Results tagged “drunk”

The Harvard Law School grad accused of setting a fire inside a 9/11 memorial has pleaded not guilty. The lawyer representing 27-year-old Brian Schroeder says his client was "profoundly intoxicated" when the fire broke out and that he "has very limited memories of being inside the building," where he allegedly torched teddy bears, flowers, notes, and other mementos last fall. After the incident, Schroder reportedly told police: "It felt like an adventure, and I thought I was dreaming." more ›

In a policing strategy arguably more futile than the war on drugs, the NYPD says it will attempt to crackdown on drinking and public intoxication at tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Officers will be dispatched across the city with orders to confiscate booze and keep drunken revelers from marching in the parade—which this year features Police Commissioner Ray Kelly as Grand Marshal. more ›

The 22-year-old who was shot and killed after he pointed a toy gun at a police officer had drunkenly attempted to steal cough medicine from a pharmacy hours before the fatal confrontation. "He reeked of alcohol," said 33-year-old pharmacist Maya Basin, who claims she forced George D'Amato Jr. out of the Nostrand Houses Pharmacy after he tried to steal Coricidin. "I could tell something was off right away ... He was out of it." more ›

All of the 55 NYPD cops charged with drunk driving since 1999 pleaded down to non-felony charges and almost every single one of them remained on the force. Although the NYPD can fire any cop "who causes serious physical injury to another person while operating a motor vehicle and is determined to be unfit for duty due to the consumption of alcohol," a Daily News investigation reveals that officers accused of drunk driving often keep their jobs after pleading guilty to lesser offenses like driving while impaired or disorderly conduct. more ›

In 2008, police accused state Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV of drunk driving when he was spotted driving erratically on the West Side Highway. But after two years—and multiple delays—his trial still hasn't begun, raising questions about whether his case has been adjourned repeatedly because of his political clout as the son of a famed Harlem lawmaker. "It certainly has all of the bells and whistles of 'Hmm,'" defense lawyer Mark Cohen told the Times. "I would think that the typical client who is not attending to, quote unquote, state business does not get the courtesy to put his sink in or perhaps go to a trade show." more ›

Remember the van that drove around your college town at night, picking up alcohol-warmed students and their bottles of Old English, ostensibly protecting women from threats in the bushes? According to a Times Style piece, New York has its own neon version of the free drunk bus except instead of dropping you off at your outdoor drinking destination (the cemetery was always a good bet), it runs on a circuit from Williamsburg to a West Village bar called the Rusty Knot, where riders—lubricated by the free Buds on board—are deposited to empty their wallets. more ›

Daniel Ignacio, the man accused of setting the fire that killed five Guatemalans in Brooklyn last week, continues to spew about the devil and the evil spirits that prompted the act, from the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital. "It must have been the Devil. It could not have been Jesus Christ," he said "I know I have to face a living hell now and God's judgment later." Still, since allegedly telling cops he lit the fire with a cigarette lighter, he’s changed his story—now he insists it was all an accident, caused by six plus bottles of vodka. And Satan, of course. more ›

A surprising report in the March issue of Men's Health asserts that Boston is the "least drunk" city in all the land. You really don't need to read much further to realize this news is wicked retarded, but what makes it even more ridonkulous is that the Irish and college capital of America ranks even higher on the sobriety scale than Salt Lake City, which is fourth "least drunk." And ranking #2 for least drunk is Yonkers, which is such a dreary place you need a drink just to get through it on Metro North. more ›

In the wake of his arrest for breaking into a Connecticut bank while armed and drunk, Rip Torn's daughter tells the Post's Michael Riedel, "My father is a brilliant man, but so much has been wasted. He's pissed away so much—so much of his time and so much of his talent." more ›

Members of Brooklyn's tight-knit Guatemalan community were shocked to learn that one of their own had admitted to setting the deadly fire that killed five on Saturday. Daniel Ignacio, an ex-con and a bad drunk, told cops he was inebriated when he lit a roll of toilet paper on fire near the entrance of his apartment building and that he was possessed by "demons or devils." Later, the alleged arsonist left the building via a fireman's ladder, helping to save a child that was passed to him through a window, but leaving one of his roommates to perish. “Are you sure he’s Guatemalan?” asked Pedro Ordoñez, uncle of the child's mother, who died in the fire. “It’s painful that this is happening among paisanos.” more ›

