Upper West Side molestation trial in jury deadlock

A Manhattan jury deadlocked today in the molestation trial of an Upper West Side school aide, with only five out of 12 jurors believing the nine-year-old alleged victim's account of repeated unwanted stripping and "massaging" in the boy's room and auditorum.

Gregory Atkins, 57, remains accused of on four occasions last winter bringing the boy into a bathroom at PS 87 and telling him to undress so that he could "check for bruises." On the final occasion, Atkins allegedly asked the boy to perform a sex act -- which the boy refused, later that day telling his therapist and father.

Steven Hirsch

Gregory Atkins, 56, a teacher's aide at PS 87 on the Upper West Side accused of requesting a sex act from an 8-year-old boy

The jury acquitted Atkins of additional child pornography charges stemming from ten images recovered from his home computer. Testimony showed the images had been downloaded and then deleted, jurors explained after their verdict that they couldn't be sure that Atkins had personally downloaded the images.

He remains held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro set Feb. 15 for his next court date, during which both sides will discuss a possible retrial on the molestation counts.

The five pro-conviction jurors found the boy credible despite the troubled kid's furious responses to a defense lawyer's grilling on the stand last month. "Shut up!" the kid had snapped at the defense lawyer. "And stop being a bully!"

"He was provoked," one male pro-conviction juror told reporters after the verdict. "He didn't like authority and his buttons were pushed. But that doesn't matter," the juror said. "For me, it was an open and shut case."

The boy had told consistent accounts of the molestation from the day he reported it until his time on the witness stand a year later, the juror noted.

But defense lawyers had argued that the boy's trouble with authority extended to Atkins himself -- and that the boy manufactured a molestation tale to get back at the strict school aide.

The pro-acquittal majority agreed that the boy's emotional and authority problems, along with a lack of corroborating evidence, raised reasonable doubt as to Atkins' guilt, said one female juror from the not-guilty camp.

"It was a very tough judgement call," said another female, pro-acquittal juror. "There wasn't enough evidence."

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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6 Miami-Dade cops fired or suspended for loafing

A Miami-Dade police sergeant and two officers have been fired, and three others have been suspended, capping a two-year investigation into accusations that they ignored emergency calls, filed false police reports and lied about calls they handled, Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said Tuesday.

The Miami-Dade Internal Affairs Bureau launched the investigation into the Kendall District police squad in 2010. The discharged officers are fighting to get their jobs back.

The officers — who worked the 2-to-10 p.m. shift — were followed, captured on video and tracked with GPS devices. More than 130 violations of department policy were documented.

Fired were Sgt. Jennifer Gonzalez and officers Dario Socarras and Jose Huerta. The other three — officers Jeffrey Price, Fabian Owens and Ivan Tomas — were suspended without pay in September and are back on the job.

Gonzalez was caught shopping, loading purchases into her patrol car and visiting her parents — all while on duty — according to CBS 4’s Jim Defede, who first reported the investigation and its outcome. Socarras ignored emergency calls, including a robbery, instead having a romantic rendezvous with his girlfriend at the Dadeland Mall.

A video captures him making out with the woman while in uniform. He also ignored a call involving a 5-year-old boy who was unconscious and locked inside a car, telling dispatchers he was on his way when, in fact, he was having a cup of coffee with Gonzalez and Huerta, who also ignored the emergency call.

The child was tended to by paramedics.

Price, Owens and Tomas were given suspensions of from five to 20 hours without pay. They, too, ignored a number of emergency calls.

Although police internal affairs investigations of individual officers are not uncommon in an agency as large as the Miami-Dade Police Department, a probe of an entire squad is unusual.

The boundaries of the Kendall District are Bird Road to the north, Coral Reef Drive to the south, Biscayne Bay on the east and Florida’s Turnpike on the west.

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Jessica Chastain Reveals Her Oscars Date Will Be Her Grandmother

Who will arrive arm-in-arm with Jessica Chastain on Oscar Sunday?

The 35-year-old beauty, who is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Zero Dark Thirty, tells ET she plans to bring a very special date to Hollywood's biggest night!

"I'm going to take my grandmother to the Oscars," beamed Jessica at The Hollywood Reporter's award season bash at Spago in Los Angeles on Monday. "We did that last year and it was one of my favorite days of my life."

