But it was too late, as the officer had seen all he needed to arrest Reyes and charge him with grand larceny.

Not so fast, buddy!
A woman, 31, told police that, while partying inside Gaslight bar and lounge, at 400 W. 14th St., early Sun., June 9, she left her bag unattended for several minutes and, upon returning to her seat around 3 a.m., realized it was gone.

An on-duty police officer, who happened be walking along W. 14th St. at the time of the theft, noticed a man — later identified as Arton Hasanaj, 32 — sprinting out of Gaslight. Suspecting foul play, the officer stopped and questioned Hasanaj, who was holding the stolen purse. After the victim was located in the club and confirmed that it was her bag, Hasanaj was charged with grand larceny.

‘What are you gonna do?’
Police arrested Zachary Clemons, 38, after he allegedly roughed up another man while stealing his cell phone on the evening of June 6.

The victim, 34, said he was walking east on Christopher St. near Seventh Ave. South around 5 p.m., when Clemons approached him and grabbed the phone out of his hand. Clemons then reportedly pushed the man into a wall and said, “What are you gonna do about it?” Since the victim was, by his own testimony, scared stiff, Clemons also reportedly tried to get more out of him by menacingly asking, “You have some money on you?”

But a bystander at the busy intersection had already called police to report the crime. Before Clemons could flee, a patrol car responded and he was charged with robbery.

Teen phone takers
Police arrested two teens early Thurs., June 6, after they allegedly stole a man’s cell phone as he walked through the Village.

Witnesses said that the two perpetrators — Troy Thurman, 18, and a 16-year-old male whose name was not released — snuck up on the victim, 22, near the corner of Greenwich and Sixth Aves., around 12:30 a.m., and that Thurman swiped the phone out of the man’s hand before he could react. The teens fled on foot, but were caught two hours later during a police canvass of the area, and were positively identified once cops saw that their stolen phone matched the victim’s.

Thurman and his sidekick were charged with grand larceny.

Vodka gets credit for bust
An open-container violation early on Wed., June 5, led police to recover a stolen credit card — and it landed the card’s illegal user behind bars.

Officers on patrol said they spotted Rashawn Kelly, 26, drinking a bottle of Georgi vodka at the corner of Christopher and Bedford Sts. around 2:30 a.m., and stopped him. When they searched Kelly, they found he was carrying a credit card belonging to a 23-year-old woman who had recently reported it missing. Police said several unauthorized charges had been filed on the stolen card, but it was unclear if Kelly had actually made them.

In addition to drinking in public, Kelly was charged with criminal possession of stolen property.

–  Sam Spokony

Officers were able to apprehend Pagan less than an hour later, during a canvass of the area, and cuffed him after a positive identification by the victim. Pagan was charged with unlawful surveillance at the scene, and a police source said that the District Attorney’s Office has also slapped him with a burglary charge.

Peacemaker gets slashed
A man, 38, told police he was trying to step in between his friends and another man, Carlos Dominguez, 22, to stop their dispute, which was occurring near the corner of W. 14th St. and Eighth Ave., around 12:30 a.m. Sat., June 1. But when the peacemaker informed the aggressor that he was about to call the authorities, Dominguez reportedly pulled out a knife and chased him down the street, eventually slashing him and leaving a minor cut on the man’s back.

By that time, one of the victim’s friends had already called the police, and officers arrived in time to apprehend Dominguez before he could flee. He was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

Bodega worker pulls knife
Police arrested a disgruntled bodega employee on the afternoon of Thurs., May 30, after he threatened a customer with a knife he had stashed behind the counter.

The customer, 32, told officers that while he was inside the store, 256 W. 14th St. Food Corp., just east of Eighth Ave., around 4:30 p.m., he was trying to talk on his cell phone, and asked the employee, Khiballah Al-Aabli, 22, to quiet down after Al-Aabli began yelling at a co-worker. But instead of following that age-old mantra “The customer is always right,” Al-Aabli reportedly picked up the knife and waved it at the man, telling him, “This is my store!” and aggressively asking him, “Do we have a problem?”

The customer, fearing for his life, called police, who arrived minutes later. When officers spoke to both men, Al-Aabli apparently realized his error and willingly turned over the knife. He was charged with menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.

Phone thieves in club
Early on Fri., May 31, two men — Ali Afzal, 21, and Adnan Muzaffar, 28 — were allegedly working together, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., at Tenjune nightclub, at 26 Little W. 12th St., to jostle, sneak up on, and otherwise distract women patrons in order to grab the phones out of their purses, police said. Toward the end of the pair’s spree, one of the victims, 22, informed the club’s management, who reported the activity and got a couple of officers to show up at the establishment.

The young woman, along with the help of three other victims — all in their late teens or early 20s — pointed out the two thieves to cops, who quickly arrested them after finding all four of the stolen phones stashed in their pockets. Afzal and Muzaffar were both charged with grand larceny.

