NYC NOW - February 7, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

An attorney for David Crowe, the man accused of stalking Taylor Swift, says his client has been found mentally unfit to stand trial. Meanwhile, an escaped prisoner treated for stab wounds at Bellevue Hospital is back in custody after fleeing. Also, trans rights advocate and author Cecilia Gentili has died at the age of 52. Plus, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with housing reporter David Brand to break down the details of a case involving 70 current and former New York City Housing Authority employees charged in a kickback scheme related to no-bid contracts. Finally, WNYC’s Ryan Kailath profiles actress Chloë Sevigny about her role in the new FX show about the life of Truman Capote, called "Feud: Capote versus the Swans."

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, February 7th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. An attorney for the man accused of repeatedly stalking Taylor Swift's Tribeca apartments says his client has been found mentally unfit to stand trial. David Crowe was recently jailed after police arrested him three times at a week for visiting the pop superstar's home.

His attorney, Kara Mazur, asked a judge to release her client from Rikers Island so he can receive mental health treatment at a hospital. She added that sometimes her clients wait months to be transferred to a hospital. Prosecutors say they're reviewing the results of Crow's mental health exam to decide whether or not they'll accept them. Crow will remain in jail until at least his next court date on Friday. An escaped prisoner is back in custody after a brief stint on the lamb. Police say 23-year-old Christopher Miller was being treated at Bellevue Hospital on Saturday

after being stabbed. When his record was pulled up, police found an active warrant for a traffic infraction and placed him under arrest. Miller allegedly fled the hospital through a side door later that night. Police say they caught him again Monday afternoon and charged him with escape. His lawyer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Activist and author Cecilia Gentilly has died at the age of 52. Gintilly was well known in New York City's public health community for her efforts to improve services for trans people and sex workers. She was also a frequent public speaker and helped launch the movement to decriminalize sex work in New York in 2019. Gentilly made cameos on the TV show Pose and won a Stonewall Book Award last year for her memoir.

A memorial service will be held for Gentilly this evening at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan at 7.30. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYC, on WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. Federal prosecutors have unveiled charges against 70 current and former New York City Housing Authority employees in a vast kickback scheme related to no-bid contracts. U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damien Williams, called it the largest single-day bribery takedown in the history of the Justice Department. Joining us this morning to break down the news is David Brand, WNYC's housing reporter. David, let's jump right into this. Kickbacks, no-bid contracts, pay-to-play. These are all terms we hear a lot when it comes to corruption cases.

Tell us in this case what they actually mean. Sure. So under NYTHA rules, contracts under $10,000 don't have to go through a competitive bidding process. So, I mean, staff at individual complexes can issue contracts for small-scale jobs, things like plumbing, window repair, paint jobs. Federal prosecutors say super's and assistance were using that power to shake down contractors and demand their cut. So they said that you can have $5,000. $5,000 contract, I'm going to take 10% of that, you know, like $500 at a time, but it really began to add up. U.S. attorney Damien Williams called it a culture of corruption that was systemic at around 100 complexes across the city.

And based on the evidence that the prosecutors have, you know, some of these supers and their assistants were pretty explicit about the schemes. One called it his side hustle in text messages saying he charges a thousand per for each contract. And, you know, a lot of the contractors who were affected here served as cooperating witnesses in exchange for immunity. They told prosecutors they understood they wouldn't get the job if they didn't pay a cut. Nitra is the country's largest public housing agency and home to some 400,000 people. Do we know what kind of effect that we'll have on tenants or the agency? Sure. So it's a relatively small sum, I guess, in the grand scheme of things, a $2 million in bribes on 13.

million dollars in contracts, but you know, the Department of Investigation, which worked on the case, said it had a bigger impact. It drove up costs for routine work, and they were actually urging NITHA to change its what they call microcontracting process for years because of this. A federal monitor also flagged this issue back in 2019 saying it was ripe for abuse, leading to shoddy work. They called it a trend of foreworkmanship. Did you talk to any tenant leaders? How is this resonating with people actually living in these developments? Yeah, I talked to a lot of tenants and

Tenant Association presidents and people working with Nature residents yesterday. And they're pretty disgusted. You know, angry, not totally surprised, but definitely said it erodes trust. And just kind of another black eye for the agency. And they deal with supers and building staff all the time. And there's some telling me they felt cheated and exploited.