Check out the bank that Rip Torn broke into while drunk. The actor, who was found by police with his fly open and armed with a .22-caliber gun, thought he was in his own Salisbury, CT home, but in non-wasted "reality" he was actually in the Litchfield Bancorp! The Post decides that though the bank "looks nothing like Torn's house, the two-story yellow Colonial does not resemble a commercial building and could be mistaken for a home—especially to someone who was smashed." (Torn's blood alcohol level was 0.203, over double the legal limit.) more ›

The off-duty cop who successfully stalled a blood alcohol test for seven hours after fatally running over a woman in Brooklyn last September is going on the offensive. It's come to light that the victim, minister's daughter Vionique Valnord, 32, had blood alcohol levels of .22 percent in the blood, .23 percent in the eye fluid and .28 percent in the urine, according to a toxicology report. Valnord was trying to hail a cab in the rain after leaving a wedding when she was struck and killed by off-duty officer Andrew Kelly, who smelled of alcohol and appeared drunk, first responders say. (When a court-ordered blood test was finally administered, he scored a perfect zero.) more ›

It's been a bad day for former New Jersey Net Jayson Williams. First, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the shooting death of his limo driver, landing him between 18 months and five years in prison. Now come reports that his blood alcohol level was .24 — three times the legal limit — when he drove his Mercedes SUV into a tree last week, according to TMZ. Williams fractured his neck in the accident, and was charged with DWI after refusing to take a breath test at the scene (he also tried to convince cops he wasn't the driver by waiting for police in the passenger seat). Before the accident, Williams had reportedly been drinking with college kids at the Upper East Side bar Aces & 8's, according to the venue's owner. more ›

Another Mets fan named Eric Metzger was sitting behind Cassidy and allegedly had been "giving Cassidy the business" for using his BlackBerry during the game, the Post reports. Cassidy's lawyer maintains that Metzger "intentionally and with reckless disregard of the safety of others, pushed [Cassidy, causing] him to fall numerous rows and upon [Massey]." But Massey's lawyer insists the Mets are still at fault, and tells the AP, "We have information that one of the security people might have spoken to [Cassidy] and let him leave." On the plus side, the Mets rallied to win 11-5. more ›

Over the weekend, two separate accidents, one caused by a livery driver and another by a taxi driver, left one pedestrian dead and another in critical condition. On Saturday night, 16-year-old Alison Cassani was crossing 34th Street in the middle of the block between Second and Third Avenues when she was hit by a taxi and thrown 15 feet. Cassani, who grew up in NYC but now lives in Rome with her mother, suffered trauma to the brain and lungs and multiple skull, rib and pelvic fractures. She's currently in critical but stable condition; the cab driver was not charged. Her mother tells the Post, "I am completely devastated. I lost my mother in 2004 and my husband in 2007... In the best scenario, it would take months for her to get better." more ›

The city will enact a new protocol allowing police officers to more quickly administer blood tests to suspected drunk drivers who have refused to take Breathalyzer tests. After several DWI suspects who declined field sobriety tests didn't have their blood drawn for hours — allowing them to sober up — the police department and the city's district attorneys forged the new agreement on Sunday to speed up the blood-testing process. more ›

After a recent drunken driving fatality involving an off-duty NYPD detective, the city detectives union is considering changing the schedule that some say contributes to alcohol abuse. Some 2,000 of the city's 5,500 detectives routinely work two night shifts, then two day shifts, then get two days off. But because the turnover is so short between the end of the night shift at 1 a.m. and the start of the day shift at 8 a.m., most detectives who reside outside the city don't bother going home. Instead, they go out drinking and then sleep at precinct houses. more ›

