The city’s Department of Investigation sealed the chiefs’ third-floor offices at FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn as part of a search Thursday morning, three people briefed on the matter told NBC New York. The accused chiefs — Brian Cordasco and Anthony Saccavino — work in the bureau of fire prevention and are involved with the safety inspection process of buildings.

Both were placed on modified duty after FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh learned of the warrant; neither has been charged with a crime or accused of any wrongdoing. According to sources, the two are well-respected veteran chiefs.

There was law enforcement activity at Cordasco’s home on Sheldon Avenue on Staten Island, an FBI spokesperson said. A law enforcement search was also conducted at Saccavino’s home.

Multiple attempts by NBC New York to reach Cordasco or Saccavino for comment were no successful Thursday.

Sources with firsthand knowledge told News 4 that Commissioner Kavanagh had reported an unsubstantiated tip to the DOI in April 2023 after she heard rumors about possible kickbacks worth tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for expediting fire inspections, but sources said fire officials at the time had no reason to believe the tip was true.

“The FDNY’s first priority is always keeping New Yorkers safe, and we expect every member of the department to act appropriately,” the FDNY said in a statement. “As soon as Commissioner Kavanagh was alerted to these allegations last year, she immediately referred them to DOI to investigate them. Commissioner Kavanagh has proactively placed the employees at the center of this investigation on modified duty, and we are awaiting guidance from DOI regarding further action.”

As NBC News has previously reported, federal investigators have been trying to determine if there was any wrongdoing in the inspection process performed by the city on buildings that were under construction, including possible illegal favoritism granted to friends of Mayor Eric Adams. In 2023, an attorney for Joseph Jardin — the previous head of fire prevention in the department — told NBC New York there had been pressure to approve the new Turkish consulate after the mayor had contacted the agency.

Sources familiar with the matter said the allegations appear to be separate from an ongoing federal investigation into mayoral fundraising. A City Hall spokesperson said the administration “became aware of this operation when we were notified by FDNY this morning,” and there was “no indication of any direct connection to anyone at City Hall.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. A DOI spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, other than acknowledging it had received a complaint.

Police said Darwin Gomez-Izquiel was part of a group who stole from the store at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst and attacked a security officer, several senior law enforcement officials said.

Police sources said video surveillance footage of a suspect with dyed blonde hair at Macy’s appeared to match the image of the same man who allegedly took part in the Times Square attack on Jan. 27. Hours after the alleged robbery, officers spotted Gomez-Izquiel at the Times Square subway entrance at West 41st Street and Seventh Avenue just before midnight.

NYPD officials said the group of suspects tried to steal items and punched and kicked a loss prevention officer who attempted to stop them. The suspects then fled, running off with just over $600 worth of clothing.

Gomez-Izquiel was charged with robbery and petit larceny. Attorney information for the 19-year-old was not immediately clear. Police are still looking for three others — two men and a woman — involved in the incident.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office faced criticism after four of the migrants initially arrested and charged in the Times Square incident were released with no bail, including Gomez-Izquiel.

Meanwhile, the only migrant who was being held on bail in connection with the Times Square melee made bail on Tuesday and was released, according to the Department of Correction website and a senior law enforcement official.

Yohenry Brito, a migrant from Venezuela, is charged with assault and was being held on $15,000 cash bail. It was not immediately clear who posted the bail.

A spokesperson for the DA’s office did not have immediate comment.

Times Square Feb 13

Suspect wanted in Times Square brawl involving police arrested in the Bronx: Sources

New York City Feb 11

NYC imposing 11 p.m. curfew at more migrant shelters after Times Square shooting

NYPD Feb 9

Cop in Times Square melee once found liable in $5M police brutality case

Also on Tuesday, two other migrants charged in the Times Square incident were picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the morning on civil immigration holds, according to two law enforcement officers familiar with the case.

Police originally claimed the two, Wilson Juarez and Kelvin Servita Arocha, fled on a bus to California with the other migrants who were released. It was a claim that sparked a national outcry over DA Alvin Bragg’s decision to free them without seeking bail after the alleged attack on officers.

A closer review of the video showed the pair were present but did not strike any of the officers, according to Bragg.

Izquiel, the man now wanted for questioning in the Macy’s robbery, was also said to be on that bus out of town. The defendants are scheduled to return to court on Feb. 16.

This as another unnamed suspect in the Times Square brawl was arrested Tuesday morning in the Bronx. Prosecutors charged him last week but did not name him in the indictment. It is not clear whether he is under the age the of 18.

Three senior officials says when police executed the warrant for Tuesday morning’s Bronx arrest, officers found Juarez and Arocha in the same apartment.

In all, 11 people are believed to have played a role in the attack on the officers.

Federal prosecutors wrote in court papers filed late Monday that a Menendez staffer said the senator explained “the gold had come from Nadine Menendez’s deceased mother.” Prosecutors added Nadine Menendez made a similar statement to a jeweler “claiming that the gold had come from her deceased mother.”

Federal prosecutors allege Nadine Menendez’s statement to the jeweler was “a false cover story.” The FBI has said some of the gold bars were bribe payments to the Democratic senator from New Jersey developer Fred Daibes. In exchange, Daibes allegedly wanted the state’s senior senator to pressure the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office to go easy on him in connection with a separate bank fraud case.

Feb 8

Gold bars featured in Bob Menendez bribery case linked to 2013 robbery, records show

Bob Menendez Jan 23

Sen. Bob Menendez says gold bars and cash at his home were illegally found and seized

Bob Menendez Jan 16

Sen. Bob Menendez and wife seek separate trials on bribery charges

At least four gold bars linked to a search of Sen. Menendez’s Englewood Cliffs home once belonged to Daibes, according to court records. In 2013, Daibes had reported numerous bars stolen from his home and were later recovered by police, according to the Bergen County Prosecutors Office. Serial numbers on some of the bars Daibes once reported stolen appear to match bars discovered in a search of the senator’s home.

News that Nadine Menendez may have told others she got the gold bars from her own mom surfaced after months of no comments from the senator and his wife as to how they allegedly got all that gold.

“The problem is, is that there is no evidence of the giving or receiving of cash and gold bars. In fact there has been, and will be at trial, a full explanation of what is the truth about those issues. A truth that proves I am entirely innocent of the charges,” Menendez said on Jan 9.

Daibes, the senator, and his wife Nadine have each pleaded not guilty to the bribery-related charges. Attorneys for the couple did not respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors also provided more detail on the tens of thousands in cash found in Menendez’s home. In addition to envelopes of cash allegedly found in jackets, in their court filing the feds said there were “four boots, stuffed with cash, including one boot containing in excess of $5,000 in $50 bills, marked with a note stating ‘5350.’”

Investigators also said two bags of cash were found “on top of a large rack of clothes hangers…approximately $100,000 per bag.”

The FBI said Menendez and his wife accepted cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz, mortgage payments and other items of value as part of a wide-ranging bribery scheme. In addition to allegedly trying to help Daibes with his bank fraud case, prosecutors said Menendez also abused his position to try to help accused bribe-giver Jose Uribe in connection with a New Jersey state attorney general investigation.

The Senator is also accused of accepting cash and gifts from a third man, Wael Hana, who allegedly wanted help securing an exclusive halal meat inspection contract worth millions with the Egyptian government. While Menendez was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, prosecutors allege he used his position to influence foreign aid deals with Egypt in order to help Hana — in exchange for the bribe payments.

Hana also allegedly partnered with Uribe to ask Menendez to pressure to state attorney general’s office regarding that investigation into Uribe’s associates. Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York said Uribe texted Hana, “the deal is to kill and stop all investigation.”

In their latest filing, the SDNY said Hana “swindled” the senator by not paying him all the bribe money he promised — including a $35,000 ring allegedly to be used for the Menendez’s engagement. Menendez posted video of his proposal to Nadine in front of the Taj Mahal in 2019.

“Hana received money from an individual whose criminal case needed a ‘push’ from Menendez as part of a quid pro quo, and ‘swindled’ Menendez by buying Nadine Menendez a less expensive ring than promised in exchange for Menendez’ intervention in the criminal case,” the filing stated.

Prosecutors said an associate of Hana recorded at least one conversation about the alleged scheme and allegedly said Hana “had ruined the biggest relationship with one in the senate by swindling him.”

The court filing by prosecutors comes after lawyers for the senator, his wife Nadine, and the three businessmen all filed motions to try to get the charges dismissed and ask the judge to limit the evidence that could be used at trial. All of the defendants deny wrongdoing, with Menendez stating on the Senate floor that “there is no evidence of the giving or receiving of cash and gold bars.”

An attorney for Hana said they had no comment, other than that they were reviewing the court filings and will respond on Monday.

The judge has set a trial date for May 6.

According to a federal civil rights complaint, Lt. Ben Kurian, the cop seen on bodycam video wrestling with a migrant who was resisting arrest on a Times Square sidewalk, was once part of a group of officers accused of beating and choking a man in his own home back in 2011.

According to the lawsuit, Kurian was responding to a 911 call about a disturbance at a birthday party when he allegedly used a baton to place the homeowner in a “choke hold” that was “so tight, he could hardly speak or breathe.” When the case went to trial in 2016, a jury awarded the victim — an off-duty police officer named Larry Jackson — $15 million in damages. That award was later reduced to $5 million after review by a Brooklyn federal judge.

Times Square Feb 8

New bodycam video released in Times Square brawl involving NYPD cops

Times Square Feb 8

7 indicted in alleged attack on NYPD officers in Times Square

Times Square Feb 7

NY officials looking for 2 more men suspected in Times Square attack on NYPD officers

In January, Kurian found himself in the middle of a controversial arrest again, when he tried to cuff a migrant for failing to scatter when asked to move from the sidewalk on West 42nd Street near 7th Avenue.

Bodycam video released by the Manhattan DA Wednesday shows Kurian telling a group of Hispanic men to move as they gathered on the edge of a sidewalk in Times Square. The officer repeatedly yells “vamos,” urging the group of young men to disperse, but when one of the individuals fails to move fast enough, Kurian pushes him to the wall of an adjacent building, and a scuffle ensues with the suspect trying to get away — while several of his supporters try to block the arrest by physically pulling cops off of the suspect.

The NYPD said the reason police initially engaged the group of men was because they were blocking the sidewalk and the reason they tried to arrest the initial suspect, 24-year-old Yohenry Brito, was because he failed to comply with the order to move along. Brito has been indicted for assault in the second degree is now being held on Rikers Island. Six other co-defendants have also been indicted in the case which prompted uproar about the initial release of some defendants without bail.

NYPD brass have depicted the sidewalk altercation as a clear case of defying a police order.

“The crowd is given a direction to please disburse, that they’re blocking the sidewalk. Everybody disburses except for Mr. Brito,” said Joseph Kenney, NYPD Chief of Detectives. “He turned around and got confrontational with the police officers. He refused a lawful order. They attempted to place him under arrest and the melee begins.”

But not everyone agrees with the official NYPD characterization of the video.

“From what I’m looking at, it didn’t have to go this far,” said Neville Mitchell, a defense attorney who is not involved with the case. “Words shouldn’t be enough for police to act the way they acted. You would want to make sure you have, in this city, police officers are able to de-escalate situations.”

Mitchell said the bodycam video released by the Manhattan DA appears to show pedestrians were having no apparent problems passing on the sidewalk.

The I-Team was unable to reach Kurian for comment, but in the civil rights case, he denied using excessive force. He claimed he was the one being attacked as he responded to a 911 call and encountered a chaotic brawl already in progress inside the Queens residence.

There is no public record of Kurian ever being disciplined by the department. The NYPD’s officer profile shows Kurian was promoted to sergeant the year after he was accused of choking Jackson. He was again promoted to lieutenant in 2021. Kurian has received three awards for excellent police duty and one departmental commendation in his nearly 20 year career.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to questions about why Kurian was promoted without having been disciplined for the police brutality judgement that cost taxpayers millions.

Eric Sanders, the attorney who represented Jackson in his lawsuit against Kurian and the NYPD, said it’s troubling that the same police officer found liable for roughing up his client more than a decade ago has been promoted to lieutenant. Still Sanders, a former cop himself, said he didn’t find Kurian’s conduct in the Times Square incident objectionable.

“Although Kurian should have been fired for the Jackson assault and perjury in that case, this is a more nuanced crime problem,” Sanders said. “After viewing the body worn camera video, I’d say Kurian and the rest of the team handled this crime problem [complaints of loitering for the purposes of committing pick pockets, robberies, gang assaults and the like] in the Midtown area consistent with department training and prevailing law.”

About 70 people are charged in connection with varying alleged corruption and kickback schemes that occurred between 2013 and 2023 at NYCHA facilities, Southern District of New York attorney Damian Williams announced. The alleged kickback schemes included construction, maintenance and no-bid contracts for essential services like plumbing at nearly a third of the public housing buildings where “extorting was business as usual.”

The investigation spanned over a year and arrests were made in six states and all five boroughs, prosecutors said.

A total of 55 current NYCHA employees and more than a dozen former employees were charged after allegedly demanding more than $2 million in bribe money from contractors in exchange for giving out more than $13 million worth of work. The bribes involved small jobs like plumbing for less than $10,000 each, prosecutors alleged, but building superintendents demanded kickback payments before work could begin.

Williams said it was the largest single-day bribery takedown in Justice Department history. So many NYCHA workers were arrested that federal agents had a bus waiting by to drive them all to court. Others were led to U.S. Marshals vans.

Ivan Arvelo, the Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge for New York, said that the NYCHA residents “may have been cheated out of better services and programs” due to the “lucrative, under-the-table deals.”

There are 335 NYCHA developments across the city and investigators alleged bribery at almost 100 of them, Williams said as he showed a map of the widespread corruption (below).

More than 300,000 people live in NYCHA buildings, the largest public housing organization in the country. 

Williams encouraged any contractors to report wrongdoings by NYCHA employees to the SDNY Whistleblower Pilot Program at USANYS.WBP@usdoj.gov, adding that many of them have already come forward. “Going forward contractors should understand that NYCHA employees should not be asking for a single penny,” he said.

New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber called on “significant reforms” to the public housing authority’s no-bid contracting process, which she said NYCHA has accepted.

“The conduct as alleged drove up the cost of this kind of work and diverted valuable public funds away from public housing and into the pockets of corrupt NYCHA staff,” Strauber said. Among the 14 recommendations she made to improve NYCHA: reform the micropurchase process, better oversight, create a centralized office to handle the work authorization, review work outside buildings and superintendents, and prequalified reviews of vendors.

Strauber advised the administration transfer responsibility “from development staff to a centralized procurement unit.”

Corruption has been plaguing NYCHA for years and those who suffer the consequences are its residents. In 2021, nine contractors were indicted for allegedly bribing superintendents for small repair contracts. In 2022, scores of NYCHA workers were fired for overtime abuse.

NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has previously recommended that NYCHA track repairs so it can work to manage problems and investigate all substandard repairs with a reliable tracker system. All 335 of the public housing buildings were on the public advocate’s 2023 “Landlord Watchlist.”

NYCHA Chief Executive Officer Lisa Bova-Hiatt said the accused “betrayed the public trust” and that the agency has zero tolerance for wrongful and illegal activity.

“The individuals allegedly involved in these acts put their greed first and violated the trust of our residents, their fellow NYCHA colleagues and all New Yorkers. These actions are counter to everything we stand for as public servants and will not be tolerated in any form,” Bova-Hiatt said in a statement. “In the past five years, NYCHA has achieved many significant milestones, while remaining vigilant to ensure integrity in every area of our work. We have already made transformative changes to our business practices and will continue to do so. We will not allow bad actors to disrupt or undermine our achievements.”

Housing and Urban Development Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis said that the alleged pay-to-play schemes “waste millions of dollars and risk residents staying in unacceptable living conditions.” Some resident were left wondering if repairs to pipes and other apartment problems were delayed due to the alleged bribery scheme.

“I mean that’s crazy. People put in work orders and wonder why they take so long and they’re taking money,” said NYCHA Mo Coulibaly.

In a statement issued one week after the attack, Bragg on Saturday also acknowledged some of those most responsible have not been identified or arrested. According to authorities, seven suspects have been arrested following the caught-on-camera beating of the two officers. Police think at least 13 people were involved.

“Our office continues to work with law enforcement to bring everyone responsible for these heinous attacks to justice. It is clear from video and other evidence that some of the most culpable individuals have not yet been identified or arrested, and we are working hand in hand with the NYPD to find and hold them accountable for their despicable acts,” Bragg’s weekend statement read, in part.

Bragg’s office emailed out the statement late Saturday along with a statement from the NYPD commissioner, which denounced the attackers and promised to work “tirelessly” alongside the DA to arrest all suspects involved in the attack.

The DA’s latest statement comes on the heels of an unusual Friday when Bragg dodged reporter questions before ultimately holding press conference hours later. In that briefing, he defended his decision to not request bail for several suspects, saying he’s proceeding cautiously to ensure the proper suspects are identified.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined early Friday afternoon to answer questions from NBC New York regarding the case and why several migrants accused of assaulting police were released without bond. He did not respond when asked if he thought not requesting bail was a mistake, instead walking past reporters without saying much at all.

Seemingly caught off-guard by the questions, Bragg offered only one answer: “We’ll speak in court.”

The DA was attending a law enforcement conference which reporters were invited to by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has made it clear she disagrees with the decision to let the suspects go free without bail, and has called for the attackers to be deported. Hochul said the problem was not about weak bail laws, but rather the failure to use the laws in place.

“All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” said Hochul.

Bragg and Hochul met behind closed doors, but he was noticeably absent when the governor emerged for a news conference with several other district attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester. Hochul confirmed that she discussed the incident with Bragg, adding that she was “confident there will be more charges brought.”

Hours later, Bragg convened an early evening press conference to try and clarify his position — insisting he would not tolerate attacks on police, following days of criticism and silence from his office.

“We do not tolerate or accept assaults on police officers. I watched the tape this week, despicable behavior and it sickened me and outraged me,” Bragg said.

The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. Bragg told reporters he did not request bail because he is proceeding cautiously to ensure they have the proper suspects identified in the case.

“That is what is required to secure a conviction and get accountability and send the right people to jail. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bragg said, noting that the one who was “deemed to have committed the most serious crimes is currently on Rikers.”

He also said the office has received more information than it did after Saturday, and he expects to get further information in the next few days. What remains unclear is if Bragg has any hesitation or concerns about whether they have arrested and charged the right suspects, even if they were not held on bail.

