Text size:

The top 10 Long Island stories of 2007

Most-viewed stories of the year

BY NEWSDAY.COM

5:38 PM EST, December 21, 2007

It was the best of times, it was the weirdest of times. Long Island had a rollercoaster 2007, with all kinds of odd stories, from the woman who sued the Mets after a 300 lb. man fell on her, a couple of tornadoes and a Dunkin Donuts in Syosset providing sanctuary to an enslaved woman.

These are the top 10 local stories in Newsday.com from this year, according to reader popularity.

10. Dead woman in basement.

Three days after Joia Gigante went missing, police detectives found her in her Sayville basement, behind furniture and personal objects. Following an autopsy, the Suffolk Police squad concluded that her death did not "involve any criminal conduct.".

9. C.W. Post campus video offends religious leaders.

A video by five students at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University depicting ski-masked "hostage-takers" speaking in cartoonish Middle Eastern accents has drawn condemnations from local Muslim leaders. The students were fired from their jobs as residence hall assistants in Brookville Hall.

8. Bayville couple in hot water over pool noise

William and Rachel Poczatek entered a plea in village court today after their neighbors complained to the village that the Poczateks' two daughters, aged 5 and 11, were making too much noise around the family's pool. "I don't know what kind of solution there is," said Rachel Poczatek, 43. "Should I muzzle my children?" The judge agreed and threw out the complaint.

7. Did rough sex kill woman?

The family of Laura Giampino said that Christopher Bayer raped and killed their daughter, but a Suffolk DA said Giampino probably died during consensual sex. He is accused, however, of covering up the death by burning down the Ronkonkoma home.

6. Rain wreaks havoc; flash flood warning in Suffolk

It was a nightmarish commute that Wednesday, July 19. The rains started slowly by sunrise but by 8 a.m. the full downpour was on. A tornado touched down in Islip Terrace. Several streets and roadways flooded, and authorities claimed they were taken by surprise. We thought it was the storm of the year, but three weeks later we were proven wrong.

5. 300-pound man crushes fan at Shea

Or so claims Ellen Massey, 58, who says in court papers that on April 9 she was in the second row of the right field upper deck near a "visibly intoxicated" man who was "acting in a rowdy, boisterous and dangerous manner for a long period of time." Around 3:30 p.m., court papers say, the man, who has not been found or identified, "in an intoxicated condition fell upon plaintiff, causing her to sustain severe personal injuries."

Massey's lawyer, Stephen Kaufman, said that the fall by the man, who was described as being about 300 pounds, cracked several of the woman's vertebrae. Two emergency medical technicians sitting directly in front of Massey gave her first aid and comforted her until an ambulance arrived. Massey is suing the Mets, the beer vendors, the security officer, and, naturally, "John Doe", the unidentified man who fell on her.

4. Tornado hits Brooklyn

Less than three weeks after a twisted touched down in Islip Terrace, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, saw the impact of a tornado that again made a mess of the morning commute and flooded basements and roadways across the area.. It was the first tornado to land in Brooklyn and the sixth to hit New York City since the weather service began keeping records in 1960. In a very wet summer, more than two inches fell that August 8.

3.Children of slain parents search for answers

Jaspal Singh, 46, and his wife, Geeta, 38, after the were killed in their Syosset home Jan. 23.

Police have made no arrest, have no suspects and have not determined any motives in the killings of the Singhs.