LI CRIME BRIEFS

GARDEN CITY/Bail reduced for mom in hit-man-for-hire case

A Brooklyn appeals court reduced the bail status of a Garden City mom accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her estranged husband - but probably not enough for her to get out of jail.

Susan Williams, 43, now must post $1 million bond or $1 million cash, down from $2 million bond or $1 million cash, if she wants to get out of the Nassau County jail in East Meadow while she awaits trial, lawyers in the case said Wednesday.

"The reduction is bittersweet because it may be just beyond the family's ability to afford," said Williams' lawyer, John Carman of Garden City.

Williams' parents had used their Franklin Square home as leverage to post her bail when it was lowered to $500,000 about a month after her March 4 arrest.

Last week, after Williams was arraigned on additional charges, including the allegation that she fraudulently changed her husband's life insurance policy shortly before arranging the hit, Nassau County Judge Norman St. George raised her bail and she was taken back into custody.

Carole Trottere, a spokeswoman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice, said prosecutors were pleased with the appellate panel's decision, which was announced Wednesday morning.

Carman had argued in court that Williams has strong ties to the community and would not flee. But prosecutor Jane Zwirn-Turkin told the appellate panel that the new evidence strengthened the prosecution's case and gave Williams more cause to flee.

- ANN GIVENS

HOLBROOK/Mom of teen in bias killing case charged with theft

The mother of Nicholas Hausch, one of seven teenagers charged in connection with the attack on Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero, has been charged with stealing more than $3,000 from her employer, according to the Suffolk County district attorney's office.

Patricia Hausch, 45, of Middle Island Road in Medford, was arrested last Friday on charges that she conducted fraudulent refunds while working as a department supervisor at the Toys R Us in Holbrook between March and May of this year, said district attorney spokesman Robert Clifford.

She pleaded not guilty to grand larceny at her arraignment in Central Islip district court last Friday and was released on her own recognizance, Clifford said. The charges are based "in part on the oral admission of the defendant," Clifford said.

Her lawyer, Jason Bassett of Central Islip, declined to comment. Hausch is due back in court July 7.

Toys R Us store manager Joshua Livermore confirmed that Hausch was an employee at the store but declined to comment further, citing corporate policy.

Hausch's son Nicholas, 18, pleaded guilty to gang assault and conspiracy in the fatal hate-crime attack on Lucero in Patchogue in November 2008. He testified against Jeffrey Conroy, who was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime in Lucero's stabbing. Nicholas Hausch is free on bail pending sentencing; he faces 5 to 25 years in prison on the top charge.

- SOPHIA CHANG

SYOSSET/Man who cried bomb at middle school sought

Nassau County police are looking for a man driving a white Nissan Altima who reportedly shouted a bomb threat near an entrance to a school in the Syosset Central School District.

On Tuesday, at about 7:20 a.m., a man driving the car made the threat to a security guard near the gate of South Woods Middle School on Pell Lane, Nassau County police and school officials said.

"He yells out the passenger window, 'There's a bomb in the building!' " Second Squad Det. Sgt. Robert Atchison said.

The vehicle did not slow down. "It was too fast to get a plate number," Atchison said.

Atchison said the driver was thought to be in his late 30s or early 40s. If he is caught, he could be charged with harassment and falsely reporting an incident.

The South Woods school and Syosset Senior High School were evacuated as officials searched both buildings. Students from the nearby elementary school, whose session hadn't yet begun for the day, were kept out of the building while police searched, Atchison said.

The search turned up empty, and students and faculty were allowed to re-enter the schools after the hour-and-a-half-long canvass.

The Syosset Central School District did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

- MATTHEW CHAYES

NEW CASSEL/Husband sought in wife's disappearance, death

Nassau police want to speak to the husband of a woman whose remains were found in a plastic bag in New Cassel following her disappearance a year ago.

An autopsy revealed the woman, Winsome Angela Perez, a Hicksville bank worker, died of blunt force trauma to the head, police said. On Wednesday, police formally identified her and said they were seeking the woman's husband whom they had been unable to find since Perez went missing some time after July 28. He has not been named as a suspect.

Workers found the bag on Monday at Express Steel Supply Co., where her husband had worked. The site at 110 Hopper St. had already been searched last July, after Perez, 45, was reported missing by co-workers at Chase Bank in Wantagh. Perez was last seen at the bank on July 28, 2009.

Since Perez's disappearance, investigators have been unable to locate her husband, whose name they would not release. He worked as a welder at Express Steel around the same time she was reported missing, police said.

Perez's remains were identified through dental records and her son, who lives in Jamaica in the Caribbean, has been told of the death, police said.

Express Steel workers called police Monday after they found the bag, emitting a foul stench, wedged between a 40-foot steel storage container and a chain-link fence at the rear of the business.

- MATTHEW CHAYES