By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/22 9:00am

Crime and Punishment

Wreckage from Upper East Side Crane Collapse.

Trial Begins for Operator Involved in Fatal Upper East Side Crane Collapse

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office yesterday opened up its manslaughter trial against the owner of a construction crane involved in a 2008 accident that killed two workers, and prosecutors said it was that man’s greed that lead to the fatal crane collapse, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors painted James Lomma, the head of New York Crane & Equipment Corp., as a man who passed on a crucial repair job on the faulty crane in favor of the bottom line. Read More

By Benjamin Popper 11/15/11 2:11pm

Freedom to Fight

Tell me that's not high art.

UFC Sues New York: Fighters Have First Amendment Right to Mixed Martial "Arts"

As we reported last week, New York is one of the few states where the sport of mixed martial arts is still illegal. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA’s biggest league, has lobbied for years to get this changed so they could hold lucrative live events at venues like Madison Square Garden.

But so far they have had no luck with politics. So today Zuffa, the league’s parent, took a different tack. The UFC sued New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to overturn that state’s 1997 law banning Mixed Martial Arts on the grounds that the ban violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“This is mixed martial arts, emphasis on the arts,” said Barry Friedman, the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Constituional Law at NYU. “The reason these atheletes are suing is because they have been prevented from their self-expression on some of the biggest stages in the nation.”  Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/23/11 12:05pm

NO EXIT

Via Getty.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Is a Free Man

Yesterday afternoon, news broke that the Manhattan D.A. office was going to request that all criminal charges of sexual assault against former I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn be dropped. This followed a meeting with Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, and her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson. Mr. Thompson had requested yesterday that a special prosecutor be appointed to the case; his request was denied this morning. Moments ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn sat down in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan, and received a verdict on his long-contested innocence: the case against him has collapsed. He is a free man, and the conclusion of his long, strange, epic entanglement with the American judicial system has officially began. Read More

By Aram Roston 8/18/10 2:34am

The Secret Campaign of Mayor Mike

Puritan Avenue in Queens leads through Forest Hills Gardens, a serene enclave in the city, where 100-year-old homes evoke the English countryside. At the corner of Puritan and Greenway North, shaded by an expansive beech tree, is a $1.8 million brick Tudor. Unlike the immaculate neighboring lots, the grounds on this house aren’t particularly well Read More

By Azi Paybarah 9/15/09 6:38pm

Silver, Morgenthau, Vance and Gerson, Downtown

At a senior center off Grand Street, some old people doing tai chi and waiting for lunch were visited by Robert Morgenthau, Sheldon Silver, Cy Vance and Alan Gerson.

Gerson, a Democratic Council incumbent facing a competitive primary, at one point was heard telling one senior, “I’ll get re-elected, then I’ll get married.”

Gerson, Read More

By Azi Paybarah 9/15/09 5:35pm

D.A. Candidates Court Harlem

Here's a giant poster hung up at the intersection of 134th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, highlighting the support Manhattan district attorney candidate Cy Vance has from the Amsterdam News and David Dinkins, among others.

Across the street, a woman was handing out fliers for Leslie Crocker Snyder.

By Azi Paybarah 9/15/09 12:44pm

Vance Campaign Engineers Primary-Day Takeover of NYC Taxis

I’m in a cab heading uptown and have already seen two television ads for Cy Vance, the Manhattan DA candidate. He may be the only candidate advertising inside cabs.

In a primary in which turnout is expected to be low, advertising like this could be get the attention of Manhattanites who may not have noticed Read More