Times Square Feb 1

Migrants in NYPD Times Square attack board buses to California after release on bail: sources

NYPD Jan 31

‘Cowards': 7 arrested in Times Square attack on NYPD officers

Seven suspects have been arrested for the attack so far, and police officials have said at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held on Rikers.

Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

“Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

Federal officials said that in many cases, New York officials do not alert them when an undocumented defendant is being released from court or jail. A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said bail was not sought in part because they were still sorting out which defendants committed which acts during the assault.

An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates”; their next court date in New York was scheduled for March 4.

Police do not track crime committed by undocumented residents, but arrest records show residents living at 30 of the city’s 200 migrant shelters have been arrested more than 1,200 times in the last year. City records show the top crimes include petit larceny, assault, grand larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and robbery.

Former NYPD Chief of Department and current NBC New York consultant Terry Monahan said that while the vast majority of migrants are coming to the U.S. to seek better lives, crime is a growing problem.

“A lot of times it shows it’s a first arrest for that individual because it’s the first time they’re here. And they’re getting sent right back out on the streets to do it again,” Monahan said.

Gov. Hochul has shared harsh words for the migrants arrested.

“Get them all — send them back,” the Democrat said Thursday. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”

The lack of consequences for the suspects has sparked police pushback.

“Why aren’t they in jail right now? They brutally attacked a police officer and a lieutenant. Our criminal justice system is upside down,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

Details of the Times Square attack

Authorities say the caught-on-camera brawl erupted as cops tried to break up a group of migrants in front of a shelter on 42nd Street, steps from the New Amsterdam Theatre. Police officials said Thursday that it is believed at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers.

Multiple law enforcement sources said it all started when a couple of people walked up to the officers and said there was a group being disorderly, causing issues.

Police went to check it out, and the situation escalated quickly. Video obtained by NBC New York shows the moments before the beatdown, as a police officer and a lieutenant were talking to the group. They put their hands on one person and suddenly, the cops are surrounded. They stumble down 42nd Street, where the officers fall to the ground, before being kicked, stomped and punched in the face and head. 

One lieutenant suffered a cut to his face. The other officer has injuries to the side of his body.

“I’m appalled at this. The city, we have had enough,” said Chell. “The shame of this is they’re trying to keep this city safe, and they get attacked by eight cowards who are kicking them in the face, taking cheap shots.”

Those arrested have been accused of assault or attempted assault on a police officer and gang assault. Several are charged additionally with obstructing governmental administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not commented on whether they will attempt to detain the defendants in this case. Camille Joseph Varlack, the chief of staff for Mayor Adams, said NYC’s sanctuary city status does not prevent police from coordinating with ICE.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Violence at migrant shelters has been a burgeoning problem as of late, prompting demands for fresh quality of life initiatives in certain neighborhoods. The city’s largest shelter is on Randall’s Island, where a deadly fight broke out earlier this month. Three people were arraigned Tuesday in that case.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined early Friday afternoon to answer questions from NBC New York regarding the case and why several migrants accused of assaulting police were released without bond. He did not respond when asked if he thought not requesting bail was a mistake, instead walking past reporters without saying much at all.

Seemingly caught off-guard by the questions, Bragg offered only one answer: “We’ll speak in court.”

The DA was attending a law enforcement conference which reporters were invited to by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She has made it clear she disagrees with the decision to let the suspects go free without bail, and has called for the attackers to be deported. Hochul said the problem was not about weak bail laws, but rather the failure to use the laws in place.

“All I know is that an assault on a police officer means you should be sitting in jail,” said Hochul.

Bragg and Hochul met behind closed doors, but he was noticeably absent when the governor emerged for a news conference with several other district attorneys from Queens, Brooklyn and Westchester. Hochul confirmed that she discussed the incident with Bragg, adding that she was “confident there will be more charges brought.”

Hours later, Bragg convened an early evening press conference to try and clarify his position — insisting he would not tolerate attacks on police, following days of criticism and silence from his office.

“We do not tolerate or accept assaults on police officers. I watched the tape this week, despicable behavior and it sickened me and outraged me,” Bragg said.

The embattled DA said his office was looking into new video to identify what role each individual may have played in the group assault. Bragg told reporters he did not request bail because he is proceeding cautiously to ensure they have the proper suspects identified in the case.

“That is what is required to secure a conviction and get accountability and send the right people to jail. That’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Bragg said, noting that the one who was “deemed to have committed the most serious crimes is currently on Rikers.”

He also said the office has received more information than it did after Saturday, and he expects to get further information in the next few days. What remains unclear is if Bragg has any hesitation or concerns about whether they have arrested and charged the right suspects, even if they were not held on bail.

Times Square Feb 1

Migrants in NYPD Times Square attack board buses to California after release on bail: sources

NYPD Jan 31

‘Cowards': 7 arrested in Times Square attack on NYPD officers

Seven suspects have been arrested for the attack so far, and police officials have said at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers. At least one suspect had bail set and is being held on Rikers.

Several of the suspects are migrants, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, while police were familiar with some from past incidents.

“Some of them live in the migrant shelter, they appear to be migrants, obviously. I don’t know when they got here. Some of them already have lengthy police records,” said Chell. “These individuals who were arrested [or] will be arrested should be indicted, they should be sitting in Rikers awaiting their day in front of the judge. Plain and simple.”

Multiple sources familiar with the matter said they believe four of those initially arrested and released after court have since boarded a bus under aliases and were headed toward the California–Mexico border.

Federal officials said that in many cases, New York officials do not alert them when an undocumented defendant is being released from court or jail. A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said bail was not sought in part because they were still sorting out which defendants committed which acts during the assault.

An official with the New York Office of Court Administration said they were “not aware of the defendants’ whereabouts but they are obligated to return to Court on their scheduled dates”; their next court date in New York was scheduled for March 4.

Police do not track crime committed by undocumented residents, but arrest records show residents living at 30 of the city’s 200 migrant shelters have been arrested more than 1,200 times in the last year. City records show the top crimes include petit larceny, assault, grand larceny, endangering the welfare of a child and robbery.

Former NYPD Chief of Department and current NBC New York consultant Terry Monahan said that while the vast majority of migrants are coming to the U.S. to seek better lives, crime is a growing problem.

“A lot of times it shows it’s a first arrest for that individual because it’s the first time they’re here. And they’re getting sent right back out on the streets to do it again,” Monahan said.

Gov. Hochul has shared harsh words for the migrants arrested.

“Get them all — send them back,” the Democrat said Thursday. “You don’t touch our police officers, you don’t touch anyone.”

The lack of consequences for the suspects has sparked police pushback.

“Why aren’t they in jail right now? They brutally attacked a police officer and a lieutenant. Our criminal justice system is upside down,” said Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

Details of the Times Square attack

Authorities say the caught-on-camera brawl erupted as cops tried to break up a group of migrants in front of a shelter on 42nd Street, steps from the New Amsterdam Theatre. Police officials said Thursday that it is believed at least 13 people were involved in the attack on the officers.

Multiple law enforcement sources said it all started when a couple of people walked up to the officers and said there was a group being disorderly, causing issues.

Police went to check it out, and the situation escalated quickly. Video obtained by NBC New York shows the moments before the beatdown, as a police officer and a lieutenant were talking to the group. They put their hands on one person and suddenly, the cops are surrounded. They stumble down 42nd Street, where the officers fall to the ground, before being kicked, stomped and punched in the face and head. 

One lieutenant suffered a cut to his face. The other officer has injuries to the side of his body.

“I’m appalled at this. The city, we have had enough,” said Chell. “The shame of this is they’re trying to keep this city safe, and they get attacked by eight cowards who are kicking them in the face, taking cheap shots.”

Those arrested have been accused of assault or attempted assault on a police officer and gang assault. Several are charged additionally with obstructing governmental administration.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not commented on whether they will attempt to detain the defendants in this case. Camille Joseph Varlack, the chief of staff for Mayor Adams, said NYC’s sanctuary city status does not prevent police from coordinating with ICE.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Violence at migrant shelters has been a burgeoning problem as of late, prompting demands for fresh quality of life initiatives in certain neighborhoods. The city’s largest shelter is on Randall’s Island, where a deadly fight broke out earlier this month. Three people were arraigned Tuesday in that case.

Last October, Mayor Eric Adams announced he’d hired ElevenLabs, a London artificial intelligence start-up, to create a series of robocalls that made it seem like Adams could speak several foreign languages. The idea, the mayor said, was to enable him to speak directly to people in their native languages about city services and opportunities.

“People stop me on the street all the time, and say, ‘I didn’t know you speak Mandarin,’” Adams said at the time.

Three months later, ElevenLabs is in the news again — this time, for an alleged connection to a political dirty trick.

artificial intelligence Jan 29

AI companies will need to start reporting their safety tests to the US government

Eric Adams Oct 17, 2023

Can Mayor Adams speak Mandarin? No, but AI can help him robocall in different languages

Researchers at a rival artificial intelligence firm say they’ve all but confirmed the ElevenLabs AI platform was used by someone earlier this month to create the now infamous deepfake robocall designed to trick New Hampshire citizens into thinking President Biden wanted them to stay home instead of voting in the state’s primary election.

According to Pindrop, a company that specializes in voice security, the firm’s “deepfake detection engine found, with a 99% likelihood, that this deepfake is created using ElevenLabs or a TTS (Text To Speech) system using similar components.”

In a blog post discussing the methodology used to investigate the Biden deepfake, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop’s Co-Founder, said detecting synthetic speech in the realm of political messaging is going to become increasingly important so voters can stay informed. He noted that it was not ElevenLabs itself, but a user of the platform who likely created the phony Biden recording.

“Even though the attackers used ElevenLabs this time, it is likely to be a different Generative AI system in future attacks,” Balasubramaniyan wrote. “Hence it is imperative that there are enough safeguards available in these tools to prevent nefarious use.”

The I-Team reached out multiple times to ElevenLabs, but the company has not yet responded. 

On Feb. 6, the New Hampshire Attorney General announced its Election Law Unit had determined the source of the Biden deepfake robocall was a Texas company called Life Corporation and its principle, Walter Monk. Neither Monk nor a representative for Life Corporation immediately responded to the I-Team’s requests for comment.

The Attorney General’s news release did not include a conclusion about what voice cloning platform was used to create the deepfake.

“The Election Law Unit is also aware of media reports that the recorded message was likely made using software from ElevenLabs,” the statement read.  “At this time the Unit is continuing to investigate and cannot confirm whether that reporting is accurate.”

After Mayor Adams announced his use of ElevenLabs to produce those foreign language robocalls, some AI watchdogs criticized City Hall, saying the use of voice cloning by public officials should involve more oversight. Julia Stoyanovich, an Associate Professor of Computer Science at NYU who focuses on the ethics of machine learning, said AI-generated government messages should always come with bold disclosures that they are not real human voices.

“I don’t think we should be releasing – and politicians in particular, and elected officials like our Mayor – should be releasing machine generated content without an explicit statement that the content is machine generated,” Stoyanovich said. 

For two months, the I-Team has been requesting Mayor Adams provide copies of all the AI-generated robocalls featuring him speaking foreign languages.  Despite the audio having been paid for with public money, City Hall has failed to share all except the Spanish version.

Mayor Adams did not respond to specific questions about why the recordings are being withheld from the public, though City Hall argued his use of voice cloning has been fully transparent because Adams proactively mentioned the foreign language robocalls in front of journalists last October when he announced an “action plan” for responsible AI use in NYC government. The document does not take a position on whether those policies should include mandatory disclosure when government messages are produced with the help of machine learning.

That action plan calls for written policies on government use of AI to be published sometime in 2025. The document does not take a position on whether those policies should include mandatory disclosure when government messages are produced with the help of machine learning.

Several bills are pending in the New York and New Jersey state legislatures that would put guardrails on the use of AI, including one in Albany that would amend the election law to require disclosure when “synthetic media” is used in political communication.  Another bill in Trenton would extend the crime of identity theft to fraudulent impersonation using AI or deepfake technology.

Some, including many entrepreneurs inside the artificial intelligence industry, say increased oversight and regulation needs to come soon in order to preserve trust in the authenticity of mediated messages.

“We do need to act with regulation and some sort of governance,” said Zohaib Ahmed, the founder of Resemble AI, a Canadian company that specializes in voice cloning.

Ahmed said his firm has introduced an “invisible watermark” that can be embedded in audio files so it can always be traced back to the source.  He predicted watermarking and deepfake detection will quickly become industry standards, so people can trust what they’re hearing has been authorized by the person whose voice is being replicated.

“We understand the implications of our technology and we want to make it a point that we’re deploying it safely,” Ahmed said.

Correction (Feb. 1, 2024, 9:48 a.m.): An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Julia Stoyanovich.

Eight Fernandez brothers and sisters were part of the clandestine exodus from communist Cuba in 1960 that became known as Operation Pedro Pan. The Catholic Church organized an airlift of 14,000 unaccompanied children to Florida and then to other states, including New Jersey.

In Nov. 2023, several of the siblings sat down with the NBC New York I-Team in New Jersey — the same state where they all eventually were re-united with their parents decades earlier. They described the toll of separation and uncertainty, emotions they had never shared as a family.

“Our mother always told us to look forward, not back,” Bea Hernandez said at the time.

The children, ages 4 to 16, were sent out of the country in separate groups so as not to arouse government suspicion.

They talked about their determination to find each other again, no matter the challenges. Maria was too mentally fragile at the time to participate in the interview, but when she saw her siblings share their stories of love and strength, she decided she wanted to let her voice be heard.

Maria, originally placed in a reformatory on Staten Island with two of her brothers, said she was later abused in a foster home, an agonizing admission the siblings always suspected.

Maria said talking about her trauma helped heal the suffering she’d kept inside for 60 years and lift her burden.

“I know now I am not the only one who suffered,” she said.

“We have our sister back,” said youngest brother Juan, who was born in the United States. “We thought we’d lost her. Now she’s truly free.”

Shortly after announcing the intention to open some 57 beds to asylum seekers, Saint John’s Episcopal Church on Staten Island said it will stand down.

“At Saint John’s Church, our mission is rooted in compassion. But while we were working to fulfill our duty to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and welcome the stranger, I received disturbing threats from anti-immigrant groups, who were sadly encouraged by several of our officials,” Rev. Hank Tuell said in a statement this week.

“We will continue to embody the principles of love, understanding, and service that define our spiritual journey — including forgiving those who attacked our community for trying to care for our new neighbors.”

The church had said it hoped to use the first floor of a senior residence facility next to the church on Bay Street. Almost immediately, elected officials representing the area of Staten Island pushed back against the proposal, citing zoning concerns and a need “to protect our seniors’ spaces.”

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Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, Borough President Vito Fossella, District Attorney Michael McMahon, State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, and Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks drafted a letter on Jan. 19 urging Tuell and the church to reverse course.

“The proposed plan to house over 50 migrants between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five is a slap in the face to your senior residents and the community which is entitled to a shared elderly daycare center that is open to all residents,” the letter concludes.

“We will use all legal measures at our disposal to ensure that you uphold the contractual agreement and moral obligation made to these seniors and to our community.”

Attempts to erect migrant shelters on Staten Island have continually faced opposition from neighbors and politicians. Last fall, hundreds of protesters repeatedly rallied outside a former Catholic high school.

A former prisoner in the Rose M. Singer women’s jail on Rikers Island is suing New York City, alleging jail staff ignored her warnings in 2022 that a transgender woman housed among females was actually a man pretending to be a woman in order to prey on the opposite sex behind bars.

“His introduction was, ‘I’m not transgender. I’m straight. I like women,’” said the plaintiff, who is identified only as “Rose Doe” in the lawsuit.

According to the civil suit, Rose Doe not only believed the alleged perpetrator was lying about their gender identity but that the prisoner was purposely “instructed to claim that he was transgender by DOC staff so that he could stay in the female dorm where he would have access to female inmates.”

Investigative records obtained by Doe’s attorneys and provided to the I-Team, show shortly after the alleged perpetrator arrived in the female dorm, Doe complained to correctional staff, claiming the new detainee sexually propositioned her on April 4th and then groped her in the bathroom on April 6th. After reviewing those complaints, the Acting Warden of the Rose M. Singer Center (RMSC), Floyd Phipps, sent an email saying, “I feel that individual is not a suitable fit for RMSC. . . . [Rose Doe] does not want to remain in the unit due to feeling unsafe.”

Even after those warnings and complaints, Doe says correction officers failed to remove the alleged perpetrator from female housing. According to Doe’s lawsuit, early on the morning of April 7th, “while Plaintiff was sleeping in her bed, the Perpetrator, took the opportunity to sexually assault Plaintiff again. . . .pull[ing] down her pants while she was sleeping and begin[ing] to rape her.”

“I’ll be scarred for the rest of my life,” Doe told the I-Team.

Nicholas Liakas, the attorney representing Rose Doe said he fears the failure of corrections staff to promptly remove an imposter also endangers actual transgender inmates who have fought for years to have access to housing which aligns with their gender identities.

“When someone is claiming to be something they’re not it’s to the detriment of the entire community now, because it will cause concern,” Liakas said. “Gender aside, when you have a clear danger it has to be removed and this is something where there were so many opportunities to step in and prevent a rape.”

A spokesperson for the NYC Department of Correction declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the fact that it is an active case. In a letter to Rose Doe, dated June 26, 2022, jail investigators said there was “insufficient evidence to make a final determination as to whether or not the event occurred.”

The I-Team is not naming the alleged rapist because the prisoner has not been criminally charged. Though Doe says she reported the rape, her lawsuit claims DOC staff “covered up Plaintiff’s sexual assaults by failing to provide her with adequate medical and mental health services, failing to collect, document, and review evidence.”

The legal action, claiming a heterosexual man posed as a transgender woman in order to gain access to female detainees, comes one year after advocates for trans prisoners implored New York City Council and the Department of Correction to make it easier for inmates to get housing that aligns with their gender identities.

In a hearing last January on gender equity in jail, Dr. Rachel Golden, a psychologist who specializes in gender-affirming care for Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Non-Binary, and Intersex people (TGNCNBI), told lawmakers it would be a mistake to think it is common for men to pose as trans females behind bars.

“Fearmongering that one bad actor will pretend to be transgender and therefore create an unsafe environment results in the continued disproportionate targeting of TGNCNBI individuals for harassment and violence,” Golden testified.

She added that trans women are far more likely to be the victims of sexual violence when they are housed in male facilities.

“There is little to no incentive to pretend to be transgender let alone to put in the work to sustain that ruse over time,” Golden said. “There is absolutely no evidence that people pretending to be transgender is a common occurrence whereas there is ample evidence supporting the risk of violence and assault to transgender women being housed in a male facility.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, transgender prisoners are far more likely to face sexual violence than the general population behind bars. A 2011-12 national survey of incarcerated individuals found nearly 16% of transgender inmates in local jails reported being sexually victimized. That compares with just 3% of the entire jail population.

