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Long Island’s illegal marijuana business booming

Long Island’s multimillion-dollar marijuana industry — both illegal and potentially legal — is booming, experts say, with criminal arrests up, demand rising, a thriving underground market, and an ever-widening number of commercial and medical uses proposed for a weed kept for many years in society’s shadows.

A Newsday and News 12 Long Island investigation shows that in both Nassau and Suffolk, marijuana arrests have reached the highest levels in 10 years, creating a cat-and-mouse game between users pushing for legalization and police combating illegal pot farms and indoor “grow houses” where marijuana is cultivated in greenhouse-like conditions by middle-aged entrepreneurs.

“Growing marijuana has become a very lucrative business,” said Suffolk Chief of Detectives William F. Madigan about the string of marijuana busts of large-scale growing operations found in suburban homes since 2012. Madigan said Long Island’s illicit marijuana market was a motivating factor in three Suffolk homicides last year.

Despite a steady increase in criminal cases over the past decade, the lure of big money has spurred increasingly sophisticated illegal growers to jump into the market, with some importing pot from states where it is legal, experts say. Users who get caught rarely face a significant penalty.

Last year, 57 percent of the total 2,694 marijuana-related cases on Long Island wound up in some form of dismissal, an analysis of state court records shows, with very few going to jail or prison. Most found guilty of marijuana offenses received only a fine.

Marijuana cases: Inside the numbers

In 2013, 2,694 people faced marijuana-related charges in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

But 57 percent of cases were dismissed in court.
36 percent resulted in convictions.

(Almost 7 percent of cases moved ahead with charges unrelated to marijuana.)

Of the people convicted, most faced a fine.

Another 94 convicted were given a discharge and received no sentence.

Seventeen people were put on probation.

Another 50 are either awaiting sentencing or
faced some other sentence that didn’t involve jail time.

In 2013, only 5.38 percent of all cases ended up with the defendant behind bars.

Total: 2,694 cases

Graphic by Nathaniel Lash

Critics say this comes at a time when marijuana enjoys a greater public acceptance than ever before on Long Island and nationally. New York has passed legislation to legalize medical use of marijuana, already in place in more than 20 other states. And recreational use for adults — approved in the states of Colorado and Washington — may be only a few years away here, some say.

“I think the market for marijuana has grown significantly — among young people but also among older folks too,” said Jeffrey Reynolds, who until last month was executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, who is opposed to the drug’s legalization.

“Marijuana has been identified as a key investment opportunity for entrepreneurs. And locally folks have looked at this and said, ‘If they lessen the criminal penalties, and there is a lot of money to be made, why wouldn’t I enter this market?’”

Although no one knows for sure just how much pot there is on Long Island, several growing operations of various sizes have been discovered by law enforcement authorities in the past two years. For example, at a Brookville nursery last September, two men were arrested for growing more than 150 marijuana plants — some as tall as 15 feet — hidden from view from the owners. In June 2013, three men were caught by police growing marijuana inside two bedrooms of a Yaphank house equipped with high-powered lighting, water filtration and a special ventilation system. And last September in Commack, police arrested a man for growing marijuana outdoors in a local sump.

Doug Greene, legislative director for Empire State NORML, a pro-marijuana advocacy group, estimates there are “several dozen” pot farms and indoor “grow houses” on Long Island. He says millions of dollars in local, state and federal law enforcement is wasted each year in a futile fight against marijuana — an illegal drug that he says should be instead regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco.

“There’s a demand for marijuana, and as long as people want marijuana, there will be people who supply marijuana whether growing it indoors or growing it in a sump,” he said.

One of the largest marijuana networks investigated by authorities in the past two years involved homes in Seaford, Medford, Middle Island, Manorville and Riverhead, where “millions of dollars” was made from growing and selling weed, according to court papers filed by Suffolk police and the Internal Revenue Service.

In October 2013, inside a large Osborne Avenue “grow house” in Riverhead, police found more than 1,600 marijuana plants — worth an estimated $3.8 million alone, according to court records — as well as 50 “grow lamps,” multiple fans, fertilizer and packaging material used to produce a “Bad Dog” brand of marijuana.

Investigators say grow houses on Long Island are usually hiding in plain sight, located in comfortable suburban neighborhoods. Many produce just a few plants needed to support personal use. But those who’ve turned marijuana into a lucrative business can sometimes be detected with telltale signs. At the Riverhead house, the marijuana grower had illegally tapped into electric lines, stealing $275,000 worth of power, police discovered. Heat and light generated from this grow house also made it conspicuous in winter. “Despite the heavy snowfall in the area, I observed that all those roofs were covered in snow except one,” said John J. Jacobsen, a Suffolk detective working with the IRS task force, in court papers.

These investigations were largely the outgrowth of the 2012 investigation of John P. Franz, who lived in a huge Medford home that contained its own indoor swimming pool and an extensive marijuana growing operation. In court papers, authorities said Franz had been dealing marijuana heavily for “at least approximately the last 10 years and has never had a real job.”

Inside Franz’s house, the basement contained 10-12 tables with 50 marijuana plants each, with about 15 high-powered lamps shining on them, court papers say. At any given time, between 3,000 and 5,000 plants were raised inside the house at various stages of the growth cycle, enough every three weeks to yield $170,000 in value, authorities said.

At another grow house Franz controlled in Middle Island, police said, the basement walls were painted white, with many tables holding the green-leafed plants. Because marijuana carefully tended indoors often gets the best price, each stem was watered, fertilized, trimmed and ultimately harvested and then taken by Franz to his Medford house, court records say.

There, Franz packaged the carefully cut up and prepared marijuana buds into 1-gallon zip-lock bags, ready for sale. Surrounding the large property, he kept several video cameras for surveillance. Authorities said Franz relied on bottles of air-fresheners meant “to mask the strong marijuana odor” coming from the house and avoid detection by neighbors.

A similar but even bigger marijuana operation also took place at a third house controlled by Franz in Manorville, court papers say.

Franz’s indoor grow houses resembled high-end greenhouses, with some strong, healthy female marijuana plants (called “mom” plants) carefully cloned to create new plants, the documents say. Careful attention also was paid to nutrients added to the water and a natural bug insecticide to maximize the quality and the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main intoxicant in marijuana) for users, court papers say.