Phone-photo fracas
Two women turned from friends to enemies all because of a cell phone photo, and now one of them is facing charges after a heat-of-the-moment brawl.

The alleged victim, 44, told police that while she was waiting with her friend Vanessa Farley, 43, for a southbound A train at the W. Fourth St. subway station around 11 p.m. on Tues., May 21, she showed Farley a photo she had recently taken on her phone’s camera. The shot was apparently so offensive to Farley that she smashed the phone on the ground — breaking it beyond repair — and then attacked her friend by biting and scratching her ear, neck and finger, police said.

The victim reported the incident to police several days later, and Farley was arrested May 30, and charged with assault and criminal mischief.

Sam Spokony

The victim, 16, told officers that he was walking past the corner of Bedford and Christopher Sts. around 1:30 a.m. when the posse accosted him, beginning with Gregory Deloach, 22, who reportedly shoved the boy to the ground. According to the teen’s testimony, Troy Newton, 30, then steppedan and punched him in the face before Deloach told him to “strip.”

The boy, fearing for his life, handed over his sneakers and jacket. Then, according to police, Luis Vasquez, 24, also demanded he give up his backpack. Finally, Benjamin Mazyck, 34, forced the teen to cough up his cell phone and the $45 from his pocket. According to the police report, Deloach then took a razor blade out of his sock, brandished it in front of the boy, and told him, “If you snitch, we’ll kill you and you won’t make it home to your mother.”

But, once his alleged attackers had fled, the teen gathered up the courage to walk to the nearby Sixth Precinct to report the crime and describe the suspects. Hours later, cops were able to round up all four thugs and recover the stolen goods during a canvass of the area. Deloach, Newton, Vasquez and Mazyck were all charged with robbery.

Hudson River punch
Police arrested a teenager who allegedly attacked a woman, seemingly targeted at random, while she was walking in Hudson River Park early on Thurs., May 23.

The woman, 24, told police she was passing through the park near the corner of Christopher and West Sts. around 1:30 a.m. — a half hour after the park’s curfew — when a man, later identified as Jonte Smith, 17, walked up to her, punched her in the face multiple times and fled on foot. She immediately called the police to report the incident and describe her attacker, and was shortly afterward taken to Beth Israel Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

Within hours, Smith was apprehended near the corner of W. Fourth St. and Sixth Ave. during a police canvass. He was charged with assault.

Not very generous
An unsuspecting woman asked a passerby for a cigarette — but the man and his friend responded by stealing her cell phone.

It was around 4 a.m. Fri., May 24, when the woman, 23, reportedly approached Federico Gonzalez, 28, on the sidewalk of Little W. 12th St., between Washington St. and Ninth Ave., to bum a smoke. A witness to the incident told officers that, as the woman was speaking, Gonzalez snatched her iPhone out of her hand and turned to run away. When the victim tried to grab it back, Gonzalez’s buddy Travis Ford, 25, allegedly stepped in her way to block her, before Ford joined his crony and fled.

But after the woman and the witness walked to the Sixth Precinct minutes later to report the crime and describe the suspects, police were able to catch the two suspects during a canvass of the area. Gonzalez and Ford were both charged with grand larceny, and Gonzalez was also slapped with a charge for unlawful possession of marijuana after cops found a bag of purported pot in his pants pocket.

What a (gl)ass
Police arrested Christopher Garner, 21, around 3 a.m. on Sat., May 25, after officers on patrol witnessed him punching in the glass window of an entrance door to the residential building at 77 Christopher St. Amidst a pile of shattered glass, Garner was charged with criminal mischief.

Monkey business
Witnesses said they saw Sadou Diallo, 20, sticking his hands in and around the pants pockets of multiple patrons at Brass Monkey, the bar at 55 Little W. 12th St., early on Sat., May 25. Around 4 a.m., one of them got fed up and called the police, who responded within minutes to cuff the would-be thief before he could succeed in snatching a wallet or cell phone. Diallo was charged with jostling.

– Sam Spokony

Mario Rodriguez, 25, was also convicted on counts of assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

Around 8:45 p.m. on Oct. 26, 2010, Rodriguez was in the middle of an argument with another man in front of 195 Stanton St., when Rodriguez pulled out a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun and began firing at the other man, hitting him in the torso, according to court documents. Bullets fired by Rodriguez also struck two bystanders — a man, 44, and a woman, 52.

Rodriguez fled the scene, but was tracked to Jersey City, and was later arrested there by members of the Seventh Precinct Detective Squad, the D.A. said.

Rodriguez is expected to be sentenced June 6.

Taxi thief gets 11 years
The man convicted of assaulting a cab driver on the Lower East Side, stealing his taxi and then crashing it in Union Square has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, D.A. Vance also announced on May 1.

