Sean Piccoli

The man, Marc Lamparello, had also booked a one-way flight to Rome — and a hotel room within a 20 minutes’ drive of the Vatican, a prosecutor told a judge Wednesday.

“He was present at the church the day before,” the prosecutor, David Stuart, told Judge Kevin McGrath during a video arraignment in Manhattan criminal court. “And was present at the church for more than an hour before walking in that night.”

His intent? “To burn down St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” McGrath said.

Lamparello, a 37-year-old graduate student and philosophy teacher, watched Wednesday’s proceeding over a closed-circuit video link to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he sat in a hospital gown next to his lawyer, Christopher DiLorenzo.

He was charged with attempted second-degree arson for the April 17 incident, and he faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The judge ordered that he be held without bail at Bellevue to undergo a psychiatric examination. He entered no plea at the hearing.

DiLorenzo asked the judge to order psychiatric examination for his client.

Stuart said investigators obtained phone messages and other materials under a search warrant that indicated Lamparello intended to start a fire, and had “spent considerable time planning and surveilling the location.”

Church ushers spotted Lamparello about 20 feet inside the church’s doors April 17. One approached him and smelled “a strong odor of gasoline,” according to a criminal complaint. The ushers told Lamparello he could not stay in the church.

He left, spilling gasoline on the floor, authorities said. Outside, a police officer spotted him with the gas canisters and a black bag holding two containers of lighter fluid and a lighter, according to the criminal complaint.

Lamparello, who has addresses in Brooklyn and in New Jersey, told the officer that his van had run out of gas and he was trying to take a shortcut through the church to get back to the vehicle. He was initially charged with resisting arrest, defiant trespassing and interfering with the administration of law.

It was the second church-related arrest that week for Lamparello. On April 15, he was arrested inside Newark, New Jersey’s Sacred Heart Cathedral after police said he refused to leave the sanctuary. He told officers the church was a house of God and should be open at all hours before throwing himself on the floor and vowing to stay, the authorities said.

DiLorenzo said his client, a doctoral student at the City University of New York, had been going through a mental breakdown in recent months.

Not only was Lamparello arrested in Newark’s cathedral earlier this month, but in December, he walked into the police headquarters in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and reported he was being stalked and that police were following him.

“It is clear that Mr. Lamparello suffered from a psychotic episode,” DiLorenzo said Wednesday, “and the events leading up to and including the incident at St. Patrick’s Cathedral support this conclusion.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="8ceb7606-d94a-30a3-acfb-72631ac5ec8f" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/st-patricks-cathedral-attack-marc-lamparello.html">The New York Times</a>.

Man With Gas Cans in St. Patrick's Cathedral Planned to Burn It Down, Prosecutor Says

NEW YORK — The philosophy teacher charged last week with carrying gas cans and lighter fluid into St. Patrick’s Cathedral had a clear plan, prosecutors say, to set the Fifth Avenue landmark ablaze.

Man with gas cans in St. Patrick's Cathedral planned to burn it down, prosecutor says

Among them were three New Yorkers who Franco said he saw selling drugs in separate cases in 2017 and 2019. All three pleaded guilty.

Two were sent to state prison and were behind bars when investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office discovered that the detective’s accounts — filed in arrest reports, and repeated to other officers, prosecutors and grand juries — were fabricated.

On Wednesday, Franco, who works in southern Manhattan, was charged with 16 criminal counts, including perjury and official misconduct.

Prosecutors said Franco fabricated tales of drug buys by innocent people. His lies unraveled when investigators found video evidence contradicting the detective’s accounts and after interviewing other arresting officers, prosecutors said in court papers filed with the case.

Franco, 46, pleaded not guilty to the charges in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon. Justice Mark Dwyer released him without bail until his next court date on June 28.

Franco and his lawyer, Howard Tanner, declined to comment as they left the courthouse.

The convictions against the three people Franco said had sold drugs — Julio Irizarry, Tameeka Baker and Turrell Irving — have been thrown out, and none of the three is in state custody anymore, said Justin Henry, a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

At a bail hearing Wednesday, an assistant district attorney, Stephanie Minogue, said the office was investigating at least two other cases involving Franco and more indictments may be filed against him. She asked for $50,000 cash bail, a request Dwyer denied.

Franco has now been suspended without pay, the Police Department said.

“Our NYPD officers swear an oath to uphold the law, and meet the highest ethical standards,” the police commissioner, James P. O’Neil, said in a statement. “Should an officer fail to meet those critical expectations, they must be held accountable.”

