Yonkers Tribune

Civil Rights Suit Against NYPD and JP Morgan Chase Filed for Arrests Related to Occupied Wall Street Protests

NEW YORK, NY – April 30, 2012 --  Lawyers on behalf of five elected officials and over half a dozen members of the press filed a major lawsuit today in federal court alleging the City of New York, the MTA, the New York Police Department, Brookfield Properties, JP Morgan Chase and others are in violation of numerous civil rights, including First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.  The suit seeks redress for police misconduct in arrests made during the “Occupy Wall Street” protests and asks that a federal independent monitor be appointed to oversee the NYPD in order to safeguard the public.

BREAKING NEWS: Jereis and Annabi Found Guilty by HEZI ARIS

NEW YORK, NY -- March 29, 2012 -- The jury presiding over the corruption and bribery charges agains former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and former Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis found the respective defendants guilty on all counts made against them. Lawyers for the defendants are expected to file motions of dismissal by May 4, 2012.

Deliberation Continues Over Alleged Jereis - Annabi Bribery Trial By HEZI ARIS

NEW YORK, NY -- The Hon. Colleen McMahon’s august courtroom had a stark feel to it Monday morning, March 26, 2012. The judge did not take her place before the cavernous courtroom. She did keep the door to her chambers ajar to be able to respond with alacrity to the wishes of the sequestered jury ensconced in deliberating over the case of the U.S. vs. Annabi and Jereis bribery charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Perry Carbone and Jason Halperin were not in attendance. Anthony Siano, legal counsel for defendant Zehy Jereis was, as was Jeanie Gallegos, Esq., as was William Aronwald, legal counsel to Sandy Annabi.

Annabi / Jereis Trial Mired in Inferences Lacking Consensus By HEZI ARIS

Discovery Brings About Request for Dismissal of Trial

Conspiracy Allegations Questioned for Seemingly a Lack of Proof

NEW YORK, NY and YONKERS, NY – A tax preparer, Mr Walid Farhad, who testified last Friday at the behest of the government also underwent cross examination. When the court concluded its finds for the day, it was expected to have the tax preparer return today. Instead, two letters, from different doctors beseeched the court to not demand the triple by-pass survivor of last June or July not need to return to conclude the cross examination under the command of William Aronwald, legal counsel for former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi. After an engaging discussion, the Hon. Colleen McMahon, District Judge, decided to attend the tax preparer’s Danbury, Connecticut, beside to conclude the cross examination. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Perry Carbone and Jason Halperin assured the judge a videographer and court reporter would be present at 10:00 a.m.; by the time she will have arrived at the witness’ home. Once concluded, the entourage will depart Danbury for the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan. The government is expected to rest after the concluding testimony afforded by tax preparer Farhad.

Mangone Allegations Exact Bravado Devoid of Proof By HEZI ARIS

 

 

The government’s star witness in the alleged federal corruption trial of former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi and former Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis  continued on Monday, March 5, 2012, along a paradigm commandeered by the defendants' legal counsel from last Thursday, March 1, 2012, at which Anthony Mangone’s (LEFT) testimony seemed full of bluster, self-importance, pathologic in his personal relationships, and headstrong in his disdain for friends, associates, and partners alike. Mr Mangone, by his own words and expression, concocted a tale of plausible conduct and self-importance, that was deficient in provable “facts,” yet could be surmised as seemingly credible in its accusation of every protagonist he mentioned; only Mr Mangone was left blameless. 

Annabi-Jereis Corruption Court Case: Mangone Reveals the Lack of Integrity in the Westchester Integrity Committee By HEZI ARIS

Cash Exchanged; Feathers Ruffled; A New Political Reality

NEW YORK, NY and YONKERS, NY -- Anthony Mangone, the one-time attorney, disbarred since the Spring of 2011, took to the witness stand in Judge Colleen McMahon’s courtroom today as part of the government’s alleged charges of corruption and bribery against defendants Sandy Annabi, former Yonkers City Councilwoman, and Zehy Jereis, former Yonkers Republican Chairman. Of the many issues covered in the early interrogation of Mr Mangone by Anthony Siano, Mr Jereis’ legal counsel, was the episode in which in the year 2006, then Senator Nick Spano was running as the incumbent for New York State Senate against Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

In Search of $30,000 in Cash: The Annabi - Jereis Bribery Trial By HEZI ARIS

 

NEW YORK, NY and YONKERS, NY – February 29, 2012 -- Milio Management, the firm that began operations in 1997 by the brothers, Antonio and Giuseppe Milio, was interested in concluding a land swap in order to have the opportunity to build their real estate holdings. They wanted to become the “designated developers” for the School 6, Longfellow Junior High School, and Walgreens Development Project. The Milios believed they were being crossed by Councilwoman Sandy Annabi, who was the elected official representing the district within which these projects were to be built. Noting that they were approached by then Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone to undertake the project, they could not fathom why the project, in their view, did not have the full backing of Ms Annabi.

 

Bender, Swagerty, and Milio Testify By HEZI ARIS

BRUCE BENDER
Bruce Bender, the former vice president of the Government and Public Affairs department for Forest City Ratner Companies [FCRC], and previously the former Chief of Staff for former New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone was returned to the witness stand this morning. The finishing touches to the template that defines economic development projects throughout the nation were revealed. The $1 or eminent domain land grabs, the political arm twisting, the lunches and dinners in which one protagonist after another would have his hand in the cookie jar was revealed. The hands were at the ready to earn cash, influence, jobs, or other form of patronage. Whether plotted or planned the government allegations of bribery, among other charges, against former Yonkers City Councilwoman Sandy Annabi, and former Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis, were telling.

