this ever happen again. We work too hard," she said. Meanwhile, the organizer of the 116th St. Festival in East Harlem that takes place on the eve of the parade said reports of trouble there were overblown.

Nick Lugo said he opposes moving the festival to Randalls Island or some other site because the point of having it in East Harlem is to give the area an economic boost.

Saturday, June 17, 2000

Suspect Just 'Having Fun'

By MICHELE McPHEE, MARTIN MBUGUA
and DAVE GOLDINER
Daily News Staff Writers

A suspected ringleader of the Central Park wilding spree yesterday said he was just "having fun" when dozens of women were doused with water and sexually attacked.

"They're telling me that I'm bothering them and I'm bothering nothing," Manuel Vargas said as he was led in handcuffs from the 13th Precinct stationhouse in Manhattan."They're telling me that I robbed someone and I did nothing," the 18-year-old Bronx high school dropout said."I'm sitting there having fun, you know?" he added.

Vargas and 15 other men have been charged in the rampage that ripped unchecked through the park for up to a half-hour after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday. Six of the suspects were arrested yesterday.Cops say Vargas egged on a mob of other attackers as they surrounded unsuspecting women and ripped their clothes off, shouting, "Get 'em, get 'em."

Vargas appears in one grainy video tugging at a woman's clothing as she tries to escape from a gang of pawing men, cops said.A total of 47 women — including a French newlywed, two British tourists and girls as young as 14 — have come forward to report being groped.

Vargas' father yesterday defended his son, calling him a good kid who was being scapegoated in the attacks."He doesn't need to do any of that stuff. He has a girlfriend," said Andre Vargas, 44, a Dominican immigrant.

At arraignments last night, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Leemie Kahng called the suspects "part of a malicious mob that literally took over the southern and western parts of Central Park ... and horrified not only the city, but the whole world."

Five of the six men arraigned on sex abuse and rioting charges last night were held in lieu of bail ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 bail. Vargas was held in lieu of $60,000 bail.

Kahng said Vargas was identified by four victims and repeatedly seen in videotapes of the incidents "touching and grabbing" various women. She said he was trying to raise money to flee to the Dominican Republic before he turned himself in.

Suspects Imanuel Nunez, 18, of the Bronx and Roberto Camacho, 16, of Inwood, L.I., were held on $50,000 bail each.Nunez, who cut his hair and dyed it blond in an apparent attempt at a disguise, was accused of touching a woman's buttocks under her shorts.

Kahng said Camacho boasted to teachers and students at his BOCES Nassau Development School that he personally doused females, tore off their tops, pulled down the pants of one and ripped off her underwear.

John Taylor, 24, of Queens, apparently didn't manhandle any victims but was accused of "cheering on others who were assaulting a woman." Bail was set at $30,000 for him. Also arraigned were Isaias Lozado, 19, of Queens, and Steven Burt, 32, of Jersey City. Police have identified 30 suspects in the attacks, all of whom were picked out of amateur videotapes of the spree. Seventeen known suspects were still on the loose, and police released photos of those men, including one wearing a T-shirt reading "Bad Boy" on the back.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir urged the men to turn themselves in, vowing to hunt them down if they hide.Five more men — Leslie Marcano, 19, and David Garcia, 33, both of the Bronx; Anthony Bryant, 25, of Manhattan; Mark Daniels, 21, of Irvington, N.J., and Soto Jensen, 16, and Trevor Britton, 29, both of Brooklyn — were arrested yesterday.

Eight others, including Vargas, were busted Thursday after the Daily News and other media ran still photos of suspects. Two were collared at the scene Sunday.

As the criminal probe continued, police officials yesterday said four or five cops could face discipline for not responding after being told of the rampage. Internal Affairs has questioned at least 80 cops about their responses.

Anne Peyton Bryant, a Manhattan fitness instructor, yesterday looked at 96 photos of cops but couldn't identify the ones who she said ignored her initial pleas for help.

Another victim of the wilding came forward yesterday to describe her harrowing ordeal in the park — and the cops' callous response."The mob started coming toward us, and they just attacked us, and we had to fight our way out," said Jasmine Gonzalez, 25, of Brooklyn, who said she attended the parade with some girlfriends.She said she started flailing her arms and stabbed one of the attackers with the Puerto Rican flag she was carrying."I had to do something to keep those strange hands from touching me," she said.

When she and her friends finally made it out of the park and reported the attack to four cops at Sixth Ave. and Central Park South, she said, the cops told her, "You should've been over here with us and nothing would have happened."When they complained to a second group of cops, Gonzalez said, "They just looked at us like we were crazy."She said she has been contacted by Internal Affairs investigators.

Meanwhile, the first two park suspects to be busted were arraigned yesterday, and their lawyers derided the arrests as an effort to appease an outraged public.Suspects David Rowe, 24, of Hempstead, L.I., and Tremayne Bain, 23, of Brooklyn, who are free on bail, said little at a brief court appearance."We're as appalled as anyone else," said lawyer Michael Dowd. Cops said a woman positively identified the men as her attackers.

Sunday, June 18, 2000

Gropings Fueled
By a Dim Rite of Spring

Among those waiting in the quiet courthouse Friday night for Imanuel Nunez to see the judge was a young man who had come straight from work. The job ID card hanging from his neck said Bell Atlantic, and a necklace of 24-carat diamonds would not have been any flashier in the hallways of 100 Centre St.

You usually don't get too much of middle-class New York at night court.Then a father of another young man in the Central Park case came out of the courtroom, and clipped to the outside of his jean pockets was a ring of keys, the tools of his work as a building super.Inside the courtroom, while Pat Taylor waited for her son, John, to see the judge, she passed around pictures of him and said he works as a barber and part-time model. The mother is the president of the Tenants Association at the Ocean Village Houses, a responsible position at a major development in Far Rockaway.

Other families drifted in, dazed. The defendants were still out of sight, downstairs in holding cells.

"They're curled up like scrolls," a cop reported. "All the Central Park cases are in one cell by themselves. They can't go in with the other bad-asses. They'd be eaten alive."

In their cells, some of the young men were speaking to each other for the first time. The Central Park mauling was a spur-of-the-moment conspiracy of complete strangers. Everyone just followed the official instructions on how to have fun if you are an American person, age 18 to 21.

In broadcast stories about college students on spring break, the single most important visual element is the wet T-shirt contest. The girls get soaked at a bar. The guys bray and snort, making the noises of a barnyard on breeding day. By custom, the winner of the contest is a girl who has shed her wet T-shirt.

That wasn't enough this year. At Spring Break 2000, the females were required not only to strip their tops, but also their pants and underwear. This great leap forward for the millennium was documented in an hour-long MSNBC special about spring break.

"I hope my father doesn't find out about this," one of the scholars confided into a microphone in front of a camera. On MTV, the king and queen of spring break were crowned by Jerry Springer. A cultural infection spreads faster by television cable than the West Nile virus does in the jaws of mosquitoes.

No one knows whether the conga line for last weekend's party began at a Mardi Gras in New Orleans or at Spring Break in Cancun or Negril or in some hip-hop clubs here in New York, all places where young women are run like cattle in the stockyard.

