Talk Bronx New York

A Bronx man was arrested Sunday for stabbing a 27-year-old man who tried to play peacemaker during a wild bar brawl, police said.

Kevin Velasquez, 21, drove a knife into Marcos Cruz’s chest early Saturday in front of Glen Roy’s Sports Bar and Tavern on E. 149th St., police said.

Velasquez was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Cruz was stabbed about 3:30 a.m. after stepping in between Velasquez and another man during a melee. Cruz didn’t know either man, police said. Read more..

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Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx in his first State of the Borough speech.

 Taking on development, jobs, living wages, gun violence - and a snowstorm - Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will present his achievements and goals for the Bronx today in his first State of the Borough speech.

Key among his goals, says his office, will be a new plan to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, after he and others led the fight to kill a plan for a mall there.

A thousand invited guests at the Evander Childs High School campus are expected to hear Diaz announce a task force to develop new ideas for the cavernous, white-elephant armory’s future, such as manufacturing and recreation.

Diaz was pilloried by Mayor Bloomberg and construction unions for pushing the City Council to kill the plan for the heavily subsidized mall, over his insistence retailers there pay “a living wage” to workers - $10 an hour with benefits, or $11.50 without benefits.

He is expected today to again raise the issue of living wages for projects receiving heavy city subsidies and tax breaks, and announce he has partnered with Bronx City Council members Anabel Palma and Oliver Koppell on legislation requiring that developers who receive taxpayer help make their project pay workers a living wage.

The borough president also is expected to announce a long-held dream of former borough presidents and business leaders - to bring a quality hotel to the Bronx, working with developers and the New York Hotel Trade Council to identify sites, and generate interest from hotel operators.

Former Borough President Fernando Ferrer had a master plan calling for a hotel as part of a Yankee Village near Yankee Stadium. The new Gateway Center Mall near there has been viewed as a possible site. Some have suggested a hotel near Fordham University, with the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden and Arthur Avenue as nearby draws. Read more..

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Embattled Gov. Paterson speaks to reporters on Thursday.

ALBANY - It’s another black eye for the state police.

A Bronx woman’s claim that state troopers pressed her to abandon a domestic violence complaint against a top aide to Gov. Paterson is just the latest allegation the department is doing political dirty work.

“This is just despicable,” said state Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan), one of several lawmakers to express outrage over the new allegation.

“I am unaware of any law or policy in the state of New York that authorizes this sort of conduct by the state police,” Schneiderman said.

It’s not the first time the state police has been accused of flexing its muscles inappropriately.

Back in the summer 2007, in a scandal that would come to be known as Troopergate, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno accused former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of using troopers to spy on him.

The ensuing investigation got so heated that a former state police inspector who once headed the governor’s personal security detail, Gary Berwick, committed suicide at his home in Orange County in May 2008.

Around that time, Paterson nominated Harry Corbitt, 62, to run the state police and clean up the department.

Now Corbitt admits that one of his troopers directly confronted Sherr-una Booker, who had filed abuse charges against Paterson aide David Johnson, even though the agency had no legal authority over the case. Read more..

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 The woman whose false rape accusations put an innocent man in prison for four years wouldn’t have admitted her story was a lie if she knew she was pregnant at the time, according to court documents.

Biurny Peguero Gonzalez told investigators she wouldn’t have come forward during confessional with her priest if she knew she was going to have a child. “She said that had she been aware of her pregnancy, she probably would not have confessed when she did,” the papers state.

According to the Post, the documents filed by the prosecution also reveal that after learning of her pregnancy, Gonzalez tried to avoid contacting authorities. The 27-year-old—who claimed she was raped in Upper Manhattan in 2005 to cover up a fight with her girlfriends and make them feel sorry for her—reportedly lied to her priest by saying she couldn’t confess to her lawyer because she had lost her cellphone.

When she finally called her attorney, “it was from a church phone, with the priest watching to be sure she finished the job,” the tabloid notes. Gonzalez’s admission allowed Bronx construction worker William McCaffrey, 33, to have his 20-year sentence overturned. Gonzalez was sentenced yesterday 1 to 3 years behind bars for perjury. Read more..

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Of course we all want to know what Gov. David Paterson knew about the accusations against his aide, David Johnson, and when.

If Paterson’s State Police Superintendent admits he knew about these accusations the day after the alleged incident on Halloween, did he not tell his boss?

Why did the State Police get involved in a Bronx domestic violence case?

Why did David Paterson speak to David Johnson’s ex girlfriend on the phone?

The timing of the governor’s Feb. 7 phone conversation with the ex seems quite suspicious because it took place a day after the New York Times visited her home and on the eve of her next scheduled court date, to which she never showed up.

At the time, there were rumors wildly circulating that Johnson’s ex was dishing to the press about Paterson and women in the executive mansion. Turns out that does not appear to have been her role in this story. Read more..

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