16 THE QUEENS COURIER • OCTOBER 12, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens DA
off ers warrant
forgiveness
event in
Jamaica
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
agiudice@qns.com
@A_GiudiceReport
Do you or someone you know
have an outstanding summons
warrant for a minor infraction?
Now is your chance to get them
cleared.
Queens District Attorney
Richard Brown is co-sponsoring
the “Second Chance Summons
Warrants Forgiveness” event
in Jamaica on Saturday, Oct.
21, where people can come and
get their warrants cleared with
help from the Offi ce of Court
Administration and defense
attorneys.
Th e Second Chance event will
take place on Oct. 21 at the Greater
Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New
York, located at 110-31 Merrick
Blvd., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“An unanswered warrant can
result in arrest and, in some
instances, jeopardize employment
and housing opportunities,”
Brown said. “By participating
in this event, individuals
are off ered a clean start by having
their summonses adjudicated
and ultimately dismissed.”
Participants must bring with
them valid, state-issued photo
identifi cation, even if they do
not physically have their summons
or if they have been
arrested multiple times for
summons related to warrants
on their records. However, the
court will only hear summonses
with unresolved warrants dated
before Oct. 20, 2017.
Th ey will receive free legal
assistance from the Legal Aid
Society, the Greater Allen
A.M.E. Cathedral Lawyers
Guild, and other volunteer
attorneys will be onsite and can
provide council as to an individual’s
best course of legal action.
Undocumented immigrants
are also welcome to attend the
event to resolve their low-level
summons warrants.
Additional on-site resources
that will be available during the
Second Chance event include
access to job training, healthcare,
education, legal assistance,
and general social services.
For more information on the
types of summonses with unresolved
warrants will be taken at
the event, and other important
questions related to the Second
Chance event, visit www.
queensda.org.
Kew Gardens: Don't reopen jail
BY ANTHONY GIUDICE
agiudice@qns.com
@A_GiudiceReport
Th ough 11 City Council members believe
that the former Queens Detention Complex
would be the best place to house inmates if the
city does eventually close Rikers Island, residents
Queens residents busted for massive heroin and cocaine smuggling ring
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com
At least six Queens residents were a part
of a major drug ring that spanned multiple
states, according to Nassau County District
Attorney Madeline Singas.
A total of 17 members of the narcotics
ring were charged on Oct. 4 for traffi cking
drugs and supplying major dealers in
at least fi ve states. Th e investigation, which
started in March 2016, found that three
men started the drug distribution operation
and the main ringleader was Lyonel
Beaubrun, 41, from Rosedale.
Prosecutors said Beaubrun started the
ring with Kevin Etienne, 36, of West
Hempstead and another relative. Th e trio
supplied cocaine and heroin to 14 members
of the crew who would sell the drugs to
major dealers.
Th ey supplied dealers on Long Island,
New York City, upstate New York, Chicago,
Maine, Maryland and Virginia. Th e DA’s
Special Operations and Narcotics Bureau
discovered that the organization transported
cocaine on commercial fl ights from Sky
Harbor International Airport in Phoenix,
AZ, to John F. Kennedy Airport.
“Fourteen law enforcement agencies collaborated
with my offi ce’s dedicated investigators
on this massive take down that
has dismantled what we allege to be a
multi-state, cross country drug traffi cking
enterprise that pumped huge quantities of
cocaine and deadly heroin into our communities
and throughout the northeast,” Singas
said. “Our partners at the federal, state and
local level worked together seamlessly to
uncover the novel smuggling methods used
in this ‘family business’ and to shut it down
before more lives were ruined by the poison
these defendants supplied.”
Many of the defendants are family members
and live and work together in four
locations in Queens and Nassau County
where the drugs are stored. Th e drugs were
then transported to associates for distribution
in Nassau, Suff olk and Queens counties
where members would make sales ranging
from $50,000 to $75,000 per week.
As a result of search warrants executed
on Wednesday, investigators seized fi ve
and a half kilograms of cocaine, four ounces
of heroin, approximately $190,000 in
cash, two defaced guns, money counters,
kilogram presses, packaging equipment,
a Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and a
Richard Mille watch.
