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BY Alison Gendar and Thomas Zambito DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS A St. John’s University fund-raiser stole $1 million from the Queens college to bankroll casino trips, Victoria’s Secret shopping sprees and her son’s law school tuition, prosecutors say. Cecilia Chang, 57, was held on $1million bail after her arrest Wednesday for grand larceny, forgery and falsifying business records. Chang, who faces 25 years in prison, pocketed a $250,000 donation sent to the school from a charity run by one of the world’s richest men, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, prosecutors say. Alwaleed is the same prince whose $10 million donation to the city after 9/11 was returned by then- Mayor Rudy Giuliani after the prince suggested U.S. policy contributed to the attacks. Prosecutors charged that Chang’s expense reports hid payments on everyday items ranging from clothing to her cable television bill. They claimed Chang conned university officials into giving her a credit card that she used to cover her son’s St.John’s Law School tuition. The ruse was devised after the university denied her son a scholarship, officials said. St. John’s said Chang was a valued employee of the Catholic college’s Asian Studies department for 30years. For the last two decades, she had hobnobbed with dignitaries over lavish meals in the Far East, running up as much as $50,000 per month in expenses. At St. John’s, she earned $140,000 a year, holding the twin titles of dean of the Institute of Asian Studies and vice president for international relations. She was suspended in January when a university audit turned up dubious travel and entertainment expenses. She was fired six months later. Her lawyer predicted the charges would be dismissed. “Every dime that this woman spent was spent on behalf of St. John’s University, entertaining the people who St. John’s University told her to entertain,” her lawyer Todd Greenberg said. “That was her job.” Prosecutors are looking to seize Chang’s $2.8 million Jamaica Estates home to reimburse the university.

A Queens nursing home settled a lawsuit brought by the Estate of man who was beaten to death by his roommate who was convicted of Manslaughter with the leg of a wheelchair. Unfortunately, the facts are disturbing: Our client, a resident of the nursing home, was viciously bludgeoned to death without any intervention from the staff of the nursing home! Upon retention by the Estate to pursue a claim of negligence, Personal Injury Attorney Todd Greenberg was told by the attorney for the nursing home that the nursing home was not liable, that it was the independent and murderous acts of the roommate that caused our client’s death and that the case would be dismissed prior to trial. Instead, after five (5) years of litigation, that same attorney on the eve of Jury Selection entered into a mutually satisfactory settlement with Mr. Greenberg on behalf of the Estate, the terms of which are subject to a non-disclosure agreement. Why? During the litigation, Mr. Greenberg filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request with the District Attorney’s Office of Queens County, The New York City Police Department and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDH), and even brought an Article 78 proceeding against the NYSDH in Albany, to obtain all records and videotapes. NYSDH turned over a video, obtained during its investigation, which showed the killer roommate banging the footrest of the wheelchair on a hallway wall for two (2) minutes before going into his room and committing murder. The video also showed employees of the nursing home, in whose care our client was placed, walking by and ignoring his aggression! The nursing home was negligent in failing to intervene which, Mr. Greenberg argued, allowed the murderer to enter the room. This death could have been avoided! Our client’s pain and suffering action survived his death and his Estate received a mutually satisfactory settlement which the family hopes will act as a deterrent to such negligent conduct by nursing homes. If you or a love one is injured through the negligence of others call Addabbo and Greenberg and speak to Mr. Dominic Addabbo or Mr. Todd Greenberg at 718-268-0400 or contact us through www.addabboandgreenberg.com.