All we know for sure is that it ended late Friday evening on the first floor at 100 Centre St. in Manhattan."John. Taylor. Apparent first arrest," called a court officer, slowly giving the name.Taylor stood. He stole a look into the galley, saw his mother, sisters, aunts, cousins.Now the assistant district attorney, Leemie Khang, was speaking about "part of a large malicious mob that literally took over the south and western part of Central Park."

Taylor shook his head, then listened intently."Along with hordes of other men, surrounded numerous women, doused them with water, ripped their clothing."At this, he seemed to be frowning.

"Stripping them of both outer and undergarments, groped and grabbed any parts of these women's bodies they could get their hands on."What she was describing could have been a video from MTV or BET gone berserk. This was a crime story not only made for TV; it was made by TV. So many videotapes were made because guys brought cameras to shoot closeups of the thonged backsides of young women. Then they decided to climb right inside their own soft-porn film.

Without those pictures, there would have been virtually no arrests. And without the cameras, the strutting might not have careened into assault.

The assistant district attorney acted out a hand gesture made by Taylor on one of the videotapes. In it, he pointed both hands in the air. He was cheering on the people touching the women, prosecutor Khang charged."These attacks continue to horrify not only the city, the nation, but the entire world," the prosecutor concluded.

Taylor shook his head. The case sounded particularly thin against him. Later in the evening, other defendants would be brought to court after being directly identified by women or detectives who recognized them from the videotape.No one saw Taylor touching anyone. He says he threw water at one woman during a cooling-off session and helped another woman who was uncovered during an assault. No, the prosecutor said, Taylor was part of a gang that trapped the woman and he did nothing to stop these terrible events."You're holding my son accountable for what the police shoulda did?" whispered Pat Taylor.The judge, Donna Recant, set bail at $30,000, which might as well have been $30 million.

Touching or not was besides the point, the judge said."A person who acts in concert is equally guilty with one who actually does the act," said Recant.Yes, said the defense lawyer, but Taylor was reacting to what he saw, not urging it."If he importunes, solicits or egged on others, does that not constitute 'acting in concert?'" asked the judge.

This whole crime story is about acting in concert: young strangers who met on a hot June afternoon, young faces coming right down from the TV screens where it all began and climbing right back inside, an All-American outing.

Sunday, June 18, 2000

Man Cleared of Wrongdoing

By BARBARA ROSS and PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
Daily News Staff Writer

Asuspect in the Central Park wilding spree was released yesterday after cops realized they had the wrong man, while a Brooklyn man became the latest alleged assailant to turn himself in.

Police dropped charges against Anthony Bryant, 25, of Manhattan, after cops concluded the victim had misidentified her attacker.In another development, a New Jersey man who was slashed in the face after the parade said that a police officer who was nearby did not pursue the suspect or call an ambulance.

A police official said Bryant and another man who is "practically his twin" were captured on videotape near a victim of the rampage after last Sunday's National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

On the tape, one of the men — who turned out to be Bryant — moves away from the woman, and the other appears to be leaning over her.The woman identified Bryant as her attacker, but a detective reviewing the tape realized she may have made an error and asked her to look at the video again, police officials said. The woman said she picked out the wrong man.Bryant saw his picture — one of more than a dozen images of suspects that have appeared in the Daily News and other news media — and turned himself in to police.His mother, Hattie Bryant of the lower East Side, said her son was in the park but did nothing wrong."He was upset by what he saw," she said. "I know my son. He would not do that."

The man who was slashed, Miguel Reyes, 21, received 114 stitches across his face after being cut with a carpet knife. He accused police of refusing to help.

At 84th St. and Fifth Ave., Reyes said, a group confronted Reyes and his friends and a cop stepped in to break up the dispute."Then, one guy pulled a big knife, and the cop got away from him," Reyes said. "He swung the knife at me, and then he ran. Then another kid held my head and swung his carpet cutter all across my face."I was bleeding, and I walked near the cop and said, 'I need an ambulance,' and he started to get away from me," Reyes said."I could understand him not getting into it with the knives, but at least help me out, call an ambulance," Reyes said.A detective later came to Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where Reyes had been taken, and he interviewed Reyes' friend and filed an assault complaint, Reyes said.

A police spokesman said the department would investigate Reyes' complaint.The assault on Reyes was one of three knife attacks reported during or after the parade.The police Internal Affair Bureau also is investigating a city police officer who allegedly berated detectives involved in the arrest of his 16-year-old brother in the wilding.

The cop, whose name was not released, works in Brooklyn's 81st Precinct, police sources said. His brother, Roberto Camacho of Inwood, L.I., was arrested Thursday."He called detectives and blasted them for searching his mother's home," a senior police official said.

At least 50 women have reported being stripped and molested in the park, and at least three have accused cops on the scene of complacency.

Thirty men have been identified by victims, and yesterday the police released seven more photos of suspects taken from videotapes.Meanwhile, Jason Commissiong, 20, of E. 89th St. in Brooklyn, surrendered to police yesterday morning, leaving the total number of men under arrest in the case at 16.

Commissiong was arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court along with six other men: Julio de la Cruz, 22, of North Bergen, N.J.; Isaiah Forbes, 18, of Queens; Marc Daniels, 21, of Irvington, N.J.; Leslie Marcano, 19, of the Bronx; Jensen Soto, 16, of Brooklyn, and Trevor Britton, 29, of Brooklyn. They face sex abuse and rioting charges and were held in lieu of bail ranging from $15,000 to $45,000.Another suspect, David Garcia, 33, of the Bronx still was awaiting arraignment last night.

Police were still investigating reports that cops ignored women's pleas for help. Eighty officers assigned to the parade have been interviewed.The alleged inaction by police and the attacks against women were the subject of a small protest yesterday in Central Park, near the scene of the assaults.

Monday, June 19, 2000

No. 17 Nabbed In Park Frenzy

By MICHAEL CLAFFEY, BILL EGBERT and ALICE McQUILLAN
Daily News Staff Writers

Police arrested a 17th suspect in the Central Park sex attacks yesterday as the mayhem became a flash point for protests.An anonymous tip led police to the Far Rockaway, Queens, home of Lonnie Hopson, 18, who was caught on videotape "grabbing at girls," an investigator said.Police arrested Hopson at 1 a.m., charging him with sexual abuse. He's accused of being among the packs of rampaging young men who surrounded, groped, stripped and robbed women in a wild coda to last Sunday's National Puerto Rican Day Parade.Dressed in a blue-and-white Detroit Lions football jersey and wearing his hair in cornrows, Hopson's image was among wanted pictures police have culled from at least 10 amateur videotapes.

So far, 49 women have said they were attacked. Several have filed lawsuits, claiming that cops they ran to for help brushed them off.Police Internal Affairs officers are investigating those claims. Another police review is examining possible deployment mistakes that left the 59th St. end of Central Park undermanned that day.

Last night, about 100 women marched from that section of the park to the Central Park Precinct stationhouse, chanting, "Hey, hey mister, mister, get your hands off my sister!" and "No matter how I'm dressed, yes means yes, no means no!"

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), who attended the protest organized by the National Organization for Women, decried the rampage."These victims were different ages, different races and from [different] countries, but they were all women and that singled them out for these attacks," she said.

