BARROOM BLUES
Bar owner: Cops harassing me after fake bust
QUEENS, NY — A Queens bar owner claims the NYPD is trying to run him out of business because he helped prove his patrons were framed in a fake drug-dealing sting.
Eduardo Espinoza, 36, of Elmhurst, was hit with more than a dozen violations from the 110th Precinct — including two for failing to have liquid soap and paper towels in his bar bathroom — after handing over a videotape suggesting undercover officers made up a buy-and-bust deal in his club in January.
“I’ve been harassed so much, I’m selling my business,” said Espinoza, owner of Delicias de Mi Tierra.
“Every two to three weeks, there are cops in here, searching the bar. If there’s no violation, they’ll make it up. I lost all my clients — everybody’s scared to come in my place right now.”
Espinoza was working in his bar about 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 5 when undercover officers busted brothers Jose and Maximo Colon and friends Raul Duchimasa and Luis Rodriguez for allegedly peddling $100 worth of cocaine.
Queens prosecutors dropped those charges because of Espinoza’s security video showing that the undercover officers had no contact with them in the bar, Colon’s lawyer said.
Prosecutors and the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau are investigating the possibility of bringing charges against the officers. Investigators are also poring over the officers’ prior cases for signs of misconduct, sources said.
Espinoza said he thinks police are retaliating against him because of a strange phone call he received shortly before the harassment began. A man who identified himself as the officer who made the drug arrest in his club demanded to know if Espinoza had taped the events of that night.
“I said I already gave it to the defendants,” Espinoza said. “He said, ‘Oh shit’ and hung up.”
Espinoza, who has owned the bar for two-plus years, said he’d received only two summonses before this year. Most of his summonses have been tossed — including one for having an 8-foot neon sign without a permit.
New computer law requires technicians to have private investigator’s license
AUSTIN, TX — A new Texas law requires every computer repair technician to obtain a private investigator’s license, according to a lawsuit filed in Austin. Violators can face a $4,000 fine and one year in jail, as well as a $10,000 civil penalty. Unlicensed computer shops will have to close until they obtain a private investigator’s license.
A private investigator's license can be obtained by acquiring a criminal justice degree or by getting a three-year apprenticeship under a licensed private investigator.
According to the Institute for Justice, an Austin-based non-profit law firm, the new law also impacts consumers. Consumers who knowingly take computers to an unlicensed company for repair can face the same penalties.
An article from the Daily Texan explains the concern from one computer shop owner’s perspective.
Ten airports install body scanners
BALTIMORE — Body scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation’s busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.
The Transportation Security Administration recently started using body scans on randomly chosen airline passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and New York’s Kennedy airport. Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami were added in June as well as Reagan National Airport near Washington. A total of 38 machines are now in use.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said James Schear, TSA security director at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Schear said the scanners could eventually replace metal detectors at the nation’s 2,000 airport checkpoints and the pat-downs done on passengers who need extra screening. “We’re just scratching the surface of what we can do with whole-body imaging,” Schear said.
