Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 21

CITY STATE A21 wwwnewsdaycomregion FIRST STEP BACK TO BIKERS? Freeing Velella called Brooklyn news conference think that elected officials should certainly not be treated better than anybody else If they do go back I assume they could re-apply at some point the future but I don't want to prejudice what done or If the three men are returned to Rikers not clear if their time on the streets will be credited as time served on their sentences said the temporary director Jerrold Alpern In making his announcement yesterday Richman took no formal action but effectively invalidated the actions of the previous commissioners The Velella defendants must now prove their release should not be deemed he said Richman was backed up by a Nov 4 letter from city Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo who found that the commission released Velella and Del Toro without a legal voting quorum and despite the fact that the senator waited the required 60 days after a failed first application Gonzalez who applied for early release a few days before beginning his eight-month sentence violated a law requiring inmates to wait 30 days before submitting paperwork Cardozo reported Staff writers Karen Fteifeld and Bryan Virasami contributed to this story calling for the re-examination of the releases during a brief board meeting in lower Manhattan yesterday say pre- cisely what will said Richman a Fordham law professor may be litigation it may be delayed and I would never assert what would happen under those Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he want to prejudice proceedings but criticized the release of Velella a former political ally to whom he recently contributed $10000 didn't think he should have been released to begin said Bloomberg at a Release Commission met yesterday to give Velella Manuel Gonzalez and Hector Del Toro until Nov 16 to submit new applications explaining why they should stay out of Rikers Island Lawyers for the men all convicted last year in a Bronx shake-down scheme vowed to battle the city in court which could tie up the cases for months The new members replacing four panelists who have been accused of incompetence and ignorance of the law will meet on Nov 19 to take a final vote The cases of two other inmates freed in the last year both unidentified will also be reviewed Richman said Richman cited the invalidity of all releases done as a result of illegal voting procedures by this in TRAGIC BLAZE Flushing woman 62 killed in house fire New chairman of release panel wants to know why ex-senator and two others should remain free BY GLENN THRUSH AND DAN JANISON STAFF WRITER Former state State Sen Guy Velella could be headed back to Rikers Island The new chairman of the early release commission took the first step in returning him to jail slamming the original decision to spring Velella and two co-defendants as invalid and illegal Daniel Richman and four other newly appointed members of the Load Conditional The aftermath of the blaze that Tishman BY TANIA PADGETT STAFF WRITER Tishman Speyer Properties which owns some of the most famous buildings in New York City has added The New York Times Building to its collection of trophy real estate The giant developer teaming up with the New York City Retirement System neighbor said Van Laar recently spoke of her fears of living alone Van Laar worked for the Prudential insurance company for several years before retiring two years ago said a former colleague who gave her name only as Elaine Elaine said Van Laar would frequently bring buns and rolls to work for her colleagues and would often volunteer to give friends rides or lend them things was a sweetheart" Elaine said woman full of life We had more laughs than you could The fire was under control by 11 pm About 60 firefighters fought the blaze fire officials said Van Laar was taken to Flushing Hospital Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at 11:17 pm building Speyer plan to do a gut renovation of the The building's loading docks will be turned into retail space Tishman Speyer has already been approached by unnamed discount retailers looking to rent space at the bottom of the building The renovation is expected to take about a year Speyer said they plan to start moving tenants in about mid-2008 house said he smelled smoke Sunday night and opened the window to see it seeping out Van windows thought she home because all the lights were off and all the windows were he said thought gone out and left something Glavan said he saw EMS workers take Van Laar out and try to revive her surprised she make it to the door the door was just a few feet he said Neighbors said Van Laar was the mother of two grown sons and lived in the house alone The second story of her brick building was a separate apartment that had recently been vacated by another family- Dragica Glavan 70 another Mathis a New York Times spokeswoman have people at half a dozen locations at Midtown After the paper moves Tishman Speyer will turn the 15-story 770 000-square-foot real estate famous for its loading docks and white globes into office property bones of the building are said BY DAN BELL AND LINDSAY FABER STAFF WRITERS A Flushing woman was killed Sunday when an electrical cord under her bedroom carpet caught fire and filled her house with smoke police and fire officials said yesterday Theresa Van Laar 62 was in the living room of her first-floor apartment at 150-39 19th Ave at 10:25 pm Sunday when the fire broke out in her bedroom fire officials said She was found behind the living room sofa after firefighters broke through her windows She could not be revived at the scene Next-door neighbor Anthony Glavan 46 a postal worker whose two-story home shared a wall with Van Properties already owns Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building The New York Times which has been in the building since 1913 will remain there until 2007 and then move into a 52-story tower on Eighth Avenue between West 40th and West 41st streets have outgrown this NEWSOAY PHOTO ALAN RAiA killed a woman Sunday Properties to buy NY Times and the Teachers Retirement Tishman Speyer said Catherine wwwntwsdaycom NEWSDAY TUESDAY NOVEMBER 9 2004 System snapped up the marked building on 229 43rd St for $175 million The deal is expected to be final before the end of the year made a bid and they decided to accept it based on our ability to move quick and close the said Robert Speyer senior managing director of the company signed over the.