Michael Findley, 33, was found guilty of robbery, reckless endangerment, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property by a State Supreme Court jury last December.

Around 3:15 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2011, Findley got into a taxi at the corner of Bowery and Delancey St. After causing a disturbance, the driver asked him to get out at the corner of Houston and Lafayette Sts, according to court documents. When the hack then got out to try and remove his fare, Findley punched him and stole the taxi, speeding through Soho and Greenwich Village at more than 80 miles per hour, the D.A. said. After leading police on a wild chase through red lights and oncoming traffic, Findley crashed into a light pole at Union Square West and E. 15th St.

In addition to his prison term, Findley was sentenced to five years of post-release supervision.

Who’s the big man now?
Police arrested a man who allegedly threatened to cut another man with an illegal knife as they were riding a southbound F subway train past the W. Fourth St. station on Sat., May 4.

The victim, who was with his girlfriend at the time, said that around 9:30 p.m. he got into an argument with Dwayne Brown, 49, on the train. He said Brown then punched him in the mouth — and when the victim tried to use his cell phone to take a photo of the alleged aggressor, Brown reportedly pulled out a box cutter, brandished it and said, “You wanna be a big man in front of your girlfriend?”

Unfortunately for Brown, the other man didn’t have to do much, since there were a couple of Sixth Precinct officers walking along the W. Fourth St. platform — and when the train stopped, they heard the commotion and apprehended Brown. He was charged with menacing, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and disorderly conduct.

Phone snatching in bulk
A sticky-fingered duo allegedly tried to steal phones, credit cards and drivers’ licenses from four young women, all in their 20s, at a Meatpacking District bar and lounge early on Sun., May 5.

One of the victims called police to report that her phone had been stolen inside Gaslight, at 400 W. 14th St., around 2 a.m., and described the suspects, who were later identified as Eliza Barbosa, 40, and Johnny Thomas, 48. When officers arrived at the scene, they quickly spotted the two alleged crooks, since Thomas has been arrested numerous times before. After arresting them, the officers discovered all of the thieves’ spoils, which, in addition to the phones and cards, included a Louis Vuitton wallet.

Both Barbosa and Thomas were charged with grand larceny.

Passport to arrest
It’s tough to start a business these days — but it’s even tougher if the whole thing is a fraud. Tanisha Mack, 35, learned that the hard way when she was arrested outside a bank on April 30 after allegedly trying to open a business account using false documents.

Mack reportedly walked into the TD Bank at 122 Greenwich Ave. that afternoon, tried to open the account, and handed over a clearly fake passport, which gave a different name, address and date of birth.

The bank employee immediately called police to report it, and when they showed up soon afterward, Mack even tried to give her fake documents to the officers. But she wasn’t fooling anybody. Mack was charged with forgery.

Sam Spokony

During an inspection on Sun., April 26, around 1:30 a.m., officers questioned the so-called guards, Willie Jones, 41, and Dennis Kennedy, 35, and asked them to show proper ID. But both licenses — which are supposed to be granted only by the state’s Division of Licensing Services — were clearly falsified, police said.

Jones and Kennedy were both charged with forgery.

Spilled the coke
Police spotted Michael Barnes, 41, inside Washington Square Park around 1:30 a.m. on Wed., April 24, which is after the park’s closing time. He acquiesced to the officers without incident, and was being driven back to the precinct to deal with his charges, when Barnes apparently decided to take a chance on getting rid of some alleged cocaine in his back pocket.

While handcuffed in the cruiser’s back seat, Barnes was eventually able to remove the bag of drugs from his back pocket and spill it out — but when the officers opened the door, they saw everything. In addition to trespassing and criminal possession of a controlled substance, Barnes was charged with tampering with physical evidence.

Purse picker caught
A woman, 29, told police she was sitting at the bar at Market Table, a restaurant at 54 Carmine St., around 11:30 p.m. on April 27, when she turned and saw a woman — later identified as Kathy Pierre, 41 — putting her wallet back into her purse. When the victim checked her wallet after Pierre dashed out of the restaurant, she realized it was missing $40 and her credit card.

Luckily for the victim, the restaurant manager also witnessed the crime, so both were able to provide police reports — and during a canvass of the area two hours later, officers were able to track down Pierre. She was charged with grand larceny.

Loko to have stolen card
Police said they found an illegal knife and a stolen Social Security card in the pockets of a man they stopped for public drinking on the night of Sat., April 27.

Christian Sevilla, 25, was spotted by officers holding an open container of the alcoholic beverage Four Loko near the corner of W. 14th St. and Eighth Ave. around 11 p.m. After stopping and searching him, cops found a box cutter, along with a Social Security card belonging to a woman who had previously reported it stolen.

Sevilla was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of stolen property and an open container violation.

Phone snatchers
Police arrested two men early Sun., April 28, after seeing them steal a young woman’s cell phone as she walked on the sidewalk.