In August of last year, the prisoner accused of raping Rose Doe was transferred to a maximum security prison for men after pleading guilty to the felony assault charges which originally landed him in Rikers.

Reached by phone, the father of the accused prisoner told the I-Team his son was “a troubled inmate” who “had a girlfriend when he went in,” but he did not believe his son was capable of raping someone.

Prior to the alleged rape, Rose Doe’s attorneys say there was ample evidence that introducing the new detainee to a female dorm might be dangerous, including jail disciplinary records showing the accused perpetrator had five open complaints recorded under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a 2003 law that standardized the process for filing complaints about alleged sexual misconduct behind bars.

Liakas said the existence of those complaints should have prompted action – regardless of the inmate’s gender identity.

“Whether or not this person was truly or not transgender ignores the fact that you had a history of complaints of predatory behavior,” Liakas said. “This individual had documented complaints of harassment. It culminated with a rape after being ignored.”

The investigative record shared with the I-Team also includes transcripts of recorded jail phone calls in which an inmate professes to be a heterosexual who manipulated his way into the women’s dorm and is in seek of sexual rendezvous with female prisoners.

“I’m not gay…I don’t want no penis,” reads one of the transcripts. “Send me some workers over here, like a whole swap of workers, heterosexuals.”

The name of the jail phone caller is redacted in the transcripts, but Doe’s lawyers say it is likely the same prisoner who assaulted their client.

Rose Doe told the I-Team she agrees that transgender women can be safely housed among females. But she believes jail staff have a responsibility to act quickly when inmates raise concerns about potential imposters.

“They just took my complaint and said they’d do something about it and they never did,” Doe said.

Last January, former Corrections Commissioner Louis Molina told City Council that Rikers Island housed about 50 people who self-identified as transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, or intersex. Of those, 38 were housed in their requested gender facilities. The department did not specify the reasons why the other dozen or so individuals were denied housing that aligned with their gender identities.

The DOC says, as much as possible, it seeks to accommodate an individual’s desired housing placement in accordance with their gender identity.

The killing of Imam Hassan Sharif as he prepared to open the Masjid Muhammad-Newark mosque on Jan. 3 has generated an intense law enforcement dragnet. Authorities have said they had no evidence that religious hate motivated the imam’s slaying, but vowed to protect people of faith amid soaring reports of bias attacks across the U.S.

One law enforcement source says there is video from the scene of Sharif’s killing that shows a man riding away on a bicycle. The sources say they are looking into whether that individual is a relative of Sharif.

The family declined comment to News 4 Friday on the matter. Police and prosecutors said the investigation was active and ongoing, and that no arrests had been made by the middle of Friday afternoon. Law enforcement declined to comment further.

Sharif’s shooting comes amid intensifying bias incidents against Muslims and Jews since Hamas committed terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, provoking a punishing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, recorded more than 2,000 bias incidents against U.S. Muslims in the first two months since the Mideast attacks began, up from nearly 800 in the same period last year.

A $35,000 combined reward is being offered for information in the case.

For nearly two decades, Sharif also worked as a transportation security officer for the Transportation Security Administration at Newark Liberty International Airport, said TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of his passing and send our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues,” she said in an emailed statement shortly after his death.

In a video statement posted on its website, the mosque offered prayers and said the community would focus on delivering Sharif his last rights and burial. The statement described Sharif as a brother, friend, father and husband and called on the community to be mindful of the family’s grief.

Sharif’s death follows other recent killings of religious leaders or at houses of worship that officials said weren’t tied to bias.

In Detroit, authorities said there wasn’t a “shred of evidence” that the killing of a synagogue leader in her home in October was motivated by antisemitism. In Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, authorities said the death of a man outside a mosque was the result of a carjacking.

Get more from NBC News here.

Trevor Bickford was indicted a year ago on terror charges including attempted murder, assault and aggravated assault on a police officer, according to the Manhattan DA. He pleaded guilty to five counts involving those charges, which stem from the Dec. 31, 2023, attack on three cops he approached on Eighth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets.

Bickford told the judge he was under psychiatric treatment for schizoaffective disorder.

Then, in a separate statement to the court, he said, “On Dec. 31, 2022, I attempted to kill 3 uniformed NYPD officers in an attack with a knife while they were working. I know what I did was wrong and I’m sorry.”

All three officers were treated for their injuries and released from the hospital a day after the incident.

Bickford’s family was in the courtroom Thursday for the plea change, including his mother, stepfather and two aunts, who had tears in their eyes. Bickford faces up to 120 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Had the case gone to trial, among the government’s evidence were the 12-inch machete used in the attack, a journal found at the scene with Trevor’s “last Will and Testament” and officers’ bodycamera video that shows the attack.

It also would include statements made by Bickford when he was arrested, including, “I walked around Times Square trying to figure out the right time to kill” and “I intended to die in the attack and achieve martyrdom.

Bickford is set to be sentenced on April 11.

Senior law enforcement officials had described him as a “homegrown violent extremist” who tried to carry out the assault with a large knife on a night when midtown streets were jam-packed. Bickford was shot in the shoulder amid the chaos that ensued. He allegedly made statements to detectives implicating himself once in custody.

“A year and one day ago today, this Office charged Trevor Bickford with attempting to murder three NYPD officers while they were on duty protecting the thousands of civilians who flocked to Times Square just over a year ago to celebrate the New Year with friends and family,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement Thursday. “Bickford targeted the iconic yearly celebration to carry out brazen acts of violence and hatred in the name of jihad.  Bickford, as with countless others who have carried out acts of terrorism in support of misguided ideologies, is now going to spend lengthy time exactly where he deserves – in federal prison.”

Meanwhile, James Smith, the assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the FBI, shared similar sentiments. In a statement, Smith said that Bickford “deliberately plotted to bring terror to the streets of New York by targeting law enforcement officers purely carrying out their oath to protect and serve.” Smith also went on to describe Bickford’s guilty plea as “a stark reminder of the threat terrorists, and those they inspire, pose to our country.”

Investigators looked into whether Jenkins had tried to conceal violations, first reported by the News 4 I-Team on July 20, 2022, involving migrant families with children left overnight at the City’s homeless intake office instead of being placed in proper shelter. 

But former Commissioner Gary Jenkins declared he had been “cleared of any wrongdoing” and that he “communicated transparently to City Hall.”

DOI’s Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber disputed this in an interview Wednesday with the the News 4 I-Team.

“The facts that we found were that he was not fully transparent. So to the extent that his statement suggested that we found him to be fully transparent? That’s not accurate,” Strauber said.

Family after family told the I-Team they had been left to sleep for days on benches and floors of the Bronx building known as PATH, without enough food, after completing traumatic and arduous journeys through the jungle. Some described 60-80 families at a time living on the waiting room floor “like dogs.”

City officials, including Mayor Eric Adams, have insisted the violations impacted only four or five families and that no families ever spent multiple days there. 

According to the DOI report released Tuesday, Commissioner Jenkins “appeared to minimize, if not misrepresent the circumstances” at the intake office, leaving senior officials at City Hall without an understanding of the violations and their implications until they were reported publicly by the I-Team.  

The DOI opened its investigation in August 2022, after the I-Team reported Jenkins fired his chief spokeswoman Julia Savel. Savel had informed City Hall about the violations and claimed Jenkins was trying to cover them up. 

Text messages obtained by the I-Team showed Savel telling one of Mayor Adams’ press aides, “Gary was trying to not tell City Hall we broke the law. I got yelled at for telling you.” The City Hall aide wrote back “Oy.”

Jenkins has insisted that Savel’s complaints about him were not why he fired her, though he declined to elaborate.

After her termination, Savel told the I-Team that before the migrant influx had become public, she had urged Jenkins and other officials to come clean about the violations due to an overwhelmed system, but was met with what she described as “an intentional cover up.” Savel said that in response to our questions, she was ordered to draft an untrue statement saying the city was “meeting its legal mandate.”

In retrospect, City insiders agree with the sudden surge of 2,700 migrants into the shelter system in the summer of 2022, some New Yorkers might have been willing to forgive violations of this sort. But homeless advocates and past city officials agree leaving children and families overnight at this intake office has long been considered a no-no. 

In decades past, after notorious pile-ups of families here, the court has held city officials in contempt.

Families who arrive at PATH by 10 p.m. are supposed to be placed in shelter by 4 a.m., under Section 21-313 of the City’s administrative code, a longstanding policy known as the 10-4 rule designed to protect children in shelter. 

DOI concluded that City officials underreported the number of 10-4 violations and that the full scope cannot be known, because of the poor quality of available evidence. In its report, the DOI says it was able to verify at least 11 violations.

The report recommends changes to the city’s recordkeeping at PATH, citing software systems taken out of service, false data reports and even surveillance tape that was inexplicably missing for key dates and times.

“That kind of insufficient recordkeeping raises a significant risk that the information that’s made public and that’s disclosed will be inaccurate,” Strauber said. “There was a period of time when there was inaccurate information in the public about how many people had spent the night at PATH.”

DOI investigators say they requested security video from the PATH intake center, which would have helped assess the conditions, the number of families, and the times when families arrived and departed.

According to the report, DOI was told that a failed backup server had resulted in missing video. The report says both City shelter officials and vendors were unable to provide any proof that their server failed, adding that “the vendors told DOI they could not definitively rule out tampering.”

In 2022, when the arrival of migrants started impacting operations at the shelter system entrypoint, no violation of this rule had been alleged for at least a decade prior, and the practice of leaving families in this office had previously been the subject of contentious, protracted litigation brought by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of the homeless.

According to the report, “Jenkins decided to delay notifying the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless, the court-appointed monitor for the City’s shelter system,” a decision DOI describes as “a departure from longstanding practice.” The report says that while the delay was brief, roughly 24 hours, “Jenkins could not provide DOI with a sufficient explanation for it.”

On July 21, 2022, one day after the I-Team’s first report, Mayor Adams announced the City had violated the 10-4 policy just four times (he later amended the number to five.) Adams said he had just learned of the violations, and defended Commissioner Jenkins, who claimed he was unaware the City’s actions had violated the law.

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According to the DOI report, Jenkins had been informed about the violations three days earlier, on July 18. That morning, he sent a text message to Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom in City Hall, saying “It’s getting rough. I just learned we had some families past the 4am assignment at Path this morning.”

DOI concludes that Jenkins’ text message did not convey the full factual or legal context and left the deputy mayor with the sense that this was “a small operational issue.”

“Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom informed DOI that in retrospect she was frustrated that Jenkins did not provide additional context before July 20, when the City found itself ill-prepared to respond to public allegations concerning families’ experiences at PATH,” according to DOI.

As for Jenkins’ termination of Savel, DOI says it conducted only a limited inquiry into the reasons for Savel’s firing and was unable to reach a conclusion on this issue. 

According to the report, investigators “found some evidence supporting Julia Savel’s claim that her termination resulted principally from her conversations with City Hall.”

But the report says investigators also saw evidence suggesting Jenkins’ claim that Savel’s termination was due to “documented instances where she was reportedly unprofessional.” In its report, however, DOI does not list any examples of the behavior Jenkins allegedly found unprofessional.

In 2022, Savel told the I-Team, “My performance was never in question.”

In a statement Tuesday, Jenkins said, “I’m pleased to be cleared of any wrongdoing. I communicated transparently to City Hall and proudly stand by my tenure, especially given the unprecedented, unpredictable nature of the migrant crisis.”

Jenkins stepped down as commissioner of the NYC Department of Social Services in February 2023, after just one year in the job. He has since joined Oaktree Solutions, a firm founded by Mayor Adams’ chief campaign fundraiser and former Chief of Staff Frank Carone.

Savel, meanwhile, is ineligible for whistleblower protection, according to the report, because she took her complaints about Jenkins’ alleged cover up to City Hall instead of to DOI. 

“Obviously her claims did bring certain issues to light that we followed up on,” Commissioner Strauber said.

The DOI is an independent investigative agency whose commissioner is appointed by the mayor and must be confirmed by the City Council.

Strauber says City Hall did not interfere in this investigation and that she does not know why Jenkins left his position.

Prosecutors say Nasr was taken to the U.S. Thursday and the charging documents were unsealed Friday. He’s expected to appear in federal court later in the afternoon.

According to the complaint, Nasr flew from Egypt to Kenya on December 14 to try and join the terrorist organization, charging documents say.

Nasr was allegedly communicating with an FBI confidential source in which he said the number one enemy was “evil America” and in social media posts in November he allegedly posted on X “jihad on your home turf. Coming soon to a US location near you” followed by plane, bomb and fire emojis.

In a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, prosecutors say Nasr, “expressed his intent to join al Shabaab to receive military training and engage in jihad, that he was prepared to kill and be killed, and that he specifically aspired to be a martyr for the jihadist cause.”

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement, “Nasr was prepared to kill and be killed to support the jihadist cause, and in his own words, he described America as ‘evil’ and the ‘head of the snake.’”

The head of the FBI’s New York office, James Smith, said, “Karrem Nasr traveled across the globe in an alleged attempt to join the ranks of a foreign terrorist organization – an organization that has repeatedly expressed its desire to harm Americans around the world.”

Nasr faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Information on an attorney for him wasn’t immediately available.

Khamidjon Murodov, 46, of Bay Terrace, was arrested inside the 68th Precinct on December 12th, nearly a month and a half after the November 1st altercation – and just days after the video went public.

Court records show Murodov pleaded not guilty. No one answered his door when the I-Team visited seeking comment.

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Kisha Jones, the passenger who was attacked, applauded the arrest, but her attorney, Nicholas Liakas said the investigation shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, blaming the MTA which administers the Access-A-Ride program.

“This is someone who assaulted a woman in broad daylight, and it was a dead end until the I-Team got involved,” Liakas said. “Not everyone has their story told on the news and it seems up until that point this was just going to go away for Access-A-Ride.”

Jones has filed notice she intends to sue the MTA for failure to ensure her Access-A-Ride driver was safe and properly vetted.

The MTA declined to comment on Jones’s legal filing, citing the pending nature of the claim. But prior to that filing, Chris Pangilinan, the MTA’s Vice President of Paratransit, condemned the driver’s conduct and confirmed the transit agency ordered its contracted dispatcher to terminate his Access-A-Ride eligibility.

“I was horrified by what I saw. That is not customer service, that is the opposite of customer service,” Pangilinan said.

Though Pangilinan said Kisha Jones could reach out to the MTA in order to obtain her driver’s identity and vehicle information, Jones says she was still waiting for those details when she learned the driver had been arrested.

“No one ever got back to me,” Jones said. “Access-A-Ride clearly didn’t try to help us.”

The NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, which licenses Paratransit drivers, said it has also taken action against Murodov.

“As soon as we learned about this disturbing incident, we worked to identify the driver and suspend him, and we are now seeking revocation of his TLC license,” said David Do, the TLC Commissioner. “Safety is our fundamental tenet, and violence against passengers or drivers is illegal and totally unacceptable.”

Veteran Bloomfield firefighter Patrick Thomas hasn’t worn his uniform since Nov.  16. He’s still processing what he says was the the trauma of what happened during rope and rappelling training when a fellow firefighter approached him.

“One of my co-workers tied a noose and gave it to me,” he told the I-Team in an exclusive interview. “He was laughing and he was like, ‘I want you to figure out what kind of knot this is.’ So my reply was, ‘I know exactly what this is. This is a noose.’ I said, ‘This is what people used to hang my ancestors from trees.’

Thomas said he asked the other firefighter if he thought it was funny — to which the other man laughed.

I asked, do you think this was funny? And he proceeded to laugh.”

”I didn’t know how to feel. And I felt anger. Still very angry,” Thomas told NBC New York.

The 42-year-old Thomas said there were plenty of witnesses at the firehouse at the time.

“My Captain and another one of the firefighters came to check on me. And I could tell by the look in their faces they were in shock,” Thomas said.

He also said it wasn’t the first incident involving the other firefighter, Walter Coffee. The first one took place before another training class the week before.

“The same guy came up to me while I was standing outside and said, ‘Hey Thomas, there’s a noose upstairs on the table,’ said Thomas. ”I said, why would I want to see a noose? He looked at me, he laughed. He was like, ‘I am just telling you.’”

Thomas has hired attorneys who obtained a temporary restraining order against Coffee, who has since been suspended without pay. But they’ve also put the fire department on legal notice.

“I am looking into evidence that there was previous knowledge with respect to what Mr. Coffee was going to do and whether by virtue of their silence, they turned a blind eye to his racist actions,” said attorney Thomas Ashley.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office has since charged Coffee with “harassment with a purpose to intimidate” because of race or color. The charging documents note that the incident was captured on video from the firehouse.

”I think that presenting a noose to an African American is no different than writing a swastika on a piece of paper and giving it to a person of the Jewish faith. It communicates not only hate but it communicates the actual threat of violence,” said Ashley, noting that he believes it “absolutely” was a hate crime.

Attempts by NBC New York to reach Coffee were unsuccessful.

Thomas, who said he loves his job, now isn’t sure who really has his back.

“You have to be able to put your life in the person to the right or the left of you at any given moment,” said Thomas. “I don’t know how he feels about me or other African Americans and just isn’t saying anything.”

A spokesperson for the township emphasized that officials are outraged and disappointed, calling the alleged actions unacceptable and that they are exploring all disciplinary options. Thomas is expected in court Tuesday, seeking a permanent restraining order against Coffee, who is expected to appear during the court battle.

NBC New York got an inside look at three of the biggest rip-offs spreading across the five boroughs during the holiday season, as the NYPD pulled back the curtain on the teams looking to sour the season.

One of the quickest one involves digital pickpockets masquerading as charity fundraisers, mainly in Manhattan parks, according to police.

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The crooks will say they’re collecting donations for jerseys or for a basketball trip or just to support their team, said Sgt. Matt Doherty, of the NYPD’s Financial Crimes Task Force. They will also claim they only accept Venmo, Zelle, CashApp or other similar money apps.

“Out of the kindness of their heart, the unsuspecting victim will give over an unlocked phone,” Doherty said.

In the blink of an eye, they can swipe a fortune. Doherty said they can get anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 in the quick con job.

On the street, other criminals use even more money – but this time as bait.

“They approach a victim on the street under the guise of the subject just won a $1 million lotto,” said Doherty.

The lottery scammers claim they don’t understand English and need help to get their cash, according to Doherty. They’ll offer to split the prize – but not before their target gives them good-faith down payment, in order to make sure the target doesn’t steal the “winning” ticket.