Investigators conducted three car stops
in 2017, where they seized two kilograms of
cocaine and more than $70,000. Th e stops
were conducted on July 2 in Suff olk County,
July 4 in Nassau County and Aug. 13 in
Dorchester County, Maryland.
Th e 17 defendants are charged with various
crimes in the eight-count indictment,
including operating as a major traffi cker,
fi rst-degree criminal possession of a controlled
substance, second degree conspiracy
and other related charges. Beaubrun is
charged as operating as a major traffi cker
and faces up to 25 years to life in prison
if convicted.
Twelve defendants were arrested and
arraigned, four defendants are incarcerated
and waiting arraignment and one defendant
has not been apprehended.
Th e arraigned defendants include the following:
• Lyonel Beaubrun, 41, Rosedale, NY
• Kervin Etienne, 36, West Hempstead, NY
• Jean-Luc Th eodore, 35, Valley Stream,
NY
• Jaksem Phileppe, 42, Far Rockaway, NY
• Musheer Reid, 34, Brooklyn, NY
• Emmanuel Lemite, 38, Rosedale, NY
• Ebony Johnson, 36, Brooklyn, NY
• John Beaubrun, 38, West Hempstead, NY
• Naeemah Smith, 37, Rosedale, NY
• Sandra Marseilles, 38, Rosedale, NY
• Sully Botello, 33, Central Islip, NY
• Ashley Cumbo, 27, Bellerose, NY
of Kew Gardens are saying, “Not so fast.”
Th e Kew Gardens Civic Association
and the Kew Gardens Improvement
Association, representing many of the
neighborhood’s homeowners and apartment
renters, released a joint statement
outlining their “strong opposition” to
using the detention center as a successor
to Rikers Island.
It was reported on Monday, Oct. 2, that
Councilwomen Elizabeth Crowley and
Karen Koslowitz put forth a plan that
would reopen the jail to house a reduced
population of inmates if the Lippman
Commission’s proposal to close Rikers
Island and open up smaller, community
jails goes through.
“In just the two days since the Crowley
letter was made available to our members
we have received numerous replies from
our members, all of whom are opposed to
reopening the House of Detention,” according
to the statement signed by Sylvia Hack,
president of the Kew Gardens Improvement
Association, and Dominick Pistone, president
of the Kew Gardens Civic Association.
“If community opinion is to mean anything,
this project should be shelved.”
Th e residences’ grievances with this plan
range from the fact that they say the community
was never notifi ed of the plan, parking
issues around the facility, and questions
about the facility itself.
One major problem the groups see with
this plan is that their community’s facility
isn’t large enough to house the inmates
from Rikers Island, as was mentioned in
previous arguments against reopening the
detention center.
“Aft er the brouhaha last spring when
the distribution of Rikers’ prisoners was
a headline topic, it was said that our Kew
Gardens facility was not nearly big enough
to accommodate enough prisoners from
Queens,” Hack and Pistone wrote. “Th at
the facility was outdated, that it would need
to be demolished and rebuilt and that Kew
Gardens could not provide enough prisoners
to warrant a ‘neighborhood prison,’
one of the goals voiced for the break-up of
Rikers. What happened?”
Although residents of Kew Gardens see
major obstacles in reopening the detention
center, Mayor Bill de Blasio seems to be on
board with the plan.
Th e Daily News reported that de Blasio
believes reopening and expanding the Kew
Gardens facility would be “an ideal fi rst
step” for the plan.
“I’m encouraged the mayor was receptive
to our proposal to use the Queens
Detention Complex in the plan to close
Rikers. Using this site, the original jail in
Queens County, will save millions of New
Yorkers’ tax dollars,” Crowley said. “It is a
central location in the borough, right in the
backyard of the courthouse. It’s time our
criminal justice system refl ect New York
City values, and the Queens Detention
Complex provides us that option. I hope the
mayor takes this opportunity to fully commit
to not putting jails in residential neighborhoods.
I look forward to hearing his
plan and a timeline.”
Photo by Anthony Giudice/QNS
Residents of Kew Gardens do not want to see the Queens Detention Complex reopened.