The woman, 19, was walking past the corner of Bleecker St. and LaGuardia Place around 4 a.m., when police said they witnessed Allen Nolan, 25, and Utley Kavanaugh, 26, team up to snatch the iPhone from her purse. The two crooks took off running, but the officers quickly apprehended them.

Nolan and Kavanaugh were both charged with grand larceny.

Sam Spokony

Robert Asch was arrested at the Saint Germain, at 33 W. 10th St., on Monday, accused of planning to rape, torture and kill women and babies. A doorman on duty there Tuesday said Monday was his day off, so he hadn’t been around to see all the action. He said he had known Asch as a tenant of the building “for many years,” but declined further comment. An older woman talking on the sidewalk outside with a friend about an upcoming street fair said it was the first she had heard of the story. “Oh! My God! I didn’t even know about it,” she exclaimed in shock, quickly adding, “Let’s stick with the street fair.” Andrey Malashenkov, 25, a doorman who lives around the corner, said he had noticed all the news media camped out in front of the building the day before but hadn’t known what it was for. Photo by Lincoln Anderson

Booked in sick plot
A former librarian arrested by federal agents on Mon., April 15, is accused of planning with accomplices to kidnap, rape, torture and kill women and children.

Robert Asch, 61, who was a librarian at Stuyvesant High School, was arrested by the F.B.I. at his Greenwich Village apartment in the Saint Germain, at Greenwich Ave. and W. 10th St., following a six-month-long investigation that included numerous meetings between Asch and undercover agents.

According to F.B.I. documents released the day of the arrest, Asch and co-conspirator Richard Meltz, 65, spent at least two years plotting the attacks, while collecting weapons and supplies they planned to use, including a taser gun, hypodermic needles, chemical sedatives and specialized dental and medical equipment. Meltz is a police chief at a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs medical center in Bedford, Mass.

The investigation of Asch and Meltz, who was arrested on April 14, originally stemmed from details relating to the prosecution of New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, the so-called “Cannibal Cop,” who was recently convicted of plotting to kidnap, kill and eat women. Specifically, agents learned that Asch and Meltz were in communication with Michael Vanhise, who was arrested in January for conspiring with Valle, according to F.B.I. documents.

The New York Times reported that Asch was also arrested in 2009 after being accused of inappropriately touching four male students during his tenure at Stuyvesant High School. Those charges were later dropped.

Asch will be charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and maximum fine of $250,000.

Gunman caught near Boston
Police said that on Tues., April 16, they arrested a suspect in an East Village shooting that occurred three days earlier. Brooklyn resident Jose Cintron, 44, was nabbed in Massachusetts, where he apparently fled and attempted to hide after the incident.

Around 1:49 p.m. on April 13, Cintron reportedly pulled a handgun on Bronx resident Arnold Cintron, 52 (who is not related to the defendant), during an argument between the two near the corner of E. Third St. and Avenue C. A police source said Jose Cintron is believed to have fired a single shot into the stomach of Arnold Cintron, who was later taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition, though reported not likely to die. The source added that an investigation showed the dispute between the two men had been brewing for at least a month.

Jose Cintron was tracked to Bedford, Mass., by the New York Police Department Regional Task Force, which works in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service. He was arrested on the afternoon of April 16, police said.

Thunder Jackson’s action
Police officers from the Sixth Precinct had a busy couple of hours outside Thunder Jackson’s bar, at 169 Bleecker St., early on Fri., April 12, when they dealt back-to-back with two unconnected perpetrators who allegedly assaulted several officers and caused general havoc on the street.

First, cops responded to the bar shortly after 2 a.m. to remove Hector Gonzalez, 22, who employees said was creating a disturbance and refused to leave. When the officers instructed Gonzalez to vacate the premises, he did, but not before spitting at a bartender and an unknown patron, police said. When the officers then stepped forward to apprehend him outside the bar, Gonzalez reportedly grabbed one of them by the throat and was about to start throwing punches before other officers stopped him. Gonzalez continued to fight back while cops tried to cuff him, and caused minor injuries to one officer’s knee and thumb before he was subdued, police said.

Gonzalez was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Then, only minutes after they were through handling the first pugnacious perpetrator, the officers said they saw Rohan Rowe, 29, drinking a bottle of wine while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car — with the engine running — on the street outside Thunder Jackson’s. When they ordered Rowe to get out of the 2008 Infiniti, he refused, and when the officers attempted to pull him out, Rowe reportedly shifted the vehicle into drive and slammed on the gas, accelerating down the street while dragging an officer for several seconds and inflicting minor injuries, before hitting a parked car, police said.

Shortly after he was eventually cuffed, Rowe took a breathalyzer test and blew a .18 — more than twice the legal limit for operating a car. He was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment, assaulting a police officer, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

iPhone-filching duo
A thieving duo allegedly pushed around a young woman while snatching her cell phone early on Sat., April 13, but cops were able to track them down.

