City News Briefs

MACY’S HEIR CHARGED WITH ASSAULT

A millionaire descendent of one of Macy’s original owners appeared in Bronx Criminal Court Monday to face charges for allegedly harassing and assaulting a jewelry designer with a lobster trap and keeping her prisoner at his Westchester home, the Daily News reported. Bette Marchek, 52, accused William Straus, 53—the great-grandson of Isidor Straus, one of the first owners of the Macy’s retail chain—of keeping her against her will on his 100-acre estate in Pound Ridge as well as physically abusing and starving her. Marchek first met Straus in the 1990s and worked for free at Straus’ antiques store. The two had a consensual sexual relationship, according to the Daily News. When Marchek ended her relationship with Straus in 2005, he imprisoned her for eight months on his Westchester estate. Marchek was forced to live in the guesthouse, where Straus allegedly bit and beat her during sex and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape. She escaped for two months in early 2006 but was found again by Straus later the same year, after which he continued to hold her in Westchester and beat her with a lobster trap. “It has been a nightmare ... He crushed the whole right side of my body. I can’t even walk to the Stop and Shop. I feel like some kind of sub-creature,” Marchek told the Daily News. Meanwhile, Donald Yannella, Straus’ attorney, said Marchek’s allegations were “inaccurate” and “full of sensational exaggerations.”

TV CHEF VICTIM OF HATE CRIME

Two women have been arrested after a former contestant on the television reality show Top Chef accused them of assaulting her because of her homosexuality, the Associated Press reported. Josie Smith-Malave, once a sous-chef for Brooklyn’s Marlow and Sons restaurant, claims she and several other women were attacked by a dozen individuals who harassed them for being lesbians at a bar in Sea Cliff, New York over Labor Day weekend. The Nassau County police, who Smith-Malave accused of neglecting her case, announced the arrest of Melissa Trimarchi, 21, and Elizabeth Borroughs, 20, on November 20, reports AP. Trimarchi was charged with misdemeanor assault and Borroughs with aggravated harassment. Both are scheduled to appear in court on November 30. Smith-Malave’s lawyer, Yetta Kurland, stated that police had failed “to treat the vicious attack ... as the violent hate crime that it was,” according to AP.

SPITZER PROBES DOH ABUSES

Governor Eliot Spitzer opened an investigation looking into the State Department of Health’s handling of two cases involving a doctor who allegedly reused syringes and contaminated medicine vials, according to Newsday. In response to criticism of the DOH’s actions with respect to Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, Spitzer said, “The Department of Health has no more important objective than the safety of the public and clearly its response was not what it should have been,” Newsday reported. Finkelstein has been accused of using old syringes for multiple patients from 2000 to 2005, potentially infecting hundreds of patients with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. So far, the DOH case has been ongoing for three years and public officials are expressing frustration with the delay. According to Newsday, State Senator Kemp Hannon said, “The system does not put the patient first ... Nobody understands how a doctor who could have conducted such egregious behavior could still be said to be practicing safely.” Finkelstein has not been cited for health code violations. The day Spitzer opened the investigation, Finkelstein released a statement notifying his patients and telling them to get tested, reported Newsday. The doctor, who is currently still running his practice at Pain Care of Long Island, said, “I believe that throughout my medical career, I have been there for my patients and their families when they needed me.” The state will review over 250 of Finkelstein’s patient records in addition to those of the 628 notified by Finkelstein himself.