Latest news with #ex-NewYork
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
N.Y. manhunt aftermath: Ex-state trooper pleads guilty to shooting himself, faking crime scene
May 21 (UPI) -- An ex-New York state police officer on Wednesday pleaded guilty to shooting himself in the leg as part of a fake crime scene in what prosecutors said was a plan to gain sympathy. Former trooper Thomas Mascia, 27, admitted in court that he staged the supposed crime scene on October 30 after he claimed to have been injured by an unknown shooter near exit 17 of New York's Southern State Parkway while checking on a disabled vehicle. The West Hempstead resident pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting a police incident and for official misconduct. He is expected to serve six months in prison, five years of probation and must undergo continued mental health treatment and pay more than $289,500 in restitution. Mascia admitted that he spread shells at the alleged scene, then drove in his state vehicle to nearby Hempstead Lake State Park, where he then shot himself with the same caliber rifle loaded with the same shells left on the highway. It is there where he returned and called in the staged incident. "You weren't shot by someone else?" asked the assistant Nassau County district attorney, to which Mascia replied: "Yes." His actions had set off a statewide manhunt for the suspected vehicle Mascia described until investigators discovered the gunshot was self-inflicted. Mascia attorney Jeffrey Lichtman stated Mascia also lied about getting hit by a car during an alleged 2022 hit-and-run incident upstate, adding that state police officials missed the signs of mental distress which, according to Lichtman, was what led to October's staged event. The former state trooper saw a delayed plea deal earlier this month after Mascia inadvertently expressed that he was not in good mental health. On Wednesday, he said "yes" after the judge inquired if he was in a good mental state. Additionally, Mascia's parents were charged with criminal possession of a firearm. Thomas Mascia Sr., a former NYPD officer until his conviction in the 1990s for his role in a cocaine ring, was charged after a search of the home related to the incident uncovered an illegal assault-style weapon along with about $80,000 in cash. Meanwhile, Mascia is expected to be sentenced on August 20.
UPI
21-05-2025
- UPI
N.Y. manhunt aftermath: Ex-state trooper pleads guilty to shooting himself, faking crime scene
May 21 (UPI) -- An ex-New York state police officer on Wednesday pleaded guilty to shooting himself in the leg as part of a fake crime scene in what prosecutors said was a plan to gain sympathy. Former trooper Thomas Mascia, 27, admitted in court that he staged the supposed crime scene on October 30 after he claimed to have been injured by an unknown shooter near exit 17 of New York's Southern State Parkway while checking on a disabled vehicle. The West Hempstead resident pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting a police incident and for official misconduct. He is expected to serve six months in prison, five years of probation and must undergo continued mental health treatment and pay more than $289,500 in restitution. Mascia admitted that he spread shells at the alleged scene, then drove in his state vehicle to nearby Hempstead Lake State Park, where he then shot himself with the same caliber rifle loaded with the same shells left on the highway. It is there where he returned and called in the staged incident. "You weren't shot by someone else?" asked the assistant Nassau County district attorney, to which Mascia replied: "Yes." His actions had set off a statewide manhunt for the suspected vehicle Mascia described until investigators discovered the gunshot was self-inflicted. Mascia attorney Jeffrey Lichtman stated Mascia also lied about getting hit by a car during an alleged 2022 hit-and-run incident upstate, adding that state police officials missed the signs of mental distress which, according to Lichtman, was what led to October's staged event. The former state trooper saw a delayed plea deal earlier this month after Mascia inadvertently expressed that he was not in good mental health. On Wednesday, he said "yes" after the judge inquired if he was in a good mental state. Additionally, Mascia's parents were charged with criminal possession of a firearm. Thomas Mascia Sr., a former NYPD officer until his conviction in the 1990s for his role in a cocaine ring, was charged after a search of the home related to the incident uncovered an illegal assault-style weapon along with about $80,000 in cash. Meanwhile, Mascia is expected to be sentenced on August 20.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
NBA world stunned after Mavericks win ‘absolutely ridiculous' draft lottery