The Woodhaven suspect authorities believe was behind a deadly six hour bullet barrage seven weeks ago was arraigned last Thursday morning during a brief court appearance. Standing in a green sweatshirt and a pair of gray sweatpants before Judge Robert Hanophy, Matthew Colletta, 34, coolly listened to a grand jury’s 57 count indictment brought against him after being transported to Kew Gardens Supreme Court from Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center. Defense attorney Todd Greenberg entered a not guilty plea on behalf of his client, who faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. One man was killed, while two others sustained non life threatening bullet wounds during the shooting spree, which began on the evening of Aug. 25. Colletta, a former bricklayer who allegedly binged on alcohol, cocaine and angel dust for days before the attacks, was taken into custody at the corner of 105th Street and Park Lane South after authorities hunted for a car matching his Cadillac’s description. The authorities said he fired at drivers and pedestrians at 10 different locations throughout the borough. The evening’s fatality, Todd Upton of Long Island, was shot in the neck while his wife drove their minivan on the Cross Island Parkway near Bell Boulevard. On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Charissa Ilardi read Hanophy excerpts from statements Colletta offered after his arrest at the 109th Precinct in Flushing, in Queens Hospital Center and in Bellevue. Greenberg declined to petition the court to set a bail amount. In the excerpts, Colletta presented different explanations for why officers found a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol in his car, including reports that a valet attendant dropped the gun in his vehicle and that he had borrowed the weapon from “Lucifer.” After his client’s arrest, Greenberg maintained that Colletta suffered from serious mental disease and defect. Colletta had been arrested a week earlier on assault charges stemming from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend, and Greenberg reported that he was a diagnosed schizophrenic. While reluctant to detail the specifics of the case he plans to make to jurors, after the Thursday proceedings Greenberg reiterated that his client’s mental capacity will play into his argument. Though Colletta didn’t have any immediate family members on hand in court, he looked back toward those who gathered in the courtroom and shook his head in apparent dismay as he was led out by a bailiff. Mary Upton, Todd Upton’s widow, appeared emotional and fidgety throughout the suspect’s 15 minute appearance. “I sympathize with her. I myself have driven my kids home from college with my wife,” said Greenberg of Upton, who was driving her daughter to Marist College with her husband before he was struck. In court last week, prosecutors added a 10th incident to the charges. Jeffrey Cuff, 39, of Westport, Conn., was driving on the Van Wyck Expressway when Colletta fired upon his black Audi. That incident undermines original reports that Colletta fired only at red vehicles because he believed he was being pursued by the Bloods street gang. Cuff was not injured. Colletta had been arraigned on the charges in the criminal complaint brought against him on Aug. 29 in Bellevue, where he was undergoing psychiatric evaluation. He has remained there since. Still in a pre trial phase, Colletta’s case will next come before the court on Dec. 18. The Thursday indictment listed charges of, among others, murder in the second degree, attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Todd Greenberg is honored to be elected as President of this prestigious organization. The Assistant District Attorney’s Association of Queens County, Inc., is comprised of past and present Assistant District Attorney’s who have served Queens County. The organization is social, educational and fosters the relationships between all members of Law Enforcement, to work together in resolving various criminal justice issues. As Mr. Greenberg completes his first year as President, the Association will be honoring Judge Richard A. Brown, on November 18th, 2010 at the Douglaston Club. Mr. Greenberg is honored to have been selected by his colleagues to this position and looks forward to serving as President of this organization into the next year.

“Queens Attorney Todd D. Greenberg Esq, presenting New York State Senate Citation to members of the Richmond Hill-S Ozone Park Lions Club — with Indarjeet Paul, Tania Sanabria, Mary L. Diakite, Romeo Hitlall and Naidoo Veerapen

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown was honored by the Assistant District Attorney’s Association of Queens County for reaching his 50-year milestone of public service and becoming the longest serving district attorney in Queens County history. Attorney Todd D. Greenberg, the A.D.A.’s Association president and former assistant district attorney, presented the award to DA Brown at the association’s Holiday Dinner and Meeting on November 18, 2010 at the Douglaston Club in Douglas Manor.

Plaintiff, an 80 year old man, was walking down Skillman Avenue and 54 th Street in Queens, New York when he tripped and fell on a raised sidewalk slab. New York slip and fall attorney Todd Greenberg argued that the Defendants were negligent and careless in their ownership and operation of the aforesaid sidewalk in it had been repaired but remained in an uneven condition. Although Defendants argued that the sidewalk defect was “minimal” and not actionable, the case settled prior to jury selection for $150,000.000 based on New York accident slip and fall attorney Todd Greenberg’s argument that the defect was actionable and based upon the facts that the plaintiff suffered a fracture of his left patella. Persistence on the part of the accident and injury attorneys of Addabbo & Greenberg helped the 80 year old Plaintiff gain a substantial recovery in a case where the Defendants argued there was no liability.

