Posted on 07/08/2002 3:06:18 AM PDT by kattracks
Jose Sandoval is not Public Enemy No. 1. He is not a murderer or a drug dealer or a rapist.
But Sandoval, 44, is a professional menace, convicted of 60 different petty crimes during a 17-year spree.
He is a living example of a career criminal who has spent most of his adult life shuttling between a streetcorner and a jail cell.
And Sandoval is not alone. A review of court records has uncovered numerous nuisance nightmares living among New Yorkers.
They peddle drugs. They cruise darkened streets selling their bodies. They openly panhandle or urinate in public. And they get arrested — only to be back on the streets within days.
- Angel (Shorty) Mercado, 40, has wreaked havoc in the Bronx since 1987. He has been convicted 59 times of an assortment of crimes, such as shoplifting, drug possession, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
- John Minter, 38, has been before Brooklyn judges 14 times since 1990. Despite his rap sheet for larceny and drug dealing, the harshest sentence dealt to him was four months in jail — and he was out in two.
- Judges in Queens are used to seeing convicted drug dealer Diane Bagos, 46, in front of their bench. The Long Island City woman has been arrested 20 times over the past five years on charges of prostitution and trespassing.
"These guys start with loitering, public urination, even defecation. And drinking from open alcohol containers," said one Amtrak police officer at Penn Station, who recognized San-doval as "a regular."
"These guys are opportunists," said the cop, who asked not to be identified. "If they have an opportunity to steal a bag, they will."
Many Aliases
Sandoval's rap sheet reads like a prototype for the type of criminal the NYPD and prosecutors want off the streets.
His career in crime started in July 1985 when he was busted for robbery and carrying an illegal weapon. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Since then, Sandoval has accumulated dozens of arrests, 28 aliases, 11 different dates of birth and 10 separate Social Security numbers, law enforcement sources said. He has only one address — a men's shelter at Bellevue Hospital.
His charges range from crack cocaine possession and pickpocketing to shoplifting and public drinking. In 1994, he was busted for assaulting a police dog. Often, Sandoval would be arrested within days, and sometimes even hours, after he was let out of jail, sources said.
In June 2001, Sandoval was arrested for refusing to leave the seating area reserved for ticketed passengers at Penn Station. He caused a ruckus, screaming at NYPD cop Greg Ho-man, "You don't bother the white people." He was sentenced to time served.
Months later, in December, Sandoval was grabbed again, this time for stuffing 13 toothbrushes under his sweater. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
The heightened presence of people like him has prompted the Bloomberg administration to launch several quality-of-life initiatives. Getting tough
Operation Spotlight, which began last week, will toughen sentences for chronic, career criminals. In cases where the suspect has three or more misdemeanor arrests in a year with at least one conviction, police evidence will be expedited to special prosecutors and judges in each borough, said John Feinblatt, the mayor's criminal justice coordinator.
And instead of the usual slap on the wrist, penalties will range from up to a year in jail to long stretches in strict, supervised drug treatment programs.
"We know quality-of-life crime affects how people feel about where they live, work and visit," Feinblatt said. "So it's important not to treat quality-of-life offenses as an undifferentiated mass."
Narcotics offenses continue to make up the largest percentage of quality-of-life arrests; 41% of the suspects arrested more than three times in a year violated misdemeanor drug laws, according to police records.
Yet some of the worst repeat offenders are hookers, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"Prostitution is one of the real recurring problems. It is not unusual to find someone who has been arrested more than 100 times," Kelly said. "They get time served and they walk out the door. That kind of stuff impacts the morale of police officers doing their jobs."
Of the repeat offenders in all categories, most share similar characteristics, NYPD Deputy Com-missioner of Strategic Ini-tiatives Mike Farrell said. They were overwhelmingly male — 82% of suspects arrested more than three times were men — and 41% were older than 35.
"It shows us that if they are still at it at this age, they have not retired their criminal careers, and they are very likely to commit more crimes," Farrell said. "It is clear that crime is what these people do for a living, and these are the people that we want to focus on."
Each time one of these prisoners is sent through the system, it costs city taxpayers $154 a day to feed and house them, prison officials said.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Operation Spotlight is a good idea, but pointed out that his office, since January 2001, has routinely flagged defendants with more than four convictions in five years.
"It used to be these cases pleaded to lesser charges, they'd walk off and come back again to the same crime," Brown said. "We flag the folders, tell the prosecutors not to plea-bargain those cases down."
Yet some argue that more jail time doesn't help people with mental health problems and petty crime rap sheets.
"It sounds to me like there are more effective interventions for people like Jose [Sandoval] and others like them," said Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, director of the Coalition for the Homeless.
"It is a very expensive revolving door for people like Jose, who get picked up for petty crime and then spit out onto the street in short order," she said. "Giving them a hard sentence just interrupts that cycle."
With Chrisena Coleman and Nancy L. Katz
Maybe, when these petty criminals come to realize there are consequences (more than a slap on the wrist) for their crimes they just might give it a second thought before committing the next one.
Let's hope Mayor Bloomberg is going to effectively deal with these problems. Having ecperienced all of this during a short (3 year) stay in NYC I could not develop any tolerance of such behavior by these street crazies (or thugs, depending on their behavior at any given time.) Yet most people would shrug and say there was nothing they could do to improve the situation, while complaining about experiencing such abuse daily.
I returned to "fly-over country" as opposed to remain in NYC, but I hope the new approach works. Essentially people get the environment they deserve, based on what they demand of their elected officials.
”Maybe, when these petty criminals come to realize there are consequences (more than a slap on the wrist) for their crimes they just might give it a second thought before committing the next one.”
Unless they have become institutionalized. I had one acquaintance who was out of jail for about six months when he couldn’t handle the freedom any more. He was responsible for holding a job, paying rent, deciding when to sleep and eat, in short – all the things I value.
When it all became too much he got drunk and tossed a brick through a store window – and waited for the police.
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