Queens gets the reefer: Pot shop opens across the street from Queens Borough Redundancy Donnie Richards' office

 

 NY Post

An illegal pot shop has brazenly opened up across from Queens’ civic hub — including its borough hall, DA’s office and state courthouse — and a store worker says the locale is totally awesome for business.

The site, which still has an old COVID-testing-center awning over it, opened about a week ago, the employee told The Post on Sunday — just a few months after Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature approved a tougher law to crack down on such illicit shops.

The store — steps away from the busy Kew Gardens Union Turnpike subway stop serving Queens Boulevard’s E and F lines — was serving up such cannabis-infused goodies as cherry limeade “Punch Gummies” on Sunday.

“We get customers from the DA’s office, from the court — I mean, I don’t know for sure, but they come from that way in suits, where else would they be from?” said a worker named Moe, who didn’t give his last name but added that his uncle owns the shop.

“We get people who have to go into court. If someone has court, they’ll go there and come here after to de-stress,” said Moe, adding that he moved to the city from Detroit to work at the shop, which has been doing brisk business and which his uncle claimed it was fully licensed.

 he employee boasted about the shop’s ideal location as he nonchalantly allowed photos to be taken of its displays of cannabis edibles, flowered marijuana and other THC-infused products.

“If you're near transportation, you'll do good. We’re near two bus stops, two train stations. I’m the first [pot shop] people see when they get off,” Moe said. 

He said he texted his uncle to see if he would respond to questions from The Post. The owner declined, Moe said.

There are 26 licensed cannabis shops in the Empire State, including 11 in New York City — and not one of which is located at the Queens site.

Another tell-tale sign that the weed dispensary is unlicensed is that all of its packages up for sale had a California stamp. Legal weed products sold in New York are manufactured here and must have an official New York stamp.   

“Nobody cares anymore,” lamented Alex Najjar, who owns the All Star News Stand next to the unlicensed pot shop.

“They just call it a ‘smoke shop,’ get the license for cigarettes and then sell whatever. Nobody checks. Nobody enforces it,” said Naijar, who has owned his newstand for 16 years.

He said he pays a hefty annual fee to sell cigarettes at his stand and that it bothers him that a shop can just shrug off the law.

“It makes me feel like, why should I pay my fee for the year when I can just sell anything I want and no one cares?” Naijar said.

The fact that the weed store kept the covid testing site sign up considering what a big pharma vaccine and vaccine mandate shill Donnie was is the most delicious irony of all. 

 

Queens courthouse jail is in atrocious condition

NY Daily News  

Working conditions at the Queens Criminal Court complex’s detention center are so disgusting, correction officers have complained to state and federal workplace oversight agencies.

Rats scurry in the kitchen, roaches crawl in the locker room, and flies hover over hopelessly backed-up toilets, say filings with the state Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“The appalling conditions in the Queens courts are consistent with the decaying infrastructure at our jail facilities,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Photos obtained by the Daily News show an overflowing toilet, ripped-up flooring stained with water from leaks, peeling paint, black mold creeping up the walls, a trashed locker room, and a disheveled food storage area.

As if working conditions weren’t bad enough, the Correction Department’s staffing crisis has cut the number of officers regularly working at the Queens Detention Center in Kew Gardens.

Roughly 40 officers out of the center’s detachment of 173 were moved to Rikers Island, and an additional 12 officers have retired since May 2021, correction sources said.

On top of that, the Correction Department has been constantly “redeploying” or temporarily moving officers to Rikers from the Queens courts on a spot basis, further reducing available staff.

The complaint alleges a security entry gate in the intake area has been broken for months, forcing officers to leave the gate unsecured.

The complaint to state officials describes food being stored improperly, broken laundry machines and cleaning equipment, and a filthy kitchen and rest rooms. Devices that filter air and drinking water for the detainees have been broken for months, the complaint said.

A factor in keeping the facility clean is that those jobs are usually done by detainees from Rikers — but there hasn’t been such a work detail in months, said Correction Department sources.

The situation has slowed down court operations by delaying the production of detainees at court hearings, said the sources.

 

Katz orders judge to liberate prostitutes from their criminal records

LIC Post

A Queens judge dismissed nearly 700 open prostitution cases at the request of District Attorney Melinda Katz Tuesday morning.

Queens Acting Supreme Court Justice Toko Serita granted Katz’s request to vacate the open warrants and dismiss the cases pertaining to people who have been charged with loitering for the purpose of prostitution and other prostitution-related charges.

More than 200 cases involved the now-repealed loitering statute, which had come to be known as the “Walking While Trans” ban. An additional 443 cases had been for other prostitution-related charges. Some of the cases go back decades, Katz said.

Katz, at a virtual hearing this morning, also asked Judge Serita to seal the cases – so that those charged would not have criminal records related to the cases.

Judge Serita thanked Katz for making the request and called it a “righteous decision.”

“This is an incredibly emotional moment for me as I have seen thousands of cases over the years in my role as the presiding judge of the Queens Trafficking Intervention Court,” she said.

Judge Serita noted that many of those charged had been victims of trafficking and exploited in the commercial sex trade. She added that the laws have stigmatized those charged and prevented them from leading full and rewarding lives.

“This is something we recognize that you did not need to do but did so because it was the right thing to do,” the judge told Katz.

Several defense attorneys appeared at the virtual hearing and waived their clients’ appearances.

COVID cases rise again in Katz's office, new strain found in Queens resident from undisclosed location and the city is out of vaccines

 

Patch

 A cluster of coronavirus cases among employees of the Queens District Attorney's Office, who continue to work in-person at reduced capacity, has forced colleagues into quarantine and has the agency warning employees that "it is best practice to assume that everyone has been exposed," as one administrator put it.