“We had three children to put through college and survive here on Long Island, and John offered him a job. Basically the economy went down and John made him an offer that was kind of hard to refuse.” — Margaret Mastroeni on her husband’s sentencing

When police finally arrested Franz on drug conspiracy charges after a lengthy investigation in April 2012, they also charged his next-door neighbor in Medford, Richard Mastroeni, 58, a local car dealer, with aiding the large-scale grow house operation. Both men pleaded guilty in the case and are awaiting sentencing, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Burton Ryan.

Marijuana laws across the U.S.

Legal for recreational use

Legal for medicinal use

Not legal

Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin all have laws that allow limited access to marijuana products, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. * Minnesota allows for limited, liquid extract products only. ** New York’s law does not allow products to be smoked, and ingested doses may not contain more than 10 mg of THC. Source: ncsl.org

On a recent afternoon, Mastroeni’s wife, Margaret, 49, ruefully described how her husband, a nonuser, fell into the marijuana business. She said her husband was paid $1,000 a week to water the marijuana plants at one of the Franz’s grow houses — an offer he accepted because of the recession and family bills to pay.

“We had three children to put through college and survive here on Long Island, and John offered him a job,” Margaret said. “Basically the economy went down and John made him an offer that was kind of hard to refuse.”

At first, the Mastroenis weren’t sure what their neighbor did for a living, but then realized Franz was a major marijuana grower, she said. “That’s how we kind of figured it out, because he was like a vampire and only came out in night,” Margaret said. “He was never up all day.”

Margaret Mastroeni is bitter that her husband is imprisoned while others continue to grow and sell marijuana.

“Dozens definitely,” she said, when asked about the number of grow houses on Long Island. “They are everywhere. You just had one in Yaphank get hit. They are everywhere. There are two right here I know about and nobody would ever know. And it looks just like this — a normal home.”

On a Friday evening, a Suffolk narcotics detective showed a reporter and cameraman the grow home used by Franz and another nearby in Brookhaven where marijuana was dispensed until police made arrests. “This was set up as a retail house for selling marijuana,” said the detective, who asked not to be identified by name because he works undercover. “There was no furniture in the bedrooms. They had a table set up and two guys were selling marijuana.”

Like any market with supply and demand, Madigan said, marijuana — sold on the street for about $250 for an ounce — is more expensive these days than either heroin or pills. He said many marijuana charges are part of more serious crimes committed by defendants.

But Madigan said it’s wrong to consider marijuana harmless. “The large amount of money that’s involved in the marijuana trade can be a contributing factor in many of our violent crimes,” he said. Among three killings in Suffolk last year believed to involve the trade, Madigan pointed to the Christmas Day 2013 fatal shooting of a 19-year-old Bridgehampton man during a marijuana robbery.

Last year, U.S. Justice Department officials — faced with legalization of marijuana in states such as Colorado and Washington while federal law still makes it a crime — issued a strong warning about “diversion of marijuana” from legal states to places like New York where it is illegal. Newsday/News 12 Long Island’s investigation also shows the Long Island underground market for marijuana — traditionally supplied by smuggled exports from Mexico, Canada and other foreign nations — is now coming more domestically from other U.S. states where various marijuana uses has been approved.

“I think in a lot of cases the [Mexican] cartel has been losing out because there is a lot of very high-quality marijuana that is being produced all over the country, especially in California and Colorado,” said NORML’s Greene. “The Mexican cartel has lost business to a greatly improved domestic market over the years.”

In Colorado, where both medical and recreational marijuana use is legal, growers and sellers say they recognize that some of their product is winding up illegally in places like Long Island.

“Unfortunately it [marijuana diversion to New York] is collateral damage over legalization inside a new state,” said Luke Ramirez, co-owner of the Walking Raven, a Denver-based firm that both grows marijuana in a large warehouse and runs a storefront dispensary for retail customers. “There’s obviously heavy motives to grow in Colorado and sell it to a market that has a heavy demand. In a state like New York, where people can’t buy safely from counters inside stores, they have to buy from the black market. There’s an increase dollar … [profit] in the black market than in the legal market. So people in Colorado and Washington have a heavy motive to actually sell on the black market.”

Ramirez said his $4 million annual business is careful with security and other safety measures to avoid improper sales so that he doesn’t lose his state-approved license. But because of state tax that hikes the cost of legal marijuana by about 30 percent, Ramirez said there is still a flourishing underground market in Colorado.

“There’s a pretty large market of folks who are looking to buy from outside the store at a cheaper price,” he explained. “We unfortunately as a store have to pay very high taxes. So, of course, there are folks who want to avoid those taxes and purchase … [marijuana] in the underground market. Most of the underground market has turned to export, from Colorado to the outside states.”

On Long Island, users said they depend on these out-of-state domestic sources, rather than Mexico or elsewhere. Lee Salisbury, 62, a retired carpenter, says he relied on marijuana to self-medicate for bladder cancer, which is now in remission, and now he uses it simply to relax. Puffing on a marijuana joint, Salisbury said he’s too old to worry about the legal consequences.

“One or two [dealers] who I know and those are the ones I get it from,” he explained. “And they get it from California and Colorado and New Hampshire — those are the three places that have been identified to me as the sources of the pot that I get here in New York.”

Federal law-enforcement authorities remain concerned about the flow of diverted marijuana from states where it is legal or loosely regulated to places such as New York, where recreational use will continue to be banned.

Locally, Madigan said illegal pot often comes from local growers but adds: “We have seen marijuana that has come in from other states, pretty much from California and the State of Washington. They were either shipping it by mail or, in some cases, they were actually picking it up and bringing it back by fairly good-sized vehicle.”

New York’s current law-enforcement system against marijuana is often overwhelmed by a seemingly endless supply, a rising public acceptance and the rush to cash in by secret weed growers, said Touro Law School professor Richard Klein, a criminal-law expert who has followed the marijuana scene for years.

“I think marijuana is easier to purchase now than alcohol was during the Prohibition days,” Klein observed. “These … [marijuana growers] are business people. It doesn’t mean that only a pothead is going to grow marijuana. People who just see this as a way to make money — completely independent of their own use of marijuana — are going to enter the trade of marijuana.”

While some big-time growers such as Franz may face serious prison time, most marijuana users and sellers who are arrested by Long Island’s police face little risk of severe penalty. Each year, more Long Islanders get arrested for pot, but fewer are going to jail.

An analysis of state criminal records shows a steady rise in Long Island marijuana cases for possession and sale during the past decade. In Nassau County in 2004, there were 671 marijuana cases; by 2013, the number had steadily risen to 943 cases. Though the counties are similar in population, the number of Suffolk marijuana cases has been more than twice as much as in Nassau during the past decade, reaching a high in 2012 of 1,825 cases.