Once the cash is handed over, the scammers will swap out the bags and be on their way, with the victim given a bag of “Monopoly money,” Doherty said.

Then there’s a scam that has come as a surprise even to police, who have captured footage of it going down on a busy Queens street corner. Doherty said the department is “seeing it daily almost.”

The target, says Doherty, has been people who have just withdrawn cash from banks. Videos obtained by NBC New York show, in detail, how it happens.

It always begins with a crook watching a victim take out lots of cash, waiting for someone to take out large sums like $20,000-$50,000, Doherty said.

In one case, a suspect follows the victim to a store, where a partner-in-crime drops coins at the door — serving as a distraction that stops the victim from exiting. Video shows the thief then reach into the victim’s backpack and steal the cash.

An alternate bank-follow scam is even more sophisticated, involving tacks, flat tires and once again, distraction. After a target is seen withdrawing money, the crooks again work in teams: As the target is looking to leave the bank, one person walks slowly in front of their vehicle, as another person places tacks on the ground to puncture a rear tire.

The target drives over the sharp objects and the tire goes flat as they drive away. The alleged thieves, who have been following their target, then approach the victim, trying to appear as good Samaritans.

One of the scammers pretends to fall and offers to help fix the tire, video shows, but it doesn’t work. Moments later, a woman can be seen trying to lure the victim away from her SUV, saying she can find help around the corner. Finally, they are able to distract the victim while they inspect the flat tire — and as that’s going on, another man sneaks up, quietly opens the driver’s door, and steals the bag filled with cash.

“We see these teams they are well dressed they use disguises. They’ll wear wigs. They’ll wear hats, masks, they’ll change their appearance. They’ll switch out cars,” said Doherty. “It’s nothing short of a professional operation.”

A doctor who appeared on a hit Bravo reality show and his wife pleaded not guilty on Long Island Thursday to stealing the identities of show cast members in an alleged scheme to obtain prescription drugs, according to officials.

Dr. Francis Martinis — a urologist in Fort Salonga — and his wife, Jessica, who both appeared in the hit Bravo reality show franchise “Below Deck,” are accused of allegedly using the personal information of other cast members to write bogus prescriptions for oxycodone. They are both charged in an eight-count indictment with multiple felony counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance by a practitioner and falsifying business records.

The Martinis were released on their own recognizance after Thursday’s hearing, with their lawyer avowing their innocence.

“Evidence will show the charges are bogus and cannot be substantiated,” Peter Crusco, the couple’s attorney said.

Investigators said the scheme started to unfold earlier this year, when Jessica went to a pharmacy in Kings Park in an attempt to fill a bogus oxycodone prescription in January. According to those officials, the handwritten prescription raised concerns, prompting a pharmacist to call police.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the doctor had sent dozens of prescriptions for oxycodone to Suffolk County pharmacies over a two-year period, law enforcement officials said. Many of these prescriptions were allegedly fake — written under the names of two “Below Deck” cast members.

Investigators said that Jessica would pick up the prescriptions and pay in cash as part of the alleged plot.

“Doctors are supposed to be trusted members of the community and with that trust comes a tremendous amount of personal and professional responsibility,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “Physicians are held to a high standard, as they take an oath to uphold a number of professional ethical standards when they begin their careers. The conduct Dr. Martinis allegedly engaged in with his wife not only violated this oath, but it also violated the law.”

The duo was arrested in May and charged with eight counts of criminal sale of controlled substance and falsifying business records, law enforcement officials tell NBC New York.

Investigators did not reveal if they believed the couple were using, reselling the drugs or both.

In court Thursday, prosecutors say Jessica told arresting officers, “It was all for us!” and both she and Francis allegedly reported having substance abuse problems. He has no criminal history and has practiced urology the last 25 years.

Former New York Homeland Security Director Michael Balboni explained the allegations are serious, especially amid an ongoing national addiction and overdose crisis.

Balboni said, “He abused the celebrity position that he had on that ship to take the identities of his crew members — if that is proven — and then use that to buy drugs, that is a common scheme for a common criminal.”

The pair were among the guests who chartered Sirocco, a luxury yacht that set sail on the French Riviera in 2019 and had part of their trip documented for “Below Deck Mediterranean.” The doctor was also a guest once again the following year, this time on another Below Deck spin-off, “Below Deck Sailing Yacht.” The series featured life on a 180-foot sailboat that cruised the Ionian Sea.

Following their appearances in the franchise, the doctor and wife duo attended promotional events with other crew members.

“The DEA is rooted in an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to save lives from illegal drug misuse and abuse through enforcement, education, and prevention,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino. “We identified two individuals who brazenly diverted controlled substances intended for medicinal purposes to the illegal drug market.  These arrests are a reminder that a doctor’s illicit drug diversion can lead to irreparable harm like the drug overdoses and poisonings currently plaguing our nation.”

Bravo did not respond to NBC New York’s request for comment.

Balboni said, “Prosecutors will want to send a message to all other physicians — you have special access to these drugs, you know how they work and if you do this you will be prosecuted.”

Bravo is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC New York and Telemundo 47.

In a 43 to 3 vote Wednesday, lawmakers agreed to cap payouts to citizens that issue noise violations. Previously, they could earn 25%-50% of fines collected. In the case of a third offense, a citizen enforcer stood to earn more than $1,000. Under the new law, citizen complainants will receive just $5 or $10 per summons, no matter how many they issue to a single business.

The reform was applauded by bar and restaurant owners who reached out to the I-Team in June, complaining of a citizen ticket blitz that threatened to cost them tens of thousands of dollars in fines. Many of the businesses said they received multiple noise complaints from a single citizen before they even knew about the first one.

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“It was definitely a cash grab,” said Sharon Treanor, who owns BarDough and several other bars and restaurants in and around Times Square. She said her group of businesses had been the target of more than fifty citizen noise complaints.

“For someone to walk down the street and issue you tickets for thousands and thousands of dollars. It didn’t sit right, it wasn’t fair,” said Theresa Sigler manager of the Pig and Whistle on West 48th Street.

The new law not only caps payouts for future citizen-issued noise violations. It also places a retro-active $50 cap on payouts for summonses previously written by civilians.

Dietmar Detering, a Queens resident who has issued hundreds of citizen noise violations, sharply criticized the new law and insisted it would make the city a louder, less hospitable place.

“What’s being presented as a common sense bill is actually an amnesty bill benefiting already caught noise polluters,” Detering said. “It also, certainly intentional, eliminates both citizen enforcement effects of the last 18 months and the corresponding fair and reasonable compensation.”

Though Detering has declined to say how much money he’s netted by issuing citizen noise violations, Council Member James Gennaro, who sponsored the reform legislation, said citizen enforcers have walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars by writing rapid-fire violations in neighborhoods far from where they actually live.

It was a scam,” Gennaro said. “It was people taking advantage of the system and that’s not what people ought to be doing.”

For Gennaro’s bill to become law, NYC Mayor Eric Adams must still sign it.

Even before the legislation went to a vote, Detering filed a lawsuit, alleging New York City’s administrative law judges have too often reduced the fines for businesses tagged with citizen noise violations. That case is still pending.

“I responded to the clear letter of the law, doing something the city refused to do, causing all this noise to go out of control,” Detering said.

The assault unfolded on the afternoon of Nov. 1, as Kisha Jones got out of a vehicle which was dispatched by CTG, a private company contracted by the MTA to transport disabled New Yorkers under the agency’s Access-A-Ride program. In the video, provided by Jones’ attorney, you can see the driver following Jones as she exits the van, and then he backs her into a parked truck and begins to kick her and grapple with her.

“I saw the devil in that man. Once he got started he couldn’t stop,” Jones said. “This man plundered me. Kicking me like a dog.”

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The disabled passenger’s attorney, Nicholas Liakas, has now filed notice Jones intends to sue both the MTA and CTG, claiming the transportation agency and its private contractor didn’t do enough to supervise, monitor, and track broker drivers — who now account for more than two thirds of all Access-A-Ride trips in the Paratransit program.

“The problem is, if it’s being outsourced to these companies and there is really no oversight, it’s just basically a blank check,” Liakas said. “Things like this are going to happen and they’re going to happen more frequently.”

In an interview with the I-Team that took place before the notice of claim was filed, Chris Pangilinan, the MTA’s Vice President of Paratransit, said the agency ordered its contractor to terminate the driver after becoming aware of the incident.

“I was horrified by what I saw. That is not customer service. That is the opposite of customer service,” Pangilinan said.

But Pangilinan took issue with the notion private broker drivers make Access-A-Ride trips less safe. He cited recent surveys that show 73 percent of Access-A-Ride passengers are satisfied with the service.

“The brokers are a tremendous benefit,” Pangilinan said. “They are smaller vehicles. They blend in with the rest of the vehicles so it doesn’t look like a big bus dropping you off. Other features people like about the broker service, which has enabled them to use Access-A-Ride more and have Access-A-Ride meet their needs better.”

The MTA declined to comment on the lawsuit Kisha Jones intends to file.

Representatives from CTG did not return the I-Team’s request for comment.

Although the driver had been terminated from Access-A-Ride, neither the MTA nor the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission could say whether the driver has retained his TLC license which allows drivers to accept ride share trips from the general population.

Jones, who said she is a former Access-A-Ride driver who was fired after a vehicle accident, says one of her biggest frustrations is that she has so far been unable to identify the driver who assaulted her – even though the attack was captured on surveillance video.

After reporting the incident to the NYPD, Jones said she was unable to pick the driver out of a police lineup. But she had hoped there would be proof of his identity in the trip history on the Access-A-Ride cellphone app.

The MTA said information like driver names, vehicle license plates, and GPS data are not kept in trip histories accessible on user phones. But the transportation agency said customers, including Jones, could simply contact the MTA and the transportation agency would provide the driver’s identity.

As this article was published, the MTA had yet to provide that information to Jones or her attorney. The NYPD says the case is still under investigation.

“I was blacklisted. I knew I was blacklisted,” said Anthony Barberan, a former Eastchester police officer.

Barberan said he felt déjà vu when he saw the documentary “Crime + Punishment,” highlighting I-Team interview with minority NYPD cops who claimed they were pressured to meet illegal ticket quotas.

“I think I was fired because I was blowing the whistle on what was going on there,” Barberan told News 4. “I was always bringing up ticket quotas.”

Eastchester, along with New York City, denies quotas have ever existed. But Barberan, a Hispanic officer in a largely white police force, is now embroiled in a contentious federal discrimination lawsuit against the town and says he has documented proof of the quota pressure.

“You were expected to come up with at least 15-20 tickets per months.”

Barberan shared text message where he complained about meeting “numbers.” he said he was sent for remedial training but maintains the scrutiny didn’t let up, even after he filed an EEOC complaint. He was accused of misconduct during an arrest and after an internal disciplinary hearing, he was fired.

“I felt like I was retaliated against, like there was an agenda to get me out.”

The county attorney said Barberan was not targeted or terminated for being Hispanic, than an independent hearing examiner recommended termination after finding that “his lies were manufactured to cover up his incompetence, unprofessionalism, and most importantly, his unconstitutional actions.”

Barberan countered by providing internal police reports where he claims his signature was forged and said the town’s vendetta went beyond him.

”They’ll retaliate not only against you, but your family. They’ll make your life, you know, a living hell,” Barberan said.

His stepfather, Kenneth Simonides, a longtime veteran Eastchester firefighter, spoke out in public meetings after Barberan’s firing, claiming a police witch hunt.

“I don’t play games and I don’t cause any trouble. But this is something effecting my family life,” Simonides said at the meeting.

Documents obtained by the I-Team show the then-police chief requested an investigation into Simonides by the fire department for possible abuse of sick time. The town spent $23,000 of taxpayer money for a private investigator who followed Simonides — even taking surveillance pictures of his wife and her daughter.

“That’s just outright disgraceful. It’s absolutely disgraceful,” Simonides said.

He said the case never resulted in charges. He retired in August.

“They need to be held accountable. You can’t be making false accusations against people,” Simonides said.

Barberan is also not going quietly. Inspired by NYPD Lt. Edwin Raymond, who recently retired early to work on nationwide police reform, they believe outside oversight is needed to protect whistleblower officers.

“All over the county, NYC, all I’m seeing officers speaking out how they are being targeted in different ways,” Barberan said.

Several dispositions have already taken place of current and former police officers in connections to Barberan’s lawsuit. The town is expected to seek to have it dismissed. Barberan wants the case to go to trial.

At least four gold bars tied to the FBI search of Sen. Robert Menendez’s home had been directly linked to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing the state’s senior senator, Bergen County prosecutor records from a 2013 robbery case show.

The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police to recover the gold bars stolen from him. In the 2013 robbery, Daibes reported $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater police records show. Police later caught four suspects with the stolen goods.

To get his property back, Daibes signed “property release forms” certifying the gold bars belonged to him, the records show.

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“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes said to investigators in a 2014 transcript made by prosecutors and police who recovered — and returned to Daibes — the stolen valuables. “They’re all stamped…you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”

A decade later, the FBI said four of the gold bars with unique serial numbers had come into the possession of Sen. Menendez and his wife, Nadine. Two bars were found during the FBI’s search of their Englewood Cliffs home, while an indictment stated that Nadine Menendez gave the other two other gold bars to a jeweler to sell, but photos of those two bars were recovered.

In the 2023 bribery indictment against the Democratic senator and Daibes, prosecutors included photos of some of the alleged bribes found in Menendez’s home, including four gold bars. The serial numbers of the four gold bars in the bribery indictment appear to be an exact match to four of the gold bars Daibes certified as stolen and returned to him in the 2013 robbery case.

For example, a Swiss Bank Corporation gold bar with serial number 590005 that the FBI said it seized from the senator’s home in a 2023 search was also reported stolen by Daibes — and returned to him — a decade earlier. Daibes’ signature and initials appear on the evidence log which included each specific gold bars with corresponding serial number.

“All of this spells bad news for Senator Menendez because the chain of custody – it appears – is going to be really easy to prove up,” said NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.

It was November 2013 when Daibes told police he was the victim of a gunpoint robbery in his penthouse apartment in Edgewater. The millionaire developer said he was tied to a chair as the thieves made off with cash, gold and jewelry.

The four suspects were quickly caught and later pleaded guilty. Daibes attended court proceedings as the victim. On Dec. 13, 2013, Daibes signed documents to get his property back including the gold bars.

Cevallos said if Daibes in fact gave gold bars to Robert and Nadine Menendez, that alone does not prove the crime of bribery.

“Was there a quid pro quo? Was it in exchange for the senator’s official acts – or promises of the same,” Cevallos said.

The FBI said the quid pro quo between Menendez and Daibes included efforts by the senator to influence the New Jersey US Attorney’s office which in 2018 was investigating Daibes for a separate crime of bank fraud.

Daibes and Menendez along with other co-defendants Nadine Menendez, Wael Hana and Jose Uribe all deny any wrongdoing and have  pleaded not guilty.

“The allegations against me are just that – allegations,” Menendez said at a news conference after the bribery indictment was unsealed. In a statement regarding the gold bars found at his home being tied to the decade-old robbery, counsel for Menendez said he “will not be commenting on anonymous media leaks designed to prejudice his right to a fair trial. He looks forward to addressing the government’s claims in court, based on a complete record of the evidence.”

Menendez himself addressed the claims a day later, calling the I-Team’s report “factually inaccurate and we look forward to proving it in trial.”

The Democrat has denied taking payoffs from Daibes even though prosecutors allege testing shows Daibes’ fingerprints and DNA are on some of the tens of thousands in cash found Menendez’s home.

“For 30 years, I have withdrawn thousands in cash from my personal savings account which I have kept for emergencies and because of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba,” the senator said.

Menendez and his wife are also accused of taking payoffs from businessman Wael Hana, the FBI said. In exchange, investigators said the senator allegedly used his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help Hana win an exclusive Halal meat inspection contract with the Egyptian government. They also said in exchange for bribes, the senator tried to assist the government of Egypt with arms sales.

Prosecutors said Menendez also accepted a Mercedes and other payoffs from Jose Uribe. In exchange, prosecutors said Menendez offered to try to help Uribe with an ongoing State Attorney General investigation.

As for Daibes’ separate bank fraud case, a New Jersey federal judge threw out a plea deal where Daibes pleaded guilty to one count and faced a sentence of probation after the new bribery charges came to light.

An attorney for Daibes said he is confident his client “will be exonerated when all the evidence is heard.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that all four bars linked to the Daibes robbery had been found in Menendez’s Clifton home during an FBI search. The home is in Englewood Cliffs. Two of the bars were found in the search, and photos of the two other bars were also found. Nadine Menendez gave the other two gold bars to a jeweler to sell, according to the indictment. As reported, all four bars with their serial numbers are linked to the initial 2013 Daibes robbery.

The program, which became known as Operation Pedro Pan, was orchestrated by Catholic Charities of Miami, sanctioned by the U.S. State Department.

Among the 14,000-plus secreted children covertly moved in a two-year-period were eight members of the Fernandez family, who eventually settled in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The children were flown out of Havana in separate groups so as not to arouse suspicion in the gestapo-like state. A ninth child was later born in the U.S.

“Every once in awhile I cry. And everybody does that when they have trauma, right?” said Patricia Fernandez in an exclusive interview with the NBC New York I-Team.

The siblings had never spoken to each other about their trauma until News 4 asked them to come together for an emotional I-Team interview. They asked for several breaks so they could compose themselves.

“The fact that we couldn’t leave together, Cuba, it was very emotional. It was horrible because we didn’t know if we were going to meet again,” said the oldest brother, Jose.

Before their parents sent them away, the siblings described a fear of constantly being watched by government operatives.

“You know the fact that even in your own neighborhood, you couldn’t speak because you were afraid and my dad would warn me, ‘Don’t speak to anyone, you can’t trust anybody,’” said Bill Fernandez.

Three of the siblings ended up in a now-closed orphanage and reformatory on Staten Island.

“It was horrible,” said Ed Fernandez. “I felt it was my fault. Like I did something wrong.”

The father eventually found an apartment in Elizabeth for seven of the children. Daughter Beatrice, at age 9, was the last to leave Cuba. Her mom, a Spanish citizen, came later.

“I had no idea what was going on and all I remember is my mom saying don’t speak to anyone. I had no idea I was going to an airport or where I was going,” said Beatrice.

Brother Juan, born in the United States, says the family never talked about their years of being split apart. Some lived in Florida in camps before rejoining the others in New Jersey.

