New York briefs

NY congresswoman

robbed in D.C.

Freshman Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) said in a statement yesterday that she was hit on the head and robbed in Washington, D.C., but was not seriously injured.

Meng said she suffered a bruise on her chin and underwent a CT scan after the attack Tuesday night near Capitol Hill.

Meng says she had dinner at a restaurant and was walking to her apartment when she was hit in the back of the head. She says the robber took her purse and fled on foot.

She calls it "a frightening ordeal" and says she's fortunate she wasn't badly hurt.

U.S. Capitol Police are investigating.

Man charged in

Central Park rape

Police have arrested a man and charged him with the Sunday rape of a woman in Central Park. Omar Hoist, 32, whom police had named as a person of interest in the rape earlier, was arrested inside Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan and charged with first-degree rape, strangulation and assault, the NYPD said early this morning.

Hoist is homeless, police said.

An NYPD spokesman said he was unsure whether Hoist was being treated at the hospital when he was arrested.

Police said the rape occurred early Sunday. According to police, Hoist approached the victim at East 88th Street and Fifth Avenue about 3 a.m., and the two began talking.

They entered the park at East 100th Street, walked along the bike path and sat on a bench together, police said.

Police say Hoist then became violent, took the victim to a grassy area and raped her.

The victim was able to run away and went to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. The suspect fled in the opposite direction.

Grocery stores caught

in alleged fraud

Nearly 20 grocery stores throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens were targeted yesterday in a federal and state bust of a multimillion-dollar fraud of a food benefits program.

There were 16 grocery store owners and employees from nine stores charged for exchanging a customer's voucher checks from the Women Infants and Children program -- known as WIC -- for cash, then taking a cut of the money.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors sought a civil forfeiture of 19 grocery stores to seize their bank accounts.

The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman arrested 10 additional grocery store employees as part of its own investigation into the alleged food benefits fraud.

Suspect arrested in

B'klyn groping cases

Police have arrested a man in connection with a series of groping incidents in Brooklyn, including an assault on an 11-year-old girl, officials said.

The man was nabbed after a local resident took a photo of the suspect's ID, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

"A Good Samaritan chased him [Monday] and then lost him, saw him again [yesterday] and asked him for his identification," Kelly said, according to NY1.

The unidentified suspect may be connected with at least four possible assaults, police said.

Stores in bias flap

a no-show at hearing

None of the stores that are at the center of alleged racial profiling incidents showed up at a City Council hearing yesterday to investigate the matter.

Although Barneys and Macy's gave written statements about how they are handling the reports from black customers who contend they were harassed after they legally bought items, City Councilman Jumaane Williams was frustrated that their reps couldn't answer lingering questions in person, his spokesman said.

Williams, who chairs the Council Committee on Oversight & Investigations, said the stores have to do more to crack down on unnecessarily harassing customers.

Compiled with staff

and wire reports