Suffolk cases outpace Nassau

Marijuana cases per 100,000 people

Graphic by Nathaniel Lash

In both counties, those arrested on marijuana charges last year received an outright dismissal by a court or an “ACD” (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) more than half the time, records show. For example, of the 1,751 total marijuana cases in Suffolk, there were 1,014 winding up in dismissal. And of the 561 given a sentence last year in Suffolk, 90 adults were convicted on misdemeanor charges but another 445 on noncriminal offenses. While 24 went to jail and five went to prison, the vast majority of those convicted — 476 — wound up with just a fine.

Similarly, in Nassau County last year, of the 943 total marijuana cases, 508 wound up in some form of dismissal. And of the 405 given a sentence last year in Nassau, 113 adults were convicted on misdemeanors but another 271 on noncriminal offenses. While 55 went to jail and two to prison, the majority of those convicted — 209 — received just a fine.

Law-enforcement authorities such as Madigan say they are obligated to uphold the law as it currently exists, even if societal attitudes about marijuana are changing. And a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the law for first-time offenders often demands a dismissal, a decision generally not up to prosecutors. Rice said she favors legalizing medical marijuana but is opposed to recreational use.

Critics such as Klein say these statistics reflect the inconsistency of actively pursuing marijuana as a crime at the same time lawmakers in Albany were making medicinal use of it legal. He said the negative consequences for those caught in the current marijuana legal system can last forever.

“One of the real negative consequences of us continuing to criminalize marijuana is the impact that it can have on someone’s life,” Klein said. “It starts people down a path making it harder for them to get employment, if they’ve had to miss their jobs because they were arrested.”

Even those such as Reynolds who are against legalization say New York seems at a turning point with marijuana. He warned that the end of a decades-long prohibition on marijuana could lead to greater addiction problems, more need for costly treatment and hospitalization, more dangers on the roadway and unforeseen health and psychological problems with long-term use.

“The argument is ‘the war on drugs has failed, let’s try something else,’ and they’re right — the war on drugs has failed, our current approach is not working,” Reynolds said. “But I don’t know that we can simply throw everything away, and say we’re losing anyway and just legalize everything and let the chips fall where they may without suffering some consequences.”

Designers: Tony Calamari, Matthew Cassella Project managers: Amanda Hofmockel, Saba Ali
Video editors: Arnold Miller, Robert Cassidy Developer: David Holland Photo editor: Oswaldo Jimenez Copy editor: Ted Scala Data: Timothy Healy Graphics: Nathaniel Lash

Cash Crop: Marijuana on Long Island

The underground marijuana trade is booming on Long Island…but at what cost? News 12 and Newsday examine the legal, medical and financial issues surrounding marijuana and how it could impact the future of Long Island. Cash Crop: Marijuana on LI – a News 12/Newsday special report. News 12, as local as local news gets.

For more information: Related links.

Part 1: The Scent of Money

Part 2: Marijuana Merchants

Part 3: The New Prohibition

David Holland – Lawyer for NORML

Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds – Addiction Specialist

Long Island & New York Marijuana Cases

Marijuana prosecutions have been rising on Long Island in recent years, but falling in New York City. About 57 percent of cases brought on Long Island last year were dismissed.

This database gives details on dispositions for five regions – Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk individually, New York City and the state. Those listed as jailed include defendants sentenced to a combination of jail and probation, as well as those sentenced to just the time served before sentencing. Dismissals include some who were put into a diversion program before charges were dismissed. A discharged sentence is one in which no punishment is imposed. The records come from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. There are a small number of “other” cases – for 2013 there were 25 on Long Island and 178 statewide – in which the outcome could not be classified.