“We were extremely close. We’ve always been close, we’ve always taken care of each other. But we never had a sense of sharing pain or anguish that everyone experienced here. This was years of therapy in one interview,” Juan recounted.

They now understand their parents’ excruciating decision: sending them away in hopes of setting them free.

“I never realized the sacrifices my parents made for us. At the time I was a 7-year-old. I thought I was abandoned,” said Bill Fernandez. “But looking back now, I really regret that I really never had a chance to say to my father, thank you for the sacrifice they made. And it was a sacrifice — eight kids — to send them off and never knowing you’re going to see them again.”

They have a new appreciation for what family means after being separated, and by sheer will, finding each other in a foreign land. They will be together this holiday season, as always. But now, for the first time, they will share their history with children and grandchildren — a true gift.

The majority of the more than 14,000 children were re-united with family in the U.S. There are thousands of Pedro Panners all around the country who are now connecting through social media, with so many more chapters to write in their incredible journeys.

In an exclusive interview with the NBC New York I-Team, yet another alleged victim of Dr. Zhi Alan Cheng says she believes the Queens gastroenterologist used hospital-grade sedatives to put her to sleep — before raping her and recording video of the sex crime in progress.

The woman, now the fourth accuser to speak with the I-Team, knew Cheng socially. She was not his patient, but she believes lax controls over hospital anesthesia could have given the doctor the means to render women unconscious for long periods of time.

“It’s not an over-the-counter product, the things he had in his apartment. You would only get them if you were working in health care,” she said. “I’d say I was sedated for a good twelve to sixteen hours.”

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The alleged victim told the I-Team she initially believed she fell asleep due to the effects of alcohol and MDMA, a drug commonly known as “molly.” She only became suspicious about being drugged with more potent hospital-grade anesthesia when a friend alerted her to news coverage of the 50-count indictment that accuses Dr. Cheng of raping or sexually abusing more than 13 other women, including a 19-year-old who was sexually abused on cell phone video inside a hospital exam room.

After hearing about the case against Cheng, the woman called prosecutors at the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

“They showed me a screenshot of one of the videos he had that seemed like it was linked to me,” she said. “They asked me to identify myself and I did.”

Cheng has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. When contacted by the I-Team, his attorney declined to comment.

New York Presbyterian Hospital Queens, which terminated Cheng’s employment after being made aware of the investigation, issued a statement saying the hospital is looking into whether Cheng obtained powerful sedatives while at work.

“The crimes committed by this individual are appalling, and we are deeply saddened by what these victims and their families have endured,” the statement read. “We are fully cooperating with all relevant authorities and independent investigators to confirm that no anesthesia drugs were stolen from the hospital.

Nicholas Liakas, an attorney who represents several of Dr. Cheng’s alleged victims, says he wants to know whether other hospital staff helped Cheng access sedatives or looked the other way as he preyed on patients.

“We’re investigating the involvement of potentially other doctors who worked with him and were close to him,” Liakas said. “These drugs are highly, highly regulated. You need to have a bar code. You need to have a method of accounting.”

Since firing Cheng, New York-Presbyterian says the hospital has installed new mandatory training on policies relating to internal reports of misconduct and the right to have “medical chaperones” so patients aren’t alone during exams, treatments, or procedures.

“We have also reached out to every patient who we have identified as a victim,” the hospital statement said.

The hospital did not specify how many patients have been determined to be victims of Dr. Cheng or whether a blanket notification to all of his patients should be made.

Liakas has suggested New York-Presbyterian may be trying to delay broader notification of the patient population because the deadline to file lawsuits under New York’s Adult Survivors Act is just days away. After Thanksgiving, many future claims against the hospital could be prohibited by the civil statute of limitations. Meanwhile, the Queens District Attorney’s Office has indicated there are still videos seized from Dr. Cheng, in which alleged sex crime victims have yet to be identified.

“They’re going to benefit from the clock running out. If these victims don’t get identified,” Liakas said. If we don’t know necessarily if there are other doctors involved or not involved, after November 23rd, these doctors may not be held accountable.”

“I would say the Fire Department in my decade there has always done what is safe for New Yorkers and I have never seen otherwise,” Kavanagh said in a brief interview with News 4 Friday.

Kavanagh’s comments come two days after allegations that jobs were threatened over the desire to green-light the Turkish Consulate, a project for which Eric Adams advocated shortly before winning the mayor’s race.

Several FDNY employees including Chief Joseph Jardin, who headed the Bureau of Fire Prevention, told the FBI about the alleged pressure in April, according to Jardin’s attorney Jim Walden. Sources familiar with the FBI’s investigation say they are exploring whether the Adams campaign coordinated improper contributions from Turkish officials and whether he may have traded favors in return. Adams insists he has done nothing improper and was just conducting the normal government business he likes to call “getting stuff done.”

During the interview with News 4, Commissioner Kavanagh also confirmed that in the de Blasio and Adams administrations, City Hall has circulated a list of projects to be fast-tracked. But she denied the list was reserved for powerful developers or politicians.

“That list has always been shared widely with a large number of people and has always been about city interests. What does the city need opened?” Kavanagh said.

The existence of the list was first reported by News 4 after Walden said Chief Jardin and others had told the FBI about it.

“What my client and others have said to the FBI is that this problem of City Hall reaching into the Fire Department to do favors for other people is a longstanding problem. The FBI was told to the point that a list started circulating internally about projects that City Hall wanted to be expedited.”

Jardin’s complaints about this list — which he calls “the DMO list,” a reference to the Deputy Mayor for Operations – are included in an age discrimination lawsuit he and other chiefs have filed against the City and Kavanaugh, who demoted them. The suit alleges “the DMO list became a mechanism to force FDNY to permit politically connected developers to cut the inspection line.”

An FDNY spokesman says the fact that Jardin is suing Kavanagh raises questions about the veracity of his allegations related to threats and the Turkish consulate, stating that Jardin has “a financial interest in smearing Kavanagh’s good name.”

Kavanagh said the list rightfully includes big economic development projects that bring jobs, but also public projects like schools and hospitals.

“Over two administrations, we have had a system for dealing with all of these incoming requests. Sometimes we’re dealing with a backlog. A major backlog,” she said.

There was a backlog in 2021, during the advocacy for the Turkish consulate, according to FDNY officials and the Real Estate Board of New York, which acknowledges they regularly tried to assist developers and construction companies.

Emails obtained by News 4 show there was a sense of urgency to the consulate because Turkish officials were arriving within weeks to attend the UN General Assembly and wanted access to their new building. The emails were obtained from a source cooperating with the investigation and confirmed by others on the email chain.

The emails show that Laura Kavanagh, who served as first deputy fire commissioner at the time, was enlisted to help expedite approval by then Buildings Commissioner Melanie LaRocca and agreed to look into it. The emails do not show Kavanagh applying pressure.

Kavanagh does forward the matter to her intergovernmental staffer who asks Chief Jardin in a subsequent email, “Is it possible to get inspectors on site sooner?” adding, “please tell us what is realistic and we’ll update Laura.”

Asked whether she believes anyone at the FDNY pressured chiefs to get the consulate done, Kavanagh said, “I was not fire commissioner at the time so I can’t speak to their conversations. That was two years ago. But I would say that we get these constituent requests all the time.”

Kavanagh added that she does not believe the ultimate approval of the consulate happened because of intervention by Eric Adams. She says Adams did not contact her about the consulate.

The FBI has interviewed former Commissioner Daniel Nigro twice as a witness, not as a target of their investigation, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Nigro declined to discuss the investigation at this time.

Kavanagh said she has not been contacted by the FBI.

“My client was pressured to do something unsafe,” said attorney Jim Walden, who represents Joseph Jardin, the former FDNY Chief of Fire Prevention.

Walden says Chief Jardin is one of several current and former FDNY officials approached and questioned by the FBI in the spring about a campaign to expedite the Turkish building.

“It was abundantly clear to my client and is now abundantly clear to the FBI that the people responsible (for the approval) felt as though if they didn’t do it they were going to be fired,” Walden said. 

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New York City Nov 12, 2023

Feds probing Mayor Adams' text messages to FDNY on behalf of Turkish government

But he declined to say who specifically threatened the chiefs’ jobs, citing his desire not to impede an ongoing investigation. Walden says he has spoken with several witnesses who told investigators that pressure to perform political favors has been a problem at the FDNY since the de Blasio administration. 

“The FBI was told it was to the point that a list started circulating internally about projects that City Hall wanted to be expedited,” Walden said.

The round of FBI interviews in the spring came months before the news broke about a probe into Turkish campaign donations to Mayor Eric Adams, and his advocacy related to that building in the months before he became mayor.   Adams acknowledges that he texted former FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro for help getting an FDNY letter that would enable the Buildings Department to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy. 

Two sources who have seen the text exchange say Adams explained that the DOB would approve of the temporary certificate if the fire department approved it first. Commissioner Nigro agreed to check into the situation.

Adams’ request came on September 5, 2021. Just one month earlier, the consulate’s fire protection plan had been disapproved. Emails obtained by NBC New York and confirmed by several people on the chain show the Turkish government had contractors, city officials and real estate industry representatives from the Real Estate Board of NY (REBNY) scrambling to get FDNY approval, with Turkish officials headed to town in the near future. Inspectors were not planning to return to the site until November, but Turkish diplomats were on a tight schedule. 

“Guys, we will have an international incident if we don’t get FDNY there next week,” said one of the contractors.  “UN General Assembly is in 3 weeks and Turkish President wants his building. Can you help?”

The emails show that then Borough President Eric Adams was hardly the only person asking about an expedited approval process for the consulate.

On Aug. 31, several days before Eric Adams texted Nigro, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Buildings Commissioner Melanie Larocca emailed Adams’ future FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh,  who was serving as first deputy commissioner at the time. Larocca wrote: “Hey Laura, Hope you are well! FYI — you might want to intervene here — this is a property owned by the government of Turkey and is their future embassy. Looks like then [sic] need FD action.”

Kavanagh responded two hours later “we will look into it,” looping in her intergovernmental aide Jason Shelly.

In a subsequent email, Shelly messaged Jardin and Assistant Chief Kevin Brennan to say “Laura asked me to see if you are able to help with this request that she received from the DOB commissioner.”  Shelly asked “Is it possible to get inspectors on site sooner? They are asking for next week… Please tell us what is realistic and we’ll update Laura.”

Walden says FDNY insiders believed there was no way the system could have been brought to code in the short month since it had failed inspection.

Fire officials acknowledge the sprinkler and fire alarm systems were not yet ready and that this was why no temporary certificate of occupancy had been issued. 

“It seems, based on what I know, they weren’t really looking for an actual inspection, they were looking for a rubber stamp,” Walden said. “That if they pulled the right strings, a new set of inspections would occur and there would magically be a determination that the [fire] system worked.”

Walden suggested that Kavanagh and her team were involved in the alleged pressure campaign, but one city official briefed on the matter said they could not immediately say whether other high ranking fire officials might have applied pressure.

The emails obtained by NBC New York do not reflect the type of pressure Walden is describing. One source familiar with the text exchange said Nigro replied to Adams at one point indicating there were conflicting opinions internally about whether the Turkish consulate could be expedited.

In a statement, the FDNY’s chief spokesman Jim Long said “Internal emails make clear that commissioner Kavanagh had no meaningful involvement in how the FDNY handled this request and there is nothing to suggest the FDNY was pressured to do anything improper.”

Chief Jardin is currently one of several plaintiffs in an ongoing age discrimination lawsuit against Commissioner Kavanagh. Jim Walden is also the lawyer on that case.

An amended copy of the complaint challenges Kavanagh on several other issues, claiming she opposed Jardin’s desire to publicly support a ban on lithium ion batteries in NYCHA housing in the past and sidelined experts by putting her civilian staff largely in charge of replacing firefighter breathing gear.

After Kavanaugh demoted several senior FDNY chiefs earlier this year, others asked to be demoted in protest of Kavanagh’s leadership. Walden says the allegations of pressure over the Turkish consulate would have been included in their suit, but for the fact that the FBI wished for the matter to remain confidential while under investigation.

But Long dismissed the criticism from Walden and Jardin as being from critics with an axe to grind.

“This simply seems like an attempt by someone who is unsuccessfully suing the FDNY and Commissioner Kavanagh, and who has a financial interest in undermining the fire commissioner and smearing her good name,” said Long.

Adams told NBC New York Tuesday that Nigro was the only FDNY employee he contacted about the consulate. Fire officials said Adams did not contact Kavanagh at the time, but they say someone in de Blasio’s administration did check in on the status of the building.

Even so, fire officials said they field dozens of similar requests every week.  

Calls to former DOB Commissioner LaRocca, former Mayor de Blasio and the contractors on the consulate were not returned.

REBNY, which assisted with the consulate issue, noted that during 2021 COVID had contributed to a slower FDNY inspection process.

 “At that time it was widely understood that the FDNY had a very lengthy response time for processing plans and inspecting buildings which made such requests especially common at various buildings throughout the city,” said REBNY spokesman Sam Spokony.

Ultimately, Turkey got what it wanted. On September, 10 2021, five days after Adams’ initial text message, Jardin signed a conditional letter of no objection which essentially punted the power to approve the temporary occupancy to the Buildings Department, but only if DOB conducted a successful test of the fire alarm and suppression systems.

Walden says that conditional letter was Jardin’s way of expressing his displeasure with the situation. But one insider questioned: If Jardin was so concerned about safety, why did he sign it?

NBC New York’s Courtney Copenhagen, Chris Glorioso and Hilary Weissman contributed to this report.

Two sources familiar with the matter identified the member of the administration as Rana Abbasova, the Director of Protocol for International Affairs. According to her bio on the city website, Abbasova’s role was to “foster closer relationships between the City of New York and the broader diplomatic community.” She previously worked in the Brooklyn borough president’s office.

Abbasova did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Abbasova has not been charged in any investigation and no official has said she acted illegally. Additionally, none of the statements specifically state why the mayor’s office believes Abbasova acted inappropriately. 

News of Abbasova’s alleged misconduct was first reported when a lawyer confirmed Mayor Adams’ cell phone and iPad were seized by the FBI. A campaign attorney said last week that “after learning of the federal investigation, it was discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly.”

The attorney did not detail Abbasova’s specific conduct, but said “in the spirit of transparency and cooperation, this behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators.”

City Hall spokesperson Fabien Levy described Abbasova as a “junior staffer” who was put on leave right away, and remained on leave as of Wednesday night.

“While we continue to cooperate with investigators, the most important thing to remember is that the mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing,” Levy wrote.

The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York are pressing to meet with President Joe Biden about getting federal help in managing the surge of migrants they say are arriving in their cities with little to no coordination, support or resources from his administration.

The Democratic leaders say in a letter obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday that while they appreciate Biden’s efforts so far, much more needs to be done to ease the burden on their cities.

Migrants are sleeping in police station foyers in Chicago. In New York, a cruise ship terminal was turned into a shelter. In Denver, the number of migrants arriving has increased tenfold and available space to shelter them has withered. With fewer available work authorizations, these migrants cannot find work that would allow them to get into proper housing.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who is leading the coalition, said nearly every conversation he has had with arriving migrants is the same: Can he help them find a job, they ask.

“The crisis is we have folks here who desperately want to work. And we have employers here who desperately want to hire them. And we have a federal government that’s standing in the way of employers who want to hire employees who want to work,” Johnston said.

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Also signing on were the mayors of the country’s four largest cities: Eric Adams of New York, Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Brandon Johnson of Chicago and Sylvester Turner of Houston.

The situation at the U.S.-Mexico border has vexed the Democratic president, who is seeking reelection in 2024. He is increasingly under fire from members of his own party who are managing the growing number of migrants in their cities. Republicans claim Biden is soft on border security and is allowing too many people to enter the United States.

He has responded by toughening rules at the border meant to curb illegal crossings and by offering work authorizations and other incentives to those who come to the U.S. legally — applying ahead of time and arriving by plane.

“We’re committed to supporting local jurisdictions that are hosting migrants that have recently arrived into the country. We’re going to continue to deliver support every way that we can,” said Emilie Simons, deputy White House press secretary.

Simons said the administration is already working to reduce to 30 days the time it takes to get arriving migrants through the system.

The White House said it has entered into a partnership with New York City on a work authorization clinic where up to 300 migrants per day can come in to submit work permit applications.

The reason for the ballooning number of migrants in these cities is complicated, but economic and climate-related hardships in their home countries are key drivers. There are increasing numbers of families arriving and asking for asylum.

Some conservative-leaning states have sent migrants to so-called sanctuary cities such as New York or Chicago, where laws are more favorable to noncitizens. But that alone does not explain why the cities are facing such increases.

In years past, when migrants arrived, they would be released and picked up by nonprofit groups before usually going to stay with a relative already in the U.S. But the nationalities of the people arriving have changed, and many no longer have any place to go.

Winning asylum is a long and difficult process through a badly clogged immigration court system. In some cases, migrants may wait up to a decade for a court date. They are released into the U.S. to wait. Some are eligible to work, but such authorizations are badly delayed. There are concerns, too, that allowing too much work authorization will encourage more people to make the dangerous journey to the U.S. on foot. So thousands are in limbo, unable to work, sleeping in shelters or government facilities.

Biden has requested $1.4 billion from Congress to help state and local governments provide shelter and services for migrants, after earlier pleas from Democratic mayors and governors.

Johnston and the other mayors say in their letter that more is needed, and they are asking for $5 billion.

“While we are greatly appreciative of the additional federal funding proposed, our city budgets and local taxpayers continue to bear the brunt of this ongoing federal crisis,” the letter says. “Cities have historically absorbed and integrated new migrants with success.”

Denver is spending $2 million a week on sheltering migrants. New York has surpassed a total of $1.7 billion and Chicago has spent $320 million, according to the letter.

“Our cities need additional resources that far exceed the amount proposed in order to properly care for the asylum seekers entering our communities,” the mayors’ letter says. “Relying on municipal budgets is not sustainable and has forced us to cut essential city services.”

The mayors also want an accelerated work authorization approval process so migrants can find work.

“We are extremely appreciative of the work the Biden-Harris administration has done in expanding work authorization and providing funding for this mission, but we need to go one step further to ensure we continue to meet the moment and provide care for new arrivals,” Johnson’s office said in a statement.

The cities are full of people who have applied, but there are delays of six months or more. The mayors also are pushing to expand authorizations so anyone released into the U.S. would become eligible to find work while they wait for their immigration cases to play out.

Lastly, they are asking for the administration to create a regional migrate coordinator who would work with the federal government, nonprofits and state and local officials. The aim is to better coordinate and place migrants in areas where there is capacity for them.

