New York City briefs

Woman killed by bus

while crossing street

A 55-year-old woman was hit and killed by an MTA bus in Queens late Wednesday night, police said.

The woman, Melania Ward, was crossing the intersection of Astoria Boulevard and 80th Street about 10 p.m. when she was struck, police said. She was a few blocks from her home in the Ditmars-Steinway area of Queens.

The bus, the Q47, was rounding the corner and turning right onto 80th Street when the two collided, police said.

There were passengers on board at the time, said Kevin Ortiz, an MTA spokesman.

The driver remained at the scene, police said. The incident is under investigation.

Body on roof may be missing woman, 73

A maintenance worker from an adjoining building found a woman's body on the roof of a building on West 30th Street between Surf and Mermaid avenues on Coney Island just after 10 a.m., police said.

Investigators are looking into whether the body may be 73-year-old Crucita Alvarado, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Alvarado went missing last month and lived around the corner from where the unidentified body was found, police said.

The body was found wearing black sweatpants and a dark hooded sweatshirt. Alvarado was last seen wearing similar clothing.

Would-be rapist

sought in Manhattan

Police are looking for a man who tried to rape a 59-year-old woman while she slept early last week.

The man, who is about 25 years old, broke into the woman's apartment on East 106th Street in Manhattan about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 1, police said.

The woman awoke to find the man pulling her ankles and trying to pull her pajama pants down, police said. She screamed and he ran out of the open living room window.

The suspect is described as being about 5-foot-6 and about 220 pounds.

Brooklyn Museum's

director to step down

The director of the Brooklyn Museum is retiring next year.

Arnold Lehman informed the board of trustees at a meeting Tuesday that he'll retire in mid-2015. He took over the museum in 1997.

Under his leadership, the number of visitors doubled and the museum drew a younger and more diverse audience. Its endowment more than doubled.

He's probably most recognized for a 1999 exhibition that included a work depicting the Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung. That prompted then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to threaten to cut off the city's funding to the museum.

Among other notable exhibitions during Lehman's tenure were "Monet and the Mediterranean," shows on graffiti artists, the Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and John Singer Sargent watercolors.

He also was committed to showcasing feminist art.

Eight are indicted in

$290M stock swindleNew York City prosecutors have indicted eight people they say operated a penny stock "pump and dump" scheme that defrauded $290 million from thousands of investors.

Four of them were arraigned yesterday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on an 85-count indictment alleging securities fraud and other charges. They all pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors alleged the defendants manipulated the markets and cashed their shares before the stocks plummeted.

They said Anthony Thompson of Bethesda, Maryland, and others promoted the stocks through email blasts from websites they controlled.

But attorney Maratha Fritz said Thompson, 38, made clear he was a paid advertiser of the stock, not a boiler room broker.

Fritz said Thompson has already settled a Securities Exchange Commission case in Florida.

He was released on $1 million bond.