Downtown murder arrest
Police on Thursday arrested Joseph Pabon, 25, the elevator operator at 2 Rector St., and charged him with the first-degree murder on July 7 of Eridania Rodriguez, 46, a cleaning woman at the office building.
Pabon, whom police had been following since July 11 when the victim’s body was found in a 12th-floor air duct in the Downtown building, pleaded not guilty and was being held without bail pending trial.
The arrest on July 17 came after the results of tests showed evidence of Pabon’s DNA under the victim’s fingernails, according to law enforcement authorities. And both Pabon’s and the victim’s DNA were found on work gloves found at the scene. When Pabon was first questioned after the victim, a mother of three children, disappeared on July 7, he had bruises and scratches on his arm that his lawyer, Mario Galluci, said were from yard work at Pabon’s Staten Island residence.
Pabon had been arrested in April for beating his girlfriend and throwing a bowling ball through her car window, according to daily press reports. In addition, Pabon’s former wife had obtained orders of protection against him. According to a New York Post article, Pabon’s father, Neftali, 71, pleaded guilty in 2003 to raping his son’s then 14-year-old girlfriend and was put on 10 years probation.
Rodriguez’s body was found fully clothed except for her shoes, with tape over most of her head. The city’s medical examiner said asphyxiation was the cause of death.
Tribeca burglar
Police arrested Dana Frontis, 45, on Thurs., July 16, and charged him with the June 19 burglary of a building at 88 Leonard St. Surveillance camera tapes recorded Frontis entering and leaving the building five times on that day carrying out bags of items stolen from three apartments. Frontis is also suspected in a June 17 burglary of apartments in The Saranac, at 95 Worth St., where he posed as a messenger, according to reports. He is also a suspect in the June 25 burglary of 111 Worth St. during which he was dressed as a construction worker. Frontis, a Brooklyn resident, is being held in lieu of bail pending an Oct. 1 court appearance.
Rude awakening
Giuseppe Tuosto, 46, surrendered to police at the Sixth Precinct on Mon., July 20, after his former girlfriend filed charges that he assaulted her in her Horatio St. apartment on Tues., July 14. The victim, 32, told police she had run into Tuosto the night before, exchanged greetings and later went home with a friend of Tuosto’s. The woman and her guest both fell asleep on a couch, according to reports. The victim told police that Tuosto got into her apartment near West St. while she was asleep, punched and kicked her and then left.
Tuosto, a partner in Via dei Mille, a restaurant on West Broadway at Broome St., pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was freed pending a July 24 court appearance.
Kiefer ducks charge
The misdemeanor assault charge against Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who plays Jack Bauer on the TV program “24,” accusing him of head-butting a fashion designer at a May 5 event in a club at The SubMercer bar at Prince and Mercer Sts., was dropped on Tuesday, said a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney. Sutherland had apologized and reached a settlement with the victim, Jack McCollough.
— Albert Amateau
