QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, July 20, 2017 Page 18
C M SQ page 18 Y K
Arrests, rulings in Queens ACS deaths Lewis relatives charged; Guzman homicide by Michael Gannon Editor
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GANNON
Borough Hall building boom
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The construction tally at Borough Hall is one project winding down with another just getting heated up. At top, workers last week removed a tall green construction fence from the fountain that used to sit beneath the controversial “Civic Vir tue” statue. The statue was removed for restoration and re-siting in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery in 2012.
Above, some of the first signs of impending major construction work have cropped up behind the construction fence on the future site of a 304-space public parking lot convenient to both Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Courthouse. It will be on the site of a multilevel parking garage that was condemned in 2014 and torn down in 2015.
Liu slapped with $26K in fines Former Flushing City Councilman John Liu has been hit with $26,059 in Campaign Finance Board fines for violations made during his 2013 mayoral campaign. The election body announced the decision last Thursday. The financial penalties were for material misrepresentation and fraud and other offenses, failing to document transactions and other offenses, according to the CFB. Although fines and interest from penalties issued by the Environmental Control Board for Liu’s 2009 comptroller campaign amounted to $528,300, the New York Post
said, the city took the $2,731.49 in his campaign account and does not have a claim against Liu personally to pursue. The penalties, the paper reported, were against his campaign and not him as an individual. The Law Department did not immediately respond when asked to verify the Post’s reporting. Earlier this year, Liu had been fined $15,253 for CFB violations made during his 2009 bid for city comptroller. Liu could not immediately be reached for Q comment before deadline. — Ryan Brady
The grandparents of a three-year-old Richmond Hill boy have been arrested in connection with his July 2016 death. The arrests of Romeo Lewis’ grandparents came four days after the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the Jan. 22 death of Michael Guzman, 5, of Jamaica to have been a homicide. Police said Sita Parsad-Moore, 42, of 108th Street in Richmond Hill, was charged with manslaughter, first-degree reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 years old. Vincent Moore, 40, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17 years old. Both were arrested in the 102nd Precinct. Romeo’s death was classified as a homicide last month. He and Michael are among seven young children since June 2016 who have died under suspicious circumstances that had cases with or known to the city’s Administration for Children’s Services. Romeo died in 2016 five days after police from the 102nd Precinct were called to Long Island Jewish Hospital’s Cohen’s Children’s Center in Glen Oaks for a report of possible child abuse. Officers allegedly discovered the tot with bruises and trauma to his body. He had been brought to Cohen’s from Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. Published reports state that the charges against his grandparents stem from allegedly waiting too long to seek medical help for the boy. Michael Guzman died of acute phenobarbital intoxication, according to a statement from New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The drug is used to treat seizures, and Michael was epileptic. The ACS had made 13 visits to the Guzman home, eight resulting in findings of abuse or neglect of Michael or one of his five siblings. Michael reportedly had been dead for about 12 hours when he was discovered in
his bed, according to published reports. No arrests have been made. Ongoing problems within the ACS resulted in the resignation in February of former Commissioner Gladys Carrion. The ACS was investigated by the state’s Office of Children and Family Services beginning last September under orders from Gov. Cuomo following the death of Zymere Perkins, 6, of Harlem. Authorities allege that he was beaten by his mother’s boyfriend. Last Dec. 3, Jaden Jordan, 3, of Brooklyn died after allegedly being beaten into a coma, also allegedly at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend. His death would be the subject of a scathing report from the city’s Department of Investigation on the ACS’s actions in handling his case. On. Jan. 26, four days after Michael Guzman died, Zamair Coombs, 4, also of Brooklyn, died after allegedly being beaten by his mother for dropping an egg on the floor. In February of this year, the June 2016 death of 1-month-old Nichelle Warring of Brooklyn was ruled a homicide. The death in March of 16-month-old Bianca Abdul of Staten Island occurred after Carrion’s departure from the agency and remains under investigation. The same day Zamair Coombs died, thecity’s Department of Investigation issued its report in Jaden Jordan’s death and called for numerous reforms at the ACS. One day after that, on. Jan. 27, the state’s Office of Children and Family Services approved an outside monitor for ACS whom Mayor de Blasio said on Dec. 13 he would appoint — without mentioning that Gov. Cuomo had ordered the city to do so one day earlier. The appointment was made one day before Cuomo’s deadline On Dec. 1, the state’s findings were presented to the ACS, and on Dec. 12, Commissioner Carrion and de Blasio announced her resignation. But while testifying before the state Senate in late January, de Blasio acknowledged that Carrion was still on the Q job, but would be gone by Feb. 3.
23 to life for bar killing A Jamaica man on Tuesday was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison for the beating death of a Bangladeshi immigrant in a Hillside Avenue bar in September 2012. David Louime, 32, was convicted of second-degree murder back in May. He attacked Isteak Quadir, 51, in the old Hillside Inn at 168-02 Hillside Ave, punching him in the face and knocking him to the floor. He continued kicking and stomping Quadir, whose brain injuries required him to be on a ventilator until he died in 2014.
“This was a senseless act of brutality,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement issued by his office. “The victim was knocked to the floor and was defenseless when the defendant repeatedly punched and kicked him. “The defendant stomped on his head as the victim lay motionless and unconscious on the floor. The 51-year-old suffered severe brain damage as a result of the beating inflicted by the defendant and was left in a semi-vegetative state for approximately 15 months until his death,” Q Brown added.