And David, what's the status? are the dozens of employees who are now facing these allegations? Are they back on the job? Nitech says everyone who is arrested yesterday is being suspended without pay. They may be fired, depending on the outcome of the case. And for now, NITHA is bringing on temps to handle maintenance and superintendent responsibilities. David, just a couple seconds left here. What does NITHA have to say about this? Well, to be clear, no NCHA administrators have been implicated here, and they cooperated in the investigation, according to prosecutors. NITHA CEO Lisa Bova Hyatt says the authority has zero tolerance for the kind of corruption alleged here.

All right. WNIC's David Brand covers housing force. David, great job as always. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. The actress and style icon, Chloe 70, has been a fixture of downtown cool since the early 90s. In the new FX show, Feud, Capote versus the Swans, she plays a very different kind of New York icon. WNMIC's Ryan Kail spoke to 70 about her role as a high society New York woman befriended by Truman Capote. Ten years after Truman Capote virtually invented the true crime genre within cold blood, he had failed to publish another book. So he began mining the private lives and affairs of his so-called swans for inspiration. These were high society New York women at the time, like Babe Paley, the wife of CBS President Bill Paley.

And Lee Radswell, sister of Jackie Onassis. These swans were famous the way society people are not anymore, and they were relevant the way society of people are any longer. Lawrence Lamer wrote the book which feud Capote v. the Swans is based on, called Capote's women. He says in the 60s, people around the country followed the swans every move and fashion choice, even getting knockoffs of the dresses they wore. After Capote exposed their private lives and affairs and the pages of

Esquire, the swans ostracized him from society. As the show has it, this was the blow that led him to an early death of liver disease in 1984. If you come for a free dinner, you too late, I closed my tap. Your neurologist from Mount Sinai called the cat scan that you did. Your brain is shrinking from all booze. And before you reach for the right bone, I'll ask yourself if that's how you want to die, mentally impaired, with their faculties gone. I'm not drinking. Jack is strictly orange juice. Vitamin C is good for the complexion. With just a little stoly to get it down. Following Capote's expose named Lacot-Basque for the Manhattan restaurant where the swans would lunch,

socialite CZ guest became one of the only source. swans to stand by him. Chloe Seveny plays guest. Well, she's one of the only swans that was also not thrown under the bus in La Cope Basque. I think she was torn between her loyalty, between her girlfriends and Truman, but I think she really knew her girlfriends were going to be all right, and she really felt sorry for Truman. She saw how much, like, he was suffering, and kind of was just the bridge, because I think they were still both very curious about each other's worlds, and the ladies always wanted to know what Truman was up to.

So she was like a spy and a confidant. The women in the show are both empowered and confined by their public personas. That's something that Seveny, whose popular image has symbolized a certain downtown kind of cool for 30 years, knows something about. I wondered if it ever irks you to be like, hey, you know, I'm like an actor and a director. Like, I do other things besides just be an it girl. for sure, for sure. And I feel like I'm constantly having to kind of prove that. But I hope my, you know, acting work speaks for itself. The choices I make, the directors I work with, I think growing up even in the 90s, the way actresses were treated and women were treated is so much different than even today. And now all that's changing. All these young actresses are so lucky they can be individuals and be celebrated for that. Whereas when I was younger, it was more like you had to fit into this mold and be more of a cookie cutter. So, They're different parallels. One feature of modern celebrity is the way minute details of daily life can be amplified.

Last week, 70 made headlines for a stray comment about New York these days. She joked to Rolling Stone, quote, the athleisure and dogs are taking over, and that's really unfortunate. I'm sorry, dog lovers. There are too many of you. Well, I'm just saying, listen, I don't have anything against dogs, okay? It's not the owners. It's the owners that don't pick up.

few bad apples. It's just, I mean, we live downtown. I have a three and a half year old. The streets are filthy. Feud, Capote v. The Swans, is airing on FX Now. And Chloe's 70, genuinely, has nothing against your dog. Ryan Kyloth, WNYC News. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.