New York Woman Slams Mercedes Through Home into Backyard

Obtained by ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A Brooklyn, N.Y., woman will be arraigned Tuesday on drunk driving charges after she allegedly ran her Mercedes convertible through a Long Island home, taking everything, including the kitchen sink, with her.

The driver, 21-year-old Sophia Anderson, walked away with only a few scrapes and bruises to her face, police said.  A male passenger was also left unscathed from the crash, which occurred Monday at 4:05 a.m.

Anderson failed to turn at a t-intersection, a Suffolk County Police spokesperson told ABC News.  The Brooklyn woman allegedly rammed her Mercedes through the home, causing furniture, a stove and dishes to scatter in the backyard of a 90-year-old woman’s home.

The homeowner and her caretaker were inside the home at the time of the accident, but were uninjured.

“It could have been a lot worse,” a police spokesperson said.

Neighbors said they were jolted awake by the noise of the crash.

“It sounded like a wrecking ball,” neighbor Kimberly Steinberg told the New York Post.  “All I saw was a red glow.  I heard people making noise and glass breaking.”

Anderson refused a breathalyzer test.  She was treated at Huntington Hospital and then booked at the Fourth Precinct.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

'May Day' Protesters Rally From Coast to Coast

EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/GettyImages(NEW YORK) -- Police detained at least six people in New York as Occupy demonstrators and labor and immigration activists participated in "May Day" protests across the country on Tuesday.

Protest organizers said they intended to show the "1 percent" what life without the "99 percent" would look like, as they encouraged workers and students to take a day off in solidarity against income inequality and "unjust" corporate practices.

ABC New York affiliate WABC reported that four protesters were detained during the march across Williamsburg Bridge, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, and at least two protesters were detained in midtown Manhattan.

An estimated 200 protesters are in Madison Square Park in New York City, while another 500 people are in Bryant Park. In Chicago, an estimated 1,000 people have gathered in a section of Union Park despite occasional rain, the Chicago Tribune reported.

As letters containing white powder, later determined to be non-toxic, arrived in mail rooms of Manhattan banks and New York's City Hall, a wide range of protesters gathered around the buildings of corporations and city centers across the country.

The FBI announced on Tuesday that that they arrested a group of anarchists who allegedly plotted to use explosives to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, Ohio, and attack this summer's Republican National Convention in Florida. The FBI's criminal complaint does not state the attacks were planned as part of the May Day protests.

Pete Dutro, an Occupy organizer from Brooklyn, N.Y., said the date of the nationwide strike is related to the Haymarket massacre in Chicago. Demonstrators were protesting on May 4, 1886 in favor of an eight-hour workday when a bomb was thrown, killing both police and workers. Some labor groups recognize May 1 as "International Workers' Day."

Andy Thayer, a Chicago Occupy member and the spokesperson for the Coalition Against NATO/G-8, called this year's strike "a national phenomenon" with immigration rights advocates partnering with the Occupy movement.

"There's a good buzz about it—the kind of display not been seen in many decades: a demonstration of solidarity on immigrant rights, but also about labor's winning back rights or winning rights anew," Thayer said.

Events are taking place at all hours of the day, from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York.

In New York, community groups, unions and Occupy Wall Street protesters converged at a number of locations starting at 8 a.m., including the Chase Building, New York Times Building, Sotheby's, and a U.S. post office. Protesters planned to march over the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan after meeting in Continental Army Plaza at 10:30 a.m.

Dutro said he has been coordinating with protesters in other cities, including Los Angeles. There, a strike at Los Angeles International Airport was scheduled for 6 a.m. in conjunction with some members of the Service Employees International Union and United Service Workers West.

Another protest event in Los Angeles, dubbed, "Let Them Eat Cupcakes," was planned for tony shopping area Rodeo Drive around 12 p.m.

In Chicago, gatherings included a protest at noon in Union Park, followed by a march downtown at 1 p.m.

When asked if the nationwide protests, which are aiming to disrupt the work day and commuting, risk alienating workers who are not participating in the day's events, Dutro said he would sympathize with their frustration.