There were also angry words from black leaders, who blamed the wilding on everything from rap music culture to cutbacks in summer youth job programs.Standing with two of the victims and his two daughters, the Rev. Al Sharpton announced a series of all-male rallies designed to combat "this sort of misogynous behavior.""We need to really deal with the fact that some of our young men think it's acceptable, even fun, to engage in the sort of behavior that we saw here last Sunday," Sharpton said.

"Women should be able to go out and have a good time, especially at a parade," said victim Josina Lawrence.

Eric Adams, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, chastised the city for "Draconian" cuts in programs for young people — prompting a reply from Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota. "We spend more money on after-school programs than ever before," Lhota said.

Tuesday, June 20, 2000

18th Wilding Suspect Gives Up

Another suspect wanted in connection with last week's rampage in Central Park surrendered yesterday as the number of victims grew to 53, police said.

Dellon Evans, 17, of Queens, turned himself in to 13th Precinct detectives yesterday afternoon with a lawyer at his side after his picture was circulated as one of the men wanted for sexually assaulting dozens of women, cops said.He was charged with sexual abuse.Evans became the 18th man charged in the June 11 mayhem in which bands of young men surrounded, groped, stripped and robbed women after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.Police are investigating complaints that officers ignored victims' pleas for help. They also are probing whether there was sufficient staffing in and around Central Park at the time of the wilding.

Meanwhile, Mayor Giuliani said tourism has not been damaged by the attacks."It has had no impact at all. Just the opposite," the mayor said. "The city is more crowded than ever before."

Wednesday, June 21, 2000

Hil Rips TV Stations Calls it 'wrong' to show sex victims' faces

By WILLIAM GOLDSCHLAG
Daily News Senior National Correspondent

>Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday criticized New York TV stations that aired videos showing the faces of victims in the June 11 Central Park sex attacks.

"I believe it was wrong to show the faces of the women being assaulted without getting their permission first," Clinton said. "You can report the news without adding to the trauma of those already victimized."In a speech on privacy issues to the New York State Broadcasters Association's convention, the First Lady said, "There could not be a more dramatic example of the importance of privacy than those images."

She praised the TV stations that took the precaution of electronically obscuring the women's faces, and urged the industry to police itself to discourage those who did not follow that practice.Her speech's larger theme was privacy — including financial and medical privacy — in the Information Age.

She pledged, if elected senator, to work to protect individual privacy against companies that use everything from credit card receipts to Internet purchases to medical histories to develop detailed profiles on consumers and often sell them to other companies."I don't believe you should give up your privacy when you visit your doctor, take a trip to the video store or buy a book on the Internet," she said.

After days of swapping harsh attacks with Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Suffolk), she pulled back to focus on her own issues yesterday. A new Marist poll showed her and Lazio dead even at 42% apiece."As I've said for many weeks and months now, it's a close race," Clinton said.Clinton gave an unusually expansive reply during a question-and-answer session on why she decided to subject herself to the rigors of a Senate campaign.She described a long evolution from initial reluctance while other Democrats were "pushing" her to run because they felt they needed a big name to compete with the expected GOP candidate, Mayor Giuliani.

"A turning point," she said, was when she was helping promote an HBO special on women in sports. At a school in Chelsea, there was a banner that read, "Dare to Compete."

"This young volleyball player introduced me ... leaned over and she whispered in my ear, 'Dare to compete, Mrs. Clinton.' So there are these, like, little moments along the way."

Wednesday, June 21, 2000
Park Wilding Arrests at 20

By BARBARA ROSS and RICHARD WEIR
Daily News Staff Writers

The tally of suspects charged with sexually abusing women in the Central Park wilding spree rose to 20 yesterday, with police announcing two more arrests.

Alexander Eraide, 23, of Queens, and an unidentified 15-year-old youth turned themselves in to police late Monday. But one previously collared suspect was freed without bail yesterday after the grand jury failed to reach a decision on whether to indict him. Cops are looking for 22 more men suspected of assaulting women, many of whom were doused with water, stripped and groped after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 11. Fifty-three women said they were victimized. A Manhattan grand jury indicted five men yesterday on charges of sexual abuse and riot. The five, among the first arrested last week, are: Manuel Vargas, 18, of the Bronx; Steven Burt, 31, of Jersey City; Imanuel Nunez, 18, of the Bronx; Roberto Camacho, 16, of Inwood, L.I., and Jensen Soto, 16, of Brooklyn.

The grand jury, however, did not take any action against John Taylor. After leaving court, Taylor hugged a dozen relatives, including his weeping mother. The 24-year-old Queens man declared, "I want to clear my name. That's all. Glory be to God."

Thursday, June 22, 2000

ID New Park Suspects Three indicted in sex attacks

By MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Staff Writer

Cops have identified two more suspects in connection with the attacks on at least 53 women in Central Park.

The men were identified after cops, and most of the victims, scoured more than 26 amateur videotapes of the assaults obtained by the NYPD. Cops have arrested 20 suspects in the June 11 attacks, which occurred after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. In another development, a Manhattan grand jury indicted three suspects on sex-abuse charges stemming from the spree, including Isaiah Forbes, 18, of Queens; Trevor Britton, 29, of Brooklyn, and Julio de la Cruz, 22, of North Bergen, N.J.The grand jury took no action against two other men, Leslie Marcano, 19, of the Bronx, and Marc Daniels, 21, of Irvington, N.J. Daniels was freed without bail. Marcano remained behind bars on a parole violation.

Four other men whose pictures were released by the NYPD turned themselves in but were freed after questioning, said Chief William Taylor, commanding officer of the Manhattan detective squad."We certainly did not want to arrest anybody who didn't deserve to be arrested," said Taylor. He added that one man was released after it was determined that he was shielding, not attacking, a woman. "Some of them have been eliminated through further investigation."

The NYPD also is releasing the pictures of 14 suspects still at large on the Internet at http://www.nyclink.org/html/nypd/html/wanted.html.

They are being sought for committing acts of sexual abuse and riot, Taylor said."We're not going to stop," he said. "We're looking to get other people who may have information to assist us in bringing to justice anybody who was responsible for this."Taylor urged anyone with information about the suspects to call (800) 577-TIPS.

Wednesday, June 28, 2000

Don't Be Misled, Crime's Still Down

By HOWARD SAFIR

Although crime rates continue to drop in New York City, the media's inclination to focus narrowly on recent negative stories has created a perception among some that crime is on the increase.The anxiety is fueled by the critics who never believed the police had any effect on crime. They've been waiting anxiously in the wings for crime to increase so they could say, "We told you so."But the truth is, crime in the city is lower than it has been in 34 years — and it continues to drop. New Yorkers deserve the facts, so here they are: During the first six months of this year, crime dropped in our streets, on our roads and in our schools.

Calendar year 1999 ended with a 7.3% decline in crime — officially closing a decade that started with 2,245 homicides and ended with 671. And although each successive year of crime decline makes it that much harder to keep the trend going, that is exactly what the NYPD has done in 2000. So far this year, major crime in New York City is down 7.6%. In short, the city of today is safer than it was 10 years ago, five years ago and even six months ago — and the news keeps getting better.

That's not to say the people of New York — and the NYPD — shouldn't be concerned when violence does strike. By now, most New Yorkers have seen the videotapes of the cowardly assaults committed in Central Park following this year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade. But as criminologist George Kelling pointed out recently, incidents, regardless of how serious, are not trends. As repugnant as these attacks are, they don't represent the reality of today's Central Park.

