LI CRIME BRIEFS
LEVITTOWN / Man sentenced for role in $23M mortgage scam
A Levittown man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Monday in federal court in Manhattan for his role in a $23 million mortgage fraud scheme.
David Ramnauth, 55, was the former president of GuyAmerican Funding Corp. He allowed a branch office of the mortgage brokerage to submit fraudulent loan applications on 44 properties, pocketing hundreds of thousands in commissions, prosecutors said.
Ramnauth pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.
The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin was lower than the 57 months to 71 months called for under federal sentencing guidelines, which prosecutors had recommended.
He was one of eleven defendants charged in connection with the fraud. Nine have so far either pleaded guilty or been convicted after trial.
Ramnauth's attorney did not return a call for comment.
- JOHN RILEY
YAPHANK / Dad charged with driving three kids while on drugs
A Mastic father faces a felony charge of driving while impaired by drugs under Leandra's Law after deputies arrested him at a checkpoint in Yaphank with his three children in the car, according to the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office.
Robert Rocco, 37, was among about a half-dozen arrests made Sunday by deputies at the checkpoint, at Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway, as eastbound traffic exited to travel north and south on the William Floyd Parkway, Chief of Staff Mike Sharkey said.
The checkpoint started just after 10 p.m., as the Super Bowl was ending, Sharkey said.
Rocco was driving with his three children as passengers, police said.
He is charged with driving while ability impaired by drugs, police said. Arraignment information was not immediately available.
Sharkey said the children were picked up by a family member. He did not have more information.
- GARY DYMSKI
LAKEVIEW / Man who skipped 1979 rape trial sentenced
A New Jersey man convicted of first-degree rape and sexual abuse in Nassau County almost 30 years ago will finally serve time for his crime.
Nassau County Court Judge George Peck sentenced Rudy Carter, 65, of Roselle, N.J., to 2 to 6 years in prison Monday.
Carter, who came to court in a wheelchair, skipped town the day before a jury convicted him on April 7, 1981, on charges that he had raped a Lakeview woman in her home in 1979.
Carter was arrested in Elizabeth, N.J., on March 4, 2010, and brought back to Nassau.
Investigator William Walsh of District Attorney Kathleen Rice's office cracked the case when he obtained motor vehicle records on Carter during a separate narcotics case.
Nassau Det. Joseph Maher, assigned to the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, found Carter at a hotel by tapping cell phone towers.
"After 30 years on the run, this defendant will finally serve his punishment for this terrible crime," Rice said.
"It was the tenacity, skill, and dedication of our Nassau County and federal law enforcement agencies that resulted in this cold case being brought to resolution," Rice added.
Assistant District Attorney Joseph LaRocca of the Special Victims Bureau handled the case after Carter's return.
Attorney Dennis O'Brien, who represented Carter, had no comment.
- KATHLEEN KERR