Prostitute kidnapped, forced to service multiple 'Johns' before leaping through 6th floor Harlem window to escape: DA

A trio of Manhattan men held a female prostitute enslaved for two days in apartments on the Upper West Side and Harlem, forcing her to have sex with multiple additional "customers" until -- desperate to escape -- she jumped from a sixth story window, prosecutors said in describing a horrific rape-kidnapping case today.

The unnamed woman had gone last November to an escort job at an apartment on West 92nd St. and Columbus Avenue -- only to have her "John" steal her cell phone, money and identification, telling her, "You're not leaving the apartment -- you're working for me and making me money."

That first "John," -- an unapprehended man identified only as "Mike," struck her and held a pillow to her face when she protested, prosecutors say. The woman repeatedly snuck 911 calls on a cell phone she found in the apartment, but couldn't give an accurate address, and police were unable to save her, officials said.

The woman was taken the next night to a second apartment on West 149th Street -- where there were six or seven additional men waiting to have sex with her. "You do what I say in there," "Mike" allegedly threatened her again.

Instead, she climbed out of a window of the sixth-floor apartment -- attempting to use her jacket as a rope but instead falling to the ground, breaking both femurs and her back, according to the complaint against the two men who have been arrested as codefendants in the alleged rape-kidnapping so far.

Defendant Johnny Jackson, 53, told cops that his only involvement was in lending his apartment out so "Mike" could bring "a girl" over for prostitution. "She was OK with it," he insisted. "She didn't want to leave."

"My client is an honorably discharged Marine -- that's all I feel comfortable saying right now," Jackson's lawyer, Arnold Keith, said after Jackson and co-defendant Benjamin Gaston, 36, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Supreme Court.

"The facts of this crime are truly heinous," Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance said after today's arraignment. "These defendants are accused of holding a woman hostage in order to essentially enslave and prostitute her."

Read More..

Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

Read More..

Crime Watch: Monitor your kids’ credit reports to catch fraud early

Several of you have emailed me with some horrific stories regarding your child having their Social Security number taken by identity thieves. The crooks then open up credit card accounts, which they don’t pay, thereby trashing the youngster’s credit score.

Therefore I am going to share the information again with you.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, child identity theft is a growing problem.

As we all know, parents apply for a Social Security number after a baby is born because nowadays you need it for filing your income tax. Well, criminals are making good use of those numbers. Children are the new target for identity thieves. They make a great target because it can be years before it will be detected, when the victim finally gets old enough to apply for credit.

This is a huge issue, and we need to start with checking to make sure that our children’s Social Security numbers have not been stolen. Parents really need to start taking action now, even if you just have a newborn. Identity theft could affect your child’s future credit and employment history if the thieves (who sometimes turn out to be family members according to the TransUnion credit agency) obtain credit accounts or event get jobs with your child’s identity.

How do you know if your child’s identity has been stolen? This is where you need to start paying attention:

First, you need to check with the Social Security Administration once a year to make sure no one is using your child’s number. Secondly, you need to check your child’s credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228. By law you are entitled to free report once a year from each of the three major credit -reporting companies.

Third, if your child starts getting suspicious mail, like pre-approved credit cards and other financial offers normally sent only to adults, pay attention.

Not to fret if you get started now and work with the different credit agencies, because many of them have programs to flag your child’s information, just visit their sites or email me and I will send you the information.

Now here is something you can help with by asking your legislators to do what Maryland did by passing a Child Identity Lock bill that allows parents to take step of freezing their child’s credit at any time. The legislative session starts this week in Tallahassee, so make those calls.

Read More..

Spike: The 'Spock' of 'Buffy'?

Fans of Avengers director Joss Whedon's campy ‘90s teen vampire show Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be hard pressed not to think of actor James Marsters' pivotal, genre-defying role as suave bad-boy vampire Spike when reminiscing about the series. But what did Marsters think of the character?

