Crime




June 20, 2007

Developer Charged With Bribery of DOB Inspector

504maplest.jpgMonday was a bad day for small-time developer Vauguens Michel. When a DOB inspector checking out a construction site of Michel's at 514 Maple Street noticed that another of his properties just five lots away had illegal excavation work going on, the 49-year-old Brooklyn resident offered $500 to try to convince the inspector not write him up. Rebuffed, Michel doubled down with an offer of $1,000. You see, sites with excavation deeper than five feet are required to have shoring and bracing. The hole at 504 Maple (at right) was between 12 and 14 feet deep. Michel may have been playing the game as he thought it was played, but this one backfired in his face. The inspector reported him immediately and the developer was arrested yesterday by the city's Department of Investigation on charges of Bribery in the Third Degree, a class D felony, and Rewarding Official Misconduct in the Second Degree, a class E felony. In all, he could be looking at up to seven years in the clinker. Do any readers have any anecdotes of inspector bribery they'd care to share? GMAP P*Shark
Photo by Nicholas Strini for Property Shark

Posted by Brownstoner at 8:57 AM | Comments (24)
Categories: Crime, DOB

June 18, 2007

Murder Up in North Brooklyn, Down in South

crimestats0607.jpgpbbnmap1.jpg
The number of murders in North Brooklyn spiked 34 percent in the first half of the year while just about every other comman center saw declines. There were 59 homicides in the Brooklyn North Command (which includes precincts 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 84, 88, 90, and 94) through June 10 this year, versus 44 in the same period in 2006 and 36 in 2005. The main cause? According to John Jay College's Richard Curtis, it's a rise in "disrespect shootings" by teens, which includes such death-worthy offenses as looking at someone's girlfriend the wrong way, as someone did around the corner from our house last year. Of course, all parts of North Brooklyn are not created equal. While murders in Bushwick's 83rd Precinct rose from 2 to 6 in the first half of 2007, Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill have none for the second year running. Street crime in those tony nabes has risen considerably though: Robbery is up 21 percent, assault 12 percent and grand larceny 4 percent this year. None of this is exactly news for real estate brokers to play up.
Surge in Slayings Shocks Brooklyn [NY Post]

Posted by Brownstoner at 10:01 AM | Comments (69)
Categories: Brooklyn, Crime

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