Marijuana cases per 100,000 people

Businesses bring in lobbyists in push for legalization – and big profits

DENVER — Two decades ago, Dean Petkanas was the chief financial officer of Stratton Oakmont, the Long Island stock firm whose collapse was made famous in the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Now the Huntington-based entrepreneur is looking to become a big winner in a new risky venture — the business of marijuana. The opportunities for moneymaking range from “edibles,” such as candy infused with marijuana, to a high-tech computer firm looking to link up patients with doctors. “This is an industry that is in its infancy,” explained Petkanas, here to confer with potential partners in Colorado where marijuana is legal, earning millions for investors with both medical and recreational uses. “You’re probably going to have a major gold rush in each state.” Hoping for the same success in New York, Petkanas, head of KannaLife Sciences Inc., and other firms seeking to capitalize on the legalization of marijuana hired top lobbyists — including Park Strategies LLC, the firm owned by former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, and the Mercury public strategy firm — to persuade state lawmakers in June to end the century-old prohibition on marijuana and make it legal for medicinal purposes. For 17 years in Albany, pro-pot advocacy groups such as NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) had pushed a bill to legalize medical marijuana without any luck. But the arrival of lobbyists and big-money investors in the past two years propelled the idea forward.
The new medical marijuana law, signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in July, bans smokable marijuana but allows doctors to prescribe marijuana through oils, vapor and other edible forms in treating patients with cancer, epilepsy and other specific illnesses. The new law won’t take effect for about 18 months, and not until a program is created to select state-approved growers and dispensers of the drug. “This is not a Cheech-and-Chong bill,” said Patrick McCarthy, a former top aide to Gov. George Pataki and now managing director of Mercury, about the state legislation that eventually led to the state’s regulated use of medical marijuana. McCarthy says his firm has advised Petkanas and Gaia Plant-Based Medicine, a large successful Colorado marijuana grower and dispensary firm, looking to start up operations in New York if allowed. “‘Medical marijuana’ was once code for legalization,” but that’s no longer the case, McCarthy contends.
“This is not a Cheech-and-Chong bill.” — Patrick McCarthy, former top aide to Gov. George Pataki
While some lobbyists represent growers or packagers, D’Amato’s firm represents “Ideal 420 Technologies,” a firm with offices in New York and New Hampshire that sells a sort of Miracle-Gro for pot. “We have developed the world’s first true marijuana soil,” boasts the company, with a reference in its name to “420,” a common phrase that means “marijuana friendly” among users. “Our soil — a carefully selected blend of vital nutrients and one that only requires watering — grows the highest quality marijuana in the marketplace.” D’Amato, who as a U.S. senator once posed famously for a photo as an undercover cop in the 1980s war on drugs, recently acknowledged he’s had a change of heart. “I know it’s a tough pill to swallow, and if you asked me five years ago if I would ever consider supporting legalizing medical marijuana, I would’ve say, ‘Not a chance,’” wrote D’Amato in a February column in the LI Herald, a local publication. “But times are changing, and marijuana has become a viable form of alternative medicine for those suffering from many debilitating diseases such as ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and others. When traditional medicines fail to offer relief, why not give patients alternatives?” Overall, Ideal 420 is prepared to pay D’Amato’s firm as much as $200,000 this year for its lobbying work, said co-founder Richard Yost, who hopes to become a key supplier for medical marijuana in New York. “You have to understand New York politics,” explained Yost about his lobbying effort for the medical marijuana bill. “It’s a Republican issue in the Senate, and Park Strategies has a strong relationship on that side.” The debate about a new marijuana industry for New York — worth potentially as much as $250 million in tax revenue, according to proponents — created a strange set of bedfellows who say they’re happy to be working together. Already in the first six months this year, Park Strategies was paid $90,000 to lobby for Ideal 420, state records show. A spokeswoman for Park Strategies declined to comment. “Business interests are definitely looking at this and hiring lobbyists to work in Albany, primarily around the issue of medical marijuana, because we are a lot closer on that,” said Doug Greene, legislative director for Empire State NORML, which also advocates that recreational use of marijuana (or “nonmedical,” as he prefers) be legalized. “Historically, we are at the point where we are finally having a conversation about the regulation and taxation of marijuana.” Erik A. Williams, a spokesman for Gaia Plant-Based Medicine, said a coalition of business interests, lobbyists and advocacy groups worked to help make marijuana legal in New York for the first time. “The more voices across the board that are involved, then that’s fantastic,” Williams said. “The bottom line on this issue is that it’s nonpartisan. It’s one of the most nonpartisan issues in this country.” In the near future, Williams said he foresees warehouses in Hauppauge or outdoor farms on the East End could be growing marijuana legally. “There’s an absolutely amazing economic boom that can come from this,” he said, walking through a cavernous warehouse facility in suburban Denver where various marijuana plants, at different stages of growth, are cultivated for sale. “Right here in this facility, we employ 60 persons already. What we’ve seen here in Colorado is millions of square feet in retail and warehouse space have been rented. The jobs are incredible. The taxes are incredible.” On Long Island, some are already in the marijuana business in a sense. In a bottom-floor suite in a Plainview office building, the staff of MarijuanaDoctors.com is busy handling telephone calls to doctors and patients in the more than 20 states where medical marijuana is legal, acting as a middleman referral agency and database for those who spot their colorful Internet ads and toll-free number online. Since it began in 2010, the company says some 300 physicians, 500 clinics and 93,000 patients have used its services. Through its website, the firm connects patients with licensed professionals in their area who legally prescribe medical marijuana. “A doctor basically comes to us, tells us what he’s looking for, what type of patients he wants to add to his practice, and we prequalify and screen those patients for him,” explained the firm’s CEO, Jason Draizin, who collects a fee from each participating physician. Many of them deal with patients who suffer from cancer, HIV and other chronic illnesses and believe marijuana can ease their pain and suffering. Despite the company’s name, Draizin insisted, “I run a computer company,” which a few years ago began buying up the rights to several domain names related to marijuana — “the future brand names of the industry,” he said — so his firm could capitalize as medical marijuana became legal in some 20 states throughout the nation. “We think we’ve successfully created the first brand in the industry,” said Draizin, who also oversees another website, PotLocator.com, which provides a wide variety of marijuana information, from where to find smoke shops in states where it is legal to more generalized blogs and social media devoted to the topic. Inside the Plainview office, next to staffers on headsets and computers dealing with incoming calls, Draizin keeps a supply shelf full of promotion giveaways, from vaporizers for inhaling marijuana fumes to complimentary caps, socks and even underwear with a marijuana-related logo. Though his firm doesn’t lobby, Draizin said MarijuanaDoctors.com is riding the wave of popular sentiment favoring legalization of marijuana, which he says is “similar to the original Prohibition” a century ago when banned alcohol sales were eventually legalized. Like other entrepreneurs in the marijuana business, Draizin predicts that legalization soon will bring even bigger players into the industry, willing to spend millions for television, radio and other forms of advertisement similar to those now enjoyed by beer, liquor, tobacco and even pharmaceutical companies. “It grows exponentially,” he said of the burgeoning pot industry around the nation. “In the belief of our company, medical marijuana should be a natural form of Bayer aspirin — so what’s that worth?” Petkanas runs his firm from a home address in Huntington and advertises KannaLife Sciences on a website. Currently, its biggest marijuana effort is a research project at a biotech center in Bucks County, Pa., studying the effect of certain cannabinoids (the chemical compounds in marijuana) on hepatic encephalopathy (brain damage caused by a diseased liver). Under an exclusive license granted by the National Institutes of Health, KannaLife is seeking to develop drugs from the nonpsychoactive compounds in the cannabinoids (in other words, the stuff in the plant that doesn’t make the user high) to help treat patients “without the adverse side effects associated with smoked marijuana,” said Renate Myles, chief of NIH’s news section. “It should be noted that the [government approval] is for the use of cannabinoid compounds similar to and including those that naturally occur in marijuana, but not for the whole marijuana plant.” While that biotech research is taking place, Petkanas has his eye on making money from other legal uses of marijuana. Right now, he estimates that sales of marijuana — both legal in some states and illegally through the underground market — is between $20 billion and $30 billion annually. In the past two years, his firm has announced various partnerships with other marijuana or hemp-related firms, including one in Colorado looking to develop “health and wellness” products. The marijuana biz is a new venture for Petkanas after a career spent with financial and investment firms. His current website touts his business background but doesn’t mention his previous “Wolf of Wall Street” connection or other past difficulties with Wall Street regulators. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show he agreed to a $4,000 fine in 2004 for a violation while working with another investment firm, without any admission of guilt. Belfort and other Stratton Oakmont officials got into trouble with federal authorities and went to prison. When asked about his “Wolf of Wall Street” background, Petkanas said he enjoyed the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. “As far as Jordan’s involvement [in the marijuana business], I don’t think he’s going to be involved,” he said with a smile, recalling their previous relationship. Joined by Newsday and News 12 Long Island on a recent trip to Denver, Petkanas visited a large grow warehouse and marijuana dispensary operated by Gaia, the same weekend that many in the marijuana business were displaying their wares at the second-annual U.S. Cannabis Cup. Held on the April weekend of 4/20, it was a huge trade show devoted to medical and recreational use attended by thousands at Denver Merchandise Mart. At the U.S. Cannabis Cup, both Gaia and Ideal 420 Technologies — the marijuana soil company represented by D’Amato’s lobbying firm — had display booths. Other vendors promoted virtually every imaginable use for marijuana, from edibles dipped in chocolate for those who like to eat their marijuana to glass bongs and electric powered vaporizers for those who like to inhale. Many firms such as Ideal 420 Technologies hawked hydroponic watering systems, hot lamps, silver-colored reflecting tents, enriched soils and other equipment needed to grow marijuana, both on a large scale and at home. David Holland, counsel to High Times magazine, which was a host of the event, acknowledged that some of this equipment may wind up eventually being used in places such as New York, where there is a wide underground market for the drug. “Now technology has advanced with hydroponics and other systems, so you can grow quality plants in a small space like a closet,” Holland explained. “So people are growing it partly to eliminate the need to go out there for a streetcorner transaction to procure what they need. And there has certainly been an underground market in it that is not going to go away.” At Gaia’s storefront dispensary in East Denver, customers older than age 21 lined up at glass counters, clearly marked for either medical or recreational use of marijuana, served by “bud-tenders” offering various strains of marijuana for sale. With the help of lobbyists and other Albany power brokers, Williams said, Gaia would like to bring similar dispensaries providing marijuana to New York soon. “A lot of New Yorkers don’t understand that there’s a wide variety of marijuana flowers and products that are available to help a wide variety of disease conditions,” he said. But for future investors, any rush to turn marijuana into gold on Long Island will take some sizable investment, experts say. Most expect the new New York legislation to keep the number of state-approved growers to about five and require an indoor growing operation that would be monitored by video security cameras — all costing a lot of money upfront before any profits are realized. Some say tobacco or alcohol firms may also enter the marijuana market, especially if most U.S. states have legalized it. “The resources that are used to grow it in a greenhouse environment, especially indoors, are very costly,” conceded Petkanas. “So it’s a dicey proposition for people who think, ‘I’m going to invest in swaths of land and groves, and that the next Philip Morris is going to emerge.’” Not everyone is willing to wait for the marijuana business to become legal. Many Long Islanders say they use marijuana recreationally or for various ailments — regardless of the criminal risks — and point to great public acceptance of the familiar drug. On a recent afternoon, inside the Nassau County basement apartment of a friend, Kevin Eastwood, 24, turned on an electric vaporizer, which hummed along as marijuana smoke filled a large clear bag attached to it. Then Eastwood took a big breath, inhaling the light gray vaporized fumes into his lungs with a big smile of satisfaction. Vaporizers are one of many accessories sold in the pot trade. “Even if people want to call me a criminal, I’m just trying to survive like everyone else,” explained the Amityville resident. He says smoking weed helps ease his pain from head and other bodily injuries suffered during a 2012 car accident in Seattle that nearly killed him. After months of hospitalization, he now has a polyfiber plate in his skull and 45 titanium screws. Marijuana curbs the “brainstorming” — the sometimes painful mental aftereffects of his injury — that is part of his daily life, he said. “It’ll start coming on and I can feel it,” Eastwood says of his brain pain. “I get one or two or three of what feels like lightning bolts. And with the medical marijuana, it allows me to help focus on just three or four of those ideas, so I can get through my day and be a contributing human being to society.” Others are concerned about the 18-month wait for medical marijuana to become regulated under the new law. For months, Missy Miller of Long Island pushed state lawmakers to approve medical marijuana that she says would help her 14-year-old son Oliver deal more effectively with his frequent epileptic seizures. She’s seeking an emergency waiver from the state to allow her son and others with severe conditions to get marijuana as soon as possible. She’s worried her son’s fragile health may result in him dying before the 18-month wait is over. “Come to my house. Sit with me, sit with Oliver and watch what he goes through,” she explains. “And then you tell me that it shouldn’t be available to the sick people who need it.” Some Long Island-based doctors, like Richard Carleton and Grace Forde, say they’ve wanted for a long time to prescribe medical marijuana to certain patients but were afraid of losing their medical license unless it becomes legal. “I would definitely prescribe it,” says Forde, who works in Nassau County, a few weeks before the law’s passage. “I had experience with medical marijuana when I trained in California and I found it to be very effective in a lot of chronic pain conditions, as well as neurological conditions. So I would definitely prescribe medical marijuana if it were legal in the State of New York.”