Index crimes (meaning those used nationally as a barometer of serious crime) dropped by 31% in the park in 1999, a 73% decline when compared with 1993. They continue to decline in 2000; 44 index crimes have been reported so far this year, a 9% decline from last year and an average of less than two per week. Based on the 20 million people who enjoy the park each year, that works out to one index crime for every 250,000 visitors.

In every borough and virtually all major crime categories, the story is the same. Crime has dropped steadily over the past seven years and continues to do so. Rape is down; so is robbery. Felony assault, grand larceny, auto theft, burglary — all are declining.

Yet pundits continue to obsess on the one category that is showing an increase — murder, which, through last Monday, was up 5% over last year. From that one statistic, they conclude that the city has taken a turn for the worse.

I'll let the people of our city judge for themselves. The 671 murders reported in 1999 represented a 70% drop from the number reported in 1990. As for this year's increase, by all accounts it appears to be a spike rather than a trend. By mid-March, that spike hit its peak, and the NYPD's quick response has led to a second-quarter reduction of 15 murders — a 9.3% drop compared with the same period last year.

It comes down to this: Critics looking for the pendulum to shift are in for a long wait. New York hasn't become the safest large city in America by accident. Police can and do affect the crime rate, and the success achieved here is due to the focused and intensive efforts of a determined NYPD.

That determination hasn't abated in 2000 — it has increased, as proven by the 21,000 additional arrests and 25,000 quality-of-life summonses this year compared with last. The results are undeniable: The last time the crime rate was lower in New York City, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, Neil Armstrong had yet to walk on the moon and John Rocker hadn't been born.That's the New York City of today, and neither the people of our city nor their police are about to give up this hard-earned success.

Safir is police commissioner

Friday, June 30, 2000

Women to Meet Safir on Wilding

By TIMOTHY J. BURGER and MAKI BECKER
Daily News Staff Writers

Twenty-two female elected officials will put Police Commissioner Howard Safir on the hot seat next week over reports that cops stood by while more than 50 women were molested in Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Parade."As elected officials and as women, we are we really outraged with the allegation that so many women could be stripped, beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob without getting a stronger and more immediate response from the Police Department," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

The 22-woman coalition of federal, state and city leaders, first asked to meet with Mayor Giuliani. Instead, the mayor's office arranged for the officials to sit down with Safir on Wednesday at 9 a.m."We are looking forward to meeting with them," said Safir's spokeswoman, Marilyn Mode. "We will listen to them, hear their concerns and explain what training we have and what steps we have taken in the aftermath of the Central Park. It should be an exploratory conversation."

The women want to know how police officers are trained to handle assaults and other sexual attacks on women, what the protocol is when a woman reports a sexual crime and whether cops are equipped to call for backup during special assignments, such as the parade.Maloney also wants to know how many women will participate in the police investigation of the June 11 attacks and suggested that a woman lead the effort."It was not that long ago when violence against women was treated with a wink and a nod," Maloney said.

Monday, July 03, 2000

2 More Arrests Put Wilding Tally at 28

Police made their 27th and 28th arrests in the Central Park "wilding" case yesterday, one coming after a victim said she spotted her attacker at a concert in the Bronx.Andy Alvarez, 35, of Pitt St. in Manhattan, was arrested at Orchard Beach after a 19-year-old woman notified a police officer about 3:40 p.m. that she saw a man who groped her during the June 11 Central Park rampage following the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, police said.

The woman, the 59th victim to come forward, had not reported her case until she spotted her alleged attacker yesterday, cops said.Alvarez and the woman were taken to the 45th Precinct stationhouse in the Bronx. Police there notified detectives on the task force assembled to investigate the Central Park incidents.

Alvarez was charged with first-degree sexual abuse.In the second arrest, Cyheme Saunders, 23, of Inwood, L.I., was apprehended by task force detectives acting on a Crimestoppers tip.Saunders, also charged with first-degree sexual abuse, allegedly groped a 23-year-old woman.

Tuesday, July 04, 2000

Safir: We Erred On Sex Attacks

By JOHN MARZULLI
Daily News Staff Writer

Errors in planning and flawed tactics by police allowed widespread wilding attacks to occur against women following the National Puerto Rican Day Parade — and some cops then ignored victims' pleas, an NYPD probe found.Police Commissioner Howard Safir conceded yesterday that "mistakes" were made by two chiefs on June 11, when as many as 59 women were attacked in a water-drenched frenzy of groping and clothes-tearing as the parade wound down.
Police Commissioner Howard Safir (c.) speaks at a press conference at One Police Plaza yesterday. Safir also detailed serious misconduct by an inspector, two deputy inspectors, a captain, a lieutenant, a sergeant, three foot cops and three 911 operators.

"I feel very personally responsible," Safir said. "We are better than how we acted on that particular day. This one should not have happened."The attacks were downplayed by Safir and Mayor Giuliani until scores of women came forward complaining that they were doused with water, stripped and fondled. Amateur videotapes captured the horror.

So far, 29 suspects have been arrested; 17 others are still being sought. Safir said there is no evidence that any cops witnessed crimes taking place and did nothing.

Officer Michael Bonefant has been slapped with disciplinary charges for allegedly telling two victims that he could not leave his post and then pointing them to a command post blocks away.Another cop, Scott Hyndman, stands accused of failing to write up a report from a woman who told him she had been molested while she was skating.A third cop, Christian Zisel, is charged with twice leaving his post at 59th St. and Central Park South while attacks occurred there.

But the investigation found that the seeds of trouble were planted well before the parade.The parade itself, which was orderly, ended earlier than last year's. Chief of Patrol John Scanlon went home about 5 p.m., Safir said, leaving Chief Allan Hoehl and Assistant Chief Nicholas Estavillo in charge.

As cops were sent home, unruly behavior began to escalate in the park away from the parade route, where police brass had not anticipated trouble.Safir exonerated Scanlon. Hoehl and Estavillo will receive letters of instruction explaining how to handle similar events in the future.

More serious letters of censure — formal reprimands filed in personnel folders — were meted out to an inspector, two deputy inspectors and a captain for failing to supervise their zones properly.A lieutenant is charged with sending his cops home despite a large crowd gathered at 59th St. and Central Park South, and a sergeant is charged with failing to supervise a cop who was absent from his post.There were eight 911 calls about the attacks between 6:04 p.m. and 6:32 p.m., Safir said, but two 911 operators and a dispatcher apparently mishandled the calls' priority levels.

A high-ranking police source said it is unlikely any officers will be dismissed. The likely penalty will range from the loss of 30 days of pay to one year of probation. But for the captain and inspectors, letters of censure can be career killers.The report contains more than a dozen recommendations, including better training for special events and the use of surveillance cameras feeding live images back to the command post.

Sue Karten, a lawyer for wilding victim Peyton Bryant, called the measures "a slap on the wrist.""It's shocking, because I know that Peyton went to at least eight cops and got dismissed along the way, and if you look at the videotapes, there were many more cops ignoring the attacks," she said.

