16 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 12, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photo courtesy of the Nassau County District Attorney’s offi ce
Karan Young
Former narcs cop
from Queens guilty
of heroin ring role
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
A Laurelton woman who once
worked to keep drugs off of New
York City streets admitted in court on
Monday that she helped peddle them
with her romantic partner.
Karan Young, 50, a retired member
of the NYPD Narcotics Bureau, pleaded
guilty on July 9 to a fourth-degree
conspiracy charge. She faces 1 1/3 to
four years behind bars at her sentencing
on Aug. 27, according to Nassau
County District Attorney Madeline
Singas.
Prosecutors said that Young worked
for Delta Airlines at LaGuardia Airport
following her retirement from the
NYPD. On the side, however, she
helped her longtime boyfriend — Leigh
Jackson (aka Chris) — and 12 others
sell and distribute more than 23,000
heroin doses on the street; the illicit
operation netted the ring $170,000 a
week in income.
A 15-month joint investigation by
the Nassau County Police Department
and various local, state and federal
law enforcement agencies revealed
that Jackson, while based in Bushwick,
Brooklyn, supplied heroin to other
members of the ring. Dealers in Nassau,
Queens and Brooklyn picked up packages
of heroin from barber shops and
auto body shops in Brooklyn, then distributed
them in their respective areas.
Prosecutors said that Young collected
money for Jackson. As part of
her plea deal, she also admitted to
providing Jackson with a mini NYPD
shield and a Patrolman’s Benevolent
Association card so he could avoid
being picked up by law enforcement
agents while transporting drugs.
“Th is retired narcotics detective
knew the deadly impact of heroin, yet
she helped her boyfriend profi t from
dealing poison in our communities,”
Singas said in a July 10 statement.
“Anyone who enables the drug traffi
ckers who fuel this epidemic should
expect to be met with aggressive prosecution.”
Jackson is currently serving a seven
year prison sentence aft er pleading
guilty in December of 2017 to attempted
operating as a major traffi cker.
Lawmaker issues call for graffi ti
removal requests in northeast Queens
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Northeast Queens locals are being
encouraged to report local graffi ti for
removal under a recently funded program.
State Senator Tony Avella is calling on
residents of District 11, which includes
areas of Bayside, Flushing, Whitestone,
Douglaston and College Point, to contact
his offi ce with specifi c graffi ti removal
requests. His district offi ce can be reached
at 718-357-3094.
Th e request follows a $100,000 funding
allocation to Wildcat, a nonprofit
organization that provides transitional
employment and job placement to
unemployed and underemployed New
Yorkers. Employees of the organization
began community beautifi cation eff orts
in the area in April.
Workers focused fi rst on the area’s
commercial districts and are now expanding
their eff orts into residential areas of
the community, according to Avella.
“Within the last month, Wildcat crews
have been cleaning local streets and
our mom and pop establishments from
all-too-familiar graffi ti eyesores,” Avella
said. “Th erefore, I am pleased to open
cleaning and graffi ti removal requests to
the community so that I can help improve
the quality of life in my district.”
Photo via Creative Commons
Funding for the program will last until
March 30, 2019. Th e funding allocation
will also facilitate snow removal in the
colder months.
Ex-Trump driver from Ozone Park: Prez owes me overtime pay
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com / @robbpoz
An Ozone Park man who previously
served Donald Trump as his chauff eur for
25 years says that the president owes him
bigly in unpaid overtime wages.
Attorneys for Noel Cintron fi led a lawsuit
on July 9 against the Trump Corporation
and Trump Tower Commercial LLC seeking
more than $350,000 in back overtime pay
incurred over the last six years of his employment
to Trump and his companies. Th e New
York Daily News fi rst reported the story.
According to the lawsuit, which the Daily
Mail uploaded to its Scribd account, Cintron
worked for Trump’s companies for 25 years
as Trump’s personal driver, jetting the real
estate mogul, his family members and colleagues
around the city. Cintron lost those
responsibilities to the U.S. Secret Service in
2016 aft er Trump became the Republican
presidential nominee, but he continued to
serve Trump as a member of his personal
security detail.
While working as Trump’s chauff eur, the
lawsuit noted, Cintron generally worked
between 50 and 55 hours a week, beginning
his shift at 7 a.m. and ending whenever
the Trumps no longer needed his services.
Cintron earned $62,700 a year in 2003,
and his annual pay was increased to $68,000
three years later. Cintron claims that Trump
bumped up his salary to $75,000, but only
aft er he was compelled to surrender his
health benefi ts — which saved Trump’s
companies more than $17,000 per year in
contributions.
Even so, according to the lawsuit,
Cintron maintained that neither the
The Secret Service now chauff eurs President Trump around, but a lawsuit fi led by an Ozone Park man
claims that The Donald never paid him overtime wages while driving the real estate mogul around
prior to his presidency.
Trump Corporation nor Trump Tower
Commercial LLC ever paid him proper
overtime wages for hours worked above
40 hours per week, as required by law.
Employees who work above 40 hours per
week must be paid 1 1/2 times their hourly
wage for every overtime hour.
Attorneys Larry Hutcher and Josh
Krakowsky of the Manhattan-based fi rm
Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP said in
the complaint that now-President Trump,
through his companies, “exploited and
denied signifi cant wages to his own longstanding
personal driver.” Th ey further
Photo via Shutterstock
called the alleged actions “an utterly callous
display of unwarranted privilege and entitlement,
and without even a minimal sense
of noblesse.”
Th e Trump Corporation responded to
the lawsuit in a statement released to multiple
media outlets.
“Mr. Cintron was at all times paid
generously and in accordance with the
law,” according to the statement, which
Bloomberg News attributed to Trump
Corporation spokesperson Amanda
Miller. “Once the facts come out, we
expect to be fully vindicated in court.”
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