Matt Davies’ political cartoons

Matt Davies is Newsday’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

Davies is also a children’s book author and illustrator, currently publishing with Macmillan imprint; Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press. Born in London, England in 1966, Davies moved to the U.S. in 1983. He studied Illustration and fine art at both The Savannah College of Art & Design (GA) and The School of Visual Arts in New York City. He began drawing editorial cartoons full-time for The Journal News in Westchester County in 1993, and in 2009 started drawing for The Hearst Newspaper Group in Connecticut.

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Santia Williams 911 Calls

Santia Williams and her family made a dozen 911 calls asking police to intervene in disputes between Williams and her ex-boyfriend Jason Jenkins. Eleven of those calls were made in the first half of 2011 and six were made after Williams obtained a restraining order against Jenkins on June 28. Two weeks later, Jenkins shot and killed Williams before taking his own life. An internal police report found that several officers failed in their duty when responding to the calls. Listen to five of the calls below.


Santia Williams | Video

A Bay Shore mother was killed by her ex-boyfriend despite an order of protection.

Her family says police ignored her pleas for help.

Is enough being done to shield victims of domestic violence?

Unprotected: On News 12 Long Island and News12.com.

Part One—“Cries for Help”.

26-year-old Santia Williams, a mother of two, had plans to go back to school and pursue a career in the medical profession. But boyfriend Jason Jenkins stalked her for months–and eventually killed her. Her family claims cops ignored numerous pleas to arrest him. A News 12/Newsday investigation now reveals eight Suffolk officers have been accused by internal affairs investigators of mishandling 911 calls involving Williams.

Part Two–Dangerous Pattern?

Three domestic violence cases—three murdered mothers—three families accusing police on Long Island of failing to protect their loved ones, despite numerous calls for help. Are these stories rare exceptions, or is there a pattern of flawed police protection for victims of domestic violence?

Help and information: Numbers and links

Unprotected: Follow-up


EXTENDED VIDEO

Santia Williams Story

Santia Williams needed help.