Prosecutors said Irizarry was the first to be accused of making a drug sale that Franco, working as a plainclothes detective, claimed he had witnessed.

Irizarry was arrested in February 2017 after the detective said he saw him selling drugs inside the lobby of a building on Delancey Street, prosecutors said in a court document.

But video from a security camera inside the building showed that no such transaction took place. Additionally, video from a security camera outside the building showed Franco never entered the building, leaving him unable to see anything in the lobby, the document said.

This pattern was repeated on two other occasions. Baker was arrested in June 2017 on Madison Street after Franco said that he saw Baker selling drugs in a building’s vestibule, the document said.

Yet investigators found security video showing that Baker went into the building without stopping in the vestibule, and that Franco was not close enough to her to actually see what she was doing, the document said.

In April 2018, Irving was arrested on Franco’s word that he had seen him giving cocaine to a woman, Karen Miano, who subsequently sold the drug to an undercover officer, the document said.

“Once more, the video from this incident directly contradicted the defendant’s version of events,” according to the document. “There was no drug transaction between Mr. Irving and Ms. Miano. Instead, Ms. Miano simply held the door open for Mr. Irving as he entered the building and she exited on her way to meet the undercover officer.”

“In each of the cases, the defendant compounded his misconduct by repeating these lies over and over again,” Minogue, the prosecutor, said in court.

As far back as last year, investigators from the district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Program were reviewing cases involving Franco — including those of Baker and Irving — and referring them to the Public Corruption Unit, officials said.

Baker’s and Irving’s convictions were vacated last summer, according to court documents. It remained unclear Wednesday when Irizarry’s conviction was vacated.

Baker and Irizarry were both serving state prison sentences when the evidence came to light showing the detective’s testimony in their cases was false, the court documents said.

In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office said the case against Franco is part of a continuing effort to root out and prosecute police corruption and misconduct.

“My office will continue to bring the full weight of the law against uniformed officers who lie and undermine the public trust in law enforcement on which we rely to keep New York safe,” Vance said in the statement.

This article originally appeared in <a id="7f217db9-fca8-332b-a4a6-dc7fd23c24e6" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/nyc-detective-perjury-franco.html">The New York Times</a>.

Detective's lies sent three people to prison, prosecutors charge

NEW YORK — Detective Joseph E. Franco is a 19-year veteran in the narcotics division in Manhattan with thousands of arrests to his credit. His testimony has sent dozens of people to prison.

The review of Franco’s cases began last summer, when the district attorney’s staff noticed major inconsistencies in the detective’s statements and the underpinning evidence in his casework, according to Henry. After vacating the convictions of Irizarry, Burke and Burrell, the lawyers from the Conviction Integrity Program referred Franco’s case to the Public Corruption Unit for investigation, Henry said.

In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office said the case against Franco is part of a continuing effort to root out and prosecute police corruption and misconduct. It is also examining Franco’s casework to determine if there are more convictions that need to be overturned.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/nyc-detective-perjury-franco.html" id="7f217db9-fca8-332b-a4a6-dc7fd23c24e6">The New York Times</a>.

Detective's Lies Sent Three People to Prison, Prosecutors Charge

He was charged with attempted second-degree arson for the April 17 incident, and he faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The judge ordered that he be held without bail at Bellevue to undergo a psychiatric examination.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/nyregion/st-patricks-cathedral-attack-marc-lamparello.html" id="8ceb7606-d94a-30a3-acfb-72631ac5ec8f">The New York Times</a>.

Chanel Lewis, 22, was found guilty this month after a second trial. His first trial ended in a hung jury.

Justice Michael B. Aloise told Lewis that if he ever planned to atone for his crime, “You’re going to do it inside a cage.”

Before he was sentenced, Lewis listened to a series of wrenching statements from Vetrano’s father, mother and two siblings. When his turn to speak came, he said: “I’m innocent. I’m sorry for the family’s loss, but I didn’t do this.”

Lewis had confessed to beating Vetrano, and traces of his DNA were discovered on her neck and cellphone when her body was found on an overgrown path in Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach. His lawyers argued that the confession had been coerced and that the DNA evidence was unreliable.

The killing of Vetrano, 30, was one of the highest-profile cases in the city in recent years, and it set in motion a huge police manhunt.

The prosecution of Lewis also prompted a fierce debate on social media and in the courtroom, as some observers said the confession and DNA evidence were proof enough of his guilt, while others argued that prosecutors had the wrong person.

