NYC NEWS BRIEFS

Tape: Bonanno chiefs eyed LI real estate

Before the market crash, even mobsters were pipe-dreaming of real-estate riches on Long Island.

According to a secretly recorded tape played at the death-penalty trial of former Bonanno acting boss Vincent Basciano on Monday in Brooklyn, three of the family's top wiseguys spent part of a December 2003 lunch at the Seacrest diner in Westbury plotting about how to make a killing by subdividing a golf course in Oceanside.

The recording was made by informant James "Big Louie" Tartaglione, who became a government informant and was wearing a wire. Apparently trying to put his lunch companions at ease, Tartaglione told Basciano and Anthony Urso, "You're in the construction business. I'm gonna give you something."

He confided that he had heard the Middle Bay Golf Course near his home in Oceanside was losing members and might be up for sale for $75 million -- encompassing some prime oceanfront real estate.

Basciano's response: "Wow!"

Urso's: "You could build a lot of homes there."

The three then exchanged ideas on how many homes could be built on the acreage -- 100, 200, 400 -- and what they could be sold for. "How much [profit] is that? Fifty million!"

Tartaglione is appearing as a witness at Basciano's federal murder trial in Brooklyn, following former Bonanno boss Joe Massino to the stand. He testified that he has sold the house in Oceanside. His testimony resumes Tuesday.

Basciano is charged with ordering the killing of mob associate Randy Pizzolo in 2004.

-- JOHN RILEY

Bronx house fire kills child, 2 adults

Officials are investigating the cause of a Bronx house fire that killed a child and two adults early Monday.

Neighbors said the adults were the child's parents. They said two younger children escaped with minor injuries.

The FDNY identified the victims as a boy, 12, a 36-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman. It provided no details on their relationship.

The fire was reported about 3:30 a.m. at a two-family home on Prospect Avenue in the Tremont section of the Bronx. It was brought under control about an hour later.

Teacher's fine lowered in profanity case

A schoolteacher accused of using a Spanish vulgarity in his classroom has persuaded a judge to trim his $15,000 fine to $1,000.

A ruling filed Monday by State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe says the initial penalty was "disproportionate" in Carlos Garcia's case.

The high school history teacher was suspended and fined last year after students said he used a Spanish curse word in his Manhattan classroom. He denied it and said a court interpreter miscast the term during a disciplinary hearing.

The word's literal translation refers to female sexual organs, but its usage varies. Some speakers consider it offensive. To others, it's a fairly harmless expression of frustration or joy.

City lawyers say they're weighing options after seeing the ruling. They've said the language was inappropriate and the penalty was warranted.

Garcia's lawyer hasn't returned a call seeking comment.

Man in cleanup near WTC charged in fraud

Staten Island prosecutors have filed fraud charges against an ex-supervisor of a crane used at the former Deutsche Bank building being taken down across from the World Trade Center site.

Bruce Greenberg pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny, falsifying business and tax-fraud records in Staten Island.

District Attorney Daniel Donovan said Greenberg's case came to light during the investigation into the blaze that killed two firefighters at the site in 2007. Greenberg is not suspected of any wrongdoing in the fatalities.

Donovan said Greenberg was collecting Social Security on a false disability claim while he was also reporting for work at the site between 2004 and 2008. They said he claimed he had lung disease. His wife Angela Greenberg pleaded not guilty to tax-fraud charges.

Compiled with wire reports