Her 250-pound ex-boyfriend, Jason Jenkins, had snatched their baby from her arms, violating a judge’s order to stay away. After taking off with the girl, Jenkins threatened to kill the 2-month-old and himself.

Williams made at least four calls to Suffolk County police over the next week. Recordings of the July 2011 calls capture Williams’ voice, scared and confused about why police would not arrest Jenkins.

The last call for help came from Williams’ 12-year-old nephew, who lived in the same Bay Shore apartment as Williams.

“There’s a guy with a gun,” the boy told the 911 operator. “Please come fast, quickly. Please, please, please.”

When police finally did arrive to take Jenkins away, they needed body bags instead of handcuffs.


Long Island judges grant roughly 30,000 orders of protection every year, mostly in cases where a man has harmed or threatened to harm a woman. The orders are supposed to marshal the power and authority of the law enforcement system on behalf of those in danger by placing restrictions on individuals who have been deemed a threat.

But the system failed Williams, 26, a mother of two. Despite Williams’ repeated pleas that police arrest her abusive ex-boyfriend for violating an order of protection, Jenkins, 27, remained free to kill Williams with a shotgun before turning the gun on himself.

Drawing broad conclusions about the system that protects domestic violence victims is difficult. Access to Family Court records in New York State is limited to respect an individual’s privacy, and state agencies proved unwilling to provide even basic information that would not identify individuals, such as dates protective orders were issued and served.

However, in a joint investigation, Newsday and News 12 Long Island reviewed three hours of 911 calls and radio transmissions and more than 300 pages of documents related to the Williams case, including the records from an ongoing wrongful-death lawsuit Williams’ mother filed in July 2012 against Suffolk County, its law enforcement agencies and 15 officers. The court file contains a document in which the county admits to specific failures uncovered in an Internal Affairs Bureau investigation, but not the IAB report itself.

Reporters also interviewed 21 people, many with direct involvement in the Williams case or in the system meant to protect women like her.

The examination offers a look at a worst-case scenario of what can happen in a domestic violence case when the system fails to protect someone who turned to it for help.

The records and interviews show:

• Suffolk County police neglected to arrest Jenkins despite knowing of the order of protection against him and repeated complaints that he had violated it. Suffolk police rules mandate an arrest in such circumstances.

• The Internal Affairs Bureau initiated its investigation into how officers handled the Williams case a year after Williams’ death and only after Williams’ mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court.

• This was not a one-time mistake by a lone officer. On at least four occasions, eight police officers violated department rules by failing to take victim statements from Williams or complete domestic incident reports after responding to her 911 calls.

• Internal Affairs investigators found that three officers — John Mercurio, Jason Morge and Miguel Vias — failed to “adequately investigate” after Williams made at least two 911 calls about Jenkins in one day.

• Another four officers — Nicholas Aspromgos, John Brunkard, Valentin Rosado and Frank Ortiz — failed in their duty to adequately or properly investigate on at least two occasions when called to deal with Jenkins. Both instances happened after a judge had issued a protective order against him. Also, Officer Luis Ruiz failed to notify the sheriff’s office, which serves protective orders, that he’d had contact with Jenkins.

Although Suffolk’s Internal Affairs Bureau issued its findings more than a year ago, the department has not disciplined any of the officers involved in the case, according to Frederick K. Brewington, a Hempstead attorney who is representing Santia Williams’ family in the lawsuit.

In response to the family’s complaint, the county denied “any conduct giving rise to any cause of action” in the Santia Williams case.

Suffolk police officials, citing the ongoing litigation, declined to answer questions for this story and the individual officers named did not respond to messages left with the department or the police union. Police also withheld public records, including the IAB report, in response to Freedom of Information Law requests and did not provide a reason for doing so, although they are required by law to give one.

Williams’ mother, Phyllis Coleman, said in an interview that police officers “did not do their job.”

“My daughter was in a burning building,” Coleman said. “Why didn’t they rescue her?”

Brewington said officers displayed a “level of willful neglect” that reminds him of how Nassau County police treated Jo’Anna Bird, another young mother of two killed by her boyfriend, in 2009. Police negligence in that case led to a $7.7 million settlement by the county with the Bird family, whom Brewington also represented.

Brewington, who has been outspoken about issues of discrimination on Long Island and is an expert in civil rights litigation, alleges that laziness and bias explain some of the failure by Suffolk police in the Williams case. Her pleas would have been treated more seriously had she been white and affluent rather than black and poor, Brewington contends.

However, all women confronting abuse should heed the Williams tragedy, he said.

“Women need to be very concerned when they pick up the phone and they say ‘help me,'” Brewington said. “Because in this situation, when the help came, it wasn’t worth spit.”

Suffolk County’s rules stress decisive action in domestic violence cases and emphasize the importance of officers using their arrest powers.

“Failure to make an arrest leaves one party in the altercation at the mercy of the other and leaves the offender with the impression that he/she can continue to violate the law,” the rules state.

Suffolk’s “pro-arrest” policy took effect in 1988 when, in his first executive order, newly elected County Executive Patrick Halpin made arrests mandatory in most domestic violence situations, regardless of whether an order of protection has been obtained.

The policy was the first of its kind in the state and was a personal victory for Halpin. One of his boyhood friends grew up in a home where domestic abuse took place, and Halpin learned later in life that his friend battered a woman as an adult.

Halpin said his order was meant to change a police department culture that too often was cavalier in its attitude toward domestic violence.

“The whole idea was to make it clear as day,” he said in a recent interview. “If somebody is being harmed, they must act. They can’t just separate the parties and, if the perpetrator takes off, not do anything.”

Halpin’s order also required police to file domestic incident reports that are relayed to victims advocates, who can intervene to protect those in danger. In the Williams case, a document in the court file shows that police in multiple instances did not complete such reports or take required victim statements from Williams.

Police knew that the court had ordered Jenkins to stay away from Williams. An order of protection is immediately entered into a computer system that makes the information accessible on squad car computers, said Lt. Ed Brummerloh, who commands the Suffolk Sheriff’s Domestic Violence Bureau.

It’s the job of sheriff’s officers to locate the subject and serve the order, but if police arrive at a scene and find someone that has not been served, they give the order verbally — a process known as an advisement — and notify the sheriff’s office, Brummerloh said.

Although sheriff’s deputies will continue to attempt to serve the order, an advisement qualifies as valid service in Suffolk, Brummerloh said. Once a person has been verbally served, police can arrest someone who violates an order of protection, he said.