But, "by complaining, I would say you further help others that maintain the status quo, and what is clear is the status quo is not working," he said. "Yes, they have families and have to work and all these other things. But in the greater scheme of things, if we don't solve these problems now there will be less and less work to go to."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Cuban Actors Vanish Before NY Film Premiere, Director Hasn't Heard From Them

UnaNocheFilm(NEW YORK) -- The director of a film about young Cubans defecting would like to know that her real-life missing stars -- who may have defected en route to the premiere -- are safe.

Two of the stars of writer-director Lucy Mulloy's film Una Noche vanished in Miami as the group was making their way to New York from Cuba for the film's premiere.

"Though they've made difficult choices about what to do at present, I wish them the very best in all their endeavours and I hope I will get to see them again soon," Mulloy said in a statement emailed to ABC News. "It was a pleasure working with them. I would love to know that they are well."

The film is about three young Cubans who decide to flee the country on a raft after one of them is accused of assault. The film follows the day they attempt to make it 90 miles across the ocean to Florida.

The British-born director recently graduated from New York University's graduate film program and Una Noche is her first feature film.

All three of the film's stars -- Anailin de la Rua de la Torre, Javier Nunez Florian and Dariel Arrechada -- were expected to appear at New York's Tribeca Film Festival for the premiere. But Torre and Florian, both 19, were nowhere to be found the night of the event.

Arrechada, 21, was the only one to attend the premiere.

"We can't say for sure what the status of these guys are," Katie Tichacek Kaplan, spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told ABC News on Monday. "There are a number of things they could be thinking. We just don't know what their plans are."

Kaplan said that people in similar situations who come to the U.S. for asylum have a year to apply.

A State Department official told ABC News on Monday, "We are aware of the reports, but we don't have any further information. We have not been in contact with the film festival organizers or the Cuban actors."  

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

NY Woman Fired After Donating Kidney to Help Her Boss

Keith Brofsky/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A New York woman said she was fired after she donated a kidney to help save the life of her boss.

Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, filed a formal complaint with the New York State Human Rights Commission last Friday, claiming her boss used her for her organ then fired her "after the woman got what she wanted." 

Stevens' boss, 61-year-old Jackie Brucia, is one of the West Islip controllers for Atlantic Automotive Group, a billion-dollar dealership operator.  Brucia hired Stevens in January 2009 as an assistant.

"She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery," Stevens told ABC News.  "It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney."

Stevens left the company in June 2010 to move to Florida.  She returned to New York in September to visit her daughter, and decided to stop in at the dealership, according to the complaint.  It was during this visit that Brucia told Stevens of her need for a kidney transplant.

"She said she had a possible donor, a friend or something," Stevens said.  "But I told her if anything happened that I'd be willing to donate my kidney.  She kind of jokingly replied, 'You never know, I may have to take you up on that one day.'"

A few months later, Stevens moved back to Long Island and asked Brucia if she had any job openings.  Brucia hired her within weeks.

Then, in January 2011, Stevens said her boss called her into her office and asked if she was serious about donating her kidney.

"I said, 'Yeah, sure.  This isn't a joking matter,'" Stevens said.  "I did not do it for job security.  I didn't do it to get a raise.  I did it because it's who I am.  I didn't want her to die."

When tests revealed that Stevens was not the best match, doctors agreed to let her give her kidney to someone in Missouri, which gave Brucia a higher place on the organ donor list.

Stevens underwent surgery on Aug. 10, 2011.  She said doctors hit a nerve in her leg, causing her discomfort and digestive problems.  She returned to work four weeks later, and said that's when the problems began.

"I don't have words strong enough or large enough to describe her treatment of me," Stevens said.  "Screaming at me about things I never did, carrying on to the point where she wouldn't even let me leave my desk.  It was constant, constant screaming."

Stevens said she was demoted and moved to a car dealership 50 miles from her home.  She said the mental stress got even worse, with her supervisor calling her an "actress."

After consulting a psychiatrist for her mental stress, Stevens hired attorneys who sent a letter to Atlantic Automotive Group.  She was fired within a week.

When reached by ABC News, AAG referred all calls about the case to Jackie Brucia, Stevens' supervisor, who could not be reached for comment, at either the car dealership or her home.  It is not known whether Brucia has legal representation at this time.