The off-duty officer who fatally ran over a woman hailing a cab in Brooklyn on a rainy night in September pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and other charges yesterday. Officer Andrew Kelly, a seven-year veteran assigned to the 68th Precinct, was driving with another off-duty officer and three civilians when he struck Vionique Valnord, 32, around 1 a.m. on September 27th. more ›

Though former Fox 5 TV reporter Mike Sheehan originally said "neigh" to charges that he was drunk when he drove into a mounted police officer in March, yesterday he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol. Sheehan drove into the horse and cop on Varick Street in Tribeca, leaving the cop with a bruised leg and the horse with cuts, bruises and scrapes; he refused to take a Breathalyzer test after the accident. In true Fox news style, Sheehan had claimed that the horse was actually to blame for colliding with him. more ›

A Staten Island man died early Sunday morning while trying to back his SUV out of a tight parking space in a pub parking lot. Oleg Kantarovich had gone outside to pull the car around for his wife, who was celebrating her 30th birthday, so that she wouldn't get caught in the rain. Police say he was leaning out of the front door of his 2007 Audi SUV as he backed up because it may have been difficult to see through the tinted side window. more ›

City Hall News reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere has filed a funny account of his futile attempt to attend last night's mayoral debate between Mike Bloomberg and William Thompson. According to Dovere, an officer outside the debate on the corner of 104th and Fifth Avenue promised to have him arrested if he tried to move past him, because Dovere was allegedly late. But Dovere and other ticket holders blocked by the cop insist they were still several minutes early, and the cop's watch was fast. Bickering ensued! more ›

It's understandable for a public school administrator to want a li'l drinky-poo after a hard day's work dealing with the kiddies, but driving to school sloshed? Those kids at IS 217 in the Bronx must be monsters! Assistant principal Melonie Lendor was arrested on the New York State Thruway in Rockland County at around 6:40 a.m. yesterday after other drivers called 911 because she was driving so erratically. Police say she failed a field sobriety test, but refused to take a Breathalyzer test. Worse: Her 10-month-old son was in the car. Still worse: This is her third drunken-driving bust. That means she's (finally) charged with felony driving while intoxicated and child endangerment. A seventh-grader at the school tells the Post, "No wonder we didn't see her today," but students should probably be used to that by now; a teacher tells the Daily News, "She was entirely missing from the school at times. She seems to make bad decisions." more ›

A nun who spent Tuesday afternoon knocking back too much "Jesus juice" was arrested for drunk driving after plowing into a tree on Long Island. Sister Lauren Hanley, 68, is the "spiritual development director" at Wantagh's St. Frances de Chantal Church, which is where she started drinking around 3 p.m. that day. Some three hours later, she was careening through residential streets in the church's 2006 Toyota Corolla, with a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. more ›

It's already illegal to drink in public, smoke in bars, and eat Jalapeno poppers without knowing how many calories you're consuming, and now Nanny Bloomberg wants to make it illegal to pack a piece while drunk. The mayor is proposing a local law that could put sodden gun holders behind bars for up to one year, and fine them up to $10,000. According to WNYC, nineteen states already have laws prohibiting gun possession by intoxicated individuals, and some states go so far as to revoke gun permits from people with drinking problems. But after all that, is there even anyone left who can legally carry a gun? Earlier this year the New York State Assembly floated a bill that would suspend or revoke the firearm license of anyone in possession while drunk; Bloomberg's proposal would use the same definition of intoxicated as the legal limit for driving. The Mayor says, "If you are in a bar and you see somebody intoxicated and think they might have a gun I know what I would do, I'd either leave that bar or call the cops. I don't want to get shot." more ›

The family of Diane Schuler continued their media push, in an attempt to dispute findings that she was drunk and high when she crashed a minivan carrying five children into an SUV carrying three adults on the Taconic State Parkway while driving from a Sullivan County campground back to Long Island two weeks ago. She killed herself, her daughter, three nieces, and the SUV's driver and passengers. Her husband Danny said, "She is not an alcoholic and my heart is rested every night when I go to bed." And today, his lawyer, sister-in-law and a private investigator appeared on the Today show: Lawyer Dominic Barbara said, "We all have to accept certain facts. When she left the campground, she was absolutely sober," while Danny Schuler's sister said, "We just can't explain what happened to Diane," and emphasized her sister-in-law did not drink heavily, only socially. more ›

