Mepham 3 to be sentenced
Three former members of the Mepham High School football team -- Phil Sofia, 17, and Ken Carney and Thomas Diasparra, both 16, who admitted to sexually assaulting three junior-varsity football players in August, 2003 -- were sentenced as juveniles at the Wayne County, Pa., courthouse.
The three varsity football players sexually assaulted three junior-varsity players with pine cones, golf balls and a broomstick during a pre-season football camp in Preston Park, Pa., in August 2003.
According to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Delinquency Bench Book, a judge's mission in a juvenile case is to protect the community, to ensure accountability for wrongdoing, and to do what is necessary to turn juvenile offenders' lives around. Sentencing options for Sofia and Carney ranged from probation to placement in a treatment facility until the age of 21.
In November 2003, Sofia and Carney admitted to three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and apologized to their three victims. The two were held at an evaluation facility in Pennsylvania to determine the kind of rehabilitation program they will be placed under.
Diasparra, who was 15 at the time of the attacks, confessed to one count of aggravated assault in exchange for testifying against Sofia and Carney, and keeping his case in juvenile court. He was released to his parents' custody in Bellmore.
Intel-ligent district
Eight students from the Bellmore-Merrick High School District, which comprises John F. Kennedy , Sanford H. Calhoun and Wellington C. Mepham high schools, were named among the 300 semi-finalists in a nation wide science competition known as the Intel Science Talent Search.
The Bellmore-Merrick High School semi-finalist included: from Kennedy, Gayle Denman, 17; Carol Eisenstat, 17; Julie Friedman, 18; and Samantha Goldman, 17, all from Merrick; from Mepham, Miles Davison, 17, from Bellmore; Benjamin Jackson, 17, of North Bellmore; and Jessica Sorrentino, 17, also from North Bellmore; and Calhoun student Helaina Skop, 17, from Merrick.
This was the first time the high school district had so many semi-finalists, which was good news for the district's newly formed research program.
John Didden, Mepham principal said, "This has been a banner year for the science department." He added that the past six years Mepham had had 10 Intel semi-finalists.
Cab driver charged with rape
A West Hempstead man, who worked as a taxi driver for a Merrick cab company, was arrested and charged with raping and robbing a 30-year-old woman on Jan. 17, and sending police on a 20-mile chase. The chase resulted in damage to two police cars and a guardrail on the Southern State Parkway.
The cab driver, whom police identified as Christopher Willard, 26, of Oakford Street, was arraigned and held on $225,000 bail at the Nassau County jail in East Meadow.
Willard was a driver for Long Island Checker Cab in Merrick. At about 12:45 a.m., he was dispatched to Mirage, a nightclub on Merrick Avenue in Westbury, where he picked up a woman who asked to be taken to a friend's house in Bellmore. Willard drove the woman to the house, but no one was there. Police alleged that he then drove to an undisclosed location in Bellmore, raped the woman and stole money from her pocketbook. After, he dropped the woman off at the friend's house.
Police were called, and after an initial investigation, they paid a visit to the checker cab company's office in Merrick. The dispatcher called Willard back to the office for questioning. According to police, Willard drove up to the office, spotted police cars and sped off.
Willard led police to the Southern State Parkway, where he crashed. The suspect then ran into a wooded area, where police chased him down and arrested him. Police charged Willard with rape in the first degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree and resisting arrest.
Army base auction
Raymond Roden, commissioner of the Department of Planning for the Town of Hempstead, announced that the North Bellmore army base property at Maple and Liberty avenues and owned by the federal government would soon be auctioned off on the Internet.
Roden explained that the Army base property would be sold by the General Service Administration, which acted on behalf of the U.S. Army.
In addition to construction of new homes, the plan required the developer to create a homeowners' association and recreation facility, which the homeowners' association would be responsible for.
February
4th Mepham player arrested
A fourth Mepham High School student was reportedly arrested and charged in taking part in the sexual assault of three junior-varsity football players at a pre-season training camp in Preston Park, Pa. last August. The arrest came as the criminal investigation into this high-profile case entered its sixth month.
The unidentified teenager, who was charged as a juvenile, was processed in Honesdale, Pa. It was unclear with what he was charged. After the arrest, the boy was released into his parents' custody.
