Tag: new york

Staten Island’s ‘power couple’ District Attorney and top judge are accused of double dipping into taxpayer funds by collecting government salaries AND pensions at the same time

A Staten Island ‘power couple’ comprised of a district attorney and state Supreme Court justice have come under fire for discreetly filing for retirement while continuing to collect yearly salaries.

Michael McMahon, the district attorney of Richmond County, and Judith McMahon, a justice for the Supreme Court’s 13th Judicial District, are being paid six figures while collecting hefty government pensions, according to public records.

The husband-and-wife duo are suspected to be pulling in more than $600,000 in collective gross income.

DA McMahon covertly retired on December 30, 2023, according to a payroll notice independently verified by DailyMail.com.

However, he remained the borough’s chief prosecutor, with a subsequent payroll notice listing him as  ‘appointed’ from January 2 to January 19.

Public records show his yearly salary as $212,800, meaning his annual pension, which has not been disclosed, could be upwards of $127,000.

In a statement to the New York Post, a spokesperson for DA McMahon admitted that he retired last year and subsequently continued to serve as Staten Island’s highest-ranking law enforcement official.

‘After 30-plus years in public service to the people of New York, DA McMahon submitted his retirement papers at the end of 2023 but of course continues to serve as Richmond County District Attorney,’ the representative said.

‘It’s quite frankly a no-brainer for those in public service, as not retiring when you are eligible puts your family at risk to receive no pension at all if you were to die.’

The district attorney’s office declined to share the cost of his pension.

DA McMahon was officially sworn in for his third term on January 2 by none other than his wife. Photos from the ceremony show the pair beaming at each other.

The DA ran unopposed for re-election this past November, pitching himself as a ‘common-sense Democrat’ in a heavily red county.

‘He’s pretty universally beloved,’ a Staten Island Democratic operative told City & State last year. ‘It is fascinating though – you would think any Republican with a pulse could win.’

Justice McMahon retired even earlier than her husband, effective December 31, 2022, according to public records.

She receives a $210,900 annual salary while collecting a $122,916 pension.

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Political Stupidity and Bureaucratic Bungling Created New York’s Pot Legalization ‘Disaster’

As of last June, more than two years after New York legalized recreational marijuana, just 12 state-licensed dispensaries had opened for business, falling far short of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s prediction that more than 100 would be operating by that summer. Six months later, Hochul was bragging that “nearly 40 adult-use dispensaries will have opened in 2023.” The current count is 87. Those stores, The New York Times notes, “are far outnumbered by more than 2,000 rogue head shops, the target of complaints that they siphon customers, sell to children and attract criminals.”

New York’s rollout of marijuana legalization has been a “disaster,” as Hochul conceded in January. “Every other storefront” is an unlicensed pot shop, she told The Buffalo News. “It’s insane.”

That disaster has frustrated would-be retailers, left farmers in the lurch, played havoc with tax revenue projections, and made a joke out of any expectation that New York, by learning from the experience of states that legalized marijuana earlier, would do a better job of displacing the black market. The insanity that Hochul perceives is a product of bad decisions by politicians who should have known better and obstruction by regulators who sacrificed efficiency on the altar of diversity.

Unlike states such as New Jersey, where voters approved legalization in 2020, and Maryland, where a similar ballot initiative passed two years later, New York did not initially allow existing medical dispensaries to start serving the recreational market. Its slow and complicated licensing process, which was skewed by an “equity” program that prioritized approval of applicants with marijuana-related criminal records or their relatives, is maddeningly hard to navigate.

Those preferences invited lawsuits by people who were excluded, which further delayed approval of licenses. Guidance and financial help for people struggling to jump through the state’s hoops never materialized. And as in other states, high taxes and burdensome regulations have made it hard for licensed businesses to compete with unauthorized dealers.

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“It’s Enraging”: NYPD Arrest Homeowner For Changing Locks After Squatters Break In

Adele Andaloro, 47, was placed under arrest at her $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, which she inherited from her parents after they died.

“It’s enraging,” Andaloro told the NY Post. “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.“

Andaloro claims the ordeal erupted when she started the process of trying to sell the home last month but realized squatters had moved in — and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.