Union officials blasted the findings. "This wasn't an investigation, it was a witch hunt," said John Driscoll, president of the Captains Endowment Association. Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said the investigation shows "there was no widespread lack of appropriate response by police officers."

Tuesday, July 25, 2000

Suspects' Own Words Detail Rampage in Park

By MIKE CLAFFEY
Daily News Staff Writer

Prosecutors released handwritten statements yesterday made by suspects in the alcohol-and-drug-fueled sexual-abuse rampage in Central Park last month.Lonnie Hopson, 18, of Far Rockaway, Queens, wrote in part, "Everyone was throwing water on the ladies, including me. Like 50 people on one person, like wild hyenas, grabbed ... whatever they could grab."
Wilding suspect Abel Ortiz across from Centre St. courthouse yesterday. Isaias Lozano, 19, of Richmond Hill, Queens, said, "There was a mass quantity of guys crowded around, like 10 or more were surrounding these girls. ... They were going for any girl in the park that was within their perimeter."

The documents came to light on the same day that 15 men were indicted in the wilding that followed the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 11. Authorities said 16 more suspects were being sought.The 15 arraigned yesterday pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of sexual abuse, assault and riot.The Manhattan district attorney's office said grand jury action on felony charges is pending against 10 more arrested suspects and that two more face misdemeanors.

Prosecutors yesterday released photos of 16 more men culled from the more than 40 amateur videotapes of the abuse spree, in which a mob stripped and groped at least 50 women.

"These are 16 people whom law enforcement authorities are seeking to come forward for questioning," said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

She added that some victims spotted on the tapes have yet to come forward.It quickly became clear during yesterday's arraignments that Judge Bernard Fried would have to move back a planned September trial date to late fall.Defense attorneys argued that they need more time because prosecutors have been slow to turn over the video evidence.

Assistant District Attorney Leemie Kahng said prosecutors don't have high-speed equipment for duplicating tapes. She said it could take at least three weeks to make copies of all the tapes.Defense attorneys said they can't start preparing their cases without viewing all the tapes.

"The indictment gives no specifics as to who did what when," said Harry Bowmaster, the lawyer for Isaiah Forbes, 18, of Queens, one of the men arrested but not yet indicted. "How can you defend yourself against an allegation when you don't know when it happened?"

Some family members offered support for the accused men at the arraignments in a packed courtroom at 111 Centre St.

"I think he got a bum rap," said Hopson's mother, Daisy Stuart. "I saw the video on TV a bunch of times, and the only thing I saw was my son reach his hand out. I didn't see him grope nobody or grab nobody. He could have been saying hello."The indictment charges that in addition to assault and riot, Hopson allegedly sexually abused a woman twice.

Authorities asked anyone who can identify the men in the 16 photos released yesterday to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Monday, August 07, 2000

Feminists Protest Parade Attacks

A group of young women rallied yesterday to protest the spree of sexual attacks against more than 50 women after the June National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Protesters hold signs during rally held by Riot Grrl, to focus attention back on the sexual attacks on 56 women in Central Park in June.
Protesters from the grass-roots feminist organization Riot Grrrl, most in their teens and 20s, gathered on Central Park South and Sixth Ave., near the site of many of the attacks.

"We're here on the 56th day after the 56 attacks to focus on this issue, which faded very quickly from the media," said Lizzie Hubbard, 19.So far, 15 men have been indicted on charges of sexual abuse, assault and rioting in the rash of attacks after the June 11 National Puerto Rican Day Parade.

Sixteen other suspects are still being sought by police.Women dressed in red and black cheerleader outfits led the protesters in chants, such as, "I don't know but I've been told, women out there are getting bold."Members of the group, who said they were pleased with the arrests, emphasized that the postparade spree was more than an isolated incident.

"One in three women is a rape survivor, and we want to connect this to the larger issue of sexism and the sexual victimization of women in this country," said Gina Young, 20.

Thursday, August 24, 2000

Hil Stumbles in Stomping Lazio on Hate Crimes Bill

By JOEL SIEGEL
Daily News Senior Political Correspondent

Seeking to portray her opponent as out of the political mainstream, Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Rick Lazio yesterday for not consistently supporting federal hate crimes legislation.

There was only one problem: Clinton said Lazio opposes the legislation, yet he came out in favor of it two months ago.
Hillary Clinton embraces Khalilah Wynder, one of the people assaulted in Central Park after National Puerto Rican Day Parade, yesterday.
An array of Democrats and advocacy groups took part in the news conference outside City Hall to pressure House Republicans to abandon their opposition to the measure.

The First Lady had an additional motive: to further draw contrasts between her positions and Lazio's on popular issues."There is absolutely no reason why the Republican leadership in the House should stand in the way of a vote," she said.

"It is a little bit difficult for them because their presidential candidate does not support federal hate crimes legislation. My opponent does not support federal hate crimes legislation."

Her remarks went beyond a carefully worded press release by her campaign that noted Lazio had flip-flopped on state hate crime legislation earlier this year and chose not to be one of the 192 House members, including five New York Republicans, who co-sponsored the federal bill.

The Lazio campaign cited comments Lazio later made supporting the proposed law. "Hillary Clinton lives in a world where rhetoric is more important than reality," said Lazio aide Bill Dal Col. "She knows she can't attack Congressman Lazio on his record and his position, so she attacks his rhetoric for not being supportive enough for her tastes."

Meanwhile, the First Lady held a 90-minute sitdown with Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), an Orthodox Jewish leader who has repeatedly criticized her on the issue of Israel.

Hikind said he and Clinton had agreed not to reveal specifics, but he called the meeting — arranged by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and held in his law office — "very satisfying" and "very healthy."Asked whether he's open to endorsing Clinton, which would be a coup for her, Hikind said, "I can just say, you can read into it, it was an extremely constructive meeting." He said he plans to meet Lazio, too. Lazio (R-Suffolk) held fund-raisers yesterday in Boston and on Nantucket.

Clinton also stumped at a White Plains train station and in southeast Queens, where she received a thunderous response from 400 people at the Rochdale Shopping Center on Baisley Blvd.

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Teen Pleads in Parade Grope Spree

By HELEN PETERSON
Daily News Staff Writer

A Bronx teenager pleaded guilty to rioting yesterday during the rampage in Central Park following the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in June.

Imanuel Nunez, 18, admitted throwing water on women and touching their buttocks during the spree in which dozens of women were groped.He is the first of 30 men arrested after the June 11 parade to plead guilty.Many of the suspects were identified in the days and weeks after the rampage from videotapes made by passersby. Most were charged with sexual abuse, rioting or assault. Twelve suspects are still at large.

Fifty-three women have filed complaints stemming from the riot.Nunez initially was charged with riot, sex abuse and assault, and had faced up to seven years in prison.In exchange for his guilty plea, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried agreed to sentence Nunez to six months in jail, 4 1/2 years' probation and 250 hours of community service.

"We've come to the determination that this is an appropriate sentence," said Assistant District Attorney Lisa DelPizzo, who said Nunez's behavior was "not as egregious" as that of some of the others arrested.DelPizzo said several people had written letters on Nunez's behalf, including an English teacher who said he was a good student and never a disciplinary problem. She also noted that he had no arrest record.

Nunez, who had been in jail since his arrest June 16, was released after the judge credited his time served in jail plus credit for good behavior.