Coaches lose positions again
Art Canestro, the former Mepham High School junior-varsity football coach, had a hard time in January explaining to his 4-year-old daughter why he couldn't coach baseball in the spring.
Canestro, 36, loves baseball, and his daughter is fully aware of his passion for the game. She saw how distraught he was after learning from Central District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore on Jan. 23 that he wouldn't be allowed to coach baseball at Mepham, his alma mater, where he once played.
Canestro was one of five coaches supervising the Mepham High School football camp at which three JV players were sexually assaulted by three varsity player in August 2003.
A father in mourning
Joseph Brucia Jr., of Bellmore, returned home in February from Sarasota, Fla., to mourn the death of his kidnapped 11-year-old daughter, Carlie, whose body was found by police behind a church on Friday, Feb. 6. She was missing for five agonizing days.
Carlie was described as a happy teenager who loved actress Jennifer Lopez and hanging out with friends at the mall. She was born in Nassau, but moved to Sarasota when Brucia divorced Carlie's mother, Susan Schorpen, in 1992. Once in Florida, Schorpen married Steven Kansler, and since then Carlie had spent a few weeks in the summers and winters visiting Brucia and his parents on Long Island.
The Brucias' tragic story unfolded in Sarasota, Fla., Feb. 1, when Carlie was on her way to meet her stepfather, Kansler, after spending some time with her friends. But before she could meet him, she was approached by a tattooed man wearing a mechanic's uniform who grabbed her by the arm and led her away. The abduction scene was captured by a surveillance camera in front of a car wash, which was a half-mile from the house.
Police arrested the alleged murderer, Joseph P. Smith, 37, on Tuesday, Feb. 3, on a parole violation, and he was later identified as the alleged kidnapper by one of his roommates, who recognized him from the surveillance video.
Smith, who was originally from Brooklyn, had been arrested 13 times in Florida. If convicted of Carlie's murder, Smith could face the death penalty.
Remembering Carlie
The pews of St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church in Bellmore overflowed with more than 600 mourners. They came to pay homage to 11-year-old Carlie Brucia and to pray for her family.
Earlier in the month, Carlie was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Florida. Ever since, her family here on Long Island said they had felt the deepest of pain over her sudden loss.
The private, one-hour service began at 11 a.m. At the altar of the towering St. Barnabas Church stood three photographs of Carlie, each adorned with flowers.
Andrea Brucia, Carlie's grandmother, said the service was kept secret to avoid media attention. Still, there was hardly enough room in the church to accommodate all the mourners.
"Everyone was there," Andrea Brucia said. "Public friends and people we didn't know attended. It was standing-room-only."
The Rev. Peter Dooley, St. Barnabas' spiritual leader, celebrated the Mass, and Deacon Robert O'Donovan assisted. The Brucia family requested two special songs, "Be not Afraid" and "On Eagles Wings".
"It was a very prayerful service for Carlie, and everyone who attended prayed for the Brucia family," Dooley said.
Outreach van christened
The Long Island Crisis Center hosted a special ceremony to inaugurate its revamped outreach program and christen its outreach van. Helping the center commemorate the event was U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who was on hand to present a ceremonial key to program Coordinator Jose Saavedra and the center's Executive Director Linda Leonard.
The event took place at the crisis center's Bellmore headquarters and was attended by local volunteers and staff.
"I'm so glad to be here today to hand over the keys to this street outreach van," McCarthy said. "With help from a $300,000 grant from the federal government, you'll be able to help more of Nassau County's troubled young people."
More than 3,500 young people run away from home or become homeless each year in Nassau County.
McCarthy said, "Everyone here today hopes that this van will be a lifeline for many of them. Offering basic survival aid, food, counseling, shelter and health education. The street outreach van will help keep Nassau County's young people safer in their time of need."
Alleged rapist had a record
A Merrick cab driver who police allege raped a young woman while on duty in Bellmore had been arrested twice previously for drug possession and driving while under the influence of drugs, a Herald investigation revealed. What's more, the cabbie was driving without a taxi license at the time of the alleged rape.
Now in jail, the cabbie, Christopher Willard, 26, of West Hempstead, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, if all the charges against him are proved true.