It’s unclear whether Congress, including the Republican-controlled House, will pass any of the funding Biden has requested, let alone a increase for local support.

“We think there is a real commonsense path here that and that’s why we thought it was important,” Johnston said.

New York City is intensifying efforts to transport migrants out of the city as its shelter system reaches capacity, setting up a dedicated office to provide asylum-seekers with free, one-way tickets to anywhere in the world.

City Hall confirmed the establishment of a new “reticketing center” in Manhattan as its latest bid to ease pressure on its shelters and finances following the arrival of more than 130,000 asylum-seekers since last year.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has described the situation as a crisis and has begun to warn that shelters are so full that migrants will soon be forced onto the street as winter approaches.

“I cannot say this enough. You know, we are out of the room,” he told reporters this week. “And it’s not ‘if’ people will be sleeping on the streets, it’s when. We are at full capacity.”

The city’s plan to offer migrants transportation builds upon previous efforts to send the asylum-seekers elsewhere, though the establishment of the dedicated reticketing center marks a renewed emphasis on the strategy.

The city has stressed that the offer for travel is voluntary.

The mayor’s office has recently limited adult migrants to 30 days in city shelters and 60 days for migrant families with children. Migrants, most of whom arrive without the legal ability to work, can reapply for housing if they are unable to find a new place to live.

A spokeswoman for Adams said about 20,000 people have received either 30- or 60-day notices. Less than 20% of people who have exceeded the limits are still in city shelters, she said. City Hall officials have said such statistics are proof that their policies are promoting migrants to find alternate housing.

Adams is also seeking to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. No other major U.S. city has such a requirement, and the mayor’s office has argued in court that the mandate was never meant to apply to an influx of migrants. A judge this month directed the city to enter mediation discussions with homeless advocacy groups to find a solution.

The mayor’s office said it has rushed to set up more than 200 emergency shelters to house migrants, including renting space in hotels and erecting large-scale facilities. More than 65,000 migrants are in city shelters.

Adams said he expects the influx to cost about $12 billion over the next three years.

Cesar Pina had been released on $1 million dollar bond with electronic monitoring after pleading not guilty to federal charges of bilking investors out of millions of dollars in the real estate venture. On Wednesday, he went on a several-minute YouTube ramble and talked about DJ Envy — a move that has just sparked more controversy.

“They call me Cesar Madoff, it’s crazy,” Pina said.

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The lengthy social media post often criticized the investors who have claimed he defrauded them. Pina — who promoted seminars and his real estate prowess on the Breakfast Club, hosted by business partner, DJ Envy — is accused in an alleged widespread real estate scheme that focused on flipping distressed New Jersey properties, many of which were in Paterson.

After the I-Team interviewed several investors, Envy went on the air to deny any involvement.

Envy’s attorney previously told NBC New York his client was a victim, too, investing $500,000 in a Paterson project with Pina.

“He is just like any other victim of the alleged scam,” said attorney Massimo D’Angelo.

But Pina vehemently denied Envy was any sort of victim, saying the two were “partners” in just a few real estate ventures.

“His defense, that DJ Envy is a victim, that’s the dumbest s–t I ever heard in my life. Me and him were partners in real estate seminars, we were partners in a couple of real estate transactions. That’s it, he’s not a victim,” Envy said in the online video.

D’Angelo said that the comments support’s Envy’s claim of innocence, saying “In his mea culpa video clip, Cesar Pina admits to taking money from investors without providing any returns and persistently apologizes to those investors, including DJ Envy…Cesar Pina certainly falls on his own sword.”

Pina also tried to own up to some of his shortfalls, but did not admit any sort of guilt.

“Even though now I’m going through some s–t I got to deal with, I am a f—–g man first. I am responsible…and if I hurt in any way that made their lives difficult, I apologize,” he said.

Cesar’s response infuriated many investors — including Andre Ransome, who bought in for $200,000. He is suing Pina, just one of several lawsuits that have been filed against both Cesar and Envy.

“Give people back their money and stop playing with people’s lives,” said Ransome, adding that he — like so many — invested because of DJ Envy’s seeming approval of Cesar.

“There’s so many layers why Envy was covering up and covert with the operation, it’s obvious,” he told News 4.

Jose Rodriquez, who invested in real estate platform Flip 2 Dao with Cesar and Envy, said he flagged Envy last summer through texts that there were financial issues.

“As of August of 2022, he knew there was something up with Cesar not paying his investors,” said Rodriguez. “So for him to say he didn’t know Cesar was up to something, it’s a lie.”

Envy has not been charged and is seeking to have all the lawsuits against him dismissed. NBC New York obtained a recent letter from Pina’s attorney proposing partial monetary settlements with some investors.

The city council president of New Jersey’s third-largest city personally directed an election fraud scheme to help win his seat, according to the state attorney general.

Paterson Council Speaker Alex Mendez allegedly stole mail-in ballots along with his wife and two campaign supporters to rig the 2020 election — new allegations that are far broader and more serious than when Mendez was first charged with election fraud in 2021.

The criminal conspiracy was done to get himself elected in 2020, according to the state attorney general, who said that Mendez, his wife and two campaign supporters stole mail-in ballots from residents’ mailboxes, filled some out, and then tried to mail in fakes in an effort to win.

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Mendez and others tried “to rig an election in their favor and to deprive the voters of Paterson of having their voices heard,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.

Investigators said that in all, hundreds of ballots were stolen, falsified or improperly delivered during the pandemic, when mail-in ballots was how votes were cast.

The charges include conspiracy to commit election fraud, forgery, falsifying records and witness tampering.

“In a case like this, with allegations as strong as they are, it certainly can undermine the public trust,” said former federal prosecutor David Miller, who added that some of the counts can carry up to 5 to 10 years in state prison.

NBC New York first reported in 2020 on how hundreds of Paterson ballots were discovered stuffed in a mailbox in the nearby town of Haledon. 

It appears one insider in the alleged scheme flipped on Mendez. According to the complaint, the insider alleged Mendez was there as “over 300 mail-in ballots” were placed “into the Haledon postal box.”

Prosecutors said Mendez is on “an audio recording discussing a false story to tell if any person questioned him about the Haledon ballots,” and that Mendez allegedly talked about “personally completed a false voter registration.” Prosecutors also claim Mendez later directed others to “delete communications” about the voting fraud scheme.

“The courts and the prosecutors take allegations of witness tampering and obstruction very seriously,” Miller said.

Mendez has previously denied any wrongdoing and has said he plans to run for re-election in May. Another councilmember, Michael Jackson, was also previously charged with election fraud in the 2020 election. Jackson too denies wrongdoing.

Mendez and the others charged in this case won’t appear in court on the new charges until early December, with any trial still likely many months away, and with Councilmembers Mendez and Jackson staying in office as accused criminals.

Mendez’s attorney declined to comment. Mendez has previously denied any wrongdoing and indicated he planned to still seek re-election.

The mayor and the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The town of Clarkstown is going after those who are illegally renting out houses, often to multiple families.

Officials in the town say profiteers are increasingly illegally converting single-family homes in neighborhoods and packing in renters. The conditions in some after often dangerous for the families, as well as first responders.

One tenant said there are five families living in a single-family home in New City, a home recently raided by Clarkstown inspectors. Pictures show beds in the attic, accessible only through a crawl space.

“Had there been a fire here, people would have died. There’s only way in and out of that attic, it’s up a flight of steps and then through an opening that you have to crawl through,” Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann said.

The I-Team made several efforts to contact First Choice, the property management company now being taken to court by Clarkstown for allegedly violating local laws. No one from the firm responded.

Clarkstown’s supervisor said a number of absentee owners in the town are utilizing one property management company: First Choice. Hoehmann said the firm operates 37 properties in Clarkstown and 302 more throughout the rest of the county. At the moment, 17 of the properties are a concern.

“They’ve denied access at multiple locations, were non-responsive when violations have been issued. These are houses that were allegedly altered, systematically altered, in violation of our building codes,” the supervisor said Thursday.

The town began investigating in September after inspectors found 34 migrants living in an illegally converted house in New City run by First Choice. A judge ordered the home vacated and restored to a single-family dwelling.

Clarkstown is now going to court to try and get access to the 17 homes First Choice oversees and make sure they are up to code. Officials and first responders are calling for more oversight of the property management companies and resources from the state to battle the illegal housing issue.

The arrest came a week after the News 4 I-Team reported investors claim they had been swindled out of millions of dollars.

Cesar Pina, often promoted on Envy’s syndicated iHeartRadio show “The Breakfast Club,” was arrested Wednesday on wire fraud. The federal complaint against Pina, 45, claims the man engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme to defraud dozens of victims.

Envy, whose real name is Rashaun Casey, was not charged. But many of the alleged victims say they were influenced by his celebrity.

Federal prosecutors said Pina amassed a “significant” social media following through his partnership with Envy to attract his investors. Envy and Pina frequently teamed up for seminars to pitch opportunities to flip properties, often in distressed areas of New Jersey.

“As alleged in the complaint, Pina exploited celebrity status and social media to develop a devoted following of potential victims. Promising returns that were too good to be true, Pina allegedly defrauded dozens of people of millions of dollars,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said in a press release on Wednesday.

Investors have said Pina promised he would rehab and flip a property, with a return of 30% of the profits within months. Dozens of his alleged victims have now filed lawsuits saying they never got their money back. In a number of cases, Pina is accused of getting multiple unwitting investors to buy into one property that generated him a profit of several millions dollars.

Pina pleaded not guilty to the fraud charge, and was released on a $1 million bond and electronic monitoring. He is not allowed to leave the state.

A source familiar with the investigation said the iHeartRadio offices were visited by federal officials who removed electronic equipment as part of the ongoing investigation.

Massimo D’Angelo, DJ Envy’s attorney, said in a statement to the I-Team that his understanding is the report that federal agents visited iHeartRadio’s offices and removed electronic equipment in connection with the investigation and charges brought against Cesar Pina is false. iHeartRadio did not respond to the I-Team’s inquiries.

D’Angelo added, “Per my client’s dismissal motions, which are a matter of public record, my client had nothing whatsoever to do with the specific deals concerning Pina’s alleged real estate scheme. As such, any reference to my client’s involvement in the purported scheme is solely for purposes of sensationalizing the case because of his celebrity status. In fact, my client is a victim, having also invested $500,000 in one of Mr. Pina’s real estate deals, without seeing any returns.”

Editor’s Note (10/19 at 7 p.m.): The attorney for DJ Envy did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, but a provided statement has since been added.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that he is limiting shelter stays for migrant families with children to 60 days, bidding to ease pressure on a city housing system overwhelmed by a large influx of asylum seekers over the past year.

The Democrat’s office said it will begin sending 60-day notices to migrant families who live in shelters, though they could reapply for housing if they are unable to find a new place to live. The city also will provide “intensified casework services” to help families secure housing, according to a news release.

It’s the mayor’s latest attempt to provide relief to the city’s shelter system and finances as it grapples with more than 120,000 international migrants who have come to New York, many without housing or the legal ability to work. More than 60,000 migrants currently live in city shelters, according to his office.

Adams has estimated the city will spend $12 billion over the next three years to handle the influx, setting up large-scale emergency shelters, renting out hotels and providing various government services for migrants.

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The mayor last month limited adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding. Adams is also seeking to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires New York City to provide emergency housing to homeless people. No other major U.S. city has such a requirement.

“With over 64,100 asylum seekers still in the city’s care, and thousands more migrants arriving every week, expanding this policy to all asylum seekers in our care is the only way to help migrants take the next steps on their journeys,” Adams said in a statement.

Recently Adams took a four-day trip through Latin America, starting in Mexico, where he sought to discourage people from coming to New York by telling them the city’s shelter system is at capacity and that its resources are overwhelmed.

Owners of several New York City bars, restaurants, and shop say they’re fed up with an avalanche of city summonses. A little known law allows regular New Yorkers to issue their own noise tickets and keep between 25%-50% of the fines collected.

On Monday, at a City Council hearing, lawmakers took on the so-called vigilante ticket blitz. Environmental Committee Chair Jim Gennaro proposed a bill that would cap citizen recoveries to just $5 or $10 per ticket — that’s a far cry from the thousands citizen enforcers currently stand to make.

“It would basically help put an end to all of these self interested bounty hunters getting rich on the small backs of businesses,” Andrew Rigie, of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said.

The Department of Environmental Protection said, so far this year, 90% of the city’s 6,000 noise complaints have been written by two regular citizens. Prolific citizen enforcers have been making a living writing such tickets.

“There are so many violations out there and the lack of enforcement – I see the victims,” Deitmar Detering told News 4 over the summer.

Detering, who has issued tickets carrying more than $600,000 in fines, opposes the bill to cap awards. As does Peter Gibson, a Greenwich Village resident who said he is fed up with noisy restaurants and bars.

“If the person that’s putting in the violation has evidence the vendor is clearly breaking the law, that should be processed,” Gibson said.

At the hearing on Monday, business owners spoke about their frustrations with the process, which in some cases has citizen enforcers issuing multiple tickets with escalating fines before owners are aware of the first ticket.

“We find ourselves facing overall a sum of $30,000 in fines. I humbly request that you intervene and rectify this glaring injustice,” one business owner who spoke before city council members on Monday said.

“We received eight, nine, 10 violations all at once,” restaurant owner Murphy Fitzpatrick said.

The DEP supports the idea of capping awards to civilian enforcers. The legislation, is passed, would not affect a program allowing civilians to profit from issuing tickets to vehicles that pollute the air.

at equate to the amounts of the SBA loans we received to stay afloat during Covid, which we are still paying back.”

But some neighbors fed up with noise say lawmakers who acquiesce to complaints from businesses, may underestimate how much support there is for peace and quiet.

Diane O’Connell, an attorney from Brooklyn, said she’s been complaining to the DEP about neighborhood noise for years without a satisfactory resolution. She sees citizen enforcement of the noise code as a terrific way to fill the gaps city inspectors are unable to fill.

“I don’t understand how it’s not a win-win,” O’Connell said. “Quite frankly the DEP doesn’t have enough inspectors to go around and inspect all the noise complaints in the city. They’ve proven that.” 

Prosecutors say the childcare facility was operating as a drug front and they’ve now charged the day care owner, her husband, and their tenant with murder. But poisonous fentanyl doesn’t have to make it inside the walls of a day care in order to do serious damage.

A joint investigation between the NBC New York I-Team and Telemundo 47 Investiga reveals dozens of New York City day care centers are surrounded by the drug trade, causing some operators to treat their facilities more like fortresses to keep kids distanced from persistent street-level fentanyl dealing.

Drugs Near Day Cares

In densely populated NYC, some drug activity is bound to unfold near child care facilities. But some day care centers have seen dozens of NYPD drug arrests within steps of their front doors – in just the first 6 months of 2023.

Map: Nelson Hsu/NBC
Source: NYS Office of Children and Family Services, NYPD Arrests (Year to Date)

“We live in a neighborhood that’s oppressive. It’s killing us,” said Alejandrina Brioso, a mother who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning and now drops her grandson off at a day care center that has seen more than 60 drug arrests within steps of its front door. Brioso says just walking to and from the child care facility can be traumatic – because it often involves sidestepping drug paraphernalia like needles and witnessing drug-addicted people suffering on sidewalks.

“It may happen to my grandkids if I don’t get out of here,” she said.

To plot day care centers operating in close proximity to the drug trade, the I-Team and Telemundo 47 Investiga mapped every NYPD drug arrest in the first half of 2023 – and then overlaid those points with the locations of more than 7,000 day care facilities licensed by New York State. 

On average, day cares had about one drug arrest within 100 meters of its front door, roughly 320 feet – or about the length of a football field. Given the population density of New York City, a single nearby drug arrest in six months isn’t surprising. But more than 80 child care facilities had more than 12 drug arrests near their front door. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, most drug sales now involve deadly fentanyl.

“In 2021, it was four out of 10 pills. In 2022, it was six out of 10 pills. Today, it’s seven out of ten pills. So seven out of every 10 pills that we test in our laboratories across the United States have a lethal dose of fentanyl,” said Frank Tarentino III, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York region. “This is the most urgent, most significant threat that the United States has ever seen. Illicit fentanyl is the deadliest drug on the street today.”

In some cases efforts to treat the scourge of addiction has complicated the plight of day cares trying to keep children far away from fentanyl.

In Harlem, the Association to Benefit Children, a day care center supervising up to 61 school-aged kids, has had 71 drug arrests within 100 meters of its front door in the first half of this year. The facility has bulletproof glass on its windows and operates across the street from a clinic where people struggling with drug addiction can safely inject themselves. The operator of the Harlem day care did not respond to a request for comment, but some neighbors said the injection clinic has brought the problems associated with drug addiction too close to the sidewalks that kids use to get to and from the day care.

“When they started this drug thing where they could come in and do whatever they wanted to do to get high, they end up in the street all along here,” said Bernice Watson, a neighbor who has opposed the concentration of drug addiction clinics in Harlem.

Bridget Brennan, the New York City special narcotics prosecutor, said harm reduction centers need to be located somewhere – but when they’re clustered together – they can deteriorate quality of life for residents and businesses in the vicinity.   

“The other thing you’ll hear from communities, and I absolutely agree with is, is that there is an overconcentration of services for people who have substance abuse issues in certain communities,” Brennan said. “And so the drug dealers go to those areas because they know people who have substance abuse issues are coming there. And they will set up there.”

Supporters of harm reduction centers say they can safely coexist with sensitive places like day care centers.  

Rachel Leah Tanzola-Sullivan, a former addict herself who now provides street-level services to people struggling with drugs, said safe injection sites benefit children.

“This isn’t hurting people, it’s helping people and it’s helping our children,” she said. “It’s keeping their parents safe because no child should have to grow up without their parents. No parent should die of an overdose.”

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) faces new charges accusing him of accepting bribes on behalf of a foreign government and conspiring to act as a foreign agent, according to a superseding indictment filed by a federal grand jury in Manhattan.

The superseding indictment alleges Menendez, New Jersey’s senior senator, “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.”

In September, the senator and his wife were indicted by a grand jury on federal bribery charges stemming from their alleged relationship with three businessmen, according to court filings.

Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York alleged Menendez received cash, gold bars, payments towards a home mortgage, compensation for a low or no-show job, a luxury vehicle, and other items of value from businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.

The FBI said Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information to Egypt in exchange for the alleged bribes.

Federal prosecutors now allege in the superseding indictment that Sen. Robert Menendez’s wife Nadine Menendez and a New Jersey businessman Wael Hana “worked to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez for the purpose of establishing and solidifying a corrupt agreement in which Hana, with assistance from Fred Daibes and Jose Uribe, the defendants, provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and Nadine Menendez, in exchange for Menendez’s acts and breaches of duty to benefit the Government of Egypt, Hana, and others, including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing.”

Specifically, the superseding indictment released Oct. 12 charges Menendez and others with, “From at least in or about January 2018 through at least in or about June 2022, in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, ROBERT MENENDEZ, NADINE MENENDEZ, a/k/a “Nadine Arslanian,” and WAEL HANA, a/k/a “Will Hana,” the defendants, and others known and unknown, willfully and knowingly combined,  conspired, confederated, and agreed together and with each other to have a public official, to wit, ROBERT MENENDEZ, act as an agent of a foreign principal, to wit, the Government of Egypt and Egyptian officials.”

A search of the couple’s home turned up $100,000 in gold bars and $480,000 in hidden cash, said prosecutors, who announced the charges against the powerful 69-year-old Democrat nearly six years after an earlier criminal case against him ended with a deadlocked jury.

Bob Menendez Case

Investigation Oct 5, 2023

Judge throws out Daibes' fraud plea that has been part of Menendez bribery probe

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‘Dark… her breath, ya know?': Police dashcam raises questions in Menendez wife crash investigation

Menendez released a statement to News 4 New York on Thursday denying the new allegations.

“The government’s latest charge flies in the face of my long record of standing up for human rights and democracy in Egypt and in challenging leaders of that country, including President El-Sisi on these issues,” Menendez said. “I have been, throughout my life, loyal to only one country — the United States of America, the land my family chose to live in democracy and freedom.

“Piling new charge upon new charge does not make the allegations true. The facts haven’t changed, only a new charge. It is an attempt to wear someone down and I will not succumb to this tactic. I again ask people who know me and my record to give me the chance to present my defense and show my innocence.”

In response to the original indictment, David Schertler, a lawyer for Menendez’s wife, said his client “denies any criminal conduct and will vigorously contest these charges in court.”

Daibes’ attorney, Tim Donohue, said after the release of the original indictment that his client would be “completely exonerated of all charges.”

The defense attorney for Hana said the new allegation that the businessman “was part of a plot concocted over dinner to enlist Senator Menendez as an agent of the Egyptian Government is as absurd as it is false.”

While additional details about Menendez’s alleged conduct on behalf of the government of Egypt are included in Thursday’s filing, prosecutors do not allege that Menendez or his wife accepted any additional cash or gifts that weren’t already included in previous charges.

Menendez served as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until stepping down in September amid federal bribery charges.

A number of Senate Democrats, including Menendez’s fellow senator from New Jersey, Sen. Cory Booker, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy have called on Menendez to resign. Sen. John Fetterman repeated his call for Menendez to resign, as did Rep. Andy Kim, who recently announced his attention to run against the embattled senator.

Menendez has said he will stay in office and fight the charges.

On his syndicated iHeartRadio show “The Breakfast Club,” Envy has often promoted the real estate venture of his pal, Cesar Pina. But it’s more than just a passing endorsement.

“We’ve helped so many people, not just regular people, but celebrities, athletes, executives,” DJ Envy said on his radio show.

Envy and Cesar teamed up for seminars, including one at the convention center pitching opportunities to flip properties, often in distressed areas of New Jersey.

Jose Santiago and his wife, Jessica Ortiz, say they believed investing in a real estate venture in a Paterson neighborhood would be their ticket to the American dream.

“That’s the reason I got into real estate, so we can actually start flipping properties, buying properties so we can have something for our kids in the future,” Ortiz told News 4.

The couple says they connected with entrepreneur Cesar after seeing him on social media with DJ Envy.

“He’s advertising this all over radio and television, so I thought this was legit,” Santiago said. “We invested $200,000 and it looks like we won’t ever get it back.”

The pitch: to invest in run down properties that would be renovated and flipped for money. The promised return: up to 30% of the profits. In some cases, Cesar didn’t even own the properties, including the one Santiago and Ortiz took $200,000 in equity from their Florida home to finance the project. They said they were told profits would come within four months, but they never saw a dime.

“I am paying the interest right now every month, and I have nothing,” Santiago said.

Nigel Chamblin claims he was conned by Cesar into investing $235,000 into that same Paterson property, along with homes in Hawthorne and Maplewood that each required $300,000.

”There were other people investing in these exact same properties,” Chamblin told News 4. ”It was a scam, it was a lie.”

Augie Rios owns a custom auto wrap shop in Lodi and says he worked on Envy’s cars for years, and believed his pitch. He did get back a return on an initial investment with Cesar but maintains a second investment on a Paterson property went south.

“I wouldn’t have invested in Cesar if it wasn’t for Envy,” Rios said. “I lost a total of $64,000.”

After receiving two bounded checks, Rios said he got a visit from Cesar carrying a box of jewelry.

“He says take this jewelry until I can pay you back,” said Rios, who estimates the box held $15,000-$20,000 worth of goods.

Then there’s record producer Anthony Martini, who invested in what he thought was a promising apartment project.

“I lost a million dollars,” he said. Martini said he invested because of Envy, someone he’d known for years. His attorney has filed a lawsuit.

The complaint floodgates opened up when alleged victims started appearing on the social media platform of influencer TonytheCloser, a self-proclaimed real estate scam watchdog.

Dozens of lawsuits have now been filed against Cesar and his wife, several also name Envy, who has sued TonytheCloser for defamation after also going on with him live.

“I didn’t take a dime from anyone,” Envy said on a stream with Tony.

Envy, whose real name is Rasshaun Casey, declined to talk to the I-Team, instead referring us to a powerful Manhattan real estate attorney. That attorney said the radio personality lost half a million dollars to the Pinas in an investment deal to transform a vacant school building in Paterson into rental units.

“[Envy] is a victim, just like the other alleged victims are in connection with the scam,” Massimo D’Angelo, Envy’s attorney, said. “He is contending daily with cases that are being filed improperly against him.”

Questioned why the DJ does not use his radio show to warn others victims, his attorney cites “ongoing litigation.” The attorney is seeking dismissals of all lawsuits.

However, on Thursday, DJ Envy and The Breakfast Club posted on Instagram a video of DJ Envy responding to the allegations that he was involved in the scams.

“Let me explain some things,” he said to his The Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne tha God. “My attorneys don’t want me to speak but I think there’s things that I need to clear up a little bit.

“Cesar and myself did seminars. Now the reasons why I did this seminars is because i wanted to uplift my community. I wanted to teach my community about real estate, things that I didn’t know when I was first buying my first home. I wanted to teach our community about investing and in generational wealth,” DJ Envy went on to say. “So I did these seminars and brought industry professionals to all these seminars…that’s what I wanted to do for my people. Now, Cesar? If he took money, I wasn’t privy to it nor did I even know. But, I do understand how people feel if they did give him money, because I gave him a lot of money that I didn’t see a dollar of returned. But for anybody to say I was involved, that is totally not true.”

DJ Envy also said that court documents showcased that he was not involved in the scam.

“If you read the court documents, Cesar wrote an affidavit that said that ‘DJ Envy..had no knowledge of me investing people’s money. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t part of those conversations, he wasn’t even nowhere in those meetings.’ Those are documents that is [is] out there. So if we are going to talk about truth, let’s talk about the truth,” DJ Envy said.

Jennifer Pina, meanwhile, insists the money is coming.

“I say, just hold tight and we’re going to come through,” she told News 4.

There is some hope for investors who bought into properties in Paterson and elsewhere in New Jersey: a judge has appointed a bankruptcy trustee to oversee some of the Pinas’ companies.

Nadine Menendez is on dashcam video from the scene that December night saying she did nothing wrong and asking this about the pedestrian who was hit and killed: “Why was the guy in the middle of the street?”

Several sources familiar with the matter are asking why a retired chief of detectives in the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office showed up at the crash scene to apparently speak to police and also assist Nadine Menendez.  

In one part of the Bogota police dashboard video, the sources pointed to one section of the tape where retired Chief Michael Mordaga is heard asking police what is going on. One officer replies: “That’s what we are gathering now … [it’s] dark… her breath, ya know?”

Police reports have suggested there was no signs of impairment with Nadine Menendez at the time of the crash, and police reports show no breathalyzer or other tests were done that night.

“One can imagine police ordering someone to at least perform field sobriety tests just based on those words and observations alone,” said NBC Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos. 

Investigators said the victim, Richard Kopp, 49, had jaywalked after drinking with friends when Nadine Menendez hit him with her Mercedes. 

As News 4 first reported, the state attorney general is now investigating whether police and Bergen County prosecutors handled the fatal crash scene appropriately – with Nadine Menendez’s connection to the death of Koop only coming to light this week.

Menedez’s lawyer, David Schertler, issued a statement: “This is a case of a tragic accident, but Nadine Menendez was not at fault, did not violate any laws, and was therefore not charged with any crimes. We are confident that any “re-opening” of an investigation into the accident will confirm that conclusion.”

Several sources said Public Integrity & Accountability investigators from the NJ Attorney General’s Office want to know who called Mordaga to come to the crash scene.

In a statement to NBC 4 New York, a spokesperson in Sen. Menendez’s office, said: “The Senator did not call Chief Mordaga to the scene of the accident.”

Mordaga did not return numerous calls for comment.

A source close to Menendez said she was not drinking before the crash. 

It still remains unclear who might have called Mordaga to the scene.

“The optics of a former police chief or retired officer coming out to an accident scene and intervening on behalf of one of the people involved in the accident, they just aren’t good,” Cevallos said.

Records from the AG office sow one of the Bogota officers on scene; Michael Laferrera was later suspended for about six months for handling of a separate DUI-related case. The officer, union officials and other Bogota police representatives did not returns calls for comment.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who had his investigators questioning prosecution and police staff on Thursday about the handling of the crash, had no comment.

Questions about the crashed Mercedes came to light amid the sprawling bribery indictment against Sen. Menendez, his wife, and three New Jersey businessmen.

The FBI said Bob and Nadine Menendez asked businessman Jose Uribe for help paying for a new Mercedes and, in exchange, the senator allegedly tried to intervene with a state attorney general investigation Uribe was concerned with. All charged in the bribery case deny any wrongdoing.

Investigators from New Jersey Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity & Accountability were at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday asking questions and seeking documents, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Questions asked Thursday related to the fatal December 2018 crash when Nadine Menendez, then Nadine Arslanian, was behind the wheel. The two sources familiar with the matter said the public integrity review is in its early stages and will include a look at how Bogota police handled the scene where Richard Koop, 49, died.

A spokesman for NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin declined to comment on the actions of his investigators Thursday.

What remains unclear, and what Koop’s family wants to know, is how thorough the crime scene was handled by police; should investigators have done more to review Menendez’s phone records earlier; should a breathalyzer or blood test have been requested even though Menendez had no apparent signs of impairment; and what role did a retired law enforcement official play after being called to the scene to assist Nadine Menendez and who made that call?

A lawyer for Koop’s family said the questions are troubling. The family has been critical of Menendez, claiming she did nothing to help the father dying in the road.

“She did nothing to come and render any aid. She moved her car out of the way but she never came, for the entire length of the video that I was given, she never came to look at him, didn’t even she never check to see if he’s alive,” attorney Sheri Breen said.

Police said she was not at fault for the crash as Koop apparently jaywalked on his way home after a night of drinking with friends.

A lawyer for Nadine Menendez shared a statement with News 4 on Friday saying Menendez did not violate any laws in relation to the crash.

“This is a case of a tragic accident, but Nadine Menendez was not at fault, did not violate any laws, and was therefore not charged with any crimes,” said attorney David Schertler. “The fact of the accident has nothing to do with the allegations in the current indictment against Ms. Menendez.  We are confident that any ‘re-opening’ of an investigation into the accident will confirm that conclusion.”

Sen. Menendez seemingly commented publicly on the crash for the first time Wednesday, calling the fatal incident “tragic.”

The crash, nearly five years old, is apparently linked to the federal bribery charges against the senator and his wife. The FBI alleges the couple turned to New Jersey businessman Jose Uribe for help replacing the Mercedes damaged in the collision.

In exchange, feds said Menendez agreed to try to pressure the state attorney general’s office on a past criminal investigation Uribe was concerned about. The couple and three businessmen charged in the sprawling bribery case have all pleaded not guilty and deny wrongdoing.

The FBI said businessman Fred Daibes gave gold bars and money to Sen. Menendez and, in exchange, he allegedly wanted the senator’s help in pressuring the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office to go easy on him regarding his separate bank fraud charges.

Daibes later took a plea deal with an expected sentence of no jail time, but that deal was thrown out by a judge in New Jersey on Thursday.

“The Court hereby rejects the plea agreement, ”Judge Susan Wigenton wrote in a filing.

“It seems likely the judge rejected the plea agreement after the Menendez charges came out because the new charges could make the plea deal not make a lot of sense any more,” said NBC Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos. He added information provided to Judge Wigenton in a pre-sentencing report about the bank fraud case may have been greatly affected by details contained in the new federal bribery case out of New York.

Lawyers for Daibes did not return requests for comment.

Federal prosecutors on Monday said some additional charges could soon be filed in the bribery case.

Judge Susan Wigenton rejected Thursday the bank fraud Daibes entered into with federal prosecutors in New Jersey about his alleged bank fraud crimes.

“The Court hereby rejects the plea agreement” Wigenton wrote in the order filed this morning.

The FBI says Daibes gave Menendez cash and gold bars in exchange hoping the senator would contact federal prosecutors to help him get favorable treatment with the bank fraud case. Menendez and Daibes have pleaded not guilty and deny wrongdoing.

A spokesman United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Phil Sellinger declined to comment.

Daibes attorney Larry Lustberg who handled the bank fraud case for Daibes did not immediately return a call for comment.

Under the now rejected plea deal, Daibes would have faced no prison time. 

The judge also rejected the plea deal involving Daibes co-defendant Michael McManus in the bank fraud case.

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A LOOK AT SEN. BOB MENENDEZ BRIBERY INVESTIGATION

A judge is planning a spring trial for Menendez and his wife, who are accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen who sought the senator’s help and influence over foreign affairs.

The tentative trial date of May 6 would come just one month before New Jersey’s June 4 primary, meaning it could still be underway when voters start casting ballots on whether to return Menendez to the Senate.

An indictment last month charged the Democrat, formerly the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with taking payouts in exchange for corrupt acts that included passing information to Egyptian military and intelligence officials. Among other things, prosecutors accused Menendez of ghostwriting a letter for Egyptian officials that sought to influence U.S. policy on military aid.

The indictment also said Menendez used his influence to try and pressure state and federal prosecutors in New Jersey into giving lenient treatment to friends or associates who were the subject of criminal investigations, and interceded with U.S. regulators to protect an associate’s business deal.

Authorities found nearly $500,000 in cash, much of it hidden in clothing and closets, as well as more than $100,000 in gold bars in a search of the New Jersey home Menendez, 69, shares with his wife, Nadine.

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Menendez was excused from being present for Monday’s court hearing in New York City after his lawyers said he needed to be in Washington for Senate business. However, the judge declined similar requests from Nadine Menendez and her co-defendants, Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Daibes. All four have also said they are innocent.

Prosecutors have accused Hana of being a conduit between Menendez and Egyptian officials. They said Hana gave Nadine Menendez a job, gave her money to make mortgage payments, wrote checks to her consulting company, promised envelopes of cash and gave her gold bars. They said Menendez used his post to facilitate foreign military sales and financing to Egypt, which gave Hana’s business a lucrative, worldwide monopoly over religious certification for imported meat.

More than half of Senate Democrats have said that Menendez should resign, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Menendez has said he intends to stay in the Senate, saying he is certain he will ultimately be exonerated.

New York City is challenging a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to anyone who asks for it, as the city’s shelter system strains under a large influx of international migrants who have arrived since last year.

The city filed a request late Tuesday asking a court to allow it to suspend the requirement when there is a state of emergency where the shelter population of single adults increases at a rapid rate.

The filing came as Mayor Eric Adams embarks on a four-day trip through Latin America, starting Wednesday in Mexico, where he said he will discourage people from coming to New York, telling them the city’s shelter system is at capacity and its resources are overwhelmed.

The city has been moving to suspend the so called right to shelter for months under the surge of migrants, arguing the requirement was never intended to be applied to a humanitarian crisis such as the latest influx.

The shelter requirement has been in place for more than four decades in New York City, following a legal agreement struck in 1981 that required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person. No other big city in America has such a requirement.

“With more than 122,700 asylum seekers having come through our intake system since the spring of 2022, and projected costs of over $12 billion for three years, it is abundantly clear that the status quo cannot continue,” Adams, a Democrat, said in a statement. “New York City cannot continue to do this alone.”

Adams had heralded the shelter requirement at the start of the crisis as a display of the city’s empathy toward asylum seekers. In the months since, his rhetoric has hardened as the city has spent more than a billion dollars to rent space in hotels, erect large emergency shelters and provide government services for migrants who arrive without housing or jobs.

“This issue will destroy New York City,” Adams said last month.

The mayor has also recently tightened New York shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities amid overcrowding.

Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society, said the city’s request, if successful, would be disastrous for the city.

“What is the alternative? If we do not have a right to shelter, if we are turning people away from the shelter system, if people are now living in the streets, in the subways, in the parks, is that the outcome that they want?” he said. “That is something we have not seen in decades. I don’t think any New Yorker wants to see that. I don’t think city officials want to see that but that will be the result if they were to prevail here.”

The Mercedes was given to her as part of a bribery conspiracy scheme, prosecutors say, and newly released police records may show the reason why.

New dashcam video, first obtained by northjersey.com, shows the moments after Menendez hit and killed Richard Koop as he attempted to cross a street in Bogota, New Jersey, nearly five years ago. She was later found not at fault.

On December 12, 2018, at approximately 7:36 p.m., police were dispatched to Main Street for a pedestrian struck by a car. When cops arrived, they saw Richard Koop laying on the road with “severe head trauma, bleeding from the back of his head, bleeding from the face, and possible fractured legs and arms.”

The driver who police say hit Koop, 49, with her Mercedes was identified as Nadine Arslanian.

Police say she was driving a black Mercedes. Arslanian told police that she had an injury to her hand and police say they asked her for consent to search her cell phone.

“Ms. Arslanian originally reported I may search her phone, handed me her phone, then shortly after reported she no longer gives consent for a cellular phone search. I immediately returned Ms. Arslanian’s phone back to her,” the responding officer’s report said.

Police said she gave a statement stating that Koop “darted across traffic and jumped onto her vehicle.” Investigators determined she was not at fault and said “Mr. Koop was jaywalking and did not cross the street at an intersection or in a marked crosswalk.”

