Westchester Now
Latest news and conversation around the news from Westchester, Rockland and the Hudson Valley.
Timothy O'Connor
Tim O'Connor has been a journalist for 14 years, with more than a decade's experience covering courts and crime in Westchester and the Hudson Valley. Born and raised in the Bronx, he is a graduate of Lehman College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Follow on Twitter: @Timothy_OConnor
Judge Judy's mommy instincts surface in defense of Putnam DA son
Photo credit: Timothy O'Connor
TV star Judy "Judge Judy" Sheindlin said her "motherly instincts" kicked in when she found out about the criticism leveled at her son Putnam County District Attorney Adam Levy by Sheriff Donald Smith regarding Levy's actions during an investigation into the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.
Levy's former live-in trainer, Alexandru Hossu, 35, an undocumented immigrant...
Read more »Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. to meet with feds again about his father's shooting death
Photo credit: Rory Glaeseman
Kenneth Chamberlain Jr. and his family's lawyers are scheduled to meet again Wednesday with federal prosecutors reviewing the shooting death of his father, a 68-year-old African-American man gunned down by a white White Plains police officer on Nov. 19, 2011.
Chamberlain Jr. had already met once last June with Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kennedy, a senior civil rights prosecutor....
Read more »Richard Leak infant death case among murder trials highlighting busy week in Westchester courts
Photo credit: Susan Stava
This week will be a busy one for Westchester County courts and the federal courthouse right down the block in White Plains, with two murder trials set to start.
Here are some of the bigger cases on the calendar:
- Michael Saunders, 50, of Yonkers, will go to trial in Westchester County Court on second-degree murder charges in the March 2012 death of his infant child's mother, Sabrina...
Read more »Terrance Raynor, former police chief, on short list for Mount Vernon police commissioner
Photo credit: Angela Gaul
Terrance Raynor, a former Mount Vernon police chief, has the inside track to become Mount Vernon's next top cop, a City Hall source speaking on condition of anonymity told Newsday.
"Raynor's the administration's first choice," the source said.
Mayor Ernie Davis declined to comment Wednesday on his first choice for the job, saying he intends to fill the post by the end of the...
Read more »Yonkers police use new media to solve old cases
Photo credit: Rory Glaeseman
Old-fashioned police leg work and paper files help Yonkers Det. John Geiss, the cold case detective for the Yonkers Police Department, crack cases that date back years -- like the probe of alleged serial killer Lucius Crawford who was arrested in December.
But Geiss and his supervisor, Yonkers Det. Lt. Joseph Monaco -- who has been working with Geiss since January 2012 -- have employed...
Read more »