Suffolk’s rules require that when an officer has a reasonable belief that an order has been violated, “an arrest shall be made. There will be no attempts to reconcile or mediate the situation.”

Gregory J. Blass, a former Suffolk Family Court judge and county social services commissioner, said officers sometimes use the fact that an order has not been formally served as an “invalid excuse” not to act. Blass, after reviewing the Williams case and 911 calls at Newsday’s request, said police missed several opportunities to arrest Jenkins, including before Williams obtained the order of protection.

“If the police encounter a guy who is making threats like that,” then it’s a domestic violence case and there needs to be an arrest, Blass said. “There’s this pattern of giving him a pass.”

He stressed that an order of protection is not needed to make an arrest. When domestic abuse is alleged and corroborated, Suffolk’s “pro-arrest” policy is supposed to kick in, he said.

Blass said the system works the vast majority of times, but the details of the Williams case raised doubts over whether police training needs to be improved.

“Something has broken down,” Blass said.

On June 25, 2011, Williams called 911 about Jenkins for the fourth time in the same week.

Authorities had evidence of Jenkins’ propensity for violence even before Williams sought their help.

Records show police had arrested him on charges of dealing drugs, menacing and felony robbery. He spent eight months in prison after pleading guilty in June 2006 to robbery. Two men involved in the case obtained orders of protection against Jenkins, including one that extended into 2011.

Jenkins continued to find trouble after getting released on parole. Aleathia Brown, with whom Jenkins had a baby, wrote in a statement to police that Jenkins went to her Middle Island home late one night in September 2008, backed her into a car and put a knife to her face.

Brown said she broke free, ran back into her house and dialed 911. Jenkins fled.

Police caught and arrested Jenkins, who later faced charges that included second-degree menacing with a weapon, a felony. Jenkins accepted a plea deal that reduced his charge to a noncriminal violation, and a judge issued a two-year order of protection directing Jenkins to stay away from Brown.

The order expired on March 12, 2011. By then, Jenkins was dating Williams.

Coleman described her daughter as quick to laugh but with a temper. In family photos, she wears a sly smile. Williams graduated from Malverne High School and had a daughter, Aniyah, when she was 21. She was fighting to make it as a single parent, Coleman said, and was proud when she graduated from a night course in medical billing and when she got a promotion and 50-cent raise at work.

Coleman said her daughter met Jenkins at the Long Island Rail Road station in Bay Shore. Williams was not impressed with Jenkins, who was overweight, sickly and worked stocking shelves overnight at P.C. Richard & Son in Farmingdale.

But Jenkins’ rough upbringing drew Williams’ sympathy, Coleman said, and Williams’ feelings for him softened.

Court records in one of Jenkins’ criminal cases show his parents divorced when he was 3 and his stepfather beat him with bottles and pool sticks. In 1998, when he was 14, Jenkins’ mother petitioned for state supervision, and he was sent to a juvenile facility.

Jenkins’ biological father went to prison after stabbing Jenkins’ stepfather four times in the head. His biological father died of liver failure in 2003, and Jenkins tattooed “POP” and “RIP” on his left arm.

“People love people who are broken,” Coleman said of her daughter. “She would say, ‘He doesn’t have somebody to help him.’ “

From the start, Coleman was suspicious of Jenkins. When Coleman saw him for the first time with Williams, Jenkins turned away and refused to get out of the car to be introduced.

Jenkins did not like it when Williams went somewhere without him, Coleman said. He’d follow her to the mall, or Williams would step outside the real estate firm in Ronkonkoma where she worked as a secretary and find him lurking by her car.

Coleman said she begged her daughter to end the relationship, but for a time Williams defended Jenkins: His attachment could feel like love and they were having a child together. Maybe he could be fixed.

After receiving an order of protection against Jenkins, Williams called 911 at least three times on July 5, 2011. This is the third call.

On March 13, 2011, the day after Aleathia Brown’s order of protection against Jenkins expired, a woman called 911 to report that Jenkins was beating Williams. The woman, Williams’ best friend, said Williams was nine months pregnant and that children were in the home.

When police arrived, they arrested Jenkins on outstanding traffic, petty larceny and menacing warrants but not for his treatment of Williams. Jenkins spent three days in jail before he was released after paying $250 cash bail. It was the one time police arrested Jenkins after a dispute with Williams.

Williams continued to live with Jenkins on Spruce Street in Bay Shore in a tan, two-story apartment building across from an auto shop. In late April 2011, Williams gave birth to their daughter, Arianna.

By the time summer began, Williams pushed to end the relationship with Jenkins. Coleman said her daughter was unsure how to get away from him safely and that she kept pepper spray and a bat in her car.

On June 19, Father’s Day, Williams took her kids and went to stay upstairs in an apartment occupied by her sister, Shannah Jordan, and nephew, Darius, 12.

The next day, Jenkins banged on Jordan’s door. Then he went downstairs to the apartment that he had shared with Williams and threw some of their belongings into the street, including Arianna’s crib.

Jordan called the police. It was the first of at least nine calls that she and Williams would make to police over the next three weeks.

Because police have declined to discuss the case or provide documents, Newsday does not have an official account of how officers handled each call.

At Newsday’s request, two retired law enforcement officers who were supervisors listened to recordings of the 911 calls and related police radio coded communications. The retired officers said police responded to the scene after each call but did not arrest Jenkins except after the March 13, 2011, incident.

Court records filed in the family’s lawsuit show that an Internal Affairs investigation found that police officers improperly voided at least three of Williams’ 911 calls and logged at least one call as related to a complaint from the previous day. The department’s admissions do not explain why officers took those actions.

But the retired law enforcement officers told reporters that when multiple 911 calls come in for the same incident, police sometimes void — or combine — the calls under one complaint number so they don’t need to write a report for each one. Although there is no paper record of each call, an electronic record remains. However, it’s considered a dangerous practice because it limits the ability to conduct follow-up investigations, one of the officers said.

When police responded to Williams’ June 20 call, they ordered Jenkins to put the belongings he’d thrown out into the street back inside. Then they left.

Shortly after, Williams called 911 to report Jenkins had threatened to burn down the building. She told the operator that police had just gone and that they knew Jenkins was capable of violence. She complained that police had not done more when they first arrived.

“Is that a justification for him for being arrested? Because he’s endangering the life of me and my children,” Williams said. “He’s threatening everybody. I mean, that’s not, I don’t see how that’s OK.”

Blass, the former Family Court judge, said police should have arrested Jenkins after he threw the crib and other items into the street. Jenkins’ behavior was “clearly designed to put the victim in fear,” as evidenced by Williams’ repeated calls to 911, Blass said.

