Volume 74, Number 37 | January 19 -25, 2005
Police Blotter
Downtown sex ring
Police arrested a man and his partner on Mon., Jan. 10, at a Meat Market hotel and at a Soho apartment on charges that they ran a high-priced prostitution ring from the office of New York Confidential, an escort service at 79 Worth St.
In a raid at the Worth St. office of New York Confidential on Fri., Jan. 7, police arrested six women and one man on charges of promoting prostitution, money laundering and possession of drugs. According to court papers, police found heroin, powder cocaine, crack cocaine, ketamine (also known as “special K”) and marijuana in the office.
The main defendant, Jason Sylk Itzler, 37, was arrested at the Hotel Gansevoort, and his co-defendant, Hulbert Waldroup, 37, was arrested at his home at 18 Thompson St., according to law enforcement officials. Both are facing charges of promoting prostitution, money laundering and drug possession.
According to the indictment, a sting operation by the Manhattan South Vice Unit indicated that the ring would send women to clients in various hotels, including the W Hotel on E. 17th St. near Union Sq. and the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Park Ave. for “sexual intercourse and fellatio” for $990, plus $50 to the “phone girls for setting up the date.” A Vice Unit detective said he found that New York Confidential “does two-girl shows for guys” at a cost of $1,500.
The escort service is advertised in New York magazine with Internet links. Payments were made to two companies, Gotham Steaks and Tribeca Models, set up to receive and hide the criminal nature of the payments, the indictment says.
The seven defendants arrested at 79 Worth St. on Jan. 7 were Velina Stamova, Jane Edwards, Onya Meier, Homira Rashidzada, Michelle Dykstra, Mildred Caballeros and Bernard Braun.
When Itzler was arrested, he was on parole from a New Jersey prison where he served six months of a five-year sentence for smuggling 3,869 Ecstasy pills from Amsterdam in 2001, according to a New York Post article. The article said Itzler told a Post reporter last month, “I run a great agency, I don’t break the laws.”
Itzler and Waldroup are being held pending a Feb. 18 arraignment on the indictments. Stephen Drummond is their attorney.
Rescue dog
A Village woman walking her dog on the Tribeca waterfront on Saturday afternoon Jan. 8 was surprised when her pet jumped over a retaining wall at the picnic area of Pier 25 and plunged into the Hudson River. Gina Ruiz, of Jones St., phoned 911 for help, then climbed down onto piling at the side of the pier and spotted her 3-year-old pointer bitch, Maverick, swimming a few feet away under the pier. Police arrived first, followed by firefighters in a small boat who rescued the dog at 3:35 p.m.
Senior missing
Police are seeking Alejandro Carrero, 82, this week after he was reported last seen on Monday afternoon Jan. 10 wandering from his home at 288 10th Ave. in the Elliott Chelsea Houses. Carrero’s former wife, who lives in the complex, notified police on Jan. 12. Carrero was still missing as of press time on Tues., Jan. 18, but police said they do not suspect a crime in connection with the disappearance.
Rape charge
A woman in her 20s told police that she made an appointment with a man from a modeling agency Web site and had a few drinks with him at a bar in the Union Sq. area on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 13. The victim said she only remembers leaving the bar in a cab with the suspect, having nonconsensual sex with him someplace and then being let out of another cab in front of 90 Gold St. She told police the suspect introduced himself as Craig and she described him only as “having straight hair and wearing a blue shirt with a button-down collar.”
Auto gone
A New Jersey man told police that the car he had left at a parking lot on Dominick and Varick Sts. on the morning of Jan. 12 was gone when he came back at 3:15 p.m. on Thurs., Jan. 13. An attendant reported that the car, a 2000 Acura, was not on the lot when he arrived at 6 a.m., Thursday, police said. The victim told police that the left rear door did not close properly and that an extra set of car keys was kept in an armrest compartment.
Missing girl
Angelica Rojas, 11, missing from her East Village home since Jan. 11, when she was seen on Avenue C at Haven Plaza on her way to school in the company of a boy, 15, had not returned home by press time on Tues., Jan. 18. She may be staying with relatives, according to neighborhood sources.
Village Cop on DWI
Police charged Matthew Barbeau, a police officer in Greenwich Village’s Sixth Precinct, with driving while intoxicated at 7:30 a.m., Sat., Jan. 15, after he hit a parked car at Oceania St. and 48th Ave. in Bayside, Queens. Police said Barbeau was off duty and driving his own car when he was arrested. He has been suspended from duty pending completion of an investigation, according to Lieutenant Gene White, a police spokesperson.
Albert Amateau