The two trials also dredged up questions about coerced confessions, racial profiling and the fallibility of police — issues that have hung over New York City’s criminal justice system for decades. During the investigation, police sought DNA samples from 380 black men before they found a match in Lewis.

Lewis’ lawyers intend to appeal, they said. His supporters said they plan to hold protests in Howard Beach, where they predicted Vetrano’s true killer would be found.

Two of Lewis’ supporters, Kevin McCall and Chris Banks — who were arrested outside the Queens courthouse for deliberately blocking traffic — portrayed the conviction and sentence as another injustice against a wrongfully accused black man.

They shouted “Justice for Chanel!” in the courtroom as spectators filed out at the end of the sentencing, and afterward, McCall said Lewis had been “lynched” in a sentence imposed by a “racist” judge.

When the case’s lead prosecutor, Brad Leventhal, walked out of the courthouse, Lewis’ supporters jeered and chanted, “Shame on you.”

“I know that my son is innocent,” Lewis’ mother, Veta Lewis, said on the courthouse steps.

She also said, without evidence, that investigators “planted Chanel’s DNA on that girl.”

In their statements to the judge, Vetrano’s father, mother and two siblings remembered Karina Vetrano as a “light” in their lives and spoke of the terror she must have felt in her last moments alive. They asked Aloise to impose the maximum sentence, and they savaged Chanel Lewis and his defense team.

“You are unremarkable, insignificant,” Vetrano’s older sister, Tana Vetrano, told Lewis. “May you live a long life in darkness and in fear.”

Vetrano’s father, Philip Vetrano, said his own life effectively ended with the death of his daughter, whose body he discovered in tall weeds near a jogging trail Aug. 2, 2016. He said that he, his wife and children “walk the Earth as zombies, just waiting to die so we can be with Karina again.”

“Only my faith in God and belief in heaven keeps me from killing myself,” Philip Vetrano said.

Karina Vetrano’s mother said Lewis was a clever and remorseless criminal, not the emotionally challenged young man portrayed by his defense team.

“The vacant expression you show is mostly a reflection of your empty soul,” she said.

Aloise, echoing the religious tone of some of the Vetrano family’s remarks, said he believed that Vetrano now sat beside God and urged Lewis to “put into practice” the research into redemption and second chances that police found on his cellphone’s search history.

He rejected the defense team’s appeal for a lighter sentence in light of Lewis’ mental and emotional difficulties.

After Tuesday’s sentencing, the Legal Aid Society said in a statement announcing an appeal that while Vetrano’s death was tragic, “every aspect of this case — from the police investigation to jury deliberations — was propelled by a desire to convict at all costs.”

One of Lewis’ defense lawyers, Julia Burke, said she wasn’t surprised by the Vetrano family’s criticism. “This case was emotionally charged,” Burke said. “I agree with the judge that this was a loss for both families.”

At his second trial this month, a different jury took only five hours of deliberation to find Lewis guilty of first-degree murder, two second-degree murder counts and first-degree sexual abuse.

But one juror, Christopher Gooley, afterward accused others on the panel of misconduct in their rush to convict Lewis, leading to an extraordinary post-trial hearing Monday in which jurors themselves took the stand and defense lawyers asked for a retrial. Aloise denied the request.

The case has fanned old tensions in a part of the city that was once the scene of racial violence. It also linked two families living a few miles away from one another but worlds apart.

Lewis, a son of Jamaican immigrants, graduated from a high school for students with learning disabilities, and lived in East New York with his mother, a nursing home aide. In court Tuesday, Burke, the defense lawyer, said Lewis’ father, a retired schoolteacher, was now living in a nursing home and suffering from dementia.

Vetrano, whose father is a retired firefighter, worked as a speech pathologist for autistic children, and lived with her parents in Howard Beach, a predominantly white neighborhood that is home to many city police and fire department employees.

During closing arguments, both mothers could be seen with articles of religious faith, Vetrano’s mother holding a small cross while Veta Lewis sat on the opposite side quietly reading a Bible. Karina Vetrano’s family said Lewis would face God’s vengeance; his supporters also cited their faith in divine intervention.

“God is going to vindicate my son,” Veta Lewis said.

This article originally appeared in <a id="b40caf02-4751-3160-a696-738a302b214c" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/nyregion/karina-vetrano-chanel-lewis-sentencing.html">The New York Times</a>.

Karina Vetrano's Killer Is Sentenced to Life, but Maintains 'I Didn't Do This'

NEW YORK — A Brooklyn man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without chance of parole for the sexual assault and murder of Karina Vetrano, who was attacked as she jogged through a park near her home in Queens in 2016.