At least 10 employees with the Queens District Attorney's Office have reported testing positive for COVID-19 since Friday, according to emails from Chief of Staff Camille Chin-Kee-Fatt that were reviewed by Patch.

The cases include four employees who work in felony trial bureau two and the appeals and detective bureaus, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday. The divisions where the other six work were not disclosed.

Employees, at least some of whom have been working in-person since October, are now being urged to limit contact with others and conduct meetings virtually.

"I think it is best practice to assume that everyone has been exposed and act accordingly by wearing face coverings and limiting any in-person contact," Chin-Kee-Fatt wrote in an email Monday. "We must limit our contact at this time as much as we can, which includes meeting and IT/Facilities repairs."

LIC Post

A Queens resident has tested positive for the highly-transmissible variant of COVID-19, city officials announced Wednesday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference that the variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, had been detected in two New York City residents. One resident is from Queens, the other from Manhattan.

One of them had recently traveled to the U.K., although officials did not say which one. Furthermore, officials declined to identify the neighborhoods where the residents live, citing privacy concerns.

Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, said that both people had been diagnosed with coronavirus in late December, and genetic sequencing showed that their infections had been from the U.K. variant “within the past few hours.”

Patch 

 More COVID-19 vaccine shots are going into more New Yorkers' arms at more places this week than any time since doses first arrived. There's only one problem: New York City could run out of vaccines next week.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday warned that the city's cache of vaccines may not be enough to keep up with supply.

The federal government and manufacturers need to step up and send more to the city, he said.

"I confirmed with our health care team yesterday that even with the normal supplies that we expect to have delivered next week that we will run out of vaccine at some point next week, unless we get a major new resupply," he said.

We could run out of #COVID19 vaccines by the end of next week if we don't get a major shipment IMMEDIATELY.

The Federal government needs to STOP holding back supplies.

RELEASE as many doses as possible so that we can finally get out of this crisis. https://t.co/TUYxM7BgaD
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 13, 2021

COVIDIOTS at the Queens Criminal Courthouse

 

Queens Eagle

A wave of new COVID-19 cases has hit the Queens District Attorney’s Office, but that hasn’t stopped high-ranking prosecutors from ditching masks inside the Queens Criminal Court building and adjacent offices, according to staff and defense attorneys.

Screenshots of virtual court proceedings obtained by the Eagle show one top official, Criminal Court Unit Chief Kevin Fogarty, appearing maskless last month during virtual court conferences inside his office, while at least one other masked assistant district attorney stood nearby. Fogarty again appeared maskless during virtual conferences while sitting near another staffer on Nov. 17, according to an email shared among public defenders.

Another veteran prosecutor, Felony Trial Bureau Four Unit Chief Neil Gitin, has also appeared without a mask during at least two virtual proceedings, including one where a screenshot shared with the Eagle shows him talking to a person off camera.

Some Queens prosecutors say a few colleagues, particularly supervisors, have created dangerous conditions in the offices since staff returned for in-person work in mid-October.

“There are definitely employees that think masks are taking away their freedom and that COVID is a liberal conspiracy,” said one Queens prosecutor who asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the office.

Lower-level staffers are worried about the career consequences if they complain about COVID risks in the office, according to another prosecutor who also asked to remain anonymous.

“Some ADAs are concerned about being perceived to be difficult so they just go ahead with working in unsafe conditions,” the prosecutor said.

Several prosecutors in Queens have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks, the Eagle has reported. Another four staff members tested positive on Sunday and Monday, Patch reported. 

Queens Patch 

 A prosecutor in the Queens District Attorney's Office reported testing positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, an agency spokesperson confirmed to Patch.

News of the positive test largely spread to other staffers through word of mouth rather than formal channels, alarming some who say they believed they may have been exposed to that person but weren't notified by the office, according to two defense lawyers who spoke to multiple staffers about the COVID-19 case.

"Everyone else heard by rumor and were like, 'Were you going to tell us?'" one of the lawyers told Patch.

According to the sources, who asked that their names not be used because they fear retaliation against them and the staffers who confided in them, the Queens District Attorney's Office hasn't been forthcoming when it comes to information about COVID-19 cases among its ranks, leaving some staffers nervous about their health and safety.

Included in their concerns: Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who tested positive for COVID-19 in March, not wearing a mask while among other staffers indoors.

 

 

 

 

Kew Gardens hotel is a den of crime and iniquity

Queens Eagle

 The bullet holes in the front door were the last straw. 

Five Central Queens elected officials have urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to convene various city agencies and address a spike in gun violence and drug sales at the Umbrella Hotel, located across from Queens Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Courthouse. 

“The events we have witnessed over the last several months at this location have crossed the line from quality of life issues into safety concerns for the people we have the privilege of representing,” the elected officials wrote in a letter to City Hall. “Simply put, we need your administration to coordinate a multi-agency response to the problems at this location.”

The hotel has been the scene of two shootings over the past six weeks, prompting U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, State Sen. Leroy Comrie, Assemblymembers Daniel Rosenthal and Andrew Hevesi and Councilmember Karen Koslowitz to send the letter to de Blasio. 

The shootings, first reported by the Eagle, took place July 3 and Aug. 9. The victims survived both attacks, but gunfire from the most recent incident punctured the revolving door of the once-quiet hotel. 

“The situation is extremely dangerous,” Assemblymember Daniel Rosenthal told the Eagle after a meeting at Queens Borough Hall Aug. 13. Representatives from the NYPD’s 102nd Precinct and Queens Community 9 showed up, but several other agencies blew off the meeting, Rosenthal said. 

“There have already been two shootings and the fact that we had a meeting and that most city agencies decided not to show is reckless and unacceptable,” Rosenthal said.