"In Buffy, I thought that I wanted to be the new Spock," he tells ET. "I was a little side character that no one really thought would be much, but I kind of turned the theme at a different angle so you could kind of look at it. …Spock was that side character that nobody thought would be much and he ended up kind of turning the theme on its head, ‘cause Star Trek really was about human beings perfecting a world view and then sharing it with the galaxy, and then Spock was just trying to figure out how to be human in the first place."

The now fifty-something star was just one of many sci-fi icons present at Creation Entertainment’s Grand Slam Convention: The Star Trek and Sci-Fi Summit in Burbank, CA, among other such notables as Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, and many more.

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fun! Giants on the Big Screen

Marsters went on to do a bit of reminiscing himself, eventually giving us his take on the differences between the more traditional, aggressive Buffy vampires of then and the softer, more melodramatic Twilight vampires of now. "In the world of Buffy, vampires were supposed to be ugly and very quickly dead. Joss used to say that he wasn't into the Anne Rice thing. He didn't want vampires to be romantic. That's why in Buffy when we bite people we become hideously ugly. Because in Buffy vampires are a metaphor for all the problems you face in adolescence. So, the vampires of today are very different. They're more in the Anne Rice vein. And that's cool too."

"I think every generation has their own take on vampires, and I think it's fabulous," he continued. "I think vampires, for some reason, they are the most malleable of all of the basic archetypes of horror. Like, wolfman has to be wolfman, has to be a good man or woman that's forced to do evil by the moon. If the wolfman is a jerk, it just doesn't work. Or, if the invisible man is not a jerk, it won't work. The reason the invisible man works is he's a real jerk and so the audience is terrified when he's invisible cause, what's he going to do now? If it's a really nice guy and he's invisible, who cares? But for some reason, vampires can almost be anything. You can use them to whatever ends that you want. Whatever the zeitgeist is in this decade, or whatever, vampires can morph to fit that."

Naked Fan's Encounter with 'Fringe' Star

When talking about Buffy creator Whedon, Marsters fondly referred to the man as a "true artist," though he recalled one encounter in particular that made him realize that even the most talented of artists suffer their creations. "I asked him one time, 'It must be wonderful to wind up the universe and just see how it plays out,’ and he was sweating. He was like, 'Yeah, the problem is I have to keep winding.' He was really killing himself to put the show out, and basically do a 48-hour movie every week, and so I got to see him under intense pressure."

"He's a genius," Marsters concluded, "so it's like, some days you'll get a huge amount of love, and some days you want to hide from him."

Creation Entertainment, the company behind the event, hosts a number of interactive film and television genre conventions throughout the year. For more information on upcoming events, CLICK HERE.

Read More..

2nd person arrested after missing mom found dismembered, scattered around Bronx nabe

A man has been busted for allegedly helping his friend chop up his own mother's body after a woman's dismembered remains were found in trash bags in the Bronx.

Sources said that the son will likely be charged with stabbing 45-year-old Tanya Byrd to death.

SON IN ALLEGED SAVAGE CHOP RAMPAGE: SOURCES

Her 23-year-old son, Bahsid McLean, and his acquaintance, 26-year-old William Harris, have been arrested on charges of unlawfully dissecting a human body and hindering prosecution — but not on murder or manslaughter charges.

Police say they're still investigating, and one of the men may be responsible for her death.

Tomas E. Gaston

Tanya Byrd's body was chopped up and scattered around her Bronx neighborhood.

It isn't immediately clear whether the suspects have lawyers. No phone numbers could be found for their homes.

Yesterday, sources told The Post that the lunatic son hacked up his mother and dumped her remains all over the neighborhood because the woman told him to grow up and move out.

The dismembered remains of the home health aide and devoted mother of three were found in four locations around Morrisania beginning at around 4 a.m. by a father and son walking their dog.

McLean confessed to the horrific crime — telling cops he did it, “basically because his mom wanted him to grow up and move out and be a man,” said a law-enforcement source.