Wednesday, October 25, 2000

Judge Clears 2 in Post-Parade Grope Attacks

A Manhattan judge dismissed sexual abuse and robbery charges yesterday against two men in attacks on women in Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in June.

Criminal Court Judge Carol Edmead threw out charges against Tremayne Bain, 24, of Hempstead, L.I., and David Rowe, 24, of Brooklyn after a prosecutor said she did not have enough evidence to prosecute them.Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal told the judge that a review of many hours of amateur videotape showed that "we would not be able to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt."

Bain and Rowe were accused of taking part in an attack on a 18-year-old British tourist on June 11 in which her clothes were torn, her body groped and her purse snatched.

So far, 30 people have been indicted in connection with attacks on women in the parade's disorderly aftermath, and 12 are being sought, prosecutors said. They said 53 women filed complaints of being molested.

Tuesday, November 07, 2000

Guilty Plea Deal In Grope Spree

A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree sexual abuse in an attack on a teenage girl in Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in June.

Herbert Negron, 40, who also was charged with assault and riot, accepted a plea deal and admitted his role in the molestation, apologized for it and said he is "ready to pay my debt to society."Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried will sentence Negron to three years in prison Dec. 12, as set out in the plea bargain. Negron could have faced up to seven years if convicted. He will be registered as a sex offender.After the June 11 parade, 53 women filed complaints saying they were doused with water, their clothing was ripped off and their bodies groped.

Negron was one of 30 people indicted in the attacks. A 14-year-old girl accused Negron of being one of a group of men who tore off her shirt and sexually abused her. Negron also admitted to police he inappropriately fondled another woman, authorities said.

Thursday, November 16, 2000

He Pleads Guilty In Park Assaults

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty yesterday to groping three women in Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in June.Steven Burt, 32, of Jersey City, became the fourth man to cop a plea in the rampage in which dozens of women complained they were attacked by gangs of marauders in and around the park.

Burt admitted touching the buttocks of three women after the parade, prosecutors said.He pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree riot and faces 2 . 5 years behind bars when he is sentenced on Dec. 13.

Friday, November 17, 2000

5th Man Guilty in AttacksOn Women in Central Park

A Queens man pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree riot in connection with the attacks on women in and around Central Park after the annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in June.Akuan Johnson, 22, became the fifth man to plead guilty in the case. Johnson, of Far Rockaway, Queens, told state Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried that he "saw girls being stripped, trampled and grabbed at." He did not plead guilty to sexually molesting anyone.Fried said he will sentence Johnson on Jan. 31 to 1.5 to 3 years in prison.

After the parade, more than 50 women filed complaints saying they had been doused with water, their clothing ripped off and their bodies groped. Johnson was one of 30 people indicted in connection with the attacks. A felony complaint filed after Johnson was arrested said a woman identified him as a man who had grabbed her buttocks.

Tuesday, November 21, 2000

Plea Deal Reached In Park Spree

A Queens man pleaded guilty yesterday to rioting charges in the attacks on women in and around Central Park after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.Alton Scarbrough, 22, of Rockaway Beach, admitted he was part of a group that chased terrified women near Sixth Ave. and Central Park South on June 11.

In exchange for his plea to first-degree riot, Scarbrough will be sentenced to one year in prison by Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried on Jan. 8.Scarbrough became the sixth man to cop a plea in the incident, in which more than 50 women charged they were doused with water, groped and stripped by marauding gangs.

Sunday, January 14, 2001

2 Cops Face Rap In Parade Probe

By JOHN MARZULLI
Daily News Police Bureau Chief

Two cops face disciplinary action on charges they ignored women's complaints of sexual abuse and harassment last year at a raucous East Harlem street festival on the eve of last June's National Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Daily News has learned.

A sergeant also is being called on the carpet for not ordering the cops he supervised to crack down on beer drinking and other violations at the 116th St. festival.

Top NYPD brass had denied there was harassment at the festival, and vigorously dismissed comparisons to the wilding attacks against women in Central Park after the parade. There, cops allegedly ignored complaints from dozens of women who were doused with water, fondled and had their clothes torn off by a mob of men.

Six women in the East Harlem incident reported the names and badge numbers of the cops they said ignored their pleas for help, which led to the disciplinary action.

Officers Rocky Mahoye and Richard Sweezy are charged with failing to take proper police action, failing to prepare police reports and failing to notify a supervisor about what happened.

"They were informed by the complainants that a group of males had touched them on the buttocks and breasts and were subjected to name-calling and harassment," said Chief of Internal Affairs Charles Campisi. "And [the cops] disregarded the young ladies."

Campisi said the cops should have tried to identify the assailants and arrest them. At least, they were required to summon their sergeant and prepare a report, he said.

The sergeant, Daniel Hayes, also from the 104th Precinct, was on a meal break when the women reported the attack to the cops. There is no evidence he was informed. He was hit with a command discipline for not dealing with widespread beer-drinking, said the IAB review. The NYPD has urged the festival organizers to move the event to Randalls Island, but they are committed to keeping it on 116th St., a police source said.

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

Discipline Lax for Cops At Parade, Says NOW

By JOHN MARZULLI and BARBARA ROSS
Daily News Staff Writers

Women's rights advocates complained yesterday that most of the cops who stood idle when a wolf pack rampaged through Central Park molesting women after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade have still not been disciplined.

Leaders of the National Organization for Women and lawyers representing dozens of victims spoke out just days before four men arrested in the attacks are scheduled to go on trial.

With more than 1,000 officers assigned to Central Park for the parade June 11, the NYPD has disciplined just 14, but none were suspended or dismissed, said Nancy Millar, president of the New York City chapter of NOW.Three of the 14 were 911 operators who, Millar said, were "made scapegoats" for the rest. She said two were top supervisors who got "letters of instruction," a punishment less than a formal censure.Of the 19 men arrested and indicted on felony charges of assault, sexual abuse and rioting, 14 have pleaded guilty and gotten jail terms ranging from six months to three years.Millar said those sentences were appropriate, but that's not true with sanctions imposed by the NYPD on its own.

Susan Karten, a lawyer for one victim who is suing the city over the NYPD's response, said the criminal trial that starts Monday will not determine which officers ignored the pleas for help.She said the NYPD and city lawyers are fighting a judge's order in the civil case to turn over copies of 911 tapes and other documents that could identify who was assigned to posts near the attacks.

Millar urged Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to speak with NOW about how the NYPD handled the riot and to issue a full report on department policies and procedures that might be changed to avoid similar problems in the future.Lt. Steven Biegel, a police spokesman, said the NYPD had completed its internal review and no further disciplinary action is planned.

He said the department had also "implemented the necessary tactical and operational changes to prevent a reoccurrence of an incident similar to this."Biegel declined to comment on the civil suits, saying the department cannot comment on pending litigation.

Couple Tells Court Of Park Grope Horror
By HELEN PETERSON
Daily News Staff Writer

A French woman testified yesterday that her American honeymoon turned into a nightmare when she was stripped and mauled by a roving gang after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade."They touched me, fondled me. I screamed. Nobody came to my rescue," said the 29-year-old woman. Tearfully and graphically, she described being groped by up to a dozen men who had ripped off her skirt and underwear as she was leaving Central Park.

