4 The Queens Courier • august 22, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan The salt marshes of Udalls Cove Park at Virginia Point are protected by the city and state, unlike 15 privately owned parcels in the ravine. Photo by Peter Reinharz Landlord charged with scamming would-be tenants BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected] An Astoria landlord has been charged with taking thousands of dollars from potential tenants after posting a Craigslist ad for rooms at his home that were never vacant. Mario Lalicata, also known as Mario Lamagra, allegedly took security deposits ranging from $500 to $2,000 from prospective tenants looking to rent out space at his 48th Street home, according to a criminal complaint. He collected first month’s rent in two cases, the complaint said, but as the move-in dates got closer, Lalicata allegedly suspended the moves after making up numerous excuses. When the tenants tried asking for their money back, the landlord allegedly promised to return the money or said the money was being used for repairs. Lalicata allegedly then stopped answering and returning the tenants’ calls, according to legal documents. “This case sadly represents another instance in which an allegedly greedy landlord is accused of taking advantage of Queens County’s tight housing market to rub unsuspecting individuals of substantial amount of their hard-earned savings through an online rental scheme,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “For many of the victims, the loss is doubly troubling in that they have lost their money and still have no place in which to live.” The complaint also said that in two cases, Lalicata returned $200 of a $600 deposit and a woman claiming to be his wife returned $100 of $2,000 a tenant gave Lalicata as a deposit and one month’s rent. On August 13, Lalicata was arraigned on a 22-count criminal complaint with ten counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, two counts of first-degree scheme to defraud and ten counts of petit larceny. Lalicata was ordered to be held on $10,000 bail and scheduled to return to court on August 27. If convicted he faces up to four years in prison. Calls to Lalicata’s lawyer were not returned as of press time. Photo Courtesy of the New York Daily News Ex-teacher Daniel Reilly was sentenced to six months in prison. TOUCH TEACH SENTENCED TO SIX MONTHS BY MELISA CHAN [email protected] The former Queens middle school teacher who confessed to statutory rape dropped plans to withdraw his guilty plea and was sentenced to six months in prison, the district attorney’s office said. Daniel Reilly, 36, a married father, admitted in May to having sex multiple times at his Forest Hills home with a 14-year-old girl he used to teach, according to authorities. His legal team was considering withdrawing his plea earlier this month, a lawyer said, after learning a conviction would keep Reilly from raising his infant daughter. But the former sixth grade English teacher at I.S. 237 instead followed through with his planned sentencing on Monday, August 19, the district attorney’s office said. As part of the plea bargain, meant to spare the victim from testifying, Reilly also agreed to serve 10 years probation, give up his teaching license, register on the state’s sex offender registry and take a sex offender reform program, authorities said. His lawyer did not immediately comment. The relationship between Reilly and the teen, which began last August, surfaced when her sister found sexually explicit text messages on her phone, according to the district attorney. The ex-educator, who made close to $62,000 a year, resigned a month after his arrest from the Flushing school, where he had worked for six years, a Department of Education spokesperson said. COMMUNITY TO CITY: Preserve Udalls Cove BY MELISA CHAN [email protected] Queens preservationists and a local community board want the city to save some of the last remaining parcels of Udalls Cove Park from development. Several acres of privately owned wetlands and wooded uplands in the park’s ravine have come under new threat, according to Community Board 11 and the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee. “This week we have learned that the owner of most of that land now seeks to sell it,” said Walter Mugdan, the committee’s president. “That means the threat of development within the park boundary has arisen once more.” Advocates say the cove’s salt water marshes and freshwater wetlands are a sanctuary for wildlife in the city. An inlet of Little Neck Bay between Douglaston and Great Neck, it is home to a variety of animals including salamanders, muskrats and the occasional fox, nearby residents said. “It’s one of the last salt marshes in the city of New York at least on the north shore,” said CB 11 chair Jerry Iannece. Neighbors of the city and state owned portion of Udalls Cove at Virginia Point said they fear development near the deep-wooded ravine will ultimately spread to other parts of the park. “Everything is connected, like in nature,” said resident Chris DeGeorge. “Once one property is developed, it’s like Pandora’s box. I don’t want it to have a cascading effect.” Mugdan and CB 11 sent letters to the mayor, calling for the city to buy five of the last remaining privately owned 15 parcels. The five connected lots total to about 1.4 acres. “It just makes sense that we go out there and try to buy this property before a developer goes out there and puts houses on it,” Iannece said. More than 80 percent of the ravine’s 14.25 acres has already been bought and saved from development since the 1980s, according to the groups. Several acres were almost developed into 18 houses in 2004, Mugdan said, until the city bought and put the land into its Udalls Cove Wildlife Preserve. The city’s Parks Department, which manages the preserve, said it wants to work with the community and its elected officials to complete the purchase of the rest of the property. “Strengthening Udall’s Cove Park is a priority for the administration and we are exploring every possible means of preserving these parcels,” a department spokesperson said. Supporters said Udalls Cove Park should remain a “unique” part of the borough. “That separates us,” said DeGeorge, who likes to kayak in his backyard salt marshes. “When I have people over, they never believe this is Queens.” The property owner did not return calls for comment as of press time. “You need to preserve all of it to keep it in its pristine condition,” Iannece said, “and let nature do what nature does best.”
QC08222013
To see the actual publication please follow the link above