Stevens' attorney, civil rights lawyer Lenard Leeds, said he planned to file a discrimination lawsuit against AAG, and would likely seek millions of dollars in compensation.

"Our ultimate goal is to bring this before federal court," Leeds said.  "We're alleging they discriminated against her for her disability and they retaliated against her when she complained about the harassment."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Handyman in Etan Patz Probe Says He's Innocent

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A lawyer for the handyman Othneil Miller whose basement workshop is the focal point of a new investigation into the Etan Patz case Friday denied he had anything to do with the little boy's disappearance more than three decades ago.

"Mr. Miller did not do this," Michael Farkas, the attorney for Miller, told reporters outside the Brooklyn building where Miller lives.

"Mr. Miller denies involvement with what happened to this beautiful young boy and he's going to remain cooperative to the extent that's reasonably possible given this investigation," Farkas said.

Patz, who was 6, disappeared on the morning of May 25, 1979, soon after leaving his parents' apartment at 113 Prince St., the first time he was to walk to the school bus stop by himself.

Authorities Friday began the first full day of digging in the Manhattan basement at 127 Prince St. for new evidence, following the startling discovery that the missing child may never have made it off his own New York City block.

Patz's 1979 disappearance sparked a massive city-wide search 33 years ago, but now the FBI and New York City police believe they may find evidence in what was then a handyman's basement workshop just steps away from where the boy was last seen.

The small basement room at the center of the investigation belonged to Miller, now 75, and was also frequented by the case's longtime prime suspect Jose Ramos.

Federal agents and New York City police began Thursday to tear up the concrete floor of the basement and the excavation was in full swing Friday.

Prosecutors reopened the cold case two years ago and began focusing on the Prince Street basement room following an interview with Miller.

That interview prompted the FBI and NYPD to put special odor-absorbing pads in the room for four days. When those pads were presented to cadaver dogs, they signaled the odor of human remains. The dogs were then brought to the basement where they again indicated the scent of human remains.

Investigators then interviewed Miller again before obtaining a warrant and beginning the dig.

Kelly said an array of new technology unavailable to law enforcement in 1979 including x-rays and black lights are being used in the investigation.

The new investigation is also reexamining the decades old assumption that Patz was abducted by convicted pedophile Jose Ramos. Ramos, now in prison for an unrelated case, was never charged with Patz's abduction.

According to sources, the area of the basement where the dog picked up the scent appears to be one that had been resurfaced with fresh concrete at or shortly after the time of Patz's disappearance.

The basement was searched in 1979, the year the boy disappeared, but the floor was never dug up.

Since then, drywall has been put up over the room's brick walls. The drywall will be removed and the bricks examined and tested for blood evidence using advanced forensic techniques that were not available three decades ago, officials said.

The floor will also be dug up in a search for human remains, clothing or other evidence.

For the Patz family, it has been more than three decades of agonizing investigations and years of wondering what happened to their blond son with the gorgeous smile.

The case had been dormant until Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr. reopened the case. Former DA Robert Morgenthau had declined to proceed with the case, citing insufficient evidence.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

New York Subway Bomb Plotter Breaks Down on Witness Stand

iStockphotos/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Najibullah Zazi, the admitted ringleader of a 2009 plot to bomb the New York City subway, broke down in tears Thursday, during his third day of testimony against his alleged co-conspirator.

When asked by the prosecutor if he still considered defendant Adis Medunjanin a good friend, Zazi began to cry, and said, "I love him." Zazi's tears became sobs when he was asked if he believed Medunjanin intended to carry out the suicide bombings. Zazi hung his head, and after a short pause, whispered, "Yes."

Zazi told a jury Wednesday that his purpose in coming to New York was to construct a "martyrdom operation." Zazi, 26, was raised by Afghan parents in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. He moved to Queens, New York as a teen, where he met Medunjanin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia.

Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder abroad, and of providing material support to a terrorist organization. He faces a life sentence if convicted.

