Groper arrest
An 18-year-old woman on a No. 4 train at Brooklyn Bridge who felt someone groping her buttocks around 10 a.m. Thurs., June 5, turned toward the offender and snapped off three photos with her digital cell phone camera. Transit Authority police put the images on a wanted flyer and on Fri., June 13 an officer arrested Adam Doctor, 28. The suspect, who had similar previous arrests, was charged with persistent sexual abuse, a Class E felony punishable by 16 months to four years in jail, according to a spokesperson for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Million dollar fraud
A Manhattan U.S. District Court judge sentenced Mario Mastellone, 42, to 30 months in prison on Fri., June 13 for fraudulently receiving just over $1 million from the Department of Justice Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. Mastellone pleaded guilty to making false claims that he had been totally and permanently disabled in the World Trade Center attack.
But the U.S. Attorney’s office submitted a 2002 wedding video that showed Mastellone dancing the limbo and carrying a woman on his back. Photographs showing Mastellone, a painter, coming out of a paint store with a large drum of paint were also submitted as well as a check made out to his wife in payment for a painting job Mastellone had done after the W.T.C. attack.
Federal Judge Victor Marrero also sentenced Mastellone to three years of supervised release after the prison term but ordered him to pay only $100,000 in restitution plus a $25,000 fine.
Measured by amount of money Mastellone received, his was the largest fraud ever perpetrated against the fund, according to U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia.
Choking mugger
Police are looking for a man who attacked a 59-year-old victim on Orchard St. near Stanton St. during the early hours of Fri., June 6. The mugger put the victim in a choke hold and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Tribeca auto stripper
Police arrested Lonnie Johnson, 50, around 5 a.m. Sun., June 8 and charged him with trying to break into a car parked in front of 65 N. Moore St. between Hudson and Greenwich Sts. by throwing a fire hydrant cap against the widow. The window was damaged but did not break and the owner, who saw the incident, called police. Johnson, of W. 137th St., who has previous convictions of auto stripping, pleaded guilty on Fri., June 13 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
–Albert Amateau
