14 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2021
WEB BRIEFS LI AT A GLANCE
NYPD COP INDICTED FOR FARMINGDALE
MURDER
A grand jury indicted former New York City Police Officer
Errick Allen after he allegedly shot and killed his 25-yearold
friend in Farmingdale last year.
Allen, 28, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder,
first-degree manslaughter, and menacing in the second
degree in the death of Christopher Curro.
“We trust our police to protect the safety of New Yorkers,
but instead, this defendant allegedly betrayed that duty
and used his service weapon to end another man’s life,”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said.
Prosecutors said Allen and Curro were longtime friends
who both lived in Nassau County. On May 12, 2020, around
8 p.m. in a residential neighborhood, Allen allegedly shot
Curro five times at close range. Curro was unarmed. Allen
initially fled the scene but returned
later in the evening.
Allen
had been a police officer for seven
months assigned to the 109th Precinct in Queens.
The NYPD suspended and later terminated him after the
alleged murder. He is due back in court on Sept. 23, 2021.
-Julia Moro, Queens Courier
SYOSSET’S BIRD LEADS U.S. WOMEN’S
B-BALL TEAM TO 7TH STRAIGHT GOLD
Team USA extended a historic run of championships in
Olympic women’s basketball on Aug. 8, winning the gold
against home team Japan in their first-ever medal match.
The United States’ women earned their seventh straight
gold in the 90-75 victory at the Saitama Super Arena,
north of Tokyo. Packed with WNBA talent, the U.S. women’s
team has been even more dominant in basketball in
recent Olympics than the men’s squad. Syosset native Sue
Bird, the team captain, and Diana Taurasi have each now
claimed their fifth gold medal.
“Hopefully, we’ve left some sort of legacy with the younger
players, where they now can carry that torch,” said Bird,
who was cheered on by her soccer superstar wife Megan
Rapinoe in the stands. “I’m just really, really happy. And
this is my last one.”
-Reuters
OLYMPIC SILVER MEDALIST GETS
HOMETOWN WELCOME IN WANTAGH
A 21-year-old diver who brought home a silver medal from
the Tokyo Olympic Games, his first Olympics, was greeted
with warm welcomes in Wantagh last month.
Andrew Capobianco, who grew up in Wantagh, visited
a Nassau Police Activity League (PAL) practice on Aug.
9 and Mandalay School, where he attended elementary
school, on Aug. 10. Local kids and elected officials alike
congratulated him on placing second in the 3-meter synchronized
diving event in Tokyo.
“We salute Andrew Capobianco with a hero’s welcome at
the same elementary school he attended as a child here
growing up in his hometown of Wantagh, right here in
the Town of Hempstead,” said Town of Hempstead Councilman
Chris Carini. “This young man has spent his
life training to
get better and to become the
world-class athlete that he is today.”
Town Supervisor Don Clavin presented Capobianco with
a key to the town during his visit to the school. Councilman
Bruce Blakeman, Legislator Steve Rhoads, Town Clerk
Kate Murray, Tax Receiver Jeanine Driscoll, and proud
neighbors also gathered to greet Capobianco.
The Wantagh native became the first seventh-grader to
win the Nassau diving championship while competing for
Wantagh High School in 2012, breaking a county record
and doing the same the next year. He moved to North
Carolina in 2013 and continued his legendary run as an
All-American at Indiana University.
-Briana Bonfiglio
SPOTA, EX-AIDE SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS
Ex-Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota and
his former top deputy were each sentenced Aug. 10 to five
years in federal prison after being convicted of helping to
cover up a police beating.
Spota was also fined $100,000 in the sentencing given
by Judge Joan M. Azrack at Central Islip federal court.
Spota and former Government Corruption Bureau Chief
Christopher McPartland were convicted in December
2019 of conspiring to cover up police brutality following
a six-week-long trial.
A federal jury found the two men guilty of obstruction of
justice, conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruct
an official proceeding, witness tampering and obstruction
of an official proceeding and accessory after the fact to the
deprivation of civil rights, after they attempted to cover
up the assault of a shackled and handcuffed prisoner,
Christopher Loeb, by then-chief of the Suffolk County
Police Department, James Burke.
Federal prosecutors said Spota, McPartland, and Burke
conspired to conceal Burke’s role in beating a suspect who
stole a
bag of sex toys,
pornography, and
ammunition from the chief’s
SUV in 2012. Authorities also said
the three talked about using their power
to conceal the chief’s attempted cover-up of the
beating that Burke ultimately pleaded guilty to in 2016.
Burke has since been sentenced and released from prison.
-BB
FUNERAL FOR BIZ MARKIE HELD ON LI
A funeral for rapper Biz Markie was held on Aug. 2 after
the hip-hop personality known for his 1989 hit “Just a
Friend” died in July.
Fans gathered outside the Patchogue Theatre during the
service for the pioneering beatboxer whose birth name
was Marcel Theo Hall. He was born in Harlem and raised
in Patchogue.
Police put up barricades to hold crowds on the sidewalks
and keep the street in front of the theater clear.
Media reports said a private viewing for the family was
followed by a live-streamed service. The Rev. Al Sharpton
tweeted that he was to deliver the eulogy. “May his legacy
live on,” the civil rights leader said on Twitter.
Hip-hop performers LL Cool J, Fat Joe and Big Daddy Kane
were set to attend, media reports said.
Markie died on July 16 at age 57 of complications from
diabetes.
-Reuters
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