With news that Diane Schuler was intoxicated while driving a minivan on the wrong side of the Taconic State Parkway and crashed into an SUV, killing its three passengers, relatives of the SUV's driver and a passengers are planning to file a civil suit against Schuler's family. Attorney Irving Anolik, representing the family of Guy Bastardi and his father Michael Bastardi, said that there's a "strong fragrance of criminality" and said anyone who knew of Diane Schuler's impaired condition may "possibly be an accomplice... Any person who was aware that she was drinking is an accomplice... It's hard for me to believe that the family did not know that this woman had an alcohol problem or a drug problem." more ›

A Queens man says cops roughed him up in a holding cell at the 103rd precinct earlier this month, following a late night DWI arrest. 21-year-old Imran Ali was intoxicated when police allegedly slammed him into a brick wall and cell bars—which is the last thing he remembers before waking up at Jamaica Hospital handcuffed to a bed, with multiple staples and stitches on his forehead. He was arrested on July 17th around 4:54 a.m. after crashing his vehicle head-on into a parked car in Jamaica. But Ali insists he wasn't even the one driving the car (was it Harvey?) and his attorneys are demanding the Queens DA review video from the holding cell cameras. The NYPD maintains that Ali became combative and either fell or jumped from a cell bench. In a statement, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says, "Contrary to his lawyer's assertion that Ali was a passenger in a car driven by someone else who was also arrested, Ali was alone and he was the only individual arrested." Well, somebody's fibbing, but regardless, you probably shouldn't click on this link to the 1010 Wins story unless you enjoy close-up photos of stapled skull wounds. more ›

The nighclub Marquee is back in the news after a Queens construction worker was indicted today for kidnapping a passed-out woman at the club, taking her home and raping her. In March, Luiz Zambrano, 39, allegedly found the inebriated 23-year-old passed out on a couch in the Chelsea hotspot where DA Robert Morgenthau says, "(He) approached the woman and began kissing her." He added that Zambrano then began dragging her and dropped the woman where she "fell headfirst into a wall and crumpled on the floor," but no one at Marquee assisted her. Zambrano put her in a cab that took them to his car and then drove to his College Point apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her twice. During the second assault, the woman regained consciousness; the victim was able to lead the cops to Zambrano's house. The police also found that DNA left on the victim matched the "DNA found on another woman who said she'd been assaulted (at Marquee)." Zambrano, who was convicted of harassing a woman last year, pleaded not guilty and is out on $30,000 bail. Marquee was in the news last year when a woman disappeared after leaving there with a convicted sex offender. more ›

In what may be the least shocking news item of the day, a group of drunk off-duty firefighters got a little rowdy and hit on women yesterday afternoon. But at least one NYC resident refused to accept the status quo and complained to the department after witnessing the debauchery. Rebeca Izquierdo, a former inspector with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, says a party bus "blasting hip-hop and reggaeton" pulled up at Allen and Stanton streets around 2 p.m. and released 30 firefighters, who had come from the department's annual Medal Day ceremony. She tells the Post, "They were all in uniform with open containers and they were soliciting young girls to get on the bus." When she called the FDNY to complain about their behavior, she says one firefighter told her, "It's Medal Day, there's nothing I can do." And the owner of a nearby deli reports, "They bought 20 six packs of Coors Light and Bud Light. They were drunk already." But come on, it's Medal Day, and that's only four beers each! Nevertheless, an FDNY spokesman promised to look into the matter. more ›

More revolting details emerged on the rape charges against two NYPD officers during their arraignment yesterday, and Commissioner Ray Kelly held a special press conference to publicly condemn the men. Officer Kenneth Moreno—a 17-year veteran on the force and 41-year-old married father of two—pleaded not guilty to allegations that he illegally entered an unidentified woman's East Village apartment and, according to Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau, "had sexual intercourse with the physically helpless victim as she lay face down on her bed, having previously vomited multiple times." more ›