Three days later, Williams again called 911, saying Jenkins would not let her leave her apartment and that he kept trying to snatch Arianna’s car seat out of her hands. Two days after that, Jenkins was again at the door demanding to see the baby. Williams did not want him inside the apartment and again called police.

“He’s been . . . saying creepy things, and being irrational,” Williams told the 911 operator. “It’s been an ongoing, you know, problem.”

The operator asked if she had an order of protection. Not yet, Williams told her.

Williams went to Suffolk Family Court on June 28 and got the order. It directed Jenkins to refrain from harassing, threatening or intimidating Williams and to stay away from her, her workplace and her apartment.

The order said Jenkins was to have no contact with Williams, except to arrange visits and curbside pickup and drop-off of Arianna.

On July 6, Williams’ sister, Shannah Jordan, called 911 to report that Jenkins still had not returned his daughter two days after snatching her from Williams’ arms.

Jenkins knocked on Jordan’s apartment door on July 4. Williams answered with Arianna in her arms, and Jenkins grabbed the baby.

Williams called 911.

“I have an order of protection against my ex-boyfriend,” she told the 911 operator. “He came up to my sister’s door, where, really, he’s not supposed to be.”

She explained that Jenkins had snatched the baby and would not give her back.

Sheriff’s deputies had trouble locating Jenkins and had not yet served him with the protective order, which had been issued six days earlier. When police responded to Williams’ call, according to her mother’s lawsuit, they said they could do nothing until deputies had served Jenkins.

About 4:30 p.m. on July 4, Police Officer James O’Callaghan telephoned the sheriff’s office to say he had verbally served Jenkins with the protective order. It’s not clear from court filings whether O’Callaghan spoke with Jenkins in person or over the telephone.

Williams made three panicked calls to police the following day, July 5, and a total of four officers responded.

The county would later acknowledge violations of department rules, including that two officers failed to properly investigate the incident; two knew Williams had an order of protection but failed to notify the sheriff’s department; three officers did not do the required paperwork; and two officers failed to notify their supervisor.

Williams told the officers that Jenkins had their daughter and was threatening to commit suicide. In the last call, Williams told a 911 operator that she had a police report from when Arianna was first taken. Jenkins appears to have been nearby at the time.

“He’s sitting here at work at P.C. Richard and he won’t tell me where the baby is,” Williams said. “He took the baby out of my arms and went downstairs and took her stuff and hopped in a cab, taxicab, up and took her. And the police were saying there’s nothing that they can do.”

Blass said it was another missed opportunity to arrest Jenkins.

“He kidnapped the child,” Blass said. “Coupled with the order of protection, it adds up to the need for some serious response.”

Jordan called 911 the next day, July 6. She told the operator that Jenkins was aware of the order of protection and that he’d been verbally served. Jordan said she and Williams had just called “police over in Melville by his job” hoping for help in getting Arianna returned.

She told the operator that Jenkins had given police an address where he claimed the baby would be found. Police had given her and Williams the address, Jordan said, but when they arrived, Arianna was not there. The address police provided was an abandoned building in Brooklyn, Coleman said in a recent interview.

Jordan told the 911 operator that she and Williams wanted to file a missing-person report and a harassment complaint against Jenkins for repeatedly calling them.

“We don’t know if the baby is alive or dead,” Jordan said. “He’s saying that he’s going to kill himself and kill the baby.”

Jordan said in a recent interview that police told her they could do nothing until the protective order was served. Jenkins became more aggressive, she said, as he saw his conduct draw no sanction from law enforcement.

“It was extremely frustrating,” she said. “They definitely could have done more as far as getting him off the streets and making her feel safe, and honoring the order of protection that she went to court and obtained to keep him away from her, but they never did that.”

Coleman said when Jenkins finally returned Arianna on the night of July 6, the baby had mites. Williams called police to say that Jenkins had come to her building, and although he had been verbally served two days earlier, Coleman said her daughter again was told nothing could be done until Jenkins had been served.

“It would go on like a revolving door,” Coleman said. “It was horrible.”

On July 12, 2011, a child – later confirmed to be Williams’ 12-year-old nephew – made this call to 911.

A vehicle had damaged a utility pole, so there was no electricity in the Spruce Street building on the night of July 11. Candlelight cast shadows on the walls inside Jordan’s apartment, where Williams, her two daughters and nephew Darius stayed.

The sheriff’s office had served Jenkins with a copy of the protective order three days earlier, a formality given that the order had already been served verbally. In the street outside the apartment building, Jenkins stood smoking and talking with passersby.

After midnight, Jenkins walked into the building and up to the second-story apartment.

Santia Williams’ sister, Shannah Jordan, discusses July 12, 2011 (Credit: News 12 Long Island).

Jordan woke up about 1 a.m. and walked out of her bedroom to the living room. In the darkness, she could make out Jenkins speaking softly to Williams. Jordan said he was “eerily calm” as he told Williams he did not want to go to court over custody of Arianna.

Jordan asked Jenkins to leave, but he refused. Jordan said it was dark, and though she did not see a gun, she was “very scared” and stepped back into her room.

But Jenkins did have a gun.

Jordan said that within seconds of going back into her bedroom, she heard Williams plead for her life. Then she heard a gunshot.

Jenkins had shot Williams in the chest. Her two children were in the room.

As Jenkins tried to kick in the door to her bedroom, Jordan said she leaped from a window, shattering bones in her foot when she hit the ground. Jenkins put the barrel of the shotgun to his head and killed himself.

He told the operator he was “on Spruce Street,” and the woman repeatedly pressed the boy for an address he either didn’t know or was too rattled to remember.

Darius Jordan called 911 at some point during the encounter. The voice on the recording of the overwhelmed, frightened boy begged the operator to “come fast.”He told the operator he was “on Spruce Street,” and the woman repeatedly pressed the boy for an address he either didn’t know or was too rattled to remember.

“He has a gun. He has a gun. Right now!” Darius said. “Please hurry!”

The call-taker asked for an address once more before the line went dead.

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Fall TV: New shows for 2014

The fall TV lineup for new 2014-2015 series illustrates a few things, not the least of which is that shows set in our nation’s capital are hot, hot, hot. The networks are also offering up plenty of programs based on comic books and centered around the ever-popular criminal procedural; plus, they’re betting on vehicles for Viola Davis, Dylan McDermott, Anthony Anderson, Katherine Heigl and more.