Karina Vetrano's killer is sentenced to life, but maintains 'I didn't do this'

The man, Chanel Lewis, 22, was found guilty earlier this month after a second trial. His first trial ended in a hung jury.

Before he was sentenced, Lewis listened to a series of wrenching statements from Vetrano’s father, mother and two siblings. But when his turn to speak came, he said: “I’m innocent. I’m sorry for the family’s loss, but I didn’t do this.”

Lewis had confessed to beating Vetrano, and traces of his DNA were discovered on her neck and cellphone when she was found on an overgrown path in Spring Creek Park in Queens. Still, his lawyers argued that the confession had been coerced and the DNA evidence had been contaminated and was unreliable.

The killing of Vetrano, 30, was one of the most high-profile cases in the city in recent years, jarring for its apparent randomness and brutality, and it set in motion a massive manhunt by police.

The prosecution of Lewis also prompted a fierce debate on social media, and in the courtroom, as some observers said the confession and DNA evidence were proof enough of Lewis’ guilt, while others argued that prosecutors had the wrong person.

Lewis’ lawyers said they intend to appeal. His supporters said they plan to hold protests in Howard Beach in Queens, where they said Vetrano’s true killer would be found.

Two of Lewis’ supporters, Kevin McCall and Chris Banks, were arrested outside the Queens courthouse for deliberately blocking traffic after speaking to reporters.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/nyregion/karina-vetrano-chanel-lewis-sentencing.html" id="b40caf02-4751-3160-a696-738a302b214c">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — A Brooklyn man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without chance of parole for the murder and sexual assault of Karina Vetrano, who was attacked as she jogged through a park near her home in Queens in 2016.

But as he looked out from the witness box in a Brooklyn courtroom Friday, he could plainly see the row of angry men staring him down in the audience, all wearing hats that said “Wrongfully Convicted.” They were men he had helped to arrest and put in prison decades ago and who had later been exonerated.

Scarcella was in court to testify about yet another imprisoned man, Nelson Cruz, who claimed he had been framed for murder. Once again, Scarcella was asked to defend his work, and once again, he did so without apology.

When Cruz’s lawyer, Justin Bonus, asked him, “Do you stand by all of the investigations you’ve conducted?” Scarcella replied, “110 percent.”

Derrick Hamilton, 53, was one of the exonerated men listening to Scarcella testify. He spent nearly 21 years in prison for a 1991 killing investigated by Scarcella, before his conviction was overturned in 2015. It was the fourth time he had watched Scarcella testify at a wrongful conviction hearing.

“His story is the same: He doesn’t have anything to do with the case. He wasn’t involved. It was somebody else’s case,” Hamilton said. “But he did all the work.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, Scarcella was a rock-star homicide detective in some of Brooklyn’s most crime-ridden precincts. He cut a swaggering figure, with a taste for cigars and a reputation for persuading even the toughest suspects to confess.

Then in 2013, one of Scarcella’s most celebrated cases — the arrest of David Ranta, an unemployed drug addict convicted of killing a Hasidic rabbi — fell apart after evidence emerged that Ranta had been framed. The collapse of the case led to Ranta’s release from prison after 23 years and to an inquiry into more than 70 homicides that Scarcella had helped to investigate over his long career.

Since then, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office has asked judges eight times to reverse guilty verdicts that Scarcella helped to obtain. Several other people imprisoned for crimes Scarcella investigated have been released by judges after hearings.

In some of those cases, judges noted in their decisions that the former detective had not been truthful in his testimony. Yet he has never been charged with breaking the law or official misconduct.

Scarcella, who retired in 1999 after 26 years as a police officer, has steadfastly stood by his work and has maintained he never fabricated a confession in his life.

Cruz, 38, was a teenager when he was convicted in the March 1998 shooting death of Trevor Vieira in East New York. He has claimed in court filings that Scarcella and his partner, Stephen W. Chmil, pressured a witness to falsely identify Cruz as the gunman, despite police officers at the scene saying he was not there.

A judge rejected Cruz’s first motion to throw out his conviction, but he and his lawyers are rearguing it before Justice ShawnDya L. Simpson with new evidence.

On the stand, Scarcella demurred when asked about his reputation among his peers as a closer other detectives turned to.

“I helped whenever I could.” Scarcella said.

At another point, Bonus asked the retired detective about his 2007 appearance on the television show, “Dr. Phil.” The subject was false confessions.