The woman, whose name is being withheld by the Daily News, recalled her afternoon of horror during the Manhattan Supreme Court trial of three men charged with taking part in attacks that day.
Testifying through an interpreter, the woman said that at one point, she was surrounded by up to 50 men. "They were all trying to touch me," she said.The woman's 30-year-old husband, who also cried during his testimony, said that even after he tried to safeguard his wife inside a police scooter, thugs continued to try to grab her.

The man provided a detailed account of how the couple's pleasant day of touring the city suddenly turned hellish.He said he thought it was a joke at first when dozens of men squirted water at him and his wife as they left the park, but he quickly realized they were in danger.

"A lot of men threw me on the ground and kick me," he said in French-accented English. He said he heard his wife yelling for him. "I saw she was in big trouble."He said she was half-naked and couldn't touch the ground because her arms and legs were being pulled by men.When he broke free, he ran to her aid, he said. Someone gave him a jacket to cover his wife, and he hustled her to a nearby police officer, he added.He said the cop placed them inside the scooter, but the crowd didn't back down. "Some men were still trying to touch [her]," he testified.

Much of the attack was captured on amateur videotape and clearly shows the terrified victim screaming and her husband trying to get to her.Suspects Abel Ortiz and David Garcia are charged with riot, assault and sexual abuse. The third defendant, Juan Miranda, is charged with sexual abuse.Although the three are not charged with the sexual attack on the French woman, her testimony was admitted in connection with the riot charges.

Lawyers for Ortiz, 24, and Garcia, 33, both of the Bronx, say their clients did nothing wrong and were trying to help stop the attacks.A lawyer for Miranda, 23, of New Jersey, said a videotape that prosecutors say shows him groping a woman actually shows him simply bumping into her.

As many as 25 women who say they were attacked during the melee are expected to testify.Thirty men were arrested after many of them were seen on videotape, police said. Sixteen men pleaded guilty, and charges against 11 were dismissed.

4 Testify in Parade Sex Abuse

Four more women told a Manhattan jury yesterday how they desperately tried to fight back as they were stripped, groped and fondled by roving mobs of men after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
"I couldn't escape, there were so many people, so many men grabbing me," said an 18-year-old who was among the many women attacked around Central Park.

Two 15-year-old girls, who attended the parade together, said they were separated and attacked. They could hear the other's cries as they they fought off the thugs.One said the mob ripped off her bathing suit top, grabbed her breasts, put their hands down her pants and groped her.

The fourth victim, a 20-year-old, said she was attacked after leaving the park.She said one man shoved a hand down her pants, so she pushed him. He kicked her in the leg, she said.

"I wasn't going to let nobody disrespect me like that," she said, weeping.The testimony came at the trial of three men, Abel Ortiz, David Garcia and Juan Miranda, charged with taking part in attacks that day.

About 50 women complained of being attacked after the June 11 parade. Half are expected to testify.Last week, a French woman testified that her U.S. honeymoon turned into a nightmare when she was mauled that day by a roving mob.In other testimony yesterday, a Brooklyn man, videographer Jose Rivera, 26, said he saw 25 to 35 women being assaulted and taped some of the attacks.He said he didn't attempt to help any of the women that day or call police.Besides taping the attacks, he said, he taped women's breasts, buttocks, legs and feet — and their faces "if they were attractive." He later sold the tapes to the media.Defense lawyers suggested that Rivera and other cameramen whipped up the crowd that day.

Brit Teen Recalls Park Gang Attack

A young English tourist broke down in tears yesterday as she was about to relive on videotape how she was attacked by a gang of men last summer in Central Park after the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
"I'm all right," the 19-year old communications student from East London said after sobbing through a handful of tissues.She testified at the trial of three men accused of participating in the free-for-all that started at the south end of the park after the June 11 parade.The teen said the staff in the midtown hotel where she was staying told her and two female friends about the parade, describing it as "a good family outing."

She said that when she and her pals arrived at the park, groups of young men were already dousing girls with water, molesting them, and in some cases, stripping them.The teen said she was sitting on a fence with her friends when about seven young men started groping her. "I hit some of them" and told them go away, she recalled. However, instead of retreating, more men joined the group. She said they pushed and hit her, pulled her shorts down and sexually abused her.

The girl said she managed to fight them off and was putting her shorts back on when a second group of 15 men surrounded and assaulted her. They ripped off her halter top and took her pocketbook with $200 cash, credit cards and identification.Eventually, she said, she got free and a man gave her his T-shirt to wear.

The teen started to cry toward the end of her testimony as Assistant District Attorney Lisa Delpizzo prepared to show jurors segments of amateur videotape that captured the attack.

Only one of three defendants, Abel Ortiz, was visible on the videotape and he was just part of the crowd milling around. Prosecutors are expected to rest their case today.

Park Grope Suspect Grilled at Trial

3/22/01
A Bronx man charged with sexually abusing women after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade was confronted in court yesterday with a videotape of him smiling during the assaults.
"Were you upset about what was going on?" prosecutor Lisa Delpizzo asked Abel Ortiz, 24, during a tough cross-examination."At that moment, yes," Ortiz answered. "For that female, yes."The tape showed Ortiz smiling as he returned to the mob scene in Central Park after escorting a woman away from the crowd.Ortiz testified at his Manhattan Supreme Court trial that he was smiling because he felt good about having rescued two women from a gang of men groping them in the June 11 assaults.

"I made sure the guys didn't grope her the way they wanted to," Ortiz said.After escorting one victim from the attackers, Ortiz said, he went to help a second woman."I shoved guys off of her," he said.When Delpizzo suggested Ortiz was smiling in the video because he was rejoining the attacks, the defendant snapped, "Negative!"

Ortiz and co-defendant David Garcia, 33, of the Bronx, are charged with riot, assault and sexual abuse. A third man, Juan Miranda, 33, of New Jersey, is charged with sexual abuse.

A total of 30 men were arrested after the park mayhem. Sixteen pleaded guilty, and charges against 11 were dismissed.

Park Grope Case to Jury

The fate of three men charged in the Central Park melee that followed last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade will be in the hands of a Manhattan jury today.
The panel of four men and eight women heard lawyers clash yesterday over how to interpret testimony and videotapes that documented the wild behavior, in which women were groped, stripped and doused with water.

"These women were beaten ... tossed around ... bruised from head to toe," Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal declared.Rosenthal expressed outrage over the suggestion by lawyers for defendants Abel Ortiz and David Garcia, both of the Bronx, that some women enjoyed the mayhem.

Lawyer Verena Powell said the only wrongful act by Garcia, 33, of the Bronx, was that he threw water on some women."Throwing water is not a crime," she said, asserting later: "My client has a God-given right to be a jerk."Rosenthal countered: "Throwing water is a crime when it is part of a riot."

Garcia and Ortiz, 24, are charged with rioting, sexual abuse and assault. Juan Miranda, 23, of Paterson, N.J. is charged with sexual abuse. Each faces up to seven years if convicted.

2 Guilty in Park Attack

Two Bronx men were convicted yesterday of assault and riot in connection with wilding attacks on women following last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
A third man, Juan Miranda, 23, of Paterson, N.J., who was charged with a single count of sexual abuse, was acquitted.

