Forum Staff
A Massachusetts man has been charged with making terroristic threats and other felony offenses for allegedly planting a fake bomb on top of a car at the Queens Place Mall in Elmhurst, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced last Wednesday.
Louis Shenker, 22, of Amherst, Mass., has been arraigned on charges of placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in a sports stadium or arena, mass transportation facility, or enclosed shopping mall, and making a terroristic threat. Shenker was ordered held without bail and scheduled to return to court on Jan. 25.
Katz said that, according to the criminal charges, on Monday, Jan. 4, at approximately 4:50 a.m., the defendant and an unapprehended other perpetrator were observed by a City Police officer standing next to a black Tesla that displayed a Nevada loaner license plate. The vehicle had both its front and rear hoods and all four doors open. Officer Cruz further observed the defendant and unapprehended other perpetrator
arrow The vehicle that prompted a bomb scare in Queens on Monday Obtained by Gothamist
A far-right activist who allegedly staged a bizarre bomb hoax using a Tesla with a husky dog trapped inside the car at the Queens Place Mall Monday was charged with making terroristic threats and other felony charges, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday.
Louis Shenker, 22, of Amherst, Massachusetts was arraigned on charges of placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in a sports stadium or arena, mass transportation facility, or enclosed shopping mall and making a terroristic threat, Katz said in a press release Wednesday.
Growing Concerns Over City Jails Handling Of The Pandemic’s Second Wave
arrow A security fence at Rikers Island in October 2017. Bebeto Matthews/AP/Shutterstock
With New York City’s COVID-19 positivity rate now at more than 9 percent, there are growing concerns about how to protect those incarcerated in city jails and the staffers who work among them.
On Tuesday, the city’s Correctional Health Services reported there were 48 patients with active infections out of a total of just over 5,000 detainees. More than a hundred staffers have been infected since late November. These numbers are nowhere near last spring’s surge, when hundreds of inmates and more than 1,400 staffers were sickened; about a dozen people from both groups, combined, died of COVID-19.
By Forum Staff
Two Queens business owners have been charged with defrauding the New York State Insurance Fund of nearly $3 million, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced.
Manuel Sanchez, 50, of East Elmhurst, and his business, Lagos Construction, have been charged with grand larceny in the first degree, insurance fraud in the first degree, falsifying business records in the first degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and fraudulent practices for allegedly failing to pay insurance premiums of more than $2 million for workers’ compensation insurance covering employees.
A second business owner, Rosa Rodriguez, 37, and her company, Encinos Construction, both located in Corona, have also been charged with grand larceny in the second degree, insurance fraud in the second degree, falsifying business records in the first degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and fraudulent practices for allegedly concealing $3