The victim, 24, told police that the two men — later identified as Barry Campbell, 20, and Andrei Robinson, 22 — were acting together when one of them ripped the iPhone out of her hand as she was walking down Seventh Ave. South, past Sheridan Square, around 3:30 a.m. She also claimed that, when she tried to take the phone back, Campbell shoved her down, causing minor injuries, before the two men fled on foot.

During a canvass of the area over the next couple of hours, following the woman’s report, police said they were able to identify and apprehend the men close to where the alleged crime took place. Campbell and Robinson were both charged with robbery.

Free hugs…or else!
Police arrested a man who allegedly attacked a 20-year-old woman after she declined his offer of a “free hug” in Washington Square Park on the afternoon of Tues., April 9.

The victim told officers that Jermaine Himmelstein, 21, approached her and asked if she wanted a hug while she was passing by the park’s arch around 3 p.m. When she replied with a simple “No,” the woman said, Himmelstein threw a can of soda at her face — hard enough to leave a deep red mark on her cheek — and then dumped water on her.

A Sixth Precinct source said that Himmelstein is relatively well-known to the precinct, and was also recently stopped after chasing after a different woman who spurned his attempt to share some “free” love in the park, although she declined to press charges.

Himmelstein was charged with assault.

Sam Spokony

Robert Asch was arrested at the Saint Germain, at 33 W. 10th St., on Monday, accused of planning to rape, torture and kill women and babies. A doorman on duty there Tuesday said Monday was his day off, so he hadn’t been around to see all the action. He said he had known Asch as a tenant of the building “for many years,” but declined further comment. An older woman talking on the sidewalk outside with a friend about an upcoming street fair said it was the first she had heard of the story. “Oh! My God! I didn’t even know about it,” she exclaimed in shock, quickly adding, “Let’s stick with the street fair.” Andrey Malashenkov, 25, a doorman who lives around the corner, said he had noticed all the news media camped out in front of the building the day before but hadn’t known what it was for. Photo by Lincoln Anderson

Booked in sick plot
A former librarian arrested by federal agents on Mon., April 15, is accused of planning with accomplices to kidnap, rape, torture and kill women and children.

Robert Asch, 61, who was a librarian at Stuyvesant High School, was arrested by the F.B.I. at his Greenwich Village apartment in the Saint Germain, at Greenwich Ave. and W. 10th St., following a six-month-long investigation that included numerous meetings between Asch and undercover agents.

According to F.B.I. documents released the day of the arrest, Asch and co-conspirator Richard Meltz, 65, spent at least two years plotting the attacks, while collecting weapons and supplies they planned to use, including a taser gun, hypodermic needles, chemical sedatives and specialized dental and medical equipment. Meltz is a police chief at a U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs medical center in Bedford, Mass.

The investigation of Asch and Meltz, who was arrested on April 14, originally stemmed from details relating to the prosecution of New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, the so-called “Cannibal Cop,” who was recently convicted of plotting to kidnap, kill and eat women. Specifically, agents learned that Asch and Meltz were in communication with Michael Vanhise, who was arrested in January for conspiring with Valle, according to F.B.I. documents.

The New York Times reported that Asch was also arrested in 2009 after being accused of inappropriately touching four male students during his tenure at Stuyvesant High School. Those charges were later dropped.

Asch will be charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and maximum fine of $250,000.

Gunman caught near Boston
Police said that on Tues., April 16, they arrested a suspect in an East Village shooting that occurred three days earlier. Brooklyn resident Jose Cintron, 44, was nabbed in Massachusetts, where he apparently fled and attempted to hide after the incident.

Around 1:49 p.m. on April 13, Cintron reportedly pulled a handgun on Bronx resident Arnold Cintron, 52 (who is not related to the defendant), during an argument between the two near the corner of E. Third St. and Avenue C. A police source said Jose Cintron is believed to have fired a single shot into the stomach of Arnold Cintron, who was later taken to Bellevue Hospital in serious condition, though reported not likely to die. The source added that an investigation showed the dispute between the two men had been brewing for at least a month.

Jose Cintron was tracked to Bedford, Mass., by the New York Police Department Regional Task Force, which works in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service. He was arrested on the afternoon of April 16, police said.

Thunder Jackson’s action
Police officers from the Sixth Precinct had a busy couple of hours outside Thunder Jackson’s bar, at 169 Bleecker St., early on Fri., April 12, when they dealt back-to-back with two unconnected perpetrators who allegedly assaulted several officers and caused general havoc on the street.