By HUGH SON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER A witness in the trial of an off-duty cop accused of plowing into a young Brooklyn motorcyclist while allegedly driving drunk painted a grisly scene of the collision in Brooklyn Supreme Court yesterday. Thomas Blanchett, 22, was one of two other motorcycle riders accompanying Stefanos Kiladitis on a fateful summer night cruise through Bay Ridge two years ago. On the trial’s first day, Blanchett told a jury that he saw Police Officer Victor Wilson’s car appear suddenly in front of Kiladitis’ motorbike at 88th St. and Fort Hamilton Parkway. He said he expected the worst after the bone-rattling crash Ð when he saw his pal flying through the air, landing about 30 feet from his Yamaha motorcycle. “I thought he wasn’t going to be intact, let me put it that way,” Blanchett told the Daily News outside of the courtroom. Blanchett also testified that Wilson ran a red light at Fort Hamilton Parkway the night of the crash. “I ran to Mr. Wilson’s car and I was screaming, “You ran a red light, what’s wrong with you?” he said. Blanchett then found his friend gasping for air on the street, bleeding from the nose and ears, he said. Kiladitis, 21, died of his injuries three days later. Wilson faces up to seven years in prison for the June 19, 2002, incident on charges of vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. The cop had just left a Bay Ridge bowling alley when the crash happened. In his opening remarks, Wilson’s defense lawyer Todd Greenberg told jurors that the crash was a “terrible accident” Ð but not a crime. “Witnesses will tell us Mr. Wilson didn’t exhibit any sign of intoxication and his ability to drive wasn’t impaired,” Greenberg said. To the obvious displeasure of members of the Kiladitis family in attendance, Greenberg also indicated that Kiladitis and his friends were using Fort Hamilton Parkway as a private racetrack, driving their motorcycles at 25 mph above the 30 mph speed limit. Prosecutors said that to prove Wilson guilty of vehicular manslaughter, they would show the cop was both intoxicated and criminally negligent. In opening remarks, Assistant District Attorney Joe Petrosino said Wilson failed his sobriety test Ð his blood level was 0.11%, which is 0.01% above the legal limit. Originally published on March 10, 2004.

