Hate Image Painted On Hillcrest Temple

BY LIZ SKALKA

Community members spoke out last week against two swastikas spraypainted on property owned by Young Israel of Hillcrest in Fresh Meadows last Wednesday night.

One was painted on Young Israel’s message board and another on the window of a Hatzolah ambulance. The ambulance is used for volunteer emergency medical services.

The incident was reported to the NYPD Thursday morning and officers and detectives of the 107th Precinct and the NYPD’s Bias Crime Unit are investigating it.

State Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) organized a rally outside Young Israel Thursday.

“The swastika is a symbol of hate and a precursor to violence,” he said, echoing the sentiments of many who spoke that day. “We are here to reaffirm to the community that we will not tolerate hatred or anti-Semitism.”

Lancman is a member of the shul at Young Israel of Hillcrest.

Borough President Helen Marshall was also on hand to speak.

“This type of racism and intolerance has no place in Queens,” she said, adding, “I’m not a Jew – I’m here for my brothers and sisters.”

Marshall noted the 350th anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance is nearing. The Remonstrance, signed in 1657 when Flushing was still a part of the colony of New Netherland, is considered by many to be a precursor to the Constitution’s freedom of religion provision in the Bill of Rights.

Other representatives also spoke out against the incident.

State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) pointed out that on that day everyone was coming together to speak with one voice. She also added, “Queens has become a heaven for people who have been persecuted around the world,” which makes the acts of anti-Semitism even more reprehensible.

Councilman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) said, “Everybody who lives in this community stands against this hatred … No one can dare to desecrate in this way.”

Gennaro left the audience with this: “The love of this community is greater than the hatred.”

Rabbi Richard Weiss, of Young Israel of Hillcrest, also addressed the audience, noting that what happened there on Wednesday isn’t exclusively a Jewish issue.

“Anyone who lives in the City should be disturbed by this,” he said. “Thank you for all coming and showing solidarity.”

Rabbi Michael Miller, executive vice president and CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, likened the incident that occurred at Hillcrest to an act of violence.

“Violence is violence and it can never be tolerated, he said, “Those who commit those acts can never be tolerated.”

The incident also shook up members of the shul at Hillcrest.

The act of anti-Semitism shocked Barbara Cohen, whose husband, Sandy, is president of Hillcrest.

“This totally takes away that sense of security and the belief that you can pray without being hurt,” she said.
 

 

Pamper Me offers an array of spa treatments.

On Oct. 17, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center hosted a Steel Topping-Off Ceremony as a way to mark the construction progress of Jamaica Hospital’s highly anticipated nursing home. The 226 bed facility is a state-of-the-art sub-acute rehabilitation and skilled nursing care center. The nursing home will be four stories high and feature a four-story atrium at the entrance. Residents will benefit from the unique “modified bi-axial,” a double room created to feel as a private room. Pictured l. to r., front row: David Rosen, President and CEO; Hans Kuenstler, Director of Construction; and Bruce Flanz, Executive VP & Chief Operating Officer.
 

Wendy’s Butcher Saved From Death

 
 

John Taylor’s sentence was overturned this week

BY MICHAEL CUSENZA



Life was breathed into the sentencing of John Taylor, who was convicted of viciously executing five Wendy’s employees at a Flushing restaurant in May 2000.

The State Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 this week to vacate the death sentence handed down in November 2002 by a jury of Taylor’s peers, and that State Supreme Court should now determine his sentence.

It is anticipated that Taylor, the only man remaining on New York’s death row, will now spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for a crime Queens DA Richard Brown called “among the most brutal and horrific crimes that this City has ever seen.”

“We were confident all along, but we’re relieved of course,” said Kevin Doyle of the New York Capital Defender Office, who filed the appeal on Taylor’s behalf. “We’re grateful that John Taylor’s children will not have to witness his execution, and that instead he will live his life out in remorse for the horrible things that he did to innocent families.”

The 65-page ruling recounted the night of May 24, 2000, when Taylor and accomplice Craig Godineaux robbed a Wendy’s on Main Street and forced seven employees into a walk-in refrigerator in the basement, bound and gagged them and placed plastic bags over their heads before shooting each once in the head execution style as they knelt down on the floor.

Godineaux, who is mildly retarded, pleaded guilty in 2001 and is serving life without parole.

Capital punishment was returned to the State’s criminal statutes on Sept. 1, 1995. It was declared unconstitutional on June 24, 2004 through a ruling by the State Court of Appeals in People vs. Stephen LaValle, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a Suffolk County mother of two.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Court vacated LaValle’s death sentence due to a constitutional defect in the statute’s deadlock jury instructions –invalidating the entire sentencing portion of New York’s capital punishment statute.