Fed up, she recently went to her family’s home on 160th Street — with the local TV outlet in tow — and called a locksmith to change the locks for her. -NY Post

The spat with the squatters, which was caught on camera, rapidly erupted into a verbal altercation until the cops showed up and led Andaloro away – charging her with ‘unlawful eviction.’

As the Post notes, people can claim “squatter’s rights” if they’ve been squatting for just 30 days at a property. This makes it illegal for homeowners to change the locks, turn off the utilities, or remove the squatters’ belongings.

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Two squatters who took over NYC home of woman found beaten to death, stuffed in duffel bag are being sought for murder: cops

Two squatters are being sought over the gruesome murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her late mother’s upscale Manhattan apartment last week, police said Thursday.

The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten by the two perps when she discovered them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week, according to cops.

Having just flown in from Spain, Vitel had gone to her late mom’s apartment — which had been vacant for roughly three to four months — to start prepping it so a family friend could move in.

“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home … and walked in on the squatters that were there,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said.

The brutal beatdown left Vitel with blunt force trauma to the head, multiple facial fractures, a brain bleed and two broken ribs, cops said.

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Exposed: ‘Charity’ Caught Distributing Fraudulent Papers For Illegal Aliens To Obtain Gov’t ID

Undercover video by citizen journalists caught a charity that caters to illegal aliens illegally filling out residency documents for a man with no form of identification.

Muckraker.com journalists teamed up with The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project to reveal the illegal alien fraud pipeline taking place in New York City.

The nonprofit La Jornada, based in Queens, describes itself as an organization “committed to justice and equality” whose goal is “helping migrants navigate the complex asylum processes and other legal procedures.”

Video shows a La Jornada employee admitting that distributing residency documents is against the law before doing so with another person the next day.

The undercover video also shows the organization distributing paperwork to get a government-issued New York City identification card through the city’s IDNYC program.

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‘It’s going to be war’: Hundreds of furious Brooklyn residents take to the streets to protest planned homeless shelter for 150 men

Thousands of protesters descended on a Brooklyn neighborhood Saturday to protest a planned homeless shelter that will house only men.

The shelter, proposed by the city, will be a 32-room hotel with a community facility, and will provide services like case management, housing placement, and community partnerships that will work to provide the men with jobs.

The planned site is located in heavily residential Bensonhurst, where locals have expressed unease over the site’s proximity to several schools.

City officials have shot back that the neighborhood is one of few in the five boroughs without a shelter, and that residents have had ample notice, being notified back in November.

Unswayed, residents, business owners, and politicians in the mostly Asian neighborhood came together Saturday to say no to the city’s plans, as Mayor Eric Adams‘ administration works to address the city’s rapidly rising homeless rate.

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OUTRAGEOUS: FDNY Firefighters Who Booed Tyrant AG Letitia James Ordered to Surrender or Risk Being Hunted Down — Will Face Punishment and Reeducation

Members of the New York Fire Department (FDNY) who are fed-up with Trump-hating fascist attorney general Letitia James during a recent promotion ceremony are now facing severe consequences.

The Gateway Pundit first reported the incident wherein a wave of boos and chants supporting President Trump overshadowed the event.

A large group of firefighters made their stance perfectly clear during Thursday’s New York Fire Department (FDNY) promotion ceremony regarding James’s inquisition of President Trump.

After honoring FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh, James’s speech was effectively drowned out by LOUD pro-Trump chants in the crowd. She struggles a bit to find her words amidst the commotion.

You can also hear a few boos and heckles from the crowd as well in the video.

Upon beginning her speech, many in the crowd loudly booed James. The triggered attorney general responded to the dissenters by saying “Come on, we’re in a house of God…simmer down,” according to Newsweek.

James should look in the mirror and take her own advice. Her treatment of Trump is certainly not God-approved.

In response to the incident, FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh has initiated a hunt for those responsible for the outburst. FDNY Chief of Department John Hodges sent an email to the department’s leadership, stating that the Bureau of Investigation and Trials (BITS) would be conducting an investigation into the matter.

He urged those involved to come forward voluntarily, implying that consequences would be less severe for those who did not wait to be “hunted down.”