A third conspirator, Zarean Ahmedzay, 27, who pled guilty to a role in the plot two years ago, testified Monday. All three of the Muslim men, who attended high school together in Queens, were "very close friends," said Zazi. Wednesday marked the first time Zazi, the central figure in the failed subway bombings, has described the plot in detail publicly, telling the jury he became radicalized after listening to jihad-promoting audio recordings.

In 2008, Zazi testified, the three men traveled to an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan where they received terror training, learning to fire pistols, AK-47 machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades. Zazi said they were also instructed on how to make bombs using household materials. "It was very simple, and they're everywhere," he said of the chemicals, which include nail polish remover and hydrogen peroxide.

It was during this time in Pakistan, Zazi said, that the three men, along with a top al Qaeda fugitive known as "Hamad," devised what authorities have deemed one of the most serious terror plots since the Sept. 11 attacks. Zazi told the jury the men considered other targets, such as the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, and an unspecified Walmart store, but eventually decided to target the subway because "it's the heart of everything in New York City," Zazi said.

Zazi said the men drew inspiration from videos of the July 2005 London metro bombings. "That was a very big achievement, achievement through hitting the United Kingdom economically," Zazi said.

Before the three men returned to the U.S., Zazi took handwritten notes on bombmaking and scanned them into his email, evidence that was introduced in court. Later emails show Zazi corresponding with one of his al Qaeda handlers to get the exact formula for completing the bombs. "[P]lez reply to what i asked u right away. the marrige is ready," Zazi wrote.

After leaving Pakistan, Zazi relocated to Denver, where he lived with relatives and took a job as an airport shuttle driver. Zazi later used the shuttle to carry his lethal chemicals.

During the summer of 2009, Zazi traveled to New York to meet with his conspirators, telling the jury, "We talked about if we were still into the plan. Zarein and Adis said 'yes.'"

The three men decided on suicide bombings at three different Manhattan subway locations during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to Zazi. He testified that the men specifically targeted trains leaving Grand Central Terminal at rush hour in order to maximize the death toll. We hoped that "people would have a lot of fear," Zazi said.

Zazi then returned to Denver, where he rented a hotel suite and began mixing the chemicals necessary to carry out his terrorism plot, creating what he said was enough for three bombs. Once completed Zazi rented a car, loaded in the deadly chemicals, and drove to New York.

However, earlier emails he had sent to his al Qaeda handler had been intercepted by the F.B.I., and by the time Zazi reached the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and Manhattan, counterterrorism investigators were waiting for him.

Police followed his car and Zazi, realizing he was under surveillance, stopped at a Queens mosque and threw away the chemicals, goggles, and other bombmaking materials. Ahmedzay flushed some chemicals down the toilet, Zazi added.

He flew back to Denver, where he was contacted by the F.B.I. and later arrested.

Zazi's guilty plea was part of a government cooperation agreement that guaranteed his testimony in Medunjanin's trial.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Etan Patz Search Leads to Handyman's Basement 33 Years Later

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A fresh investigation into the disappearance 33 years ago of a little boy named Etan Patz led to the Manhattan basement workshop of a handyman named Othneil Miller on Thursday.

Investigators believe that Patz, who was 6 years old when he vanished in 1979, was in Miller's basement the night before he disappeared, when Miller befriended the boy and gave him a dollar, sources told ABC News.

Federal agents and New York City police began to tear up the concrete floor of the basement at 127 Prince St. in the SoHo section of Manhattan. The basement was Miller's workshop in 1979.

Patz's disappearance as he walked to the bus stop alone for the first time in his young life has haunted the city. The search for Patz has been one of the largest, longest-lasting and most heart-wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history.

The new investigation is also re-examining the decades-old assumption that Patz was abducted by convicted pedophile Jose Ramos. Ramos, now in prison for an unrelated case, was never charged with Patz's abduction.

Thursday's probe, which was reopened by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in 2010, began with an interview of Miller.

Based on that interview, law enforcement sources said, a dog was brought to the scene as a warrant was drawn up. The cadaver dog got a positive hit for possible human remains. The warrant was served and the preparations for the excavation, expected to last five days, began.

For Stu Grabois, the assistant U.S. attorney who spent 27 years on the case, it was good news to hear of the new probe.

"I am pleased that Cy Vance is exploring everything that can help to bring justice to the Patz family," Grabois said.

