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Archive » July – December 1996

Archive

July – December 1996

December 30, 1996
Trembling tale of a Safir
The night before Christmas, Police Commissioner Howard Safir decided to stroll down Fifth Avenue to see how many New Yorkers recognized the excellent job he was doing.

December 23, 1996
Coming over loud and clear
In October, Chief of Department Louis Anemone so frightened mayoral chum and fund raiser Howard Koeppel after Koeppel mistakenly sat amid the hallowed first row of officials at a police funeral that Koeppel burst into tears.

December 16, 1996
Manetta case still rankles
Although Lewis Manetta retired a year ago, his case continues to expose the fault lines of distrust between police corruption prosecutors and the NYPD's top brass.

December 10, 1996
So Bill zings a few off Rudy
William Bratton may have called off his run for mayor, but he was still giving the shiv yesterday to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

December 9, 1996
Mayor at drug seminar
Washington Mayor Marion Barry visited New York City three weeks ago, and in an episode as weird as any from "The Twilight Zone," he surfaced at Police Plaza to attend an NYPD crime strategy session, known as COMPSTAT.

December 6, 1996
Drug lords duped media, Safir says
Police Commissioner Howard Safir yesterday blamed "criminal elements" and "irresponsible politicians" for his fast-fading Dominican drug offensive.

December 2, 1996
Scarcity of blacks among top cops
Joe Leake, one of the NYPD's two highest ranking black police officers, is retiring after 35 years. His departure leaves the department with an even greater paucity of top black officers.

November 25, 1996
The lowdown on Bill vs. Rudy
The real reason William Bratton is considering running for mayor, say his closest aides, is simple. He misses the spotlight.

November 22, 1996
Rudy’s rudeness still irks
The greatest law enforcement official of the decade, if not the century, as his agent refers to him, was back in Beantown yesterday, a day after lambasting his former boss, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as a race-baiter.

November 18, 1996
Family faces another probe
Charles Luisi Sr., the police inspector under investigation for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars of freebies from a professional gun dealer, isn't the only Luisi under suspicion.

November 11, 1996
Way to cop an attitude!
A week after the department's top uniformed officer dissed a major political fund-raiser and mayoral crony at a police funeral, its first deputy commissioner, Tosano Simonetti, cursed out a mid-level city official who coordinated the Yankees ticker-tape parade.

November 5, 1996
A word (or three) for top cop Anemone
While the mayor pooh-poohed the incident as "much ado about nothing," the head of a police committee formed to encourage respect for the public said yesterday that the dressing-down of a mayoral crony by Chief of Department Louis Anemone "sends a very chilling signal."

November 4, 1996
Anemone’s funeral furor
A major political fund-raiser and crony of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir was dressed down big time by Chief of Department Louis Anemone at a recent police funeral.

October 28, 1996
Cooking books could be stew for Bronx captain
Capt. Luis Vega of the 41st Precinct in the Bronx is to be questioned today as the final witness in the department's investigation into whether he manipulated his precinct's crime stats.

October 21, 1996
Livoti case: the mayor’s downfall?
Seven years ago, in an attack many feel doomed the re-election of Edward I. Koch to a fourth term as mayor, Yusef Hawkins, a black Brooklyn teenager, was shot to death by a white mob. When Koch tried to contact Hawkins' family, the victim's father refused to meet with him.

October 7, 1996
Sad refrain of suspicion
After testifying he'd witnessed police officer Francis X. Livoti's fatal choke of his son Anthony, Ramon Baez Sr. walked outside to the steps of the Bronx County courthouse 10 days ago. There, he joined a group of 50 people, many of them Irish immigrants, protesting the death of a man named Hessy Phelan.

September 30, 1996
Witness stand to transfer?
Two days after police officer Daisy Boria rocked a Bronx courthouse by contradicting the testimony of fellow cops in support of Officer Francis X. Livoti, efforts are under way to transfer her from the 46th Precinct.

September 23, 1996
Is he live or Memorex?
Six years ago, a mysterious black man appeared in Boston, accused by a white man, Charles Stuart, of murdering his pregnant wife.

September 16, 1996
An elite cop gets a transfer
Lt. Justin Peters, commander of the East Side's elite 19th Precinct detective squad, is the latest casualty of the department's famed COMPSTAT meetings.

August 26, 1996
Cop gets divine intervention?
The term "Better find a rabbi" is no mere turn of phrase in the NYPD. Just ask Lt. Carlos Munroe.

August 19, 1996
A blood feud in tepid bureau
For the past couple of years, a red hot blood feud has roiled the normally tepid Criminal Justice Bureau.

August 12, 1996
Maple, Linder form business
Jack Maple and John Linder, two stars in ex-police commissioner Bill Bratton's firmament, are going into business.

August 8, 1996
Kelly sworn in
Some 200 of ex-police commissioner Ray Kelly's closest friends from Washington and New York attended his swearing in yesterday as undersecretary of the Treasury for enforcement.

August 7, 1996
Fast moves at headquarters
Assistant Chief Michael Scagnelli, who headed the Traffic Divison, was unexpectedly transfered to the Transit Bureau yesterday.

August 5, 1996
Hispanic cops: déjà vu again?
Two years ago, some Hispanic cops broke with their long-established fraternal organization, the Hispanic Society of police officers. They charged that its leaders had allied themselves with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to feather their own nests at the expense of the rank and file.

July 29, 1996
Brown eyeing mayoral race
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown dislikes Rudolph Giuliani so much he's listening to friends urging him to run for mayor.

July 22, 1996
Remember, you have amnesia
For the past two weeks, Lenny Alcivar, the NYPD's 24-year-old "Director of Press Operations," maintained he had "no recollection" of the address 36 W. 89th St.

July 15, 1996
New fighter of corruption
He bears no resemblance to the legendary John Guido, who headed the Internal Affairs Division for 15 years after the Knapp Commission revealed systemic corruption throughout the NYPD.

July 8, 1996
Feud between cops, a church
The latest skirmish between the predominantly white 103rd precinct cops and the all black Universal Calvary Church occurred Saturday. On the surface, the incident appears minor: the threatening of a bus driver and the theft of his briefcase by parishioners.

July 4, 1996
Top sleuth is dumped
Despite the fact that his bureau solved three major homicides last month and achieved the highest arrest and the highest clearance rate of solved homicides in 40 years, Charles Reuther was formally dumped yesterday as chief of detectives.

July 2, 1996
Rough diamond loses some shine
Ever since the Mollen Commission on police corruption disclosed pervasive corruption in the 30th Precinct, tensions have existed between the police department and state and federal prosecutors over the role of the precinct's former executive officer, Capt. Lewis Manetta.

July 1, 1996
Reuther hangs in – for now
Police Commissioner Howard Safir last week appeared to have yanked Charles Reuther from the jaws of Chief of Department Louis Anemone.


Email Leonard Levitt at llevitt@nypdconfidential.com