“BITS is investigating this so they will figure out who the members are. I recommend they come forward. I have been told by the Commissioner It will be better for them if they come forward and we don’t have to hunt them down,” the email reads.

“The DC’s shall direct the Captain of the Company to make a list of those that come forward and send it directly to John and Kevin in Operations. I realize members might not come forward but they should know that there is clear video of the entire incident and they will be contacted by BITS if they don’t,” it added.

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Alvin Bragg’s Prison Reform Poster Boy (And Joe Rogan Guest) Charged With Murder

Sheldon Johnson, a “criminal justice activist,” is being held on murder charges following a gruesome discovery in a Bronx apartment: a dismembered body. The body, it is alleged, is that of a former prison rival.

Johnson, 48, worked at Queens Defenders (@QueensDefenders), a public legal defense firm.

Johnson became something of a cause célèbre in the past year. He was released early from prison, having served 25 years of a 50 year sentence. His release was the work of activist D.A. Alvin Bragg, who has sought to decriminalize and forgive scores of prisoners. We continue to see the fruit of his labors.

After he was spotted by a neighbor of the deceased, Johnson was monitored by building superintendent Orlando Medina on CCTV. Johnson left and returned to the apartment complex several times, once in a blond wig. The police were summoned. According to the NY Times, what they eventually discovered was gruesome.

Once the detectives obtained a warrant to search the apartment, they discovered the victim’s torso and feet inside the bin, the reports said. They also found his legs, arms and head in the freezer. Mr. Small had been shot at least once in the head.

—NYT

Wrote To Alvin Bragg From Prison

Johnson wrote to D.A. Bragg from prison, using the website PrisonWriters.com, a nonprofit organization that seeks so open channels of dialogue between prisoners and lawmakers. His letter is full of verbal flourishes, woke jargon, and fifty-cent words. The full body of the letter can be found here.

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Gov. Hochul deploys 1,000 National Guardsmen, state cops to carry out bag checks in NYC subways

Hundreds of National Guard troops began flooding city subways Wednesday as part of a crime-fighting plan suddenly unveiled by Gov. Kathy Hochul following a series of attacks underground.

The governor defended the major show of force — not seen since the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks — as an “even better” way to help New York City “solve this crisis.”

“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Hochul declared from the MTA’s Transit Rail Control Center in Midtown, pointing to last week’s random slashing of a train conductor and other recent acts of violence.

In total, 750 National Guardsmen and 250 state and MTA cops will help the NYPD patrol “the city’s busiest transit stations” and check commuters’ bags, Hochul said – adding the initiative came after meetings with Mayor Eric Adams, MTA officials and the NYPD last week.

The announcement of her “five point plan” to combat transit crime came the day after Adams — who was noticeably absent from the gov’s press conference — had already revealed the NYPD would be enhancing bag checks and stepping up its presence in the system.

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NYPD is to bring back stop and search at subway stops says liberal Mayor Eric Adams in a bid to halt rampant violence – more than a decade after it was deemed ‘unconstitutional’

New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams says he is bringing back bag checks for subway riders after a 13 percent crime spike – over a decade after the city’s similar ‘stop-and-frisk’ policy was deemed unconstitutional.

Recent criminal activity on the trains making headlines include a cellist who was bludgeoned over the head by a stranger wielding a water bottle as he performed, as well as a shooting that killed one and injured five others.

‘We know people feel unsafe,’ Adams, himself a former transit police officer, admitted during a press briefing. 

The mayor said he will be bringing back methods that have been previously used in times of great suspicion.  

‘We are reinstituting bag checks. There are several things we are reinstituting in the system,’ Adams added, with the NYPD reportedly searching bags for weapons such as knives, box cutters, clubs and guns. 

There will be 94 bag screening teams sent to 136 stations each week, though the exact locations will be determined. The city is also reviewing technology to detect metal objects entering the transit system. 

Screening teams will be able to check bags of any passenger for weapons under the policy that has long been dormant. 

Those subway back-check protocols were originally brought to the MTA after the London bombings in 2005. 

However, it may bring back memories of the city’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ policy, which was ended in 2014 after being deemed ‘unconstitutional.’ 

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