New York City’s Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry into how a well-connected inmate was able to schedule, cater and host a bar mitzvah for his son — with 60 invited guests and live music — inside a jail in Lower Manhattan.
The inmate, Tuvia Stern, a former fugitive who was facing charges that he stole US$1.7 million, held the six-hour kosher-catered party in December in the gymnasium of the Manhattan Detention Complex, apparently with the knowledge of two Correction Department chiefs and the jail’s warden, city correction officials said on Thursday.
Guests of the extraordinary jailhouse bar mitzvah, which featured a band and Yaakov Shwekey, a popular Orthodox singer, were allowed to bring their cellphones into the secure complex and food was served on china with metal forks and knives — all violations of rules prohibiting communication devices and sharp objects that could be used by violent inmates.
The New York Post reported details of the jailhouse party on Thursday. Several city officials on Thursday privately expressed near disbelief that any inmate, regardless of wealth or connections, would be allowed to turn a jail complex into a rollicking banquet hall for six hours.
“You have knives and other metal utensils, and cellphones all over the place,” said one city official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of angering more senior officials. “Why did they do this?”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, asked by reporters on Thursday afternoon about the episode, said the party should not have been allowed. Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to say whether the office was investigating if the party, and at least tacit approval for it by senior Correction Department officials, involved any criminal wrongdoing.
Stern, 47, fled the country in 1989 after being released on US$250,000 bail while facing charges, along with his older brother, of stealing US$1.7 million in two financial scams.
He went to Brazil with his wife and five children and was brought back to New York in February last year after losing an extradition fight that began when he was arrested while trying to enter the UK in December 2006.
Stern was convicted in February of first-degree grand larceny and sentenced to two-and-a-half to seven years in prison. In mid-April, he was transferred to a state prison in Woodbourne, New York, State Department of Correctional Services records show.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2