2008 WL 941856 (N.Y.Sup.) For Opinion See 2007 WL 6844986 (Trial Order), 2007 WL 6083344 (Trial Order), 2004 WL 5666052 (Trial Order), 2003 WL 25802817 (Trial Order) Copyright (c) 2010 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All Rights Reserved Supreme Court, Twelfth Judicial District, Bronx County, New York. Manuel Barariso, also known as Manuel A. Balarezo, Manuel Atanacio Balarezo, Manuel Antanacio Balarezo Sumba & Manuel Balarezo Sumba, Maria Laura Cabrera Sumba, Indv., Maria Laura Cabrera Sumba & Paul Testaverde as Administrators of the Estate v. S.L. Green Leasing Inc. S.L. Green Leasing, LLC, S.L. Green Realty Corp., Dever Properties N.V., Inc., 215 Park Avenue South Associates L.P., Tri State Scaffold & Equipment Supplies, Inc., Nesa, Inc., Nesa Roofing & Restoration, Inc., & Braxton Engineering, P.C. No. 21348/02 DATE OF VERDICT/SETTLEMENT: January 28, 2008 TOPIC: CONSTRUCTION – LABOR LAW – CONSTRUCTION – ACCIDENTS – CONSTRUCTION – SCAFFOLDS AND LADDERS – SLIPS, TRIPS & FALLS – FALL FROM HEIGHT Laborer Fell 14 Stories When Bricks Broke Scaffold SUMMARY: RESULT: Settlement Plaintiffs’ counsel moved for summary judgment of liability, and the judge found that Labor Law § 240(1) had been violated. Liability was attached to 215 Park Avenue South Associates, Dever Properties, Nesa, Nesa Roofing & Restoration, and Tri State Scaffold and Equipment. However, the matter ultimately resulted in a $3 million pretrial settlement that was funded by the insurers of 215 Park Avenue South Associates, Dever Properties and S.L. Green Realty. Tri State Scaffold and Equipment’s insurer did not contribute, but its $5 million policy was exhausted in the settlement of other lawsuits that stemmed from the instant accident. EXPERT WITNESSES: Plaintiff: Angela M. Hegarty, M.D.; Forensic Psychiatry; Central Islip, NY Edmund Mantell, Ph.D.; Economics; Scarsdale, NY Howard C. Adelman; Pathology; New York, NY ATTORNEYS: Plaintiff: Todd D. Greenberg; Addabbo & Greenberg; Forest Hills, NY (Estate of Manuel Barariso, Maria Laura Cabrera Sumba); Paul Testaverde; Addabbo & Greenberg; Forest Hills, NY (Estate of Manuel Barariso, Maria Laura Cabrera Sumba) Defendant: Jody C. Benard; Brody, Benard & Branch LLP; New York, NY (Tri State Scaffold and Equipment Supplies Inc.); Liza R. Fleissig; Quirk & Bakalor P.C.; New York, NY (215 Park Avenue South Associates L.P., Dever Properties N.V. Inc., S.L. Green Leasing Inc., S.L. Green Leasing, LLC, S.L. Green Realty Corp.); None reported (Braxton Engineering, P.C., Nesa Inc., Nesa Roofing & Restoration Inc.) JUDGE: Paul A. Victor RANGE AMOUNT: $2,000,000-4,999,999 STATE: New York COUNTY: Bronx INJURIES: Sumba fell a distance of about 14 stories. He was instantly killed, but the plaintiffs’ expert pathologist opined that Sumba sustained “excruciatingly painful” abrasions and “brush burns” that were occurred during his fall. The estate’s expert forensic psychiatrist noted that Sumba’s fall lasted several seconds, and photographs revealed that Sumba suffered scrapes of the tips of his fingers. The expert forensic psychiatrist opined that Sumba was attempting to grasp the building or the scaffold, and, thus, she opined that he experienced conscious terror, suffering and fear of impending death. Facts: On Oct. 24, 2001, plaintiff’s decedent Manuel Atanacio Balarezo Sumba, 41, a construction worker, worked at a building that was located at 215 Park Ave. S., in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan. Sumba and four other men were working on a 14-story-tall scaffold. During the course of the day, bricks fell off of the building and landed on the scaffold. The scaffold collapsed, and Sumba and his co-workers fell onto the ground. Each sustained fatal injuries. Sumba’s widow, Maria Laura Cabrera Sumba, acting individually and as administrator of her husband’s estate, sued the property’s owner, Dever Properties N.V. Inc.; the building’s managing agent, 215 Park Avenue South Associates L.P.; the project’s general contractors, Nesa Inc. and Nesa Roofing & Restoration Inc.; a subcontractor that erected the scaffold, Tri State Scaffold and Equipment Supplies Inc.; and several other parties: Braxton Engineering, P.C.; S.L. Green Leasing Inc.; S.L. Green Leasing LLC; and S.L. Green Realty Corp. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants violated the labor law. Nesa and Nesa Roofing & Restoration defaulted, and the plaintiffs did not pursue their claim against Braxton Engineering. The matter proceeded against the remaining defendants. Plaintiffs’ counsel claimed that the incident stemmed from an elevation-related hazard, as defined by Labor Law § 240(1), and that Mr. Sumba was not provided the proper, safe equipment that is a requirement of the statute. Sumba died Oct. 24, 2001, at age 41. He was survived by his wife and three children. Sumba was an Ecuadorian immigrant who was an undocumented resident of the United States. His family resided in Ecuador, and evidence established that he supported them. The plaintiffs’ expert economist opined that the family’s economic losses would total $894,189. Sumba’s estate sought recovery of wrongful-death damages that included those economic losses and damages for Sumba’s pain and suffering. Defense counsel contended that Sumba’s pain and suffering spanned a mere two or three seconds. They also contended that undocumented aliens may not recover lost earnings, but plaintiffs’ counsel contended that lost earnings may be recovered by aliens who have not filed false employment documents. Plaintiffs’ counsel’s argument was based on the New York Court of Appeals’ decision in BalBuena v. Ideal Realty LLC,6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006). ALM Properties, Inc. Bronx Supreme PUBLISHED IN: VerdictSearch New York Reporter Vol. 25, Issue 41 2008 WL 941856 (N.Y.Sup.)

A Queens man accused of killing his girlfriend appeared in court Monday. A grand jury indicted 33-year-old Jason Bohn on first-degree murder charges. Prosecutors allege the University of Florida law school graduate beat and strangled 27-year-old Danielle Thomas. Investigators found Thomas in a bathtub inside the couple’s Astoria apartment. Her body was surrounded by bags of ice. They said he called police to say they had an argument and he threw her against a wall. Todd Greenberg, who is one of Bohn’s attorneys, said his client’s mental state may be a factor. “This may not be a case of who done it as much as why it happened,” he said. “And, to that extent, I do think Mr. Bohn’s mental capacity will become an issue in this case.” Bohn is due back in court in September. He’s being held without bail.

Great Night At The Richmond Hill / South Ozone Park Lions Club, Where The Community Gave Special Recognition And Gratitude To The Police Officers Of The 106th And 102nd Precincts For Their Service. I Was Honored By The Club To Receive A Special Service Award! Thank You To My Fellow Members!