Pics: Fierce Fashions at the Oscar Luncheon

The star, along with many of her fellow nominees that morning, came straight to the festivities after attending the Academy's annual Oscar luncheon.

Amy Adams, who is no stranger to attending the star-studded class photo, opened up to ET about the experience which she still feels is a bit surreal.

"Just to be on the bleachers with everybody and to hear everyone's name called, it's always overwhelming to realize the company you're in," said Amy.

Like Jessica, The Master star is mixing it up, as far as her dates go, during the award show hoopla.

Related: Five Things You Don't Know About Jessica Chastain

"I'm bringing my friends," disclosed Amy. "My fiance's been taking some time off-- he's working on an art show he's doing-- so it's fun to infuse some new energy into it."

For more with this year's Oscar nominees, click the video above!

Visit ETonline for complete Oscar coverage Sunday, February 24 as the 85th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, airs live from the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.

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Former Liu fund-raiser sent to the loony bin

The former fund-raiser charged with scheming to funnel illegal campaign contributions to embattled city Comptroller John Liu has been sent to the nuthouse, further delaying his trial.

Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan is “involuntarily committed in connection with a mental-health condition” and undergoing treatment, Manhattan federal Judge Richard Sullivan said in court today.

Sullivan put off Pan’s trial, which was supposed to be under way already, until April 15 — unless Pan is fit before then.

Sources have told The Post that Pan was locked up Friday over fears he was suicidal.

Defense lawyer Irwin Rochman said he would be ready for trial within a few day of Pan’s release.

A lawyer for co-defendant Jia “Jenny” Hou, Liu’s former campaign treasurer, said she didn’t want a separate trial ahead of Pan because she plans to use his expected testimony as part of her defense.

Political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the postponement poses a problem for Liu, who has all but declared his candidacy for mayor.

”It just leaves the case hanging over him for another two months. It keeps the informed public guessing about whether he is involved in fundraising violations or not,” Sheinkopf said.

Additional reporting by Carl Campanile

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Report calls Florida business incentives “corporate welfare’’

TALLAHASSEE --
A government watchdog group and a conservative advocacy group blasted Florida’s government Tuesday for the hundreds of millions of dollars it gives to corporations, blaming the state’s public-private jobs agency for “pay-to-play” cronyism and “corporate welfare.”

A new report by Integrity Florida and Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity highlights several problems with the state’s economic incentives program, which gives tax breaks to companies that set up shop in Florida.

“We’re concerned about the appearance of pay-to-play,” said Dan Krassner, director of Integrity Florida, outlining a number of tax breaks that have gone to politically connected companies and other deals that have failed.

Enterprise Florida Inc. and Gov. Rick Scott, its chairman, immediately hit back, claiming that the organization has been instrumental in bringing high-paying jobs to the state. Enterprise Florida CEO Gray Swoope slammed the report as tainted because it was funded by Americans for Prosperity.

“Integrity Florida has claimed to be a non-partisan, non-profit organization with no policy agenda,” Swoope wrote. “However, a report on economic incentives for job creation funded by a group that so publicly opposes these incentives is deeply troubling.”

Martin Dyckman, a former St. Petersburg Times associate editor and a board member at Integrity Florida, resigned after finding out that the report was funded by Americans for Prosperity. He also said it was “deeply troubling” that AFP sponsored the report, stating that it created “the perception that a well-researched report is an attack by Americans for Prosperity.”

Integrity Florida brushed aside concerns about the funding of its report, saying all of its funders are publicly listed. On Tuesday, the good-governance group focused on the findings of the report during a news conference.

Among the findings:

• Enterprise Florida has failed to meet its job-creation objectives, with companies creating only 103,544 jobs after receiving tax breaks, far short of the 200,000 envisioned by the Legislature in 1992 when EFI was created.

• Enterprise Florida has failed to get 50 percent funding from the private sector, instead relying on 85 percent taxpayer funding to support the public-private partnership

• Enterprise Florida has “the appearance of pay-to-play,” since it receives an average of $50,000 from some of its corporate board members. Those board members also get private contracts to do work on EFI’s behalf as well as tax-break deals processed by EFI.

Slade O’Brien, Florida director of Americans for Prosperity, said Florida’s practice of doling out economic incentives amounts to government manipulation of the free marketplace.

