MANHATTAN
A bookkeeper has been busted for stealing more than $50,000 from the East Village nonprofit group for which she had worked for five years, authorities said yesterday.
Felicia Blackman, 44, had issued checks and handled expenses for the Cooper Square Committee, which works to preserve affordable housing, since 2003.
Blackman allegedly wrote herself more than 40 checks from the organization’s bank account from June 24, 2005, to Nov. 7, 2007.
She was arrested last Friday and charged with grand larceny.
Police have arrested a man for allegedly writing fake prescriptions and selling hydrocodone on the street.
Manuel Gonzalez, 24, wrote himself a prescription for Tussionex, a brand of the painkiller, and picked up the medicine at a pharmacy on East 34th Street near Third Avenue last Thursday, police said.
Gonzalez allegedly intended to resell the drugs on the street.
He was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, forgery, falsifying business records and criminal impersonation.
A homeless man was arrested for masturbating in Central Park, police sources said yesterday.
Manuel Silva allegedly pleasured himself near the ravine at 102nd Street and Cross Drive at 4:40 p.m. Saturday.
A woman spotted Silva and notified police, who charged him with public lewdness.
A teenager was arrested for shattering a man’s jaw on the Upper West Side, police sources said yesterday.
Edwin Vasquez, 18, allegedly punched the 22-year-old victim in the face at Broadway and West 77th Street at 6 a.m. Saturday. Police arrested Vasquez on assault charges.
It was unclear if he and the victim had been acquainted.
The victim’s injuries were described as not life threatening.
A thug socked a man in the face after throwing a slice of pizza at him in Greenwich Village, police sources said yesterday.
Mark Krause, 32, of Tampa, Fla., was screaming inside a pizza restaurant on MacDougal Street near Bleecker Street at 3:55 a.m. Saturday.
Suddenly, he walked outside and tossed the pizza at a 23-year-old man, police said. Then he allegedly punched the victim in the face, knocking out a tooth.
Police busted Krause on an assault charge. The motive was not known.
A Long Island man has been arrested for assaulting a man in a Midtown office building last month, police sources said yesterday.
Didier Metellus, of Hempstead, clashed with the 37-year-old man in the building on Sixth Avenue near West 54th Street at 6:20 a.m. on Feb. 12, cops said.
It was unclear what sparked the dispute, but Metellus allegedly punched the man in the head, knocking him to the floor.
The victim was released after receiving four stitches at St. Luke’s Hospital. Metellus was tracked down Saturday and charged with assault.
QUEENS
Two of three thieves have been arrested in a knifepoint robbery in Jackson Heights, authorities said yesterday.
Carlos Fernandez, 20, Ralph Moran, 32, and an accomplice confronted the 45-year-old victim on Junction Boulevard near Northern Boulevard at about 11:25 p.m. on March 5, cops said.
Fernandez rifled through the man’s pockets, removed $80 and told his cohorts to “get the knife,” according to authorities. One of his accomplices pulled a knife as Fernandez grabbed the victim’s sweatshirt, cops said.
The victim managed to wiggle out of it and run off, sources said. Fernandez chased him into a nearby store, hitting him with a metal can and a cellphone, causing minor injuries, cops said.
The thugs fled, but Moran was captured the next day and Fernandez was arrested last Monday. Both were charged with robbery, said a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown. The third man is being sought.
An elderly drunken driver was arrested in Springfield Gardens after he crashed into a car, police said yesterday.
Sam Larkin, 79, was driving a 1996 Dodge Suburban along Baisley Boulevard near Bedell Street on March 18 when he hit another car, police said.
Cops were called and found that Larkin had a bottle of Georgi vodka near the front seat and a small cup filled with the booze.
Larkin failed a Breathalyzer test and was charged with operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, according to authorities.
The 22-year-old woman behind the wheel of the struck car was treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital.
STATEN ISLAND
A man was arrested for driving drunk on the Verrazano Bridge, police said yesterday.
The suspect, who uses only one name, Amarauth, was pulled over after police noticed he was driving a Lincoln Navigator with two flat tires on Saturday night.
Amarauth refused a Breathalyzer test and was charged with DWI, authorities said.
Two brothers were arrested for fighting with cops after one of the siblings was caught smoking pot in Fox Hills early yesterday, police said.
Cops patrolling the Park Hill Houses found James Peters, 23, smoking in a stairwell shortly after midnight, they said. Peters allegedly cursed at the cops and resisted arrest by kicking and flailing his arms.
His brother Johnny heard the commotion and then allegedly hit one of the cops.
The pair was charged with resisting arrest, assault and harassment, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan said.