Taxi licenses are required by state law to drive a cab. The Town of Hempstead, which issues the licenses for cabbies employed anywhere in its borders, was aware of Willard's past drug arrests. As required by law, the town sent his taxi license application and fingerprints to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice in Albany last September, said Susie Trenkle, a town spokeswoman. Before his records were returned from the state, the town issued Willard a temporary taxi license, allowing him to work as a cabbie. His temporary license expired Oct. 1. Willard never called the town to renew it. Around this time, Hempstead officials called him to come in and review his application. By then, the town had his arrest records back from Albany. Willard never returned calls to the town, and he continued to drive a taxi for Long Island Checkered Cab in Merrick for the next four months.
Photo credit: Scott Brinton/Herald
A tearful anniversary
One punch landed just above Scott Konezny's left eyebrow with such force that the assailant's Kennedy High School class ring left a bright red imprint on Konezny's forehead. Another punch, or two - or more - cracked Konezny's nasal cartilage in half. Two other hard smacks blackened his eyes. Another split his lip wide open.
Konezny, a Kennedy High School senior at the time of the assault, remembered getting punched at least eight times before he blacked out in the driver's seat of his car, which was parked in Kennedy's lot. He believes the assailants kept hitting him even after he lost consciousness.
No doubt, the attack was terrifying. Feb. 28, 2004, was two months to the day since between five and 10 of Konezny's fellow Kennedy students beat him, he said, "nearly to death."
Konezny sued some of the attackers and the Central High School District, claiming it failed to provide adequate security in the Kennedy parking lot. Konezny settled with all parties.
head: Brucias distraught over revelations
Florida State Attorney General Charles Crist confirmed what many people feared -- that 11-year-old Carlie Brucia was raped before she was strangled.
The news came only a week after Carlie's father, Joseph Brucia, 39, of Bellmore, held a memorial service for his little girl at St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church in Bellmore. The service drew more than 600 mourners, who were touched by Carlie's tragic story and said special prayers of comfort for the Brucia family.
"This is horrendous," said Andrea Brucia, Carlie's grandmother, who lives in Wantagh. "No one should ever have to go through this."
March
Dangerous road ahead
The story disturbed Rhonda Barsel, but it didn't shock her.
A Merrick taxi driver, Christopher Willard, of West Hempstead, was arrested and charged with raping a young woman while on the job in Bellmore, the Herald reported. An investigation by the paper revealed that Willard had been arrested for drug possession and was on probation for driving under the influence of drugs. And he didn't hold a valid Town of Hempstead taxi license at the time of the alleged rape.
For more than three years, Barsel and her husband, Richard, had called on state and local elected officials to toughen taxi licensing requirements. And the Barsels, of Hewlett Neck, formed Parents Against Irresponsible Drivers to lobby for stricter taxi safety requirements.
Their son, Adam, was killed on Oct. 28, 2000, when the taxi he was in turned over on a Cross Island Parkway off-ramp in Bayside, Queens. Adam, 15, sat in the front seat. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
The Barsels charged that the driver, Robert Gillen, drove too fast to handle the off-ramp, and Administrative Law Judge M.C. Cunningham supported their claim. During a June 2001 Department of Motor Vehicles hearing, Cunningham found that Gillen "was operating a motor vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions..."
A published report stated that Gillen had two license suspensions in 2000 and three traffic offenses that were listed as seatbelt violations. And he was in an accident tow weeks before the crash that killed.
In an interview, Rhonda Barsel chastised the Town of Hempstead. She believes loose town taxi licensing requirements and rules enforcement can lead to tragedies such as her son's death or the alleged rape in Bellmore.
It takes a department
At 6:30 p.m. on a recent Friday, the sound of basketballs slapping the hardwood floor echoed through the Mepham High School gym. The Pirates squad had just finished game one of a doubleheader against Hempstead. Players were keeping warm between games, dribbling and taking practice shots. On the sidelines, two Mepham science teachers, department chairwoman Laura Maitland and Nicole Hollings, stood watch.
The two were chaperoning the game, alone with a few other colleagues. They had already put in more than 12 hours that day, and they had another hour or two to go before they could head home.
Both teachers maintain rigorous teaching and after-school schedules. Most days, Hollings arrives at Mepham around 6 p.m. to grade tests, write lesson plans and chat with colleagues before teaching a full day of the highest-level classes, including Advanced Placement biology.
Hollings and many of Mepham's 15 science teachers often put in long days. Hollings said, "We have a tremendous staff who truly care about kids and go the extra mile."