“What’s wrong here is the policy that’s in place,” he said. “Too often, we create winners and losers.”

Several bills in the Florida House and Senate seek to demand more transparency from Enterprise Florida and the economic incentives program. A bill voted out of committee Thursday morning would make Enterprise Florida submit to a slew of new performance reviews moving forward.

Enterprise Florida responded to what it called “troubling accusations” in the report by sending legislative leaders a lengthy letter about the virtues of its operation.

“Through the legislation that you supported two short years ago, Florida now has a seamless economic development team focused on creating jobs for Florida families, increasing capital investment in our communities and providing a significant return on the investment made by the state’s taxpayers,” reads a letter signed by the company’s board.

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Jury: Man deserves execution for slaying of elderly Little Havana woman

A Miami man should be executed for the savage stabbing of an elderly Little Havana woman in December 2000, a jury decided Monday night.

By a 7-5 vote, jurors recommended that Victor Guzman be executed for the slaying of 80-year-old Severina Dolores Fernandez. In September, the same jury convicted Guzman of first-degree murder.

Using a DNA match, police linked Guzman, 39, to the slaying of Fernandez, discovered naked and stabbed 58 times in her Little Havana apartment.

Ultimately, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy will sentence Guzman at a later date.

Prosecutors urged the death penalty for Guzman because of the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” nature of the crime, plus an earlier sexual attack on a 12-year-old girl. His defense lawyers asked for life in prison, saying Guzman was an alcoholic who had a stormy upbringing in his native Peru.

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Carpet Countdown: Directors Turn Fans at DGAs

Filmmakers like Ben Affleck, Kathryn Bigelow and Tom Hooper have provided inspiration for young up-and-comers, who hope to reach their level of greatness, but who do the Oscar-nominated directors look up to? Click the video to find out.

RELATED: Hot Looks of the Oscar Luncheon

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FTC corrects language on Herbalife

The Federal Trade Commission today corrected its earlier statement that Herbalife was the subject of a “law enforcement investigation.”

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Post, the FTC said some complaints against the company were withheld because the information was “obtained through a law enforcement investigation.”

The agency said yesterday that the language in its letter accompanying the FOIA request was incorrect and it should have said that the exemption from disclosure was related to “foreign sources.”

FTC spokesman Frank Dorman defined “foreign sources” as government entities, including law enforcement agencies, and the exemption relates to information-sharing between the FTC and these foreign government agencies.

The FTC said that it “may not disclose any material reflecting a consumer complaint obtained from a foreign source if that foreign source has requested confidential information.”

The agency said it could not confirm, or deny, an investigation into the nutritional supplements company.

“Other than the voluntary dialogue with regulators, which we communicated on our January investor day, we are unaware of any other regulatory interest and/or investigation,” Herbalife said in a statement.

Herbalife has been under scrutiny since hedge fund activist Bill Ackman announced Dec. 19 that he was shorting the stock, calling the company a pyramid scheme that should be shut down by regulators.

Under the FOIA request, the FTC released 192 complaints and 729 pages of complaints from consumers in 32 states and Canada.

“For a direct selling company of our size, we have had a relatively low number of complaints to the FTC,” Herbalife said. “However, we take every one of them seriously and stand by our record of doing right by our distributors and all consumers of our products.”

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Register for our free Business Plan Bootcamp

Whether you are planning to enter the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge or want to refine a short business plan you already have, our free Business Plan Bootcamp later this month can help.

Melissa Krinzman, a veteran Business Plan Challenge judge and managing director of Venture Architects, will be leading a panel of experts who will give you advice on crafting a short business plan aimed at grabbing the attention of investors — or judges. If you are entering the Challenge, we encourage you to bring your entry with you because the panel will critique critical sections of the short plan.

Panelists include:

•  Richard Ginsburg, co-founder of G3 Capital Partners, a mid-market and early stage investment company.

•  Steven McKean, founder and CEO of Acceller, a Miami-based tech company, and a Challenge judge.

•  Mike Tomas, CEO of Miami-based Bioheart, president of ASTRI Group and a Challenge judge.

Time, date, place: 6:30 p.m. Feb. 26, Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus Auditorium (Room 1261, Building 1, 2nd floor).

To register: It’s free, but please register here.

You do not have to enter the Challenge to attend our free boot camp, but we hope you will. The Challenