Volume 20 Issue 9 | July 13 - 19, 2007
Police Blotter
Public defender arrested
Police arrested a former Legal Aid Society lawyer on Fri. July 6 and charged him with using a concealed camera to videotape women colleagues in their offices at 49 Thomas St.
Peter Barta, 32, was charged with secretly videotaping victims while they were changing clothes in their office on four occasions from May 25, 2004 to the end of October last year. On Oct. 23 one of the victims discovered a motion activated digital video camera hidden inside an alarm clock. She took out the memory card and saw an image of a female colleague moving about her office.
After a preliminary investigation by Legal Aid attorneys, they referred the case to their usual adversary, the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Barta resigned from the agency on Nov. 3. He is charged with four counts of felony unlawful surveillance, punishable by up to four years in prison and six counts of attempted unlawful surveillance, punishable by up to a year in jail.
Chinatown bias arrest
Police arrested two suspects on Fri., July 6 in connection with the July 2 beating of two Asian men on Canal St. after shouting anti-Asian remarks
Steven Sackaris, 21, of East Atlantic Beach, and Michael Ostrosky, 29 of East Rockaway, were charged with second and third degree assault. Police said they stopped their car on Canal at Baxter St. at 6:40 p.m. Monday, shouted anti-Asian remarks at a 22-year-old man crossing the street and got out and hit him when he responded. They also are charged with assaulting another Asian man, 24, standing nearby. “This is for the Korean War,” one of them shouted.
Both were released on their own recognizance pending a Nov. 8 court date.
Stabbed on Delancey
An argument that started in a pizzeria on Delancey St. near Ludlow St. at 6:40 p.m. Fri., July 6 ended in a stabbing outside the place a short time later, police said. The suspect and another man met the victim and his friend outside the place after the argument had ended and one of them stabbed the victim in the torso and fled. The victim was taken in serious condition to New York Downtown Hospital. Police are searching for the suspect.
Old robbery arrest
Police arrested Dwayne Bouchen, 24, on Sun. July 7 and charged him with robbery and criminal impersonation of a police officer in connection with the Feb. 10, 2006 robbery of a jewelry store at 217B Canal St. between Mulberry and Baxter Sts.
Bouchen is charged with being one of three suspects who told the store clerk they were police officers, pistol whipped him leaving him permanently deaf, and made off with jewelry valued at $150,000.
The other two suspects are still at large.
The suspect is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail pending an Oct. 22 court date.
Cell phone theft
A woman who works in the World Financial Center in Battery Park City was leaving for home at 2 p.m. on Tues. July 3 where she discovered her cell phone was missing. When she called to cancel the service she learned that several unauthorized calls had been made. Detectives are investigating the calls, police said.
Watts St. burglary
A burglar entered a residence on Watts St. near Broome St. sometime between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Thurs. July 5 and made off with cash and jewelry with a total value of $3,760, police said. The resident found the apartment door open but was not forced. Missing were two watches, two iPods and a set of high-end earphones, two digital cameras, a laptop computer and $200 in cash, police said.
Locker not locked
A patron of New York Sports Club at 503 Broadway between Spring and Broome Sts. discovered at 2:15 p.m. Mon. July 2 that his wallet was stolen from his locker, which he had left unlocked while he was working out, police said. The victim, a Queens resident, told police the same thing had happed to him twice before.
Bag stolen
A guest at the Hampton Inn Hotel, 320 Pearl St. near Peck Slip told police she was having breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 9 a.m. Thurs. July 5 when she discovered that her bag, which she hung on the back of her chair, was gone. She lost $625 in cash, a digital camera and personal ID including a Puerto Rico driver’s license.
— Albert Amateau