Much like its NHL counterpart, the NBA draft lottery ended with a completely shocking result. One week after the Islanders got the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft lottery with a 3.5 percent chance, the Mavericks did the same on Monday night with even smaller odds at 1.8 percent. That means Dallas, months after sending Luka Doncic to the Lakers in a trade that completely gobsmacked the sports world, now gets the chance to take Duke superstar Cooper Flagg, who is the consensus top prospect in this year's class. 3 Rolando Blackman of the Dallas Mavericks poses with Mark Tatum NBA Deputy Commissioner after winning the the first pick during the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery at McCormick Place. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect It's the first time ever the Mavericks have won the lottery. It's the second time this year a Dallas basketball club will have the No. 1 pick, as the Wings of the WNBA selected in the top spot and took UConn's Paige Bueckers. Unsurprisingly, fans, pundits and players were all stunned by the way the lottery turned out. LeBron James posted a string of crying laughing emojis on X with no text minutes after the news broke that Dallas would take first. The Post's Stefan Bondy had a great idea for what general manager Nico Harrison should do. 3 Duke's Cooper Flagg smiles as he waits for the NBA basketball draft lottery in Chicago, Monday, May 12, 2025. AP 'Mavericks should trade that pick for Luka,' he wrote on social media. The Ringer's Kirk Goldsberry had an even funnier idea: 'Nico not picking Flagg would be the funniest thing in NBA history.' Former presidential and ex-New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang was livid with the results. 'The Mavericks getting the #1 pick is absolutely ridiculous,' he wrote. 'NICO HARRISON DOESNT DESERVE THIS PICK MAN,' wrote Kenny Beecham of Enjoy Bball. 'Nico Harrison should not be allowed to make this pick,' wrote Barstool Sports personality Big Cat. 'He needs to be fired before the draft. I'm happy for Mavs fans, they deserve this, Nico does not.' 3 Mavericks GM Nico Harrison speaks during a press conference at the Mavericks Training Center in Dallas, Texas, Monday, April 21, 2025. AP There were, as there are in most years with the NBA draft lottery, conspiracy theorists on social media who believed the draft was rigged in favor of Dallas because of the unlikely odds. Mavericks CEO Rick Welts said the moment was 'surreal.' 'I'm the only person who was in this room and the room 40 years ago,' he said, according to the Washington Post. 'I was in charge of the NBA draft lottery 40 years ago when Patrick Ewing won. I've been doing conspiracy theory stories ever since. This is very surreal, personally.'
Winnipeg Free Press
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Coben's new thriller a frenetic affair
Disgraced ex-New York cop/private eye Sami Kierce learns the man who murdered his fiancé is out of prison — just as he sees a woman walking around town whose blood-drenched corpse he woke up next to, while holding a bloody knife, in Italy 22 years ago. We're not even close to covering his issues: That 'dead' woman may be an all-American heiress who'd been kidnapped before Sami 'murdered' her, and reappeared out of nowhere while claiming (in classic murder mystery style) a case of 11 years of amnesia. Harlan Coben's Nobody's Fool (Grand Central Publishing, 352 pages, $40) is a busy sequel to Fool Me Once that relies way too much on backstory, but written in Coben's frenetic style, never allows you time to say, 'Yeah, OK, but wait a second, eh?' Buy on ● ● ● Single mom/marathoner Adele needs the $1 million prize in a scuzzy online reality show of deadly hide-and-seek, after her scoundrel husband defrauded their entire community and scarpered. The last winner of the game hid so well that no one ever saw her again. This season is in an abandoned luxury hotel on an island jungle in the Atlantic Ocean, with sleazy online influencers and possibly an uninvited guest or two with murderous intent. Lisa Unger's Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 (Park Row, 384 pages, $37) is the latest in a growing sub-genre of creepy reality show murder mysteries full of people you'd never want to meet in real life, leaving you wondering how self-appointed influencers can make so much more money than we do. ● ● ● An industrialist dead in his office of a somewhat fishy heart attack, his secretary soon dead in a one-car mishap on a rural road, a Yugoslavian stranger who has no seeming purpose in spending time in a small French town, a one-hit-wonder author whose mother says he's trying to kill her. Divorced chief of police Georges Gorski can't get overly excited about any of it; lovelorn, living with his mother who should be in a home, Gorski spends his days drifting from one bar to another, drinking far too much, until an evil idea takes root. Published in November 2024, Graeme Macrae Burnet's A Case of Matricide (Biblioasis, 288 pages, $25) is supposedly Burnet's translation of a long-forgotten discovered manuscript of the late enigmatic French author Raymond Brunet, whose story parallels… enough. It's depressing, intriguing and quite engrossing. Buy on ● ● ● It's a quiet first rodeo in the B.C. interior for Hammerhead Jed and his IRA cousin Declan, all fun and games and potential canoodling and booze galore, until a gay couple working as rodeo clowns are killed an hour apart. Hammerhead Jed — a pro wrestler, Vancouver private eye and Dairy Queen banana milkshake influencer extraordinaire — immediately sleuths, setting off a full day of punch-ups, bashings upside the head (both inflicting and inflicted), umpteen hogties, ornery animals and ornerier folk… a normal day in Hammerhead's world. Published in October 2024, A.J. Devlin's Bronco Buster (NeWest Press, 276 pages, $23), the fourth in the series, is amiable enough nonsense, humourous in small doses, though it's pretty easy to figure out the villain. Buy on ● ● ● Saigon, 1928: three young men of the Vietnamese wealthy elite and their far more powerful French friend get drunk and crazed on opium, wantonly raping and beating workers who are slaves in all but name, even killing them — until one of the four is killed. Published in November 2024, Jacquie Pham's Those Opulent Days (Atlantic Monthly Press, 288 pages, $35) is a stunning debut, horrifying in its depiction of life under a European power, with its local collaborators rolling in money while producing natural resources to be shipped overseas. How accurate this beguiling whodunit is must be left to those who know the history. Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin reckons that anyone who wakes up beside a bloody corpse while clutching a knife should be the one claiming amnesia.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Anthony Weiner says voters don't want what 'Democrats are selling,' talks about comeback as fiery centrist
Infamous ex-New York congressman Anthony Weiner argued in a new profile about his latest political comeback effort that there is a "disconnect" between New York Democrats' brand and what voters actually want. Weiner launched a campaign for New York City Council, a position he held from 1992 to 1998, in December. Weiner was elected to represent New York's 9th Congressional District in 1998 and resigned in 2011 after he posted a photo of himself in his underwear on social media and initially lied about it. The incident was followed by years of sexting scandals, including one that derailed his 2013 New York City mayoral bid, and Weiner was charged with transferring obscene material to a minor in May 2017 after sexting a 15-year-old girl, leading to a prison sentence. The Atlantic's Josh Tyrangiel, who lives in the Manhattan district Weiner hopes to represent, interviewed the disgraced politician about his return to the campaign trail. "Weirdly, the biggest obstacle to Weiner's comeback may be not his past, but his politics," The Atlantic writer said. "He's lived in District 2 since 2011, but it's far from the mostly white, middle-class parts of Queens and Brooklyn he represented as a congressman. Every District 2 council member since the early 1990s has been Hispanic. Just 8 percent of the district's 175,000 residents are registered Republicans. Fresh Defund the Police graffiti appears regularly. Our rats share their pronouns." Anthony Weiner Mulls Return: Disgraced Ex-pol Says New York City Needs New Leadership Weiner, described by Tyrangiel as a centrist who "thinks the neighborhood needs more cops and fewer pot shops," argued that local Democrats are misguided. Read On The Fox News App "If this election is about the most anti-Trump, crazy-making person on the left, you're not going to pick a [Andrew] Cuomo or a Weiner," Weiner said. "Now, I could be completely wrong, but there seems to be a disconnect with the brand that New York Democrats are selling and what people want to buy right now." When asked what evidence he has to believe this, Weiner replied, "I'm in New York with a head on my shoulders seeing what's going on on 14th Street." Tyrangiel summarized that Weiner's campaign is focused around two core assumptions, the first of which is the importance of quality of life issues, like addressing subway-fare evasion, sidewalk scaffolding and the recent proliferation of "missile-like E-bikes in bike lanes." The writer observed, "Technocratic intolerance for disorder was last a thing in New York City during the Bloomberg administration, but it's hardly novel." Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture The second assumption, Tyrangiel said, is that, "Given Democrats' generally foul mood, it's not enough to be moderate. To reach the electorate, moderates must also be angry." "You know, usually we associate firebrands with an extreme kind of thing," Weiner said. "Well, what if the fire is just, like, Ya gotta collect the f---ing garbage, man?" One key aspect Tyrangiel observed from watching the candidate at forums and Zoom meetings is that Weiner is locking horns not just on the issues, but with core constituency groups within his own party. When a union representing medical residents and interns spoke about building more housing near hospitals, Weiner retorted, "Am I going to do that for the firefighters also? Am I going to do that for the guys who work in the sanitation department? You tell me how you expect this to work." The Atlantic writer also noted another exchange where Weiner shredded progressive orthodoxy on homelessness. During one part of the interview, Weiner argued there is a certain authenticity in disagreeing with voters: "Sometimes they actually kind of like it when you say, 'F--- me? F--- you.' That's more of an acknowledgment that you're actually listening to them than just saying 'Yes, I agree.'" In the profile, Weiner revealed he was a sex addict. He and his ex-wife Huma Abedin separated in 2016 and officially divorced earlier this year. Abedin, who was a top aide to Hillary Clinton, is now dating billionaire Democratic megadonor Alex article source: Anthony Weiner says voters don't want what 'Democrats are selling,' talks about comeback as fiery centrist