Her body parts were wrapped in plastic, with some stuffed in luggage, cops said.

Police discovered a saw blade and gloves in their apartment, which reeked of bleach, the law-enforcement sources said. A box for a new Black & Decker handsaw was found in the apartment, but the tool was missing.

McLean, being held with charges pending last night, told cops he chopped up his mother in the bathtub, where he drained the blood, the sources said.

He and Harris were seen on surveillance video hauling the bags out of the house, the sources said. After at first confessing to the crime, he changed his story and said his cohort killed her.

“He and another guy are blaming each other,” said a law-enforcement source. “He’s constantly changing his story as we find more physical evidence. There’s no question he did it.”

The dog walkers who found some of the remains picked up two bags thinking they contained books, law-enforcement sources said.

They later realized it contained an arm and leg and called cops in a panic.

McLean was arrested for stealing cash from his mother in 2009.

His grandfather said the man was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was institutionalized for much of his childhood.

With AP. Additional reporting by Dan MacLeod

Read More..

Miami hotels saw big numbers in January

College football was good to South Florida hotels last month.

Boosted by the Jan. 7 BCS National Championship Game, the Miami-Dade hospitality industry reported strong year-over-year improvement.

Hotels countywide were 82.5 percent full, an increase of 4.7 percentage points compared to the previous year, according to data from Smith Travel Research. Rates leapt more than 12 percent to top an average of $211 a night, and revenue per available room soared 17.5 percent to $174.26.

Broward too posted gains, though not as large. Hotel occupancy increased one percentage point to 80.1 percent at average rates of almost $141, nearly 6 percent higher than January of 2012. Per-room revenue increased 7 percent to nearly $113.

In the Florida Keys, hotels were 79.2 percent full, a jump of nearly 5 percentage points. Rates were up more than 7 percent to $225.42 a night, with revenue increasing 12.6 percent to $178.53.

Read More..

Handcuffed suspect eludes Hollywood cops

Hollywood Police are looking for a man who escaped policy custody Tuesday afternoon in front of a doctor’s office.

The man, identified as Marc Vega, was placed under arrest for a domestic dispute in front of Pediatric Associates at 4500 Sheridan St. about 2 p.m., said Sgt. Lester Cochenour.

The female victim suffered injuries to her face and other areas of her body including her legs, Cochenour said.

Cochenour said Vega, donning handcuffs, managed to pry open the back door of the police car.

The man, who was covering his handcuffs with a green shirt and wearing a white or gray T-shirt, was heading south through several Hollywood neighborhoods, police said.

According to police, Vega is 6-feet-2, 220 pounds and is sporting tattoos throughout his body.

Cochenour said unmarked and marked police cars, K-9 units and a helicopter were searching for the man.

Anyone who spots Vega is asked to call 9-1-1.

Read More..

Carrie Fisher Briefly Hospitalized

ET confirms that Star Wars legend Carrie Fisher was hospitalized briefly in Los Angeles following a medical incident related to her bipolar disorder.

Pics: Actors Who Almost Got the Part

According to the 56-year-old star's rep, "There was a medical incident related to Carrie Fisher's bipolar disorder. She went to the hospital briefly to adjust her medication and is feeling much better now." Fisher is currently in Los Angeles.

The star was recently honored with the Utah Film Center's Kim Peek Award for Disability in Media for her forthright candor in dealing with her bipolar disorder and for raising awareness about the condition, saying that people suffering from bipolar disorder must choose between being a victim and "taking it on and flying in the face of it."

Related: Carrie Fisher Loses 50 Pounds!

The accomplished writer and performer has also been making headlines as of late with rampant speculation that the original Star Wars trilogy cast will appear in the in-development Star Wars VII, directed by J.J. Abrams.

Read More..

Elderly woman targeted in elevator rape attempt

A twisted sicko tried to rape an elderly woman in an elevator of a Harlem apartment building late this morning and he was caught in the act, sources said.

