Roslyn Heights Man Sentenced In Fatal Crash

Read Here: https://queenseagle.com/all/2026/3/12/queens-judge-dismisses-most-terroristic-threat-charges-against-man-accused-of-threatening-mamdani

By Wendy Lin The convictions of three men found guilty of second-degree riot in the Howard Beach racial incident have been overturned by an appeals court, according to a decision published yesterday., , and were found guilty by a Queens jury last year of being part of the gang of white youths that chased three black men through the streets of Howard Beach on Dec. 20, 1986. The chase eventually led to the death of one of the men, Michael Griffith, who was struck by a car on the Belt Parkway. The ruling gives the state special prosecutor’s office 45 days to present the case again to a grand jury. Yesterday, Matthew Greenberg, a prosecutor with the special prosecutor’s office, said his office is considering appealing the decision. He would not comment further. On Dec. 11, according to the decision published in the New York Law Journal, the appellate division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn overturned the verdicts on several grounds, including that State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Demakos failed to tell the jury that it could consider a charge of disorderly conduct if it did not find the defendants guilty of first or second-degree riot. “We’re feeling very happy and fully vindicated,” said Todd Greenberg, attorney for the 20-year-old . “But we’re also anxious to see the next step because the court leaves open the possibility of further indictment.” Bert Koehler, attorney for , 19, said all three men are working part-time and attending college locally. They were each sentenced to four months of weekends in jail, three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service, but the sentences were delayed pending the appeal. Meanwhile, Howard Beach defendant was released from the Brooklyn House of Detention yesterday after serving four months of a six-month term for his part in the racial attack case. , 20, was the prosecution’s main witness against his former friends in Howard Beach. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the case. His attorney, Richard Mischel, said “just wants to resume a quiet life.”, who became an outcast in Howard Beach after agreeing to help the prosecution, has moved out of New York City, Mischel said. (The following appeared in NS edition: The appeal of three defendants who were found guilty of manslaughter is scheduled to be heard by the state Court of Appeals in Albany on Feb. 7. Two of them – and – were sentenced to serve 6 to 18 years and 5 to 15 years in jail, respectively, for their part in Griffin’s death. They are free on bail pending the appeal. The third, , has a prior criminal record and is serving a sentence of 10 to 30 years in a state prison.) 12-27-1989

By: Herbert Lowe Staff Writer A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday in the 1999 beating death of Manhattan community activist Armando Perez. When Mr. Perez punched me in my face, I lost it, Shaguye Colbert, 29, of Newark, told Justice Robert Hanophy in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens. I didn’t mean to kill him, Colbert said as Perez’s widow and several of her supporters looked on. He hurt me and I intended to hurt him back. Perez, 51, was killed on April 3, 1999, in front of the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City. A democratic district leader on the Lower East Side, Perez was visiting his wife, Marianne, when he became involved in a random dispute with Colbert, who was leaning on Perez’s car, prosecutors said. Colbert will be sentenced to 10 years in prison on June 16. Malik Hill, 26, also of Newark, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in June for helping Colbert beat Perez to death. Hill, who is awaiting sentencing, was to testify against Colbert as part of the plea deal calling for Hill to spend 8 years in prison. Police initially arrested four men in the case based on two witnesses’ accounts. Prosecutors dismissed the charges after a new witness identified Colbert, who in turn led police to Hill. I’m not letting these four boys go down for a murder they didn’t commit, Colbert’s attorney, Todd Greenberg, quoted his client as telling authorities in 2002 from the New Jersey jail where he was serving time after pleading guilty to complicity to a robbery. Perez ran with a street gang for a time before turning to community activism. In 1979, he helped convert a dilapidated school building in Manhattan into Charas/El Bohio, a center for struggling painters, dancers and actors. Marianne Perez, 47, Councilwoman Margarita Lopez (D-Manhattan) and nearly a dozen supporters said after Colbert’s plea that he showed too little remorse. He may have been sentenced to 10 years, but I hope that it’s a life sentence, Marianne Perez said, that he doesn’t ever walk out of there alive. It may sound bitter, but I’m angry. Lopez cried from her courtroom seat as Colbert spoke. It blows me away that the man doesn’t have any remorse, she said.