Koop’s family is furious, claiming she did nothing to help the father dying in the road.

“She did nothing to come and render any aid. She moved her car out of the way but she never came, for the entire length of the video that I was given, she never came to look at him, didn’t even she never check to see if he’s alive,” attorney Sheri Breen said.

The report states that Arslanian’s vehicle sustained “heavy front end damage due to the collision” and “her front windshield was shattered and had damage on the passenger side which was later determined to be from a parked car that she struck after striking Mr. Koop.”

The FBI says the senator and his wife got the car from Jose Uribe, in exchange, the senator allegedly offered to help interfere in a criminal case Uribe was concerned about.

The senator and his wife, along with three New Jersey businessmen all deny the bribery charges.

Sen. Menendez addressed the crash Wednesday for the first time, amid growing calls for his resignation.

“That was a tragic accident and obviously we think of the family,” he told reporters. His wife’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.

According to numerous sources familiar with the matter, two of the people were trying to become the state’s U.S. Attorney. The third was, at the time, New Jersey’s attorney general, sources said.

In an indictment, the three officials who were allegedly contacted are unnamed. But several sources said Menendez improperly reached out to the then-New Jersey attorney general, the now-sitting New Jersey U.S. Attorney, and the current Hudson County Prosecutor.

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The senator allegedly contacted all three with the goal of trying to corruptly fix two criminal matters.

In 2021, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez wanted to be the next U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, even though she had no past federal law enforcement experience. Prosecutors said around that time, Sen. Menendez was taking cash and gold bars from Fred Daibes, who was facing federal bank fraud charges.

In exchange for cash and gold, prosecutors said New Jersey’s senior senator wanted to recommend to the White House a U.S. Attorney candidate “who Menendez believed could be influenced by Menendez with respect to Daibes’ case … to act favorably in Daibes’s case.”

One candidate Menendez put forward was Suarez. According to the indictment, Daibes believed Suarez “would likely be sympathetic to him.”

The indictment does not detail why Daibes believed Suarez would be beneficial, leaving open questions as to why Menendez was apparently backing Suarez.

“What’s troubling about all of this is that a criminal defendant like Daibes shouldn’t have any reason to believe that a candidate for the U.S. Attorney’s office would be favorable to his case,” said NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos said.

In the end, Suarez did not get the nomination in part after the Star-Ledger raised ethics concerns from her recent past. Suarez declined to comment for this story.

Phil Sellinger ultimately got the U.S. Attorney post with Menendez’s support. But before that happened, while a candidate for the job, the senator allegedly brought up the Daibes case – and no other case – with Sellinger. Federal prosecutors said Sellinger told Menendez he would likely recuse himself from the Daibes bank fraud case. That’s when Menendez, according to the indictment, sought out Suarez as a possibility.

The FBI also said defendant Jose Uribe gave a Mercedes to Menendez and his wife as he sought help with a criminal investigation into his associates being run out of the New Jersey state attorney general’s office. In exchange, Menendez allegedly called then-New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal directly about the matter.

Cevallos called that allegation troubling.

“It’s bad enough if it’s true that the senator contacted the New Jersey attorney general to get favorable treatment in an investigation for a friend of the senator’s, but it is particularly egregious if the senator was doing so because he was receiving gifts from that person being investigated,” Cevallos said.

Grewal – director of the Security and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement – did not respond to requests for comment through a spokesperson. The current New Jersey state attorney general said his office is reviewing the matters raised in the indictment.

New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who is leading the bribery prosecution, has said there is no evidence any outcome of the two New Jersey criminal matters were affected by the senator’s alleged efforts.

Menendez, his wife and the three businessmen deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty. Sen. Menendez continues to say he will fight the charges and stay in office.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that Esther Suarez was a candidate for U.S. Attorney in New Jersey in 2019. She did not seek the office until 2021.

That message is the theme of a flyer which City Hall has shared with community organizations and the federal government as well. They also plan to distribute the flyers at migrant shelters in the city.

“There are people in our shelters who are telling their family members come to New York City and that they’ll get housing and that they’ll be able to stay with them,” NYC Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said.

Among the flyer’s claims: New York City resources have been exhausted and the city “cannot help you obtain a work permit” — which may be stretching facts.

“We have to be truthful about the challenges that New York City faces in providing adequate services for such a high number of migrant without embellishing anything,” NYC City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said.

Adams said it’s one thing for the city to shift its tone from last year when the mayor greeted asylum seekers with open arms — “We got you. We are gonna provide the services you need” — to this month, when the mayor said of the unending pace of more than 100,000 arrivals: “This issue will destroy New York City.”

The council speaker said city outreach teams are helping connect migrants to housing opportunities and jobs when possible.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said the White House has teamed up with the city and state to process the estimated 15,000 job seekers who arrived from Venezuela before July 31 and will get temporary protected status. The governor’s worry? A federal shutdown could undo that progress.

“It’s going to stop our ability to get people out of the shelters, which is exactly what Biden was trying to do,” Hochul said on CNN.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said the crisis is only escalating, with an uptick in arrivals this week and signs that volume may soon increase.

“We got word the city of El Paso will resume busing. On top of the buses already being sent here by Gov. Abbott and the state of Texas,” the deputy mayor said.

The local authorities have said the influx of homeless, jobless newcomers is unsustainable.

Speaking in New York Wednesday, the Republican Abbott agreed it was “unsustainable,” but said he’s not the person most to blame.

“The lead importer of migrants to New York is not Texas, it’s Joe Biden,” he said at a breakfast event held by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Abbot said he began the busing program in response to the plight of the small border towns in his state who do not have the resources to deal with border crossers.

“It’s a crisis. It’s chaotic and it must stop,” he said, urging the president to enforce laws he said gives the White House authority to “repel” migrants at the border.

“Until that time comes,” Abbott said, “Texas is going to continue to use every tool that we can to secure the border the best that we can.”

Those steps have included placing buoys — a “floating border wall” — in the Rio Grande to make it even harder to cross the turbulent river, where many migrants, including children, have drowned. Razor wire has also been uncoiled along the border. And the state has paid for many buses to transport migrants to New York and other big cities run by Democrats.

By Abbott’s count, Texas has given bus tickets to about 42,000 to start new lives elsewhere — with 15,800 sent to New York City since the spring of 2022. Many thousands more people, though, have gone to the northeast U.S. on their own, or been sent by social service organizations or municipalities.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has also been critical of the federal government, saying it hasn’t done enough to help with the cost of absorbing the wave of nearly 120,000 — and counting — that have arrived in the city. But his spokesperson on Wednesday also blamed Abbott.

“New Yorkers deserve better than being trapped between a vicious game of political hot potato,” said Kayla Mamelak. “So let’s stick to the facts: When thousands of asylum seekers arrived at Governor Abbott’s doorstep in pursuit of the American Dream, he chose to use them as political pawns.”

Abbott said unlike New York, which sometimes has advance notice of bus arrivals, his state gets no such warning. “What is going on in New York is calm and organized compared to the real chaos of what we see on the border,” he said, adding that New York is seeing only a fraction of the multitudes Texas has had to deal with over the years.

Last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre again accused Abbott of turning the border crisis “into a political stunt.”

She said the White House has given the city $140 million in aid — though the city wants more. Last week, Biden’s administration gave hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers ffrom Venezuela temporary protected status, which would expedite their ability to legally work in the United States.

Other U.S. cities have also dealt with an influx of migrants trying to escape poverty, violence or oppression in their home nations.

In San Diego, the county’s board of supervisors declared border crossings by asylum seekers an “urgent humanitarian crisis” and pleaded with the White House for more aid.

Since Sept. 13, U.S. authorities have been dropping off migrants at transit centers in San Diego and the suburbs of El Cajon and Oceanside. “Migrants are being released across the county with little direction and few resources,” the county statement said, calling on the federal government to limit releases or provide more financial support.

San Diego, like other border cities, is generally only a temporary home for asylum-seekers, who fan out across the country to join other migrants, family and friends.

On Wednesday, the International Organization for Migration appealed to Mexico and Central America to help address the “unprecedented numbers of vulnerable migrants transit through the region,” adding that long-term solutions are needed to solve the underlying problems that drive people from their own countries.

Sen. Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to federal charges accusing him of pocketing bribes of cash and gold bars in exchange for wielding his political influence to secretly advance Egyptian interests and do favors for local businessmen.

Menendez made his initial court appearance in Manhattan’s federal court days after prosecutors unsealed an indictment alleging vast corruption by the Democrat, who was forced to step down as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after being indicted. A lawyer entered the not guilty plea on his behalf.

Menendez led his wife, Nadine, who also pleaded not guilty, by the hand out of the courtroom. The couple ignored shouted questions from reporters as they left the courthouse. Menendez gave a tight-lipped smile as he stepped into a car.

A defiant Menendez has said allegations that he abused his power to line his pockets are baseless. He has said he is confident he will be exonerated and has no intention of leaving the Senate.

news Sep 26, 2023

Mum's the bad word: Most big Menendez donors won't say if they will keep backing New Jersey senator

news Sep 26, 2023

Sen. Cory Booker, more than a dozen other Democratic senators call on Menendez to quit due to bribery indictment

Still, calls for Menendez to resign continued to mount on Wednesday with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, saying “he should step down.” More than half of Senate Democrats have now said that Menendez should resign, including fellow New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who said the indictment includes “shocking allegations of corruption and specific, disturbing details of wrongdoing.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking to reporters hours after Menendez’s court appearance, did not call for Menendez to resign and said Menendez would address his Democratic colleagues on Thursday. “We all know that senators — for senators, there’s a much much higher standard. And clearly, when you read the indictment, Sen. Menendez fell way, way below that standard,” said Schumer, D-N.Y.

Menendez spoke in court only when each defendant stood to acknowledge that they understood the charges against them.

The senator was released on a $100,000 bond, and he must surrender any personal passports but will be allowed to keep an official passport that would allow him to travel outside the U.S. for government business. The judge ordered him not to have contact outside of the presence of lawyers with his co-defendants except for his wife.

He also cannot talk about the case, outside of the presence of lawyers, with members of his Senate staff, Foreign Relations Committee staff or political advisers who have personal knowledge about the allegations. It was not immediately clear how those restrictions would affect his work.

Menendez’s wife was released on $250,000 bond secured by her home in her Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Prosecutors say she played a key role in collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes from three New Jersey businessmen seeking help from the longtime lawmaker.

Unlike his first federal corruption trial, New Jersey’s Democratic establishment support for Menendez has eroded in the days since the charges were announced. Gov. Phil Murphy, the leaders of the Democrat-led Legislature and the state party chairman were among the first to call for his resignation.

Congressman Andy Kim announced he plans to challenge Menendez to represent the Garden State in the Senate, saying in a written statement that he “felt compelled to run against him” after hearing the senator’s rebuke of the charges.

In response to the calls for him to resign, Menendez said at a Monday press conference that “instead of waiting for all the facts to be presented, others have rushed to judgment because they see a political opportunity for themselves or those around them.” He added that some are calling on him to resign because he has “lost the trust of the people of New Jersey. That couldn’t be more wrong.”

Menendez has remained steadfast in his insistence of staying in office as he and his wife face bribery charges.

“I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” Menendez said at a Monday press conference in Union City, the city where his political career began back in the 1980s.

Menendez has tapped Abbe Lowell, the same attorney defending Hunter Biden against his tax and firearm charges, to represent him in his federal bribery case, a spokesperson for the prosecutors said. In addition to representing President Joe Biden’s son, Lowell has a storied track record with high-profile litigation, including Menendez’s past corruption charges.

The current charges against Menendez are the second in a decade that he has faced, with a previous trial involving different allegations ending with jurors failing to reach a verdict in 2017.

Authorities allege they found nearly $500,000 in cash, much of it hidden in clothing and closets, as well as more than $100,000 in gold bars in a search of the New Jersey home Menendez, 69, shares with his wife.

In his first public remarks after last week’s indictment, Menendez said Monday that the cash found in his home was drawn from his personal savings accounts over the years and that he kept it on hand for emergencies. One of the envelopes full of cash found at his home, however, bore Daibes’ DNA and was marked with the real estate developer’s return address, according to prosecutors.

Two of the businessmen, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, also pleaded not guilty and were freed pending trial. They did not speak to reporters as they left the courthouse and their attorneys also declined to comment.

Prosecutors allege repeated actions by Menendez to benefit the authoritarian government of Egypt. They say Menendez also tried to interfere in criminal investigations involving associates, in one case pushing to install in New Jersey a federal prosecutor who he believed he could influence to derail a case.

Two of the businessmen, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes, also were arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The third, Wael Hana, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery. Hana was arrested at Kennedy Airport on Tuesday after returning voluntarily from Egypt to face the charges, and he was ordered freed pending trial.

The FBI says Hana bribed Menendez to win a controversial and exclusive business deal with the Egyptian government. Hana was allegedly paying bribes to Menendez and his wife, as Menendez was allegedly controlling military aid to Egypt.

Menendez is also being investigated by federal authorities to see what role foreign intelligence agencies might have played in trying to get information from the senator and his wife, News 4 has learned. The FBI wants to know more about what role Egyptian intelligence agencies might have played in the alleged bribery scheme involving Menendez, who helps oversee billions in aide to Egypt. Additionally, they want to know if Egyptian intelligence or associates tried to gain access through Menendez’s wife, Nadine, sources familiar with the case said.

The lawyer for Hana denied his client has ties to Egyptian intelligence, but said Hana and Nadine Menendez have been friends for years. A lawyer for Nadine Menendez declined to comment on the question whether she might have been used by Egyptian intelligence.

Prosecutors said Hana promised to put Menendez’s wife on his company’s payroll in a low- or no-show job in exchange for Menendez using his influential post to facilitate foreign military sales and financing to Egypt. Prosecutors allege Hana also paid $23,000 toward her home mortgage, wrote $30,000 checks to her consulting company, promised her envelopes of cash, sent her exercise equipment and bought some of the gold bars that were found in the couple’s home.

The indictment alleges repeated actions by Menendez to benefit Egypt, despite U.S. government misgivings over the country’s human rights record that in recent years have prompted Congress to attach restrictions on aid.

Prosecutors, who detailed meetings and dinners between Menendez and Egyptian officials, say Menendez gave sensitive U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and ghostwrote a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt, one of the top recipients of U.S. military support.

Prosecutors have accused Menendez of pressuring a U.S. agricultural official to stop opposing a lucrative deal that gave Hana’s company a monopoly over certifying that imported meat met religious standards.

At his press conference earlier in the week, Menendez touted his record of being hard on Egypt over its detention of Americans and other “human rights abuses.”

“If you look at my actions related to Egypt during the period described in this indictment and throughout my whole career, my record is clear and consistent in holding Egypt accountable,” he said.

A judge on Tuesday gave the city one week to submit its motion in writing in court. Lawyers for the homeless are frustrated that after weeks of negotiations with the judge and state, Mayor Eric Adams is still trying to eliminate what they say is a critical right.

“It doesn’t make sense right this moment for the city to ask to be relieved of its obligation to protect people from dying on the streets of New York,” Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said.

The Legal Aid Society expressed concern Tuesday after emerging from the latest closed door meeting with State Supreme Court Judge Erika Edwards on the right to shelter.

Judge Edwards announced that despite productive negotiations, the city still plans to move ahead in its quest to limit the right to shelter. Legal Aid questioned the move given all the new help coming the city’s way from the state and federal government, including the opening of Floyd Bennett Field and plans to get more migrants working.

“To live independently in exactly the way that the mayor asked and yet just as that plan is getting rolling, we’ve learned today that the city plans to ask for permission to make a motion anyway to be relieved of the right to shelter in some way,” Goldfein said.

“We currently have more than 60,000 migrants in our care and an average of 10,000 more still arriving every month seeking asylum, but the Callahan decree was never intended to apply to the circumstances our city is currently experiencing. As we continue to seek a national solution to this national crisis, we know the status quo is not working for longtime unhoused New Yorkers or for asylum seekers,” a spokesperson for Adams said.

The news came hours after a different judge on Staten Island said there is no right to shelter in New York and no emergency that necessitates housing migrants in an empty school building in the borough.

“The decision on Staten Island is wrong on the law and the facts,” Goldfein said.

Even though Staten Island’s Judge Wayne Ozzi ruled there is no right to shelter in New York, and that may be what Adams ultimately wants, Ozzi was asked to rule on the legality of housing migrants in the school building.

The right to shelter case was before Judge Edwards in Manhattan, who on Tuesday recused herself from the cast citing the potential appearance of conflict of interest without any details.

A grand jury in Trenton voted forward the indictment on Tuesday, charging Torres with criminal contempt-of-court following his actions last year to pursue another run for office.

“It takes remarkable brashness to flout a state court order and then attempt to strong-arm the city clerk, via civil litigation, into allowing an impermissible campaign to proceed,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement. “That is bold. And, according to the grand jury, it is also indictable.”

Torres resigned as the mayor of Paterson back in 2017 as part of a plea deal and agreed to never again seek public office over a scheme to steal from taxpayers by ordering city workers to do construction on a relative’s would-be beer business.

Torres accepted the deal after Paterson Department of Public Works supervisors were caught on camera doing work for the now-former mayor’s family also accepted plea deals and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. 

The embattled former politician popped up in February 2022 delivering a speech where he said he would run for mayor in that year’s election. He was also heard asking for votes from the audience.

Weeks after that speech, the 63-year-old is accused of delivering “a stack of purported nominating petitions in support of his candidacy” to the city clerk’s office, knowingly disobeying the 2017 forfeiture order he signed following his guilty plea, the attorney general’s office said. Those petitions — rejected by the clerk’s office — prompted Torres to file a civil action to compel the office to accept them.

A judge in Passaic County last year denied Joey Torres’ lawsuit to compel the city clerk’s office to accept his petition to appear on the ballot for the election. Judge Thomas Brogan said allowing the suit to go forward would cause “irreparable harm” to voters since Torres cannot hold office.

Brogan’s denial of the former mayor’s legal challenge seemingly keeps him from pursing the top post in Paterson once again. Torres called the judge’s decision “disenfranchising to those people who signed the petition.”

Torres initially denied any wrongdoing in the corruption case and vowed to fight the charges. His arrest came after a series of I-Team stories that appeared to show city employees doing private jobs for him, from washing his scooter and building bookshelves to doing construction at his nephew’s would-be beer business.

Torres served five terms on Paterson’s City Council before he was elected mayor in 2002. If convicted on the the fourth-degree criminal contempt charge, he faces up to 18 months in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.