WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 30, 2019 17
Forest Hills Gdns. mulls car-free plaza
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Instead of its usual role of bringing
the neighborhood together for a
soirée, this year the Forest Hills
Gardens Corporation’s (FHGC) annual
community meeting served as a forum
for a hot button issue within the domain
neighborhood aff airs: traffi c patterns.
Over 200 residents attended the
discussion about whether the newly
restored Station Square plaza should
be limited to pedestrian traffic or
not. The participants weighed the
safety hazards of the area’s traffic,
historical preservation of the square
and its accessibility to residents
and commuters. The end result?
Community members will have to
wait and see. The FHGC ultimately
said it needs more time and data to
decide the future of the square.
“The comments received by the
Board before, during, and after the
meeting included differing opinions,
concerns, and perspectives. We are
still receiving calls and emails. We
are thoroughly considering all of
the feedback, but at this time, we
believe we need more information
before deciding how to handle the
situation, and we do not want to rush
into a decision,” Forest Hills Gardens
Corporation wrote in a statement the
day after the meeting.
According to documents
provided to QNS detailing the
Station Square in full bloom this spring. Photo courtesy of Susanna Hof
content of the meeting and the
board’s subsequent emails to the
community, the FHGC is planning
a survey to “better understand the
opinions of the entire community”
and they are considering hiring
a traffic consultant to analyze
the plaza’s problems and help
generate solutions.
“There are small streets in the
vicinity of the square that have taken
on a lot of the traffic. So that is a
problem that needs to be addressed,”
Susanna Hof of Terrace Sotheby’s
International Realty, which has two
offices at Station Square.
Hof added that after sitting through
the meeting, she was convinced that
keeping it permanently closed was
not an option, but some compromise
was more likely. “There are
compromise plans like opening it
during the week and having it closed
on the weekends, or reducing the
size of the area that’s closed. There
are a lot of possibilities,” she said.
The people who were most fired up
seemed to be those arguing against
closing the square, according to
Hof. At the meeting, these residents
argued that the increase in
traffic along the adjacent streets
needs relief.
Some also mentioned their
concerns over inviting the homeless
population into the square by closing
it to traffic.
This group framed their point of
view in a historical preservation
framework by arguing that
maintaining the original conception
of Station Square as a main
“vehicular” thoroughfare. However,
during the squares opening
in 1912, vehicles solely meant
horse-drawn carriages.
Those in favor of closing the square
made their case primarily out of an
appreciation of the architectural
design of the Square and the safety
issues related to pedestrians, many
of whom are seniors.
Hof emphasized that the board
did fall on either side of this debate.
For the moment, their approach is to
consider all options. FHGC President
Matthew Mandell will speak at the
Community Board 6 meeting on June
12 about their plans for the square.
The board also can be reached at
info@fhgc.org or at 718-268-2420.
Kew Gardens lawyer convicted of bribing murder witness
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
EDAVENPORT@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
A Long Island man who
practiced law in Kew
Gardens was convicted of
conspiring to bribe a witness in a
double-homicide case.
John Scarpa, Jr., 66, was found
guilty of use of interstate facilities in
aid of racketeering and conspiracy
to do the same in connection to the
bribery after a four-day trial. He is
due to return to court for sentencing
on Sept. 18, where he faces up to 10
years in prison.
“The jury saw through Scarpa’s
corrupt scheme to help his client
avoid responsibility for murder
by bribing a witness to give false
testimony,” stated United States
Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.
“With today’s verdict, the defendant
will now face prison and disbarment
for attempting to undermine the
criminal justice system and violating
the law he was sworn to uphold as
an attorney.”
According to trial testimony, in
2015 Scarpa conspired with Charles
Gallman to bribe a convicted
murderer to testify in support of
Scarpa’s client, Reginald Ross, who
was charged with the executionstyle
killings of two men.
The Queens District Attorney’s
office obtained court-authorized
intercepted communications that
revealed that Scarpa and Gallman
planned to bribe Luis Cherry
to falsely testify at trial that he
alone had committed the second
of the two murders, and that Ross
was innocent.
Scarpa told Cherry that he would
help him with his appeal for his own
murder conviction, and to spread
word in the prison system that
Cherry had not informed against
Ross. Following a visit to Cherry at
the Downstate Correctional Facility,
Gallman told Scarpa, “Anything we
need, he’s willing.”
Scarpa asked, “So this guy is
willing to do whatever?” Gallman
replied, “Whatever you need,
John. Whatever you need…. I got
a bunch of stuff I wrote down
that he wants.”
When Scarpa called Cherry as
a witness for Ross’ trial, Cherry
testified falsely, however the
judge still found Ross guilty of
both murders.
Gallman pleaded gui lty
to conspiring to violate the Travel
Act by bribing a witness to testify
falsely, and conspiring to make
false statements to the Bureau of
Prisons in a separate scheme in
November 2018. He was sentenced
to three years in prison on March
7 of this year.
John Scarpa, Jr. (inset) was found guilty of bribing a witness to falsely
testify in a homicide case. Photo via Getty Images, inset via U.S. Attorney’s Offi ce
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