According to sources, the area of the basement where the dog picked up the scent appears to be one that had been resurfaced with fresh concrete at or shortly after the time of Patz's disappearance.

Sources told ABC News that even if a body had been kept for 24 hours or less and then moved, a trained dog could pick up the scent decades later.

The basement was searched in 1979, the year the boy disappeared, but the floor was never dug up.

Since then drywall has been put up over the room's brick walls. The drywall will be removed and the bricks examined and tested for blood evidence using advanced forensic techniques that were not available three decades ago, officials said. The floor will also be dug up in a search for human remains, clothing or other evidence.

"It's a joint FBI-NYPD search for human remains, clothing or personal effects," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told reporters outside the building after investigators entered using a search warrant.

For the Patz family, it has been more than three decades of agonizing investigations and years of wondering what happened to their blond son with the gorgeous smile.

In an interview with 20/20 in 2009, the boy's father, Stan Patz, said, "I still gag with fear that this child must have felt...when he realized he was being betrayed by an adult."

The case had been dormant until Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. reopened the case in 2010. Former D.A. Robert Morgenthau had declined to proceed with the case, citing insufficient evidence.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

New Search for New York Boy Who Vanished 33 Years Ago

Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Federal investigators and New York City police are preparing on Thursday to dig beneath the streets near a Manhattan apartment building where 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared 33 years ago.

The search for Patz has been one of the largest, longest lasting and most heart wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history.

Investigators are also reexamining the decades old assumption that Patz was abducted by convicted pedophile Jose Ramos.  Ramos, now in prison for an unrelated case, was never charged with Patz's abduction.

The dig underway on Thursday is related to another person, a carpenter who had befriended the boy.  The carpenter's name had surfaced in earlier investigations, but he had never been targeted as a suspect.

The carpenter's shop was at or near the location of Thursday's search.

Patz vanished on May 25, 1979 in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan while walking alone to a school bus stop.

He became the first missing child whose face appeared on the side of a milk carton.

The case had been dormant until Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. reopened the case in 2010.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Prosecutor: Mental Health Worker Stole Patients' IDs to File False Tax Returns

Suffolk County DA(NEW YORK) -- A New York man used his job at the Long Island Head Injury Association to steal the identities of dozens of patients disabled by head trauma in a crime that went undetected for years, prosecutors said Monday.

Benjamin Achampong, 30, allegedly stole the identities of 56 people with brain injuries -- using real names and social security numbers to file false tax returns so he could collect the refunds.

Describing Achampong as “a shameless, incorrigible thief and forger,” Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said “the investigation took quite a while because many of the people with the brain injury really couldn't cooperate with us."

Spota's office said Achampong is charged in a 48-count indictment that alleges grand larceny in the third degree, identity theft in the second degree, offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree and possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.

Achampong has also been accused in a credit card scam that victimized people in Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and Texas.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Titanic Treasures: Rare Memorabilia Set to Hit the Auction Block

Universal History Archive/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- An original Titanic launch ticket, currently valued at between $50,000 and $70,000, is among a series of Titanic-related items set to be auctioned off on April 15 by Bonhams auction house in New York. Also included in the lots are letters from survivors and memorabilia from the 1953 and 1997 films. The auction will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking after it hit an iceberg only four days into its maiden voyage.

According to the Bonhams website, the ticket, which has the perforated admission stub still attached, is the only known one of its kind. Had it been used, it would have granted the bearer admission to the ship’s May 11, 1911, launch. Launched before it was fully equipped as a luxury liner, the Titanic was never christened, as per the policy of its operator, the White Star Line, a fact some attribute to the ship’s ill fate.

Another star lot is an account of the R.M.S. Carpathia’s rescue account of Titanic survivors, written by that ship’s captain, Arthur Henry Rostron. The account is projected to sell for anywhere between $90,000 and $120,000.

The supposedly unsinkable ship hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, sinking to the bottom of the ocean by the next morning. More than 2,000 people were aboard the luxury liner; 1,503 died in the incident, mostly from hypothermia. The wreckage of the ship, images of which can be seen here, wasn’t found until 1985.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio