Latest news with #DarcelClark
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
10 busted in sick NYC sex-trafficking of 16-year-old girl: ‘Nightmare of abuse and exploitation'
A sick Bronx crew allegedly sex-trafficked, raped and beat a 16-year-old girl after luring her into a nightmare through an online dating app — until she turned the tables and helped lock them up. The unidentified teen testified against her abusers, with 10 people now facing felony charges in the ring that saw the helpless girl beaten and sold for sex from the Big Apple to Atlantic City between December 2022 and March 2024, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a press release. 'This young girl lived a nightmare of abuse and exploitation that began with a dating app,' Clark said in a statement about the 79-count indictment. 'The victim courageously testified in the grand jury to expose her alleged traffickers and rapists.' 3 Bronx prosecutors said a 16-year-old girl was sex trafficked for months, including out of this local motel in 2023. John Roca The teen's months of terror began after she allegedly met 49-year-old Tesean Green on the dating app 'Tagged,' prosecutors said. Within weeks Green and his co-defendants were allegedly pimping out the girl, impersonating her on online to lure 'johns' and plying her with Ecstasy before the encounters — then keeping the cash. The teen was also forced to sell crack to the men who paid to molest her. Green and his sick cohorts allegedly tracked the girl's movements and used force to keep her in line, at one point striking her so hard that she suffered a fractured jaw, the DA said. 3 A 16-year-old sex-trafficking victim was lured into a nightmare through an online dating app, Bronx prosecutors said. Getty Images/iStockphoto In October 2023, co-defendants Jamel Cameron and Brianna Jamison, both of Queens, allegedly held her at a Bronx motel for dates they set up through the website prosecutors said. The remaining suspects are charged with having sex with the teen, they said. In all, 10 people were charged with a slew of charges including sex trafficking a child, promoting prostitution, rape, use of a child in a sexual performance, and endangering the welfare of a child. Tesean Green is currently jailed in New Jersey, with his Bronx arraignment pending. Cameron, 30, was ordered held on $150,000 cash bail or a $300,000 bond, while Jamison, 27, was being held on $10,000 cash or a $25,000 bond, prosecutors said. Joshua Green, 38, Tesean's uncle, was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail or a $200,000 bond. 3 Bronx DA Darcel Clark said the teen sex-trafficking victim courageously testified and helped convict her sick abusers. Matthew McDermott The remaining six defendants — Shandel Briggs, 27; Luis Muicela, 43; Dale Gordon, 27; Jaquan Cherry, 31; John Adebiyi, 26; and Richard Stanley, 55 — were charged and released without bail. 'Please remember that there is help for victims of trafficking,' Clark said in the statement. 'We can get you out of it and protect you.'
New York Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
NYC district attorneys will get $17M in new funding to beef up staffing, investigations: Adams
City district attorneys' offices are getting a $17 million influx of cash to beef up staffing and investigations, including on cybercrime, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday. Adams highlighted the record-breaking $633 million total in funding for the five DAs and the office of the special narcotics prosecutor earmarked as part of the city's roughly $116 billion budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which was approved in June. 'I heard from all my DAs that we're having a real personnel issue,' Adams said from the City Hall rotunda alongside four of the district attorneys. Advertisement 'AI can never give way to a good ADA,' he quipped. The boost adds to the $616 million previously allocated for the DAs and special narcotics prosecutor. The district attorneys had said they desperately needed extra money in the already record-breaking fiscal plan — which Adams has dubbed the 'Best Budget Ever' — to hire and retain more prosecutors. Advertisement 3 Funding for district attorneys has increased 23% since the beginning of the Adams administration, according to city hall. REUTERS 'They are the real law and order,' Adams said. 'They are front and center in dealing with public safety, and we are going to make sure we give them the resources to do their job.' Bronx DA Darcel Clark said the new funding, of which her office is getting $6.08 million, will allow her overworked office to hire 24 new assistant district attorneys and to fully staff a Youth Justice Bureau to help address gun violence and recidivism among young people. 'These funds are a game changer for the criminal justice system,' Clark said. Advertisement 3 Bronx DA Darcel Clark said the money will be used to hire more prosecutors and to fully staff a youth diversion program. James Messerschmidt Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, whose office is getting a $2.98 million boost, said the windfall will be a 'critical piece' of keeping assistant district attorneys on the job, 'in particular the mid-level prosecutors, those that are really carrying a very important part of our docket.' 'We have attrition in that area, so this will really help us with those ranks,' Bragg said. Queens DA Melinda Katz was 'happy and grateful' for the extra $1.75 million her office was allocated to build a new crime lab to process digital evidence, she said. Advertisement Staten Island DA Michael McMahon said his office was given $970,000 to hire more staff to deal with rising cyber crime. 'Just two days ago, a 76 year old woman scammed out of $209,000 — her lifetime savings — and it was through a cyber scam,' McMahon noted. 'This will allow all kinds of technological abilities to go after those who are taking advantage of too many.' 3 Staten Island DA Michael McMahon said his office will use the money on new technology to help prosecute cyber criminals. Michael McWeeney Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez couldn't make the news conference because of a planned vacation, Adams said, but his office is getting an extra $5.6 million to hire 20 new ADAs and six paralegals to reduce case backlogs and help meet discovery evidence requirements. 'A strong city is a safe city and that is why our city is strong right now. Because we focus on it being safe,' Adams said as he held up The Post's Tuesday front page about shootings in New York City hitting at an all-time low so far this year. The Adams administration allocated the largest share of the $633 million — $180 million — to the Manhattan DA's office. Brooklyn received $157.9 million; the Bronx received $128.3 million; Queens received $108.1 million; Staten Island received $27 million; and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's office received $31.7 million. Adams held the press conference the day before revamped state discovery laws take effect. Advertisement The new laws, which are designed to make discovery requirements less burdensome by reducing the scope of materials prosecutors have to provide, also came with more money from the state, McMahon said. 'We also received additional funding for discovery from the state, and working that with the money from the mayor today, that will allow our offices to have the tools and the resources and the personnel to get that voluminous (discovery) material,' McMahon said.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Yahoo
Man charged with raping teen in Bronx stairwell was just released from prison for sex assault of boy he threw off roof
A man charged with raping a 15-year-old girl in a Bronx stairwell had recently been released from prison — where he spent eight years for sexually assaulting a young boy and throwing him off a rooftop, authorities said. Carmine Aska, 29, had been out of prison for less than one month when he allegedly attacked the teen, with whom he was riding in an elevator in an apartment building in Co-Op City in February. Aska punched the girl in the face, causing her to fall to the floor, and when the elevator doors opened, he displayed a knife and dragged her into the stairwell, according to the Bronx District Attorney's office. Once inside the stairwell, he forced the teen to perform oral sex before raping her, and afterward made her spit into a napkin before fleeing, officials charged. 'This is a nightmare for the young victim who was viciously assaulted by the defendant,' D.A. Darcel Clark said in a statement. 'He allegedly punched her, overpowered her, and took her at knifepoint into a stairwell and raped her. This defendant will now face justice for this heinous act.' A jury previously convicted Aska of attempted murder for throwing a 9-year-old boy off the rooftop of a six-story apartment building in the Bronx in 2013 — when Aska was 17 — after the boy threatened to report Aska for sexually abusing him, according to newspaper reports at the time. Aska was locked up in 2017 and served eight years in state prison before being released on parole in January, prison records show. The little boy suffered a broken leg, broken arm and internal bleeding, and for a time was on life support in a medically-induced coma at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, but eventually recovered. Aska was charged with predatory sexual assault against a child, rape, sexual abuse and criminal weapons possession.
CBS News
23-06-2025
- CBS News
20 alleged Bronx gang members charged in 208-count indictment. Here's what they're accused of.
There has been a gang takedown in the Bronx linked to a dozen shootings over the past four years. The indictment includes more than 200 counts and 20 people, New York City officials said Monday. District Attorney Darcel Clark stood alongside Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch in front of a number of seized weapons to announce the indictment of alleged gang members they say are responsible for 12 shootings in the borough dating to 2021. "This must end," Clark said. "In this all-too-familiar scenario, we're talking about teenagers with guns, using them cavalierly, callously, and cold bloodedly." Charges run the gamut of violence, police say According to the NYPD, the 208-count indictment against the 20 people includes murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault, robbery, and burglary charges. Surveillance video captured four of the shootings involving alleged members of Bronx street gangs 9Raq and Thirdside. One of the more recent videos, from March 30, shows alleged gang members in hoodies and masks opening fire towards rivals on the sidewalk along Morris Avenue. Another angle shows the shooting from across the street, and yet another shows a shooting from the back of a moped, with one person opening fire into a group of people on East 180th Street. "Last week, we arrested 16, and the NYPD Warrants Squad is working around the clock to bring in the other four," Tisch said. Bronx residents told CBS News New York the indictment and arrests are a good start, but they want to see more progress. "There must be intervention and prevention. If we don't do them both together, we will be in a perpetual cycle," Adams said. Residents lament their loss of safety The NYPD also said some of the gang territory is in the Claremont neighborhood. CBS News New York spoke to residents that said they've felt unsafe for a while. "Safety-wise, it's changing," Dolly McCray said. McCray said she has been living in Claremont for more than 60 years and added while the new arrests are a step in the right direction, they're not enough. "That's just a little piece of it. It goes on and on and on and on. You stop it over here for a while and it jumps off somewhere else," McCray said. "I feel like the safety is OK," Tynesha Parker said. Parker, who just moved into the neighborhood about a year ago, said law enforcement's Operation: Double Trouble already has her feeling a bit better. "Hopefully, I can be able to bring my children out and feel a little bit safer. I don't want to have to look behind my shoulder," Parker said.
