• JAMAICA TIMES • ASTORIA TIMES • FOREST HILLS LEDGER • LAURELTON TIMES LARGEST AUDITED • QUEENS VILLAGE TIMES COMMUNITY • RIDGEWOOD LEDGER NEWSPAPER IN QUEENS • HOWARD BEACH TIMES • RICHMOND HILL TIMES May 9–15, 2014 Your Neighborhood - Your News® FREE ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE NYRA slights Aqueduct Visit us online LIC is the on funding from Resorts TimesLedger.com place to be Page 4 QGuide Page 41 Rapper’s mother relieved by arrest Wills charged with grand larceny in his 2013 slaying SE Queens councilman accused of lining his pockets with $30K in taxpayer funds BY RICH BOCKMANN BY CHRISTINA SANTUCCI City Councilman Ruben A Manhattan mother waited Wills (D-Jamaica) was arrested one year, two months and two early Wednesday morning and days for news that there had been charged with grand larceny and an arrest in the Queensbridge fraud for allegedly stealing some shooting death of her son, an as- $30,000 in state and city funds, au- piring rapper. thorities said. And two weeks ago Milagros Wills is accused of pocket- Ortega received the call from ing $19,000 from a $33,000 state a 114th Precinct detective that grant earmarked by his former authorities had caught up with boss, ex-state Sen. Shirley Hunt- 29-year-old Clarence Scott in ley, and $11,500 in public match- Petersburg, Va., and extradited ing funds allocated to his 2009 him to New York, where he was Council campaign, state Attor- charged with Francisco Leal’s ney General Eric Schneiderman murder, police said. and state Comptroller Thomas “I drove him crazy. I called DiNapoli announced Wednesday him every single day,” Ortega afternoon. said of the detective. “When he If convicted, Wills faces up gave me that good news, the bur- to seven years in prison, the au- den was lifted off and I dropped thorities said. the phone, and I got nervous. I A relative of Wills’, Jelani went to the floor and started to Mills, was also arrested and pray.” charged with grand larceny and A spokeswoman for the Pe- fraud for allegedly helping in the tersburg Police Department said theft and cover-up of the city Cam- Scott, who has ties to Far Rock- paign Finance Board monies. away, was cooperative when he Wills denied the allegations. was taken into custody by U.S. “How many people have Marshals Fugitive Task Force stood here before the cameras April 4. and said, ‘I’m innocent’?” he said. Once back in the borough, “I am.” Scott was arraigned on charges “This is America, and here of shooting Leal once in the chest you’re innocent until proven on 21st Avenue near the Queens- guilty,” he said. “I know because bridge Houses Feb. 2, 2013, accord- of where I come from and the ing to a criminal complaint filed color I am, it doesn’t usually work by the Queens district attorney’s City Councilman Ruben Wills arrives at the courthouse in Kew Gardens, where he was arraigned on fraud and larceny like that with you guys,” he add- Continued on Page 58 charges. Photo by Ellis Kaplan Continued on Page 58 A CNG Publication Vol. 2 No. 19 64 total pages 2 TL Boro debates basement fl ats St. Albans girl dead COM . Avella rails against legalizing units, but others praise proposal in Brooklyn hit-run BY RICH BOCKMANN riding in, but despite first responders’ best efforts she TIMESLEDGER BY SARINA TRANGLE Funeral arrange- was pronounced dead at ments have been made for Brookdale Hospital, police Forget air rights — be- the 9-year-old St. Albans said. low-ground space may now girl who was killed in a car Rebecca and her fam- 9–15, 2014 9–15, 2014 be the most contentious as- crash in Brooklyn over the ily attend services at the AY pect of the Queens real es- weekend. Restoration Temple As- , M tate market. The viewing for Re- sembly of God in Brooklyn EDGER State Sen. Tony Avella becca Ramnarine will be every Sunday, and she was L (D-Bayside) and several held Wednesday at the Res- riding with a family friend IMES T Queens civic groups did not toration Temple Assembly on their way to Canarsie wait for the mayor to unveil of God, 4610 Church Ave. Pier, where the clan was go- his administration’s af- in Brooklyn, from 4 p.m. ing to meet before heading fordable housing blueprint to 6 p.m., followed by a ser- to Queens for dinner, her Monday to denounce a pro- vice from 6:30 to 7 p.m. The family said. vision of the plan that may funeral was scheduled for But just about a dozen legalize basement apart- Thursday in Fresh Mead- blocks away from the pier ments and other self-con- ows. a Honda Odyssey minivan tained units within homes. Rebecca had just left smashed into the Hyundai Flanked by neighbor- a family gathering at the and a third vehicle at the hood association leaders, church Sunday when the intersection of Avenue N Avella said last Friday that car she was riding in was and Remsen Avenue, police efforts to authorize below- hit by an alleged hit-and- said. ground housing were un- State Sen. Tony Avella criticizes Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to study the legalization of basement run driver. Police said the driver realistic and would pose A St. Albans family of the Honda, 62-year-old apartments. Photo by Sarina Trangle safety hazards and strain was in mourning this week Kenneth Palache, had al- communities’ resources. tricts that would become into the regulated housing ya, said the new zoning cat- after one of their youngest legedly fled the scene from “To change the zon- all of a sudden two-family system, including a review egory would improve an members was killed by an a nearby hit-and-run ac- ing code of the entire city districts — that’s not what of other cities’ best prac- unaffordable housing mar- alleged hit-and-run driver cident just a few minutes of New York to allow base- people paid lots and lots of tices to bring fresh ideas to ket for those with a limited in Brooklyn Sunday. earlier, and when officers ments to become legal money for over the years,” the discussion.” income and offer relief to It took the jaws of life stopped the Huntington, would be a monumental said Henry Euler, first Basement Apartments homeowners struggling to to free the young girl from L.I., resident, he again took task,” Avella said. “It took vice president of the Au- Safe for Everyone, a coali- pay their mortgage. the twisted metal of the off. eight years to do one rezon- burndale Civic tion pushing for “The mayor followed Hyundai Elantra she was Continued on Page 53 ing proposal when I was in Association. See related story the city to autho- up on his campaign prom- the City Council .... I don’t “There’s no rize safe unsanc- ises,” Goldsman said. “We see how the mayor can guarantee that PAGE 4 tioned homes by are very excited to work think he can do this either these units adding an acces- with the mayor on continu- by executive order or it’s go- will be affordable either. sory dwel ling unit to its zon- ing to research the issues ing to be a simple thing to People who own the home ing code, is spearheaded by and come up with a creative accomplish.” can charge any rent they the Jackson Heights-based solution.” Queens Civic Congress want.” Chhaya Community Devel- A report BASE re- President Richard Hellen- De Blasio’s housing opment Corp. BASE argues leased in conjunction with brecht said fires in such plan did not offer many de- that authorizing building Pratt Center for Commu- units had proven deadly tails about how he intends apartments would ensure nity Development in 2008 and that doubling the ca- to deal with unsanctioned they meet safety standards notes that nearly 40 percent pacity in single-family dis- housing units. His plan and emergency responders of all new housing built tricts would overburden said, “The city will work are aware of how buildings in the four outerboroughs the sewage, garbage and with the relevant stake- are being used. between 2000 and 2005 is school system. holders to examine how Drew Goldsman, a believed to have been cre- Richard Ramnarine holds a photo of his daughter, Rebecca, who “The one-family dis- best to bring these units project manager at Chha- Continued on Page 58 was killed in a Brooklyn car crash. 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