Such dedication helps explain how the Mepham science department went from average to elite in just over a decade. In recent years, the department has acted as an incubator for several student's national-award-winning science research projects. In the past three years alone, the department has produced eight Intel science research projects. And this year, it scored its biggest victory. A junior, Jason Becker, placed fourth nationally in the Siemens Westinghouse research contest.
Taking a shot at a dream job
When Bellmore's Casey Stern was 5 years old, he would sit in front of the television, pencil in hand, and pretend he was broadcasting the evening's baseball game.
While other kids were playing with GI-Joe and Transformers, Stern was collecting baseball cards and memorizing the stats of major league players.
Now 25, Stern and 11 other die-hard sports fans were given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become an ESPN sports anchor through the station's new reality television show "Dream Job."
A night of healing
The Rev. James Barnum, pastor of Bellmore Presbyterian Church, noted the small wicker basket to his left and invited people to write their prayers and missives to God on tiny pieces of paper and drop them there.
At first, folks got up from their seats slowly, one by one. Then they flooded in. Bernie Stein, a retired Mepham High School social studies teacher, was first to walk quietly down the Mepham auditorium's maroon-carpeted aisle to deposit a slip of paper in the basket, which sat on a small table beside the stage.
Rabbi Charles Klein, spiritual leader of the Merrick Jewish Centre, followed Stein. Then cam the Rev. Perry Kirschbaum, pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Merrick, then Mary Ramo and Jim Rullo, both members of Bellmore-Merrick Parents for Change. Soon there was a short line of people leaving their hopes and thoughts in the basket.
It was an emotional moment during a 45-minute service to help comfort the Mepham High School community, which in 2003 was rocked by revelations that three varsity football players sexually abused three ninth-grade squad members during a training camp in Pennsylvania.
The Bellmore-Merrick Interfaith Clergy Council organized the prayer service to begin the healing process, which all agreed would take some time. About 100 people attended the ceremony, including Central District administrators such as Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore and Mepham Principal John Didden, several members of Bellmore-Merrick Parents for Change, victims' relatives and about 40 choral singers.
Criminal charges unlikely in sewage spill
Residents living near Grand View Canal in Bellmore were outraged that the trucking company that illegally dumped raw sewage into their canal in September 2003 would likely not face criminal charges, only fines.
The spill happened on Thursday, Sept. 4, when Wind River Environmental dumped more than 10,000 gallons of raw sewage into the canal, authorities said. Area residents living along Shore Road said the spill ruined the area's fall fishing season.
Bob Owen, assistant district attorney of the Criminal Fraud Unit and prosecutor of environmental crimes for Nassau County, said that although no official determination had been made yet, he did rule out criminal charges against the trucking company.
Bill Fonda, a DEC spokesman, said that as of Dec. 21, 2003, the agency had issued Wind River Environmental three administrative law tickets: one for the disposal of about 2,000 gallons of raw sewage into the water of the state; a second for the discharge of sewage into the marine waters of the state; and a third for unlawful disposal of a regulated waste.
Schools cited as most improved
Two North Bellmore elementary schools, Saw Mill Road and Jacob Gunther, were named among the 200 schools whose fourth-grade classes made dramatic improvements in the state's English Language Arts exam. In addition, Jacob Gunther's fourth-graders were also cited as having made significant gains in state math scores.
According to state numbers, in 1999, only 59 percent of the Saw Mill Road fourth-grade students passed the states ELA exams, but in 2003, 84 percent of the students passed the exam.
Similar improvements were also noted with Gunther. In 1999, only 51 percent of fourth-grade students passed the ELA exam, but in 2003, 74 percent of the students passed. Gunther was also cited as having made dramatic improvements in state math scores. In 1999, 73 percent of Gunther fourth-grade students passed the standardized math test. In 2003, that number rose to 98 percent.
According to the North Bellmore School Superintendent James Parla, the improved test scores are the end result of the district's revised curriculum.
"The fact is that all of our schools have done well each year in the New York State ELA and mathematics assessment tests," he said. "In 1998, we revised our curriculum and started providing training for our teachers and made sure that our curriculum is in line with the New York State standards."
Town eyes tighter taxi code
The Hempstead Town Council is considering eliminating temporary licenses for taxi drivers, Town Clerk Mark Bonilla told the Herald this week.