“Did you say on Dr. Phil there was no rules on homicide investigations?” the lawyer asked.

“I stated there were no rules, but I operated under the law,” Scarcella said. “That’s what everybody leaves out.”

Scarcella, who grew up in Brooklyn, wore a wide-shouldered dark suit with a patterned tie; his thinning hair was slicked back, and he looked like an older version of the sharply dressed detective he used to be.

Friday was not the first time that Scarcella, who now lives on Staten Island, had to come to court since his retirement to answer accusations that he had manufactured evidence or coerced confessions.

He testified in 2017 in a review of the case of Sundhe Moses, whose guilty verdict was later thrown out by a Brooklyn judge. Moses served 18 years for the killing of a 4-year-old girl caught in a hail of gang gunfire and claimed in his appeal that he had confessed after Scarcella choked and punched him.

In 2015, Scarcella said on the stand that he had trouble remembering how he came to arrest a 14-year-old in the 1991 shootings of two off-duty correction officers, one of whom died of his injuries.

Scarcella, 68, was adamant Friday that he did not run the investigation leading to the arrest and conviction of Cruz. He only pitched in, he said, as he was often asked to do. He blamed his incomplete memory on the passage of time and on the sheer number of homicide cases he handled — more than 160 by his own estimate.

He flatly rejected any suggestion that he had ever done anything unethical to get a conviction.

As Bonus reeled off the names of people in other cases who were freed or had convictions overturned, Scarcella refused to discuss some of them. He bristled at hearing old accusations leveled at him again.

“Ridiculous!” he said when asked by Bonus if he had once tilted a lineup by telling witnesses “to pick the guy with the big nose.”

Outside the courtroom, the group of older men in “Wrongfully Convicted” hats mocked Scarcella’s memory lapses as convenient.

“Every time he does this he gets more and more confident because he knows that nothing is going to happen to him,” said Shabuka Shakur, 54, who spent more than 27 years behind bars on a false murder conviction he said was aided by Scarcella.

Hamilton, who is suing Scarcella, said watching the former detective on the stand is torture.

“To see that this guy hasn’t been arrested — it really bothers me,” Hamilton said. “And they call guys like us criminals.”

Scarcella, who had his lawyer by his side during his testimony, declined to answer questions as he left the courthouse in the company of other detectives and union representatives.

This article originally appeared in <a id="4ff29cd0-aea7-4246-b635-2bebcdca18c6" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/nyregion/nypd-detective-louis-scarcella.html">The New York Times</a>.

A former detective accused of framing 8 people for murder is confronted in court

NEW YORK — Louis Scarcella, the former homicide detective, needed paperwork to refresh his memory and glasses borrowed from a prosecutor to read documents he was handed, including reports that he had written himself more than 20 years ago.

Baldwin entered his plea before Judge Herbert Moses, speaking just enough to signal he understood the deal being offered. He had been charged with misdemeanor assault as well, but prosecutors let him plead to only harassment instead.

Baldwin, known for his work on “30 Rock” and his withering portrayal of President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” was ordered to pay a fine of $120 and return to court in March to verify that he completed the anger management course. He left the courthouse without speaking to reporters, and his lawyer, Alan Abramson, declined to comment.

Baldwin, 60, was arrested Nov. 2 on charges that he punched a man in a dispute over a curbside parking spot outside his building on East 10th Street that both men were claiming.

Baldwin and his lawyer insisted that the actor never threw a punch in the scuffle, but, according to court records, he conceded that he had shoved the man, Wojciech Cieszkowski, who he said “stole my spot.”

Baldwin has a history of losing his temper, often paying a price for it.

In 2011, he was thrown off an American Airlines flight after refusing to stop playing a game on his phone before takeoff.

He was suspended in 2013 as host of an MSNBC talk show after he used a gay slur toward a photographer trying to take pictures of Baldwin and his wife and baby outside their building.

A year later, he was arrested and given a summons for disorderly conduct after an argument with police officers who had stopped him bicycling the wrong way on a one-way street in Manhattan.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/nyregion/alec-baldwin-pleads-guilty-harassment.html" id="a7edf3cc-b19b-3425-aa21-b5c1ed04ec33">The New York Times</a>.

NEW YORK — The actor Alec Baldwin pleaded guilty to harassment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Wednesday and agreed to take an anger management course in a deal with prosecutors to dispose of charges that he assaulted a man during a dispute over a parking spot in November.

Alec Baldwin Pleads Guilty in Fight Over Parking Spot

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