 

Yonkers’ Crazy Political Factions By HEZI ARIS

 

YONKERS, NY -- February 27, 2012 -- The Ridge Hill Development Project was defined within the recesses of the upper management of the Forest City Ratner Cos. (FCR) sometime in 2004. And it seemed that it took little time for opposing forces to coalesce their interests and concerns for the anticipated struggle among disparate forces, especially along the political divide. When called to the witness chair today, Bruce Bender, Forest City Ratner Vice-President who only this month left the firm to open a lobbying consultancy firm with fellow FCR alumni Scott Cantone disparagingly defined Yonkers replete with “crazy political factions.” Mr Cantone today concluded the testimony that began with him at the witness chair on Friday. When the government and cross-examination was concluded, the government called on Mr Bender. Mssrs Cantone and Bender seemingly corroborated each other’s recollections of circumstances and situations that dated as far back as 2005, albeit after what seemed like a grueling need to jog their memory to happenstance over which each had respectively given grand jury testimony.

 

Annabi; Jereis - Alleged Yonkers Corruption Trial - Comments By YONKERSITES and FRIENDS

YONKERS, NY -- Yonkersites have noted that Editor Hezi Aris has been reluctant to judge the proceedings of the alleged corruption trial brough by the government against former Yonkers GOP Chair Zehy Jeries and former Yonkers City Council Majority Leader Sandy Annabi. The Journal News an Cable News 12 Westchester have allocated resources they each possess to cover the trial. Rather than regurgitate a fake report garnered by reading other summations, the editor has chosen to await further deliberations and or find another technological breakthrough to cover the trial. This may or may not prove fruitful. Until we can, the editor appreciates the desire to make comment on the knowledge accumulated through other media sources. This page affords everyone that opportunity.

Read Norman Oder's column: 

http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/fcrs-cantone-testifies-defendant-jereis.html

Father and Son Melio Plead Guilty to Tax Evasion Charges By HEZI ARIS

 

YONKERS, NY -- Antonio (father) and Franco (son) Milio, of Milio Management, have admitted to tax evasion charges to a sum alleged to exceed $2 million.

Cable News 12 Westchester was first to divulge this turn of events. The Milio brothers have claimed to have “bribed” former Yonkers City Council Majority Leader Sandy Annabi to earn her support for a senior housing development project that was to evolve out of the long abandoned Longfellow Junior High Scholl site on Seymour Road and Ashburton Avenue.

The Milio brothers had intended to witnesses against Ms Annabi in The United States v. Sandy Annabi case. A hearing before presiding Judge McMahon opens tomorrow, February 14, in United States Federal Court located in Manhattan.

 

Former Senator Nick Spano to Plead Guilty on Tax Evasion Charge By HEZI ARIS

Westchester On the Level Radio Program Pre-empted in Order to Attend the Court Hearing

Sources have advised the Yonkers Tribune / The Westchester Guardian that upon Mr Nick Spano's appearance at the Federal District Court in White Plains Friday, February 10, 2012, Mr Spano intends to plead guilty for failing to report income of approximately $38,000 that accrued between the years 2000 and 2008. Nick Spano could face a maximum 18 months prison sentence.

It is understood that Nick Spano will admit to failing to report approximate $38,000 income earned from a real estate transaction, allegedly claiming deductions that did not take place with regard to a corporation he owned, and for not reporting a $2,000 rental payment seemingly not noted from one tenant in a Yonkers building he owned.

 

Federal Appeals Court Deems Voter Mandated Ban on Gay Marriage Unconstitutional

The Wall Street Journal has reported that, "a federal appeals court has ruled that California's voter-mandated ban on gay marriages was unconstitutional, in a closely-watched case that could eventually lead the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

In a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said California’s 2008 law, known as Proposition 8, had used the state’s initiative power to target a minority group and take away a right the group possessed without legitimate reason. Doing so, wrote Judge Stephen Reinhardt, violated the Fourteenth Amendment and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577209183209519256.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

United Water Parent Company Fined $10 Million in European Antitrust Investigation By HEZI ARIS

Image via Wikipedia

Washington, D.C. – January 25, 2012 --  The European Commission (EC) has opened formal proceedings to determine whether French water services company Suez Environment has violated European antitrust regulations, according to a press release issued by the European Commission on January 18, 2012.

The Commission has already fined Suez €8 million – approximately U.S. $10.4 million at current exchange rates – for having breached a seal attached to an office door by investigators during a surprise inspection in conjunction with the investigation. 

Consolidation Effort Ties Anthony Mangone to Joseph J. Savino’s Law Firm By HEZI ARIS

YONKERS, NY -- January 7, 2012-- It was 2011; it was the last meeting of the Clarkstown Town Board. Supervisor Alex Gromack demanded a vote to eliminate the position of deputy town attorney in order to hire a private law firm to handle the workload. This, on the basis of an ongoing effort to reduce government services costs through consolidation. In reality it is a thinly veiled triangle that ties The Bronx GOP with the Rockland GOP with the County of Westchester, specifically the law firm of Joseph J. Savino.