First, cops responded to the bar shortly after 2 a.m. to remove Hector Gonzalez, 22, who employees said was creating a disturbance and refused to leave. When the officers instructed Gonzalez to vacate the premises, he did, but not before spitting at a bartender and an unknown patron, police said. When the officers then stepped forward to apprehend him outside the bar, Gonzalez reportedly grabbed one of them by the throat and was about to start throwing punches before other officers stopped him. Gonzalez continued to fight back while cops tried to cuff him, and caused minor injuries to one officer’s knee and thumb before he was subdued, police said.

Gonzalez was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Then, only minutes after they were through handling the first pugnacious perpetrator, the officers said they saw Rohan Rowe, 29, drinking a bottle of wine while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car — with the engine running — on the street outside Thunder Jackson’s. When they ordered Rowe to get out of the 2008 Infiniti, he refused, and when the officers attempted to pull him out, Rowe reportedly shifted the vehicle into drive and slammed on the gas, accelerating down the street while dragging an officer for several seconds and inflicting minor injuries, before hitting a parked car, police said.

Shortly after he was eventually cuffed, Rowe took a breathalyzer test and blew a .18 — more than twice the legal limit for operating a car. He was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment, assaulting a police officer, driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

iPhone-filching duo
A thieving duo allegedly pushed around a young woman while snatching her cell phone early on Sat., April 13, but cops were able to track them down.

The victim, 24, told police that the two men — later identified as Barry Campbell, 20, and Andrei Robinson, 22 — were acting together when one of them ripped the iPhone out of her hand as she was walking down Seventh Ave. South, past Sheridan Square, around 3:30 a.m. She also claimed that, when she tried to take the phone back, Campbell shoved her down, causing minor injuries, before the two men fled on foot.

During a canvass of the area over the next couple of hours, following the woman’s report, police said they were able to identify and apprehend the men close to where the alleged crime took place. Campbell and Robinson were both charged with robbery.

Free hugs…or else!
Police arrested a man who allegedly attacked a 20-year-old woman after she declined his offer of a “free hug” in Washington Square Park on the afternoon of Tues., April 9.

The victim told officers that Jermaine Himmelstein, 21, approached her and asked if she wanted a hug while she was passing by the park’s arch around 3 p.m. When she replied with a simple “No,” the woman said, Himmelstein threw a can of soda at her face — hard enough to leave a deep red mark on her cheek — and then dumped water on her.

A Sixth Precinct source said that Himmelstein is relatively well-known to the precinct, and was also recently stopped after chasing after a different woman who spurned his attempt to share some “free” love in the park, although she declined to press charges.

Himmelstein was charged with assault.

Sam Spokony

Three men and a woman who were convicted of brutally assaulting a man on the Lower East Side in 2010 have all been given stiff prison terms, ranging from five to 15 years, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced April 5.

Martrell Terrell, 23; Andrew McCray, 24; Christopher Montanez, 29; and Shadia Brackman, 24, were all found guilty on Jan. 23 on assault charges of varying degrees, including one count of felony gang assault and one count of standard felony assault for each defendant.

During the early morning hours of May 8, 2010, the group of four — all of whom were later found to be intoxicated — surrounded and began beating a man on the corner of Essex and Rivington Sts., according to court documents. The attackers kicked, punched and hit the defenseless man — including with a wooden board, at one point — continuing the onslaught so long and intensely that, among other injuries, he suffered permanent hearing loss in one ear, the D.A. said. A video of the assault was widely viewed on YouTube.

Terrell, of Stroudsburg, Penn., and McCray, of Yonkers, both received 15 years in prison. Montanez, also of Yonkers, received eight years. Brackman, of the Bronx, received five years. All four will also face five years of post-release supervision.

Drunk driving in a hot cab 

Trying to flee arrest, an intoxicated woman on April 6 carjacked a cab that was parked right outside the Sixth Police Precinct.

Police said that the taxi’s driver had come to the precinct around 1:30 a.m. to complain about the antics of Kate O’Brien, 36, who he claimed had been harassing him after he picked her up as a fare. He left her sitting in the cab when he went inside, and O’Brien promptly sped off and drove onto the West Side Highway.

She was pulled over minutes later, while speeding northbound on the highway. Officers said, when they pulled O’Brien out of the taxi, her breath smelled of alcohol, she had bloodshot eyes, and she was very unsteady on her feet.

O’Brien was charged with grand theft auto and driving while intoxicated.

Dead woman on tracks

A young woman was found dead on the subway tracks of the Canal St. 1 train station on the afternoon of April 7, after she had apparently been lying there nearly 12 hours, police said.

Emily Singleton, 22, of Park Slope, drunkenly left McKenna’s Pub, on W. 14th St., around 1:30 a.m. after a night of partying, according to video viewed by police. Other security videos showed her entering the subway station at W. 14th St. and Seventh Ave. shortly after that, where she caught the train down to Canal St.

Police said they believe Singleton fell onto the tracks after exiting onto the platform at the Canal St. station, and subsequently suffered a fatal head injury when she struck the rails. The young woman, who was wearing high heels, was eventually found under piles of soot between the tracks, with no ID or cell phone, police said.

Indicted in cleaver attack

A Brooklyn man has been indicted for attacking his 23-year-old wife with a meat cleaver on a Chinatown sidewalk, Manhattan D.A. Vance announced April 3.

Ming Guang Huang, 28, is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and second-degree kidnaping, for an attack that left his wife with deep gashes that required intensive surgery to treat, the D.A. said.

Around 10:30 a.m. Feb. 24, Huang was arguing with his wife in front of 74 Canal St. when the dispute escalated, and he allegedly began hacking at her repeatedly with the meat cleaver, according to court documents. Two city firefighters, who were standing nearby, intervened and stopped the attack, but not before the blade had penetrated the woman’s skull and pierced her brain, the D.A. said.

“Domestic violence doesn’t just take place inside the home — it sometimes spills out onto city streets,” said Vance. “I thank the members of the F.D.N.Y. responsible for stopping the defendant; their courageous act may have saved the victim’s life.”

Huang’s next court date is set for June 12.

Sam Spokony

Gamal Valdespee, 33, was driving a black 2012 Toyota Camry on Hudson St., when witnesses said they saw him clip a 25-year-old man crossing the intersection at W. Houston St. Fortunately, the victim didn’t suffer serious injuries, but the trouble was just beginning for Valdespee.

Officers responding to the accident scene said the driver had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, watery eyes and a clear lack of balance when he exited from the car. And upon questioning, Valdespee eventually admitted to drinking before getting behind the wheel. A breathalyzer test, done shortly after he was apprehended, showed just how much he’d had. According to police, Valdespee had a blood-alcohol content of .207 — nearly three times the legal limit of .08. He was charged with vehicular assault and D.W.I.

Tried to slash her face
Witnesses said that Che Williams, 35, started an argument with a 36-year-old woman at Cappello, a bar at 21 Seventh Ave., around 3 a.m. March 23. Once the dispute got a little too heated, Williams reportedly punched the woman in the face and body — then broke a glass bottle and started swinging the shards at her face. To defend herself, the woman said she blocked the glass attack with her left hand, but as a result she suffered a nasty cut that would have to be treated by paramedics.

By that time, the bar’s staff had reported the incident to police, and officers arrived shortly afterward to apprehend Williams, charging him with assault.

Trouble at the Stonewall
The Stonewall Inn is known for the famous gay rights riots associated with its name, but this was one eruption that won’t go down in the history books.

An employee at the Stonewall, at 53 Christopher St., told police that Jeffery Moore, 47, was raising hell inside the place in the early hours of Sat., March 23. The employee said she repeatedly asked Moore to leave around 3:30 a.m., after he went into a rage and ripped a chain off a woman’s neck, breaking it and throwing it to the ground. But instead of heading home, Moore reportedly refused to listen and responded by punching the employee in the face.

After the attack, Stonewall staff members called the police, who showed up at the bar to subdue and cuff Moore. In addition to being charged with criminal mischief and assault, Moore was slapped with a charge of resisting arrest after he initially refused the officers’ orders to put his hands behind his back.

Goes bonkers in bathroom
This guy threw a costly and destructive temper tantrum after being asked to leave a restaurant near the Meatpacking District, and now he’ll pay the price.

Staff members at Bakehouse, at 113 Horatio St., told police that Christopher Lopez, 28, had been creating a constant disturbance throughout the early hours of Sun., March 24, by being belligerent, foul-mouthed and rude to employees. But after they asked him to leave around 2 a.m. — because of his aggressive actions, but also because the restaurant was closing — the staff said Lopez refused and locked himself in the bathroom.

Lopez reportedly proceeded to smash everything in the bathroom — breaking cabinets, lamps and the toilet paper holder, kicking and dislodging the toilet, puncturing the wall — damage that the owners estimated will cost thousands of dollars to fix. By the time Lopez had finished his restroom rampage, police had arrived on the scene to hit him with a felony charge of criminal mischief.

Scary chain swinger
When you walk around the West Village swinging a heavy metallic object at members of the general population, you should know that the guys in blue are coming sooner or later.

Cops said that on Wed., March 20, around 7 p.m., they saw Johnny Gonzalez, 45, swinging a chain and lock as he walked past the corner of Waverly Place and Sixth Ave., nearly hitting another man and sending him running away from the intersection. After the officers stepped in to apprehend Gonzalez, they also found that he was carrying a credit card that belonged to a 37-year-old woman.

Gonzalez was charged with attempted assault and criminal possession of stolen property.

Sam Spokony

Andres Suarez was sentenced on Tuesday to 25 years to life for a rape he committed on Prince St. in 2008. This photo was taken at his last court appearance, on Feb. 25. Photo by Jefferson Siegel

Soho rapist gets 25 to life
The man found guilty of raping and assaulting a 19-year-old woman behind her Soho apartment building in 2008 has been sentenced to 25 years to life, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced Tuesday.

A State Supreme Court jury in November found Andres Suarez, 30 (opposite page, top), guilty of predatory sexual assault, first-degree rape, first-degree burglary, first-degree attempted rape and first-degree sexual abuse.

Early on the morning of May 28, 2008, Suarez followed his victim onto a subway train at 14th St., and then continued trailing her after she got off the train at Spring St. and walked home to her apartment on Prince St., the D.A. said. When the young woman opened the door to her building, Suarez rushed in behind her and followed her up the stairs to her apartment. He dragged her into the building’s courtyard, where he raped her while threatening her with a box cutter, according to court testimony.

DNA was collected from the crime scene soon after the incident, but the case remained unsolved until 2011, when Suarez’s DNA was entered into the state’s databank following his conviction for an unrelated crime.

In addition to the 25-to-life prison term, Suarez was sentenced to 20 years of post-release supervision.

Hey, that’s my debit card!
This guy’s excuse for buying drinks with someone else’s debit card certainly wasn’t getting him any sympathy.

Benjamin Touze, 23, reportedly told police, “The card was just on the bar, so I decided to use it.” But the card’s rightful owner, a 27-year-old woman, said that she’d lost her wallet in a cab on the evening of Sun., March 17, and only realized the whole situation when she got home later that night, checked her account online and noticed multiple charges at The Village Underground bar, at 130 W. Third St.

The woman said she called the bar around 10 p.m. to tell them to stop accepting the card, and when the bar’s manager confronted Touze to explain he was using a card that didn’t have his name on it, the alleged crook could only come up with his aforementioned sorry excuse. Shortly after that, the manager reported the crime to police, who then showed up to apprehend the opportunistic drinker.

Touze was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

Subway thief thwarted
Sometimes it’s just too hard to keep your hands to yourself.

While a plainclothes police officer was checking on an L train at the 14th St. subway station around 4:15 a.m. on Sun., March 17, he spotted Joe Outley, 19, sitting next to another male passenger who was asleep. The officer said Outley then placed his hand into the sleeping man’s right pocket and began rummaging for property to steal. But the handsy thief didn’t get too far, as the officer revealed himself and apprehended Outley while he was in the act.

Outley was charged with attempted grand larceny.

Stolen bike bust
Note to self: If you want to get away with stealing a shiny new bike, don’t ride it down the middle of a crowded sidewalk.

Jeremy Rodriguez, 27, apparently wasn’t thinking that far ahead while taking a sidewalk joyride past the corner of W. 12th St. and Seventh Ave. on Thurs., Mar. 14, around 6:30 p.m. Rodriguez, who was riding a red bicycle, was creating a serious hazard to the pedestrians he passed, according to the cops who stopped him.

And shortly after they’d apprehended him, the officers realized that Rodriguez’s bike was in fact stolen. The thwarted thief quickly confessed to using a wooden ax handle to break the bike out of its lock on a nearby street.

So, in addition to being charged with reckless endangerment for his sidewalk riding antics, Rodriguez was slapped with a petty-larceny charge for jacking the bike.

Kung-fu cab kick
Patience is a virtue — especially when a lack of it leads to a busted taxi window and a seat in the back of a police cruiser.

An off-duty cab driver told officers that, while he was stopped at a red light at 14thSt. and Fifth Ave. just after midnight on Thurs., Mar. 14, a man approached his taxi to ask for a ride. When the cabbie told him he wasn’t available, the man — later identified as Youba Haidara, 23 — apparently became so angry that he kicked the car’s driver’s-side, rearview mirror, nearly knocking it off.

The hack said Haidara then fled west down W. 14th St. But the cab kicker was quickly stopped by police who had heard the previous commotion. The officers held him until the flustered driver could pull up and identify the impatient kick-and-run perp.

Haidara was charged with criminal mischief.

Cab jacker slows sentencing
Michael Findley, in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 4, above, was arrested in 2011 after hijacking a cab and crashing it in Union Square. At trial he represented himself, often interrupting the judge as Findley made various claims, including that the taxi driver sexually assaulted him. Findley hailed the taxi on Delancey St. early one morning in February 2011, and asked to be taken to the West Village. Driver Mohammed Latif told him not to eat in the cab. Findley, drunk at the time, ignored him, spilling a plate of rice. The two argued before Findley got in the driver’s seat and took off with the vehicle. After roaring across Houston St. at speeds of more than 80 miles per hour, Findley crashed the car into a lamppost on Union Square West. A jury subsequently found him guilty. On March 4 he was due to be sentenced but, after entering the courtroom, told Judge Daniel Conviser that he wanted copies of transcripts to bolster his defense. Findley’s sentencing is now scheduled for mid-April.

Sam Spokony