The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 24

New York CityRegion BS Friday, January 21, 1994 Rockland Journal-News IN BRIEF Officials: Police were the victims in mosque attack Suicidal boy saved from school roof er William Bratton said after a meeting with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Staten Island. Nation of Islam leaders, meanwhile, proclaimed Hollis' innocence and renewed their vow not to cooperate with the investigation. "We don't feel this person who was arrested is guilty of anything," said Don Muhammad, a Nation of Islam minister who met with Bratton in an effort to ease tensions. Hollis and other suspects "only reacted in a way anyone would if they felt they were under attack, which they were," he added. Attorney C.

Vernon Mason officially notified the city yesterday of the mosque's intent to file a $200 million lawsuit accusing police of inflicting emotional harm, using excessive force and of religious and racial discrimination. Police officials claim that the two officers who first arrived on the scene were victims of an unprovoked assault set up by an anonymous 911 caller. "It was a spontaneous attack," Assistant Chief John Hill, commander of Manhattan detectives, said yesterday during a news conference called in part to detail the officers' side of the story. Contrary to accounts from Muslim leaders, officers Wendy Jarvis and Paul Palombo told investigators they never drew their guns when they entered the stairwell to the third-floor mosque, police said. About 10 worshipers, apparently alerted by two security men at the front of the building, confronted the officers on a second-floor landing, yanked one of their guns from a holster and "physically threw them out of the building," Hill said.

Hollis was accused of later assaulting Officer Francis Ortiz outside the mosque. The Associated Press NEW YORK Police were seeking at least two more black Muslim suspects yesterday in what investigators say was a "spontaneous attack" on officers responding to a false report of an armed robbery at a Harlem mosque. Anthony Hollis, 29, of Yonkers, was arraigned yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court and released without bail. He was arrested Wednesday on charges of second-degree assault and obstructing justice. Hollis allegedly was among worshipers who clashed with officers on Jan.

9 in an incident that strained relations between the department and the black community. The test of wills continued between Muslim leaders critical of the officers' response and police determined to make more arrests. "We're not going to stop with just one" arrest, Police Commission weeks-old baby brother, born prematurely, who recently died. The source spoke only on condition of anonymity. The incident began at about 8:45 a.m.

at P.S. 201, a magnet school for telecommunications in the Fresh Meadows section. Sherman said he was holding a mini assembly in the school's auditorium, as he usually does at the beginning of the day, when he learned the boy was on the roof threatening to jump. "He comes in early to get help from a teacher who helps him with school work," the principal said. "He asked to go to the bathroom Then kids saw him on the roof." Sherman said he rushed to the roof with a custodian and two teachers.

Police were called, and the school psychologist was also present. 1 "The police were superb They saved a life today," Sherman said. Afterward, guidance counselors and the school psychologist talked with children who were upset by the incident. Sherman said some were in tears. A letter was sent to parents of the school's 656 students, notifying them to the incident.

The Associated Press NEW YORK An 11-year-old boy said to be despondent about the recent death of his baby brother threatened to jump from the roof of his elementary school in Queens, police said. The school's principal, two teachers and police persuaded the youngster in the span of a very tense hour not to jump the three stories to the ice-packed yard below, said the principal, Norm Sherman. "He was very upset. He was not crying. He clearly had his mind made up," Sherman said.

"There was a good chance he was going to carry out his threat." The sixth-grader, whose name was not released, was taken to Queens Hospital, said Sgt. John Clifford, a police spokesman. There he was evaluated and awaiting transfer to Elmhurst Hospital Center, said Beryl Williams, a hospital spokeswoman. She said she could not comment further because the patient was a child "and might involve a psychiatric case." A source at the scene said the boy was despondent about a low wrald vot 1 1 i 'kar4l4t We're ready with everything you'll nssH trr unur EI HFti I mil Vf 1 vacation in the sur j. Willis In Sizes 16-52 I v.rll LA Hi Woman's Xj'JfflM County's program stops bias HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.

Suffolk County yesterday began a program to educate people convicted of hate 'or bias crimes. The program will not replace jail time or probation, but will be used as an educational tool in 'addition to the punishment, said the Suffolk County district attorney, James Catterson. Fired cop convicted of phony report WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. A 'former Yonkers police sergeant "was convicted yesterday of helping concoct a story blaming a fictitious 'l black man for an assault on anoth- officer. A Westchester County jury two days before finding Kenneth Powers, 50, guilty of falsely reporting an incident and tampering with public records.

Authorities had accused Powers of approving a phony police report that said injuries suffered by former Police Officer Thomas Drogan had been inflicted by an unidentified black assailant, Drogan's injuries actually were the result of a fistfight with Officer Anthony Mazzella on March 1. Mazzella, who wrote the report, pleaded guilty to inventing the story to cover up the fight. Powers and Drogan were fired by Yonkers Police Commissioner Robert Olson after an investigation into the incident. Mazzella resigned before the investigation was completed. Cabs to get new safety features NEW YORK The Taxi and Limousine Commission voted yesterday to require bullet-resistant partitions and bumper trouble lights in yellow cabs.

A murderous wave of cab robberies left 43 drivers, including seven medallion drivers, dead in 1993. A police task force, whose job was to find ways cabbies could better protect themselves, urged the TLC to mandate both features. All new taxicabs must be outfitted with the devices beginning April 1. Taxis already on the road must have them installed by their first inspection after July 1. Heaters keep air conditioning on 'white plains, n.y.

-as the temperatures hovered in single digits, Westchester County officials scrambled to find heaters to keep their air conditioners running. Yes, it sounds like the worst case scenario for government inefficiency. No, it's not really it's just the best way of keeping the county's massive computer system from Crashing due to circumstances created by the cold. The heaters were under a tent on the roof of the county office building yesterday, keeping the air conditioners from freezing up. Without the air conditioners, the computer system would overheat, crash and cause chaos.

Got that? The air conditioners operated perfectly until the temperatures dropped below zero on Wednesday. Thief steals funeral van, dumps body NEW YORK The van was a thief delight. Its cadaverous cargo wasn't. 'The thief apparently got more than he bargained for Wednesday night by stealing a van owned by a Lower East Side funeral home. An employee parked the van outside the Metropolitan Funeral Services at about 7 p.m., said Sgt.

John McCluskey, a police spokesman. In the back was a pine box, bearing the remains of an 80-year-old woman. When the driver returned, the van had vanished, the sergeant said. Four hours later, police got a tip and went to the University Heights section of the Bronx. On a sidewalk near the Bronx Community College's child development center, officers found Hie partially open coffin, the body still inside.

The dead woman was returned to the funeral home. Police were searching for the maroon van with New York plates, MET-RO 02. Workers accused of expense padding WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. A payroll supervisor padded a correction officer's expense accounts, then split the $4,679 with him, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro charged. An indictment alleges that between November 1992 and May 1993, Delores Jones arranged for phony overtime payments to Correction Officer Jeffrey Lawrence.

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