The 74-year-old victim took the elevator to the floor she lives on in an East Harlem housing project and noticed a suspicious man lurking in the hallway around 11:30 a.m., sources said.

Sensing that something was wrong, she returned to the elevator, only to have the creep follow her and try to rape her as the lift continued on to other floors, sources added.

Another tenant trying to get on the elevator got a shock when the door opened to reveal the heinous crime in progress, sources said. That witness called 911, and the perpetrator was still inside the elevator when cops arrived to cuff him, the sources added.

The 50-year-old suspect, who also resides in the building where the attack occurred, is in custody but his name has not been released and he has not been formally charged yet.

kconley@nypost.com

Read More..

Homestead, farmer look to settle lawsuit with Air Force

The Homestead City Council met Monday night to discuss settling a lawsuit that the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed on behalf of Homestead Air Reserve Base against the city and a family farm near the base.

For decades, the city has struggled to find a balance between property owners’ rights and base officials’ safety concerns. The lawsuit, filed in 2011, alleged that the city had ignored safety restrictions after it allowed Alger Farms to develop residential units near the end of the base’s runway.

Alger Farms President John Alger said he had no intention of building the residential units or selling the property to developers. But Air Force officials were concerned the city was putting lives at risk since Alger Farms lies in the flight paths of F-16s, F-15s and other warplanes that pass 750 feet overhead while coming in for a landing.

“We have no immediate desire for development,” said Alger, a third-generation farmer. “But the development rights allow us to preserve a hypothetical value that can be used for collateral.”

City restrictions established in 2010 limit development in an area of Homestead that the Air Force calls “the accident potential crash zone.”

Councilman Stephen Shelley said this week he worked on a settlement agreement that respects the safety restrictions.

“The settlement will benefit all of the parties involved,” Shelley said. “The solution is so simple. I’m not sure why we didn’t think of it before.”

Shelley said the deal would allow Alger to transfer his development rights to another property he owns that is not in the danger zone.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed the lawsuit after the city allowed Alger Farms to build one residential unit per five acres. This translated into 48 housing units in Alger’s 240 acres. The new proposal would allow Alger to transfer the right to build those units to another tract he owns in the city.

The other site “is not the greatest place for homes, but I still have this value,” Alger said.

With the new deal, Alger would have the right to build 55.4 units on a 37-acre property, because he would have the 7.4 units inherent to the 37 acres and the 48 units transferred. Shelley said there would not be a density issue.

“We clustered the density into an area that is not compromising the safety and it’s much less dense than what’s adjacent to it,” Alger said.

Alger’s grandfather, Mason W. Alger, started farming the land in 1934, and in 1942 military planes started taking off and landing at the base nearby. Alger’s father, Richard Alger, and his grandfather purchased land from South Dade farms in the late 1950s. They now grow sweet corn, snap beans, and trees for landscaping.

The base is home to units of the Air Force Reserve Command, Florida Army National Guard, Florida Air National Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Coast Guard, and Special Operations Command South.

When Alger found out that the restrictions affected his land, he thought the U.S. Constitution and Florida’s Bert J. Harris Act, which passed in 1995, protected him. The act allows property owners to seek remedies against government regulations causing an "inordinate burden."

But the U.S. Attorney’s lawsuit questioned the existence of Alger’s development rights. Before the council granted Alger Farms the right to build the residential units, city staff and city attorneys said Alger Farms didn’t have any development rights in the first place, because it lost them after annexation into the city in 1996. Alger disagreed.

“It’s an asset,” Alger said. “The federal government was asking me to devalue an asset without compensation.”

Alger said he is in agreement with the settlement that Shelley is proposing. Now he hopes that military officials will be in agreement too.

The settlement the council discussed Monday night will come up for a final vote within the next month or so, Shelley said.

“My family is very anxious to get our name off that lawsuit,” said Alger. “Imagine that your government is suing you because you want to preserve your rights. So I can spend money paying my lawyers while my government uses my own money to pay for their lawyers.”

Read More..