In New York State, once a defendant was found guilty, the trial court instructed the jurors to decide whether the defendant should be sentenced to death or to life without parole. Either choice had to be unanimous. The trial court further instructed the jurors that if they failed to agree, the court would sentence the defendant to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving a minimum of 20 to 25 years.

In ruling on LaValle’s appeal, the Court concluded that jurors might choose the death penalty for a defendant based on the fear that if they deadlocked the defendant might someday be able to re-enter society.

The CDO filed its opening brief on the Taylor case Aug. 31, 2006, citing that the LaValle ruling must apply and the defendant’s sentence should be changed to life without parole.

After Taylor was found guilty, presiding Judge Steven Fisher informed the jury during the penalty phase that if they did not come to a unanimous decision either way, he would have the authority to sentence Taylor to the maximum on each of the six counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree attempted murder, and make them run consecutively.

“So, the maximum sentence I could give and would almost certainly impose in this case, would be a sentence of 175 years to life,” Fisher said, “which means that the defendant would become eligible for parole, but only after he had served 175 years in jail.”

Taylor’s death sentence by lethal injection was vacated by the narrowest of margins. Not all judges were pleased with the outcome.

“In People v. LaValle, the death sentence was vacated because the trial judge gave a coercive deadlock instruction to the jury,” Judge Susan Read wrote in a dissenting opinion. “But no such coercive instruction was given in this case.”

While Brown always believed the jury’s original sentence should stand, the former judge accepted the Court’s ruling.

“I hope that today’s decision brings some degree of closure to the families of those who died in the basement of Wendy’s restaurant in Flushing seven and one-half years ago – and to the survivors and their families, as well,” Brown said. “I had promised them that we would see this case through to its conclusion and that in so doing we would follow the law – and that is what we have done. Our State’s highest court has now spoken – albeit not with one voice – and it is for all of us to respect its decision.”

 

Fiancé’s Gift To Gal Better Than Any Ring

BY MELISSA PLATA



A medical milestone took place at North Shore-LIJ Hospital in New Hyde Park last Monday, when a St. Albans couple was involved in the first kidney transplant in Nassau or Queens County. Less then a week later surgeons dubbed the surgery a “gift of life and love”.

Jarena Bates, 23, didn’t have to wait the estimated seven-to-nine-year period for a donor thanks to her fiancé Tyehesian Johnson, 31. With a romantic twist of fate “Not only do they love each other and want to get married but they were a perfect match” said Chief Medical Officer Larry Smith with a light-hearted smile. According to the Director of Transplantation Ernesto Molmenti “This is the love story of the 21st century”.

There are an estimated 60,000 people in the United States – and 870 in Queens –eagerly awaiting the life changing news that a match has been found; 71-percent are African American.

More than half of the kidney transplant surgeries performed in New York involved residents from Nassau and Queens, according to statistics, making this medical miracle in our area a long time coming.

Bates was diagnosed with kidney disease eight years ago. A few months ago she found herself in the Emergency Department at LIJ where she received the devastating news that she was going into kidney failure. Without hesitation Johnson offered to be tested as a donor for this elective surgery.

“I was the second to be tested and knew that our search was over,” he said. But Bates was skeptical because she didn’t want to put him in jeopardy. “She is a very special person and deserved what she got” said Johnson “I feel great and I’m glad that we were able to go through this together.”

The successful surgery took two hours and a team of doctors and assistants to perform. “This is an occasion to celebrate this new program” said the Hospital President Michael Dowling “If you persevere and don’t give up you can succeed.”

The first person to perform this type of surgery is Dr. Kavoussi at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in 1995. He is now the Chairman of Neurology at LIJ and extracted Johnson’s kidney as Molmenti, who was recruited to perform this type of surgery, gently transplanted it into Bates.

Molmenti showed footage of the first few seconds of the kidney transplant “For the skeptics it’s already making urine before we put it in.”

“This is what the very best of human kindness is and greatest form of philanthropy” said Kavoussi “I happened to come here when the program was being put together.” He added that the next step is to decrease the pain and discomfort to the donor and that the future is growing kidneys rather than transplanting.

The reason that local residents waiting for a kidney transplant had to travel to hospitals outside of Queens and Nassau Counties to receive treatment is due to political reasons according to Chief Neurologist Singahl Pravin.

“We were approved a few years ago but there was litigation against us because we didn’t have enough organs to do transplants,” he said, adding the hospital had to increase the number of organs currently available by 10 percent.

“We tried to get the state to give us permission for a long time and had been close to transplanting for a long time” added Associate Chief Nephrologist Akhdar Ashfaq.

Finally, after much red tape and tenacity, this is “a milestone that puts us at the top with the elite in transplants around the country” boasted Smith.

The couple that is literally a perfect match is planning to tie the knot on Oct. 15, 2008 which will be the one-year anniversary since the groundbreaking surgery that paved the way for the rest of the borough.