The council plans to convene a public hearing on Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m., to weigh the matter. The move follows a series of Herald stories and an editorial exposing the potential dangers of temporary taxi licenses.
A Merrick taxi driver, Christopher Willard, of West Hempstead, was recently arrested and charged with raping a young woman while on the job in Bellmore, according to Nassau County police. A Herald investigation revealed that Willard had been arrested for drug possession and was on probation for driving under the influence of drugs. And he did not hold a valid Town of Hempstead taxi license at the time of the alleged rape.
Town officials said Willard was issued a temporary license, but he let it expire and ignored calls to come in and discuss his application for a permanent license. He continued driving for four months before he was arrested for rape.
Sickened by camp attacks
A Wayne County (Pa.) grand jury, which convened last fall to examine the Mepham High School football scandal, lashed out at the three varsity players - Phil Sofia, Ken Carney and Thomas Diasparra - who confessed to sexually assaulting three junior-varsity squad members at a Pennsylvania camp last August.
In an eight-page report that detailed precisely how the repeated attacks were carried out during the five-day camp, the grand jury stated that it is "appalled and sickened by the crimes committed by the players at this football camp."
The grand jury was given free rein to investigate any and all sides of the scandal, but was specifically assigned to determine whether charges should be brought against the five Mepham coaches who ran the camp. Ultimately, the jury decided that charges were unwarranted.
Mepham coaches can't teach
Former Mepham High School football coaches Kevin McElroy and Art Canestro had a surprise announcement for the half-dozen reporters who had gathered for an impromptu news conference at the Brookside School. Effective immediately, they could no longer teach at Mepham.
They were ordered by Central High School District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore to perform desk duty until further notice at the Brookside School, which is an administration office in North Merrick.
The move came two weeks after a Pennsylvania grand jury criticized the five coaches who ran a training camp in Preston Park, Pa. - including McElroy and Canestro. The report said the coaches "lacked commonsense accountability when it came to managing or running the camp," at which three varsity players sexually molested three younger teammates with a broomstick, pine cones and a golf ball over the course of a week.
Science students continue winning ways
Three Kennedy High School seniors were ranked among the first- and second-place winners of the sixth annual regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium competition, which was held at Adelphi University in Garden City.
Barbi Frank, a science-research mentor at Kennedy High School, said there were 10 categories to enter in the JSHS competition: biochemistry, cell biology, chemistry, education, environmental science, genetics, math/computer science, medicine/health, physics and psychology. The competition required student researchers to enter one category each and present their research findings to a group of experts using a Power Point presentation. For each section, there were first-, second- and third- place winners.
The three Kennedy winners were: Samantha Goldman, 17, who came in first place in psychology for her work studying the connection between children's sensitivity to bitter tastes and their intake of high fat foods; Carol Eisenstat, 17, who was named a first-place winner in cellular biology for her work in increasing cotton output by enhancing the production of microscopic fibers; and Gayle Denman, 17, who took second place in physics for her work with a cancer detection procedure called radiation-force elastography, which uses focused, high-intensity sound beams to identify malignant cells.
Mepham victims file suit
Attorneys for the three victims in the Mepham High School football sex-abuse scandal built a civil case against the Bellmore-Merrick Central District around two central themes.
The attorneys announced lawsuits against the district, Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore, Mepham Principal John Didden, the five football coaches, the three perpetrators and their parents. The attorneys did not specify a dollar amount they were seeking, but said they wanted "fair compensation for the victims and their families."
The lawyers - Michael Rubin, Robert Kelly and David Woycik - contended that district officials knew about past hazing, but did not properly address it. Their failure to act, they said, led to a permissive atmosphere at the Mepham football camp in Pennsylvania in August 2003, which resulted in three varsity players sexually assaulting their clients with a broomstick, pine cones and a golf ball.
The attorneys also said district officials allowed a known bully, Ken Carney, to attend the football camp, despite warnings from parents that Carney had threatened another student shortly before the camp. According to the attorneys, Carney turned out to be the "ringleader" in the attacks.
April
Stepped-up patrols
Thanks to stepped-up patrols by the 1st Precinct, an alarming spate of burglaries in the North Bellmore area began to decline in April.
Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat of Merrick, said the burglary hike was first noticed in North Bellmore in late December, and the rash of burglaries made its way into East Meadow.
Coaches out of the classroom
Former Mepham High School football coaches Kevin McElroy and Art Canestro had a surprise announcement for the half-dozen reporters who had gathered for an impromptu news conference at the Brookside School in late MarcEffective immediately, they could no longer teach at Mepham.
I was 2:30 p.m. Only a short while earlier, Central High School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore had released the two from their teaching duties and ordered them to perform desk duty until further notice at the Brookside School, which is an administration office in North Merrick.
The move came two weeks after a Pennsylvania grand jury criticized the five coaches who ran a training camp in Preston Park, Pa. - including McElroy and Canestro. The report said the coaches "lacked commonsense accountability when it came to managing or running the camp," at which three varsity players sexually molested three younger teammates with a broomstick, pine cones and golf ball over the course of a week.
The grand jury report also said that child-endangerment charges against the coaches were unwarranted, and that none of them knew about the attacks while at the camp. The three victims filed lawsuits against the Central District, seeking unspecified damages.
Only McElroy, 49, and Canestro, 36, held full-time teaching jobs at Mepham. The other three coaches were hired for the football season.
More lawsuits
The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District was slapped with five more lawsuits stemming from the Mepham High School sex-abuse scandal.
In April, five former Mepham football coaches field notices of claim against he Central District for wrongful termination, denial of civil rights and defamation.
The Central District stripped the five men of their coaches posts in November 2003, two months after revelation came to light that the three varsity football players repeatedly sexually molested three junior-varsity teammates at a Pennsylvania training camp under the coaches' supervision.
Heralds honored
New York Press Association judges recognized Herald Community Newspapers for their commitment to quality community journalism, calling them to the podium 13 times at awards ceremonies in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., last April.
The South Shore papers earned first-place honors for news, education and community leadership, and took home awards for in-depth reporting, photography, columns and advertising.
"Once again, the Herald staff has proved that you don't have to work for a big daily to do top-quality work and make important contributions to your community," said Herald co-Publisher Clifford Richner. "I was particularly impressed by the work Scott Brinton and his staff in Merrick and Bellmore did on the Mepham football scandal, and I'm glad to see them recognized by their peers."
Nixing temporary taxi licenses?
Members of the public got the chance to voice their opinions on a Town of Hempstead proposal to do away with temporary taxi licenses during an April 13 public hearing at town hall. And nearly 10 cab company owners turned out to testify against the plan.
Temporary cabbie licenses give taxi drivers the ability to operate a cab for a month before criminal background checks are performed on them. A Herald investigation revealed that a Merrick cabbie with a record of driving under the influence of drugs was issued a temporary town license. He was supposed to meet with the town about his record, but never did. Four months later, police arrested the cabbie and charged him with raping a customer while on the job.
Sanitation rally
Town of Hempstead sanitation workers staged a rally in protest of the department's decision to eliminate overtime and hire outside mechanics to work on garbage trucks and other vehicles
More than 100 members of Civil Service Employees Association Local 880, the union that represents Hempstead town sanitation workers, gathered in front of its headquarters at 1580 Merrick Road in Merrick on April 10.
Superintendent resigns
North Bellmore School District Superintendent James Parla announced his resignation from the district in April, and educators and parents alike wish him well in his new job. Parla became superintendent of the Island Trees School District in Levittown.
The announcement came during a North Bellmore Board of Education meeting at the Martin Avenue School. Parla said his departure is part of a natural progression in his career.
Arrested in fraud
Tow Bellmore residents, dentist Yury Babeck, of Cove Court, and a clinic manager, Steve Marcus, of Briggs Street, were among 32 people arrested in connections with an automobile insurance fraud case.
Babeck reportedly billed patients for dental work he did not do and was charged with enterprise corruption, for which he faces up to 25 years in prison. Marcus was charged with commercial bribery, and may face four years in jail. He reportedly paid a claims arbitration adjuster $60,000 between 2002 and 2003 to approve claims that were formerly denied.
Business policy changed
Some businesses wanting to open on two-lane roads in Bellmore and Merrick must now file for a special town permit, giving residents a chance to weigh in on the move.
The Town of Hempstead Council unanimously passed a code amendment at its April 27 meeting, requiring certain sized businesses to apply for a "special exception" with the town Board of Zoning Appeals when moving onto roads allowing only a single lane of traffic in each direction.