Sobs filled the courtroom of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried as jurors read "Guilty" again and again, convicting David Garcia, 33, on 15 of 16 counts and Abel Ortiz, 24, on 14 of 18 counts.The month-long trial was the only one stemming from the Central Park melee after the June 11 parade in which more than 50 women were doused with water, groped and stripped by roving bands.Many of the attacks were caught on videotape, which was used to help identify the assailants. Thirty men were charged in the case. Sixteen pleaded guilty and charges against 11 suspects were dismissed.

"When we started, people had doubts that we would get any convictions. To piece that thing together was a tremendous job," Morgenthau said.

"People feel there is safety in numbers," Morgenthau added. "If other people are doing it, you can get away with it. This case proves you are not going to get away with it."

After the verdict, one juror said the videotapes played a large role in the panel's deliberations.Ortiz and Garcia, both caught on tape, argued that they were actually helping women get away from the unruly crowds."I know he's not a dirty man. I'm not going to leave him. I know he's not guilty," said Ortiz's wife, Brigitte.

Lawyers for Garcia and Ortiz promised to appeal; both men face up to seven years behind bars when they are sentenced April 30."It's nice to have my life back," said Miranda, who added that he won't be going back to the parade.

Among the witnesses who testified were 22 women who described harrowing attacks in which they were stripped and molested by dozens of men.Other testimony came from men who admitted taping the attacks while doing nothing to help the women.At least 10 women are suing the city, saying police officers ignored their pleas for help.

5-year Sentence In Postparade Riot

5/19/01

The final defendant in last year's wilding attacks after the National Puerto Rican Day Parade was hit with a five-year sentence yesterday.

Abel Ortiz, 24, of the Bronx, had been convicted of seven counts of first-degree riot and seven counts of assault. He was one of only two among the 18 defendants who went to trial, and got the harshest penalty."Women must know that they may be safely about in public places like Central Park without fear of mob attack," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried said.Fried rejected tearful pleas for mercy from Ortiz's wife and Ortiz, who apologized and said, "I didn't intentionally do anything to hurt anybody."

The judge said he agreed with a jury's decision to reject Ortiz's claim that he was just a spectator at the Central Park riot, where women were doused with water, stripped and groped.

Fried said there was "incontrovertible evidence" on videotapes showing that Ortiz was "part of the mob.""You were prominently involved. Your actions fanned ... a human fire," the judge said.Fried also rejected defense lawyer Edward Hamlin's argument that Ortiz, who has a long criminal record, has turned his life around. Arrested more than a dozen times since 1989, Ortiz managed to serve very little time in jail by plea-bargaining.The judge also noted that Ortiz refused to cooperate with cops when he was shot on two occasions in 1999. He also drove a taxi with a suspended license."That is not the conduct of a person who has turned his life around," Fried said

3 More Cops Face Charges In Park Gropes

Three more officers have been accused of ignoring cries for help from women molested after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Daily News has learned.
The Police Department quietly lodged internal charges against the three in August without notifying the women who had complained about them.

"They could have told me earlier and given me some small peace of mind," said Anne Peyton Bryant, 29, who was attacked while she was skating June 11 in Central Park.

Bryant and two other women — who say cops ignored their pleas — learned of the charges against the three officers yesterday, when they received subpoenas to testify at a departmental hearing next month.

In July, the NYPD publicly censured nine officers, including six supervisors, and three 911 workers.

At that time, one cop on parade duty had been charged with ignoring women who said drunken men were groping them. The officer told the women he couldn't leave his traffic post.

Unknown to the public, three officers stationed near 58th St. and Central Park South, the riot's epicenter, were charged in August with failing to help the women.

Among them was scooter cop Victor Rodriguez-Rivera, charged with inaction for failing to help Bryant, who approached him after escaping mobs who tried to pull down her shorts. Bryant is suing the city for $5 million, charging several officers brushed off her complaints.

Josina Lawrence and Ashanna Cover, who also are suing for $5 million each, were notified yesterday of charges against two more cops, Joseph Veneziano and Arber Uruci.

Uruci allegedly said he couldn't help Lawrence and Cover because he didn't have a radio and couldn't leave his traffic post at 58th St. and Sixth Ave. Veneziano also was cited for inaction.

"It was extraordinarily upsetting to my clients that they heard nothing about these charges from [the NYPD] until today," said lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who represents Lawrence and Cover.

A police spokesman said he could not immediately determine last night why the charges against the officers were not made public.

Lawyer Steven Worth, who is representing the officers, declined to comment yesterday.

Park Grope Victim Says Cop Wouldn't Help

One of women attacked after last year's National Puerto Rican Day parade admitted yesterday she couldn't initially identify a cop she said ignored her pleas for help — and conceded that she once told an investigator "all police officers look alike."

But Anne Peyton Bryant, 30, pointed yesterday at Officer Victor Rodriguez-Rivera and declared, "That's him."

Bryant was testifying at the departmental trial of Rodriguez-Rivera, who is charged with failing to take action during the June 11 melee in which dozens of women were attacked in and around Central Park.

Rodriguez-Rivera has denied any wrongdoing and contends he was helping a French woman at the time Bryant, a fitness instructor, was groped and doused with water.

Bryant, who is suing the city for $5 million, failed to identify the cop from photo arrays in the days after the parade. And under cross-examination yesterday, she admitted that two days after the June 11 attack she told an investigator that all cops look alike.

Patrick Orlando, a friend of Bryant's who was with her that day, took the stand yesterday but did not recognize Rodriguez-Rivera.

A Police Department prosecutor asked that Rodriguez-Rivera and a second officer on trial, Michael Bonefant, forfeit 30 days' vacation time if found guilty of the departmental charges.

Judge Hits 2 Cops
Two cops accused of ignoring pleas for help from women who were sexually assaulted after last year's National Puerto Rican Day Parade have been found guilty by an NYPD trial judge.
Officer Victor Rodriguez-Rivera should be docked 15 days' pay and Officer Michael Bonefant should lose 30 days' pay for misconduct, according to the decision by Assistant Trial Commissioner Robert Vinal.

The decision came just days before Sunday's parade, in which thousands of cops will be deployed on rooftops, along the parade route and in Central Park to prevent a repeat of last year's wilding spree.Marvyn Kornberg, the attorney for Rodriguez-Rivera, called the decision "an utter disgrace" and said the timing was no coincidence.

"It's obvious that they took an innocent police officer and found him guilty to send a message to the police officers who are going to be patrolling the parade," Kornberg said.

Rodriguez-Rivera was charged with failing to take action when victim Anne Peyton Bryant reported that she was molested in Central Park.But Rodriguez-Rivera is facing a lighter penalty than Bonefant because he later helped a French tourist who was attacked in the park."His rendering of proper assistance [to the tourist] should serve to partially mitigate his penalty," Vinal wrote.

Bryant's attorney, Sue Karten, who has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the city, was dissatisfied with the decision."I think it's a meaningless penalty," Karten said. "I would rather see the police commissioner order the officers to undergo training on how to respond to women who are victims of sexual attacks."

Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik will review the findings next week and has the final say on the cases.Of the five additional cops slapped with disciplinary charges last year, two retired, two pleaded guilty and the charges were dropped against another. Four NYPD supervisors received letters of reprimand.