Daily News from New York, New York • 91

Saturday. September 12, 1987 -3 Go tive in Cub Scout work and is a chief warrant officer in the Army reserve. Dressed in banker's gray, Menditto appeared before Justice Brenda Soloff and pleaded innocent to charges of second-degree grand larceny. He was released on $670,000 bail for hearing Oct 9. Menditto was arrested after release from St.

Mary's Hospital, Hoboken, where he was By PATRICK CLARK and JOSEPH McNAMARA Daily News Staff Writers The secret life of a banker, church leader and family man exploded yesterday in Supreme Court when he was arraigned on charges of stealing $753,000 from Bowery Savings Bank to support two male lovers. "He was a pillar of the community," said District Attor ney Robert Morgenthau of Michael Menditto, 45, who resigned Aug. 11 as senior vice president in charge of managing operations at the Bowery. Since October 1983, accord-ing to charges, Menditto maintained a apartment at UN Plaza for a blond male lover, a post-graduate student At the same time, it is alleged, Menditto siphoned off $75,000 in "consulting fees" for a kennel owner described as an older male lover. The kennel owner did not know about the blond studentand Menditto's wife, Maria, 45, did not know about either, lawmen said.

Father of two Menditto lives in Middle-town, N.J., where he is head of the parish council of St Benedict's Church. The father of two children, he is ac- MICHAEL MENDITTO at court ED MOUNAM DAILY NEWS mum mm treated for injuries from an alleged suicide attempt Aug. 12. $100,000 bonuses Morgenthau said Menditto had made $100,000 a year plus bonuses at the Bowery, where he began work June 1983. In addition to the $75,000 for "consulting fees," Men-ditto allegedly charged the bank $38,000 for limousine service and $640,000 is missing from bank coffers, authorities said.

As chief of bank operations, Menditto had power to approve expenditures up to $5,000 and passed through a number of those between October 1983 and last July, slipping them into another account, it was charged. Officials alerted Last July 1 a subordinate saw his signature on an invoice he had not signed and alerted bank officials. Menditto's attorney, Richard Greenberg, said his client had been under psychiatric care for two weeks and was "a very sick man." Assistant District Attorney George Donahue said Men-ditto, former seminary student, had "concealed his secret life from his family, friends and colleagues" and had destroyed evidence. If guilty he faces up to 15 years in prison. TRAIN TO THE HOSPITAL: AlDert Nair is comforted by step-nepnew Robert Font in emergency room.

ANTHONY CASALS DAILY NEWS Rider's hand caught By RICHARD SISK Daily News Staff Writer Albert Nair remembers trying to get off the subway yesterday morning. The next thing he recalls is waking up in the hospital with his face badly swollen and his shirt bloodied. "I was coming through the door, and I think my hand got caught in the door," Nair said. "The last thing I can remember was leaving. Then I found myself in the hospital.

I got hit in the head so I can't remember much." Nair, 51, an electrician from Jamaica, said he was on his way to his place of work in Long Island City to pick up his paycheck. He was accompanied by his step-nephew, Robert Font, 34, also of Jamaica. They boarded the second car of a Manhattan-bound IND train at 169th St and prepared to get off at the 23d St-Ely Ave. stop about 11:55 a.m. Hand stuck in door "We both got ready to step off and I turned round to see my uncle following, and then I turned round again and his (left) hand was stuck in the door," Font said.

"The train started up and knocked him to the ground and dragged him, but then he hit the pole and that knocked his hand out of the door," Font said. "He just rolled over and told me to call an ambulance. The train just kept going, it never stopped." Hospital Center at Elmhurst, where he was listed in stable condition with face, neck and hand injuries. 4th dragging in 3 wks. The Ely Ave.

platform is lined with pillars at 15-foot intervals close to the boarding areas, and a Transit Authority spokesman said that Nair probably was dragged about 15 feet before he collided with one of the pillars. It was the fourth subway dragging incident in the last three weeks and the 16th since the start of the year, the spokesman said. In 1986, there were 28 dragging incidents, the spokesman said, but TA President David Gunn has ordered an overall study of door safety to determine whether there may have been more incidents. The federal National Transportation Safety Board also is investigating the Aug. 28 death of Stella Romeo, who was dragged when her purse was caught in the door of an train at the Union Turnpike station.

On 1 ou xJI days after he booted Bess I Myerson from her post as cul- tural affairs commissioner, Mayor Koch had her to a Koch also said for the first time that he "dismissed" the former Miss America last April based on a report by former Judge Harold Tyler. Prior to that the official story was that she had resigned. Myerson is the target of a federal grand jury looking into her hiring of Sukhreet Gabel, the daughter of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Hor-tense Gabel. Hortense Gabel was hearing the divorce case of Carl Ca-passo, Myerson's lover. The Tyler report found that she "intended to, and did improperly influence" the judge.

Mareia Kramer question (as) to her stability I "(was) worried what she might do to herself," Koch said yesterday during a taping of the WCBS-TV "Newsmakers" program to be aired Sunday. "Are you talking suicide?" asked a reporter. "Ah I worried about her stability and what she might do to herself," Koch repeated. "I thought it was both Jewish and Christian on the first night of the Seder to call her up and say, 'If you're 1 alone, I dori't' want you to be alone, the mayor continued. Passover Seder at Gracie Man it 1 If sion because he fearful sha in i would commit Bess Myerson suicide.

"I believed there was a serious 4 9 tf tt 4 j-sJ a A.