Police Blotter
Stalker arrest
Police arrested Brady Green, 37, on Tues. March 18 and charged him with stalking Tyra Banks, the supermodel and television hostess, at her TV studio in Chelsea.
Green, who hails from Dublin, Ga. and is currently homeless, had been stalking Banks since Dec. 25, 2007 at her Los Angeles studio and at least five times in the studio at 225 W. 26th St., according to her security team.
Green turned up at the Chelsea studio at 4:34 p.m. Tuesday and demanded to see Banks, but 10th Precinct officers escorted him out and warned that he would be arrested if he came back, police said. The suspect returned at 7:22 p.m. but fled when the studio phoned police, who apprehended him at MacDonald’s, 335 Eighth Ave., two blocks from the studio. Green is to appear in court May 13 on charges of stalking, criminal trespass and harassment.
Gallery theft
A man arrested on Tue. March 18 in the office of a Chelsea art gallery for stealing a wallet from a gallery attendant was charged later with stealing pictures from three West Chelsea art galleries where he posed as a customer in February, police said.
Mike Lemoine, 35, was arrested at 5:22 p.m. in Bellwether Gallery, 525 W. 22nd St., after an employee spotted him pocketing a wallet from the front desk, police said. Lemoine, a Queens resident, was later identified as the man who posed as a customer at C.U.E. Gallery at 10:20 p.m., Feb. 6 and made off with two pictures. He was charged with taking two paintings from Denis Bibro Fine Arts and one picture from the Jonathan Levine Gallery, both in 529 W. 20th St., around 5 p.m. on Feb. 27.
Lemoine was being held in lieu of $7,500 bail pending an April 22 court appearance.
Cabdriver robbed
Police arrested Paula Mergel, 43, on Tues. March 13 at the Senton Hotel, 39 W. 27th St. and charged her with attempting to rob a woman cabdriver who had picked the suspect up at about 9:40 a.m. on 10th Ave. at 55th St.
At Ninth Ave. and W. 29th St., Mergel got into an argument with the driver and said, “I am an undercover cop,” according to police. When the driver was reaching into a fanny pack to make change, Mergel reached through the open partition and made a grab for the cash, police said. During the struggle Mergel grabbed the driver’s throat, but failed to get any money and fled on foot east on 28th St.
The driver, however, had her cell phone on during the entire trip, and her friend on the other end of the call phoned police, who decided to check the Senton Hotel where they spotted a woman who fit the driver’s description of her assailant,
Mergel has 15 prior arrests, but none for robbery. She was being held in lieu of $5,000 bail pending a March 24 court appearance.
Club crime
Police arrested Melanie Hinatsu, 48, at 12:45 a.m. Mon., March 17 at Eagle bar, 554 W. 28 St. and charged her with hitting a male patron over the head with a pool cue stick.
Andrea Reilly, 27, was arrested a 2:45 a.m. Sat. March 14 in Pink Elephant, 527 W. 27th St., for rifling through another patron’s bag and taking $450, police said. Reilly was also carrying another woman patron’s bag when she was arrested, police said.
Shooting and stabbing
A fracas among four men outside 415 W. 25th St. in the Elliott Chelsea Houses on Monday afternoon, March 17 ended with one man who was shot in both legs being charged with stabbing another victim.
William Willson, 23, was charged with stabbing a man, 25, at about 4:30 p.m., and a few minutes latter was hit by two shots fired by a relative of the stabbing victim, police said.
Bank robbery
Police are looking for a man who walked into the Wachovia bank branch at 66 Ninth Ave. at W. 15th St. at 10:55 a.m. Fri., Feb.29, waived a handgun at a teller and demanded money. The thief, described as being in his 30s, between 5’6” and 5’9”, weighing 160 pounds and having a mustache, was wearing a black hooded jacket, dark pants, black gloves and light brown-tinted glasses. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Busta sentenced
Trevor Smith, the hip-hop performer known as Busta Rhymes, was sentenced on Tues., March 18 to community service and probation on two assault charges, one in December 2006 in Lower Manhattan and the other in August 2006 in Chelsea.
Smith, 35, pleaded guilty to beating his former driver in December 2006 on W. Broadway near Chambers St. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a fan in August 2006 whom he accused of spitting on his car parked on W. 19th St. at Sixth Ave.
Criminal Court Judge Larry Stephen imposed the no-jail sentence of three years probation and 10 days of community service despite a prosecution recommendation for at least a year in jail. Smith agreed not to associate with convicted felons except for his brother and for others while onstage or in a studio performing with them.
Armani robbery arrest
Police arrested Maurice Cato, 36, on Fri., March 14 and charged him with being one of three men whose shoplifting foray in the Flatiron District last December turned into a knifepoint robbery.
A security guard at Armani Exchange, 129 Fifth Ave. at 20th St., spotted three men stealing a coat off the rack at 2:40 p.m. on Dec. 26. When the guard confronted the trio, one of the thieves pulled a knife, helping all three to escape, police said.
Cato was the only one arrested so far and is in jail in lieu of $1,500 bail pending a June24 court appearance.
Assault police officer
Police arrested Leighton Buckley, 34, for fighting with a traffic officer at 1:40 p.m. Sun., March 16 who ordered him to move his car doubled parked on the northwest corner of Ninth Ave. at W. 23rd St. Police said Buckley got out the car and tangled with the officer who used Mace to subdue the victim, police said.
Marijuana arrests
Mike Broderick, 26, and his brother, Matthew Broderick, 24, were arrested at 1:20 a.m. Sun., March 16 on the northeast corner of 11th Ave. and W. 26th St. and charged with selling more than 25 grams of marijuana to a third person. Police said the suspects fled when police approached and resisted arrest after they were apprehended.
Police stopped Joseph Cordero, 23, in a car with defective rear lights on the southwest corner of Ninth Ave. and W. 18th St. at 3:10 a.m. Sat., March 15, detected a strong smell of marijuana and charged him with possession of more than 25 grams.
Crazed assault
A resident of 244 W. 23rd St., Michael Lucas, 36, was arrested on Sat., March 15, after a neighbor told police the defendant slapped and scratched him. Witnesses said Lucas broke several items in one of the apartments of the building and cut himself on the arm by the time police arrived.
— By Albert Amateau