New York Post
23-06-2025
- New York Post
Bumbling baby-faced NYC gangs that accidentally shot one of their own, hit bystanders get nailed by cops
They're the gangs that couldn't shoot straight. A bumbling baby-faced Bronx gang accidentally killed one of its own in a gunfight with a rival group — and its foes later fired 17 shots at one of them but missed, instead grazing a passer-by in the head, officials said Monday in announcing a takedown of some of the members. A member of the bungling gang that shot the innocent victim even admitted in a drill rap video just how badly the hit was botched — rapping, 'I don't know how we missed them,'' authorities said. Advertisement 'This is a lost generation,' Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said at a press conference unveiling the sweeping 208-count indictment against 19 members of the warring 9Raq and Thirdside gangs — none older than 23, with the youngest just 16. 3 Bumbling members of two teenage gangs have been indicted for a slew of shootings that have mistakenly wounded three bystanders — and killed one of their own — in the past four years. Obtained by the NY Post 'Youth are shooting people right here, right outside our very courthouses,' Clark said. 'They turn 161st Street, two blocks from Yankee Stadium, into a war zone. Advertisement 'The Bronx is bleeding, and I'm doing everything within my power to make it stop.' The young thugs committed a slew of crimes ranging from murder to grand larceny over the past four years in neighborhoods such as Claremont and Belmont — with adult gang members passing them their loaded weapons to take advantage of the state's 'Raise the Age' law that protects minors, authorities said. But the move may have come with a price. Alleged 9Raq member Nixon Rodriguez was fatally shot by a member of his own young crew June 2, 2023, on Olinville Avenue during a failed mission in rival gang territory, prosecutors said. Advertisement Last month, a Thirdside defendant also posted a drill rap music video to his Instagram admitting he took part in a botched shootout with 9Raq near a middle school in the early afternoon of March 30, authorities said. At least 17 shots were fired, but none of them hit their intended rival gang members. Instead, a bullet grazed a 22-year-old man in the head as he was driving by the corner in his car, Clark said. 3 The young gangsters have brazenly turned some Bronx neighborhoods into their own shooting galleries. Bronx District Attorney 'I don't know how we missed them,' the Thirdside gang member allegedly rapped in the video. Advertisement Multiple bystanders have been hit during other shootouts between the gangs, too, authorities said. When the two gangs exchanged gunfire Aug. 2, 2022, on Finley Avenue, at least one of the shots struck a 34-year-old passer-by in the lower back, officials said. During another 2022 shooting, a 75-year-old innocent man was wounded in the thigh, Clark said. 3 Mayor Eric Adams, flanked by Bronx DA Darcel Clark and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, ripped the gangs for their 'reckless disregard' of their communities. Tomas E. Gaston Six people were arrested last week in the gangs' takedown, while four gang members remain on the lam, and 10 others are already behind bars for other charges, prosecutors said. 'There's an endless flow of young people who believe as though they don't have a stake in tomorrow, so they are creating a reckless disregard on our streets,' said Mayor Eric Adams at the press conference, which was also attended by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 'And when a bullet leaves the pathway of a gun, it often hits an unintended target,' said Adams, a former cop. Adams, Clark and Tisch said the state needs to re-examine its 'Raise the Age' law, which changed the age at which a child can be prosecuted as an adult. That age went from 16 to 17 in 2018 and from 17 to 18 in 2019, allowing those under 18 to be turned over to the family court system instead of regular court, where they could face stiffer punishments if convicted. Advertisement 'One of [the indicted suspects] has allegedly pulled the trigger at least four times. These aren't kids who just made one mistake,' Tisch told reporters. 'The takeaway is clear,' she said. 'our Raise the Age law needs to be re-examined because it removed the criminal consequences that prevent teens from escalating violence until they or their rivals are either dead or facing adult sentences.' Out of the gang members arrested, three have been arraigned and held without bail, one has been arraigned with bail set, and another has been arrested and is pending arraignment. Advertisement An additional Jane Doe, who was a part of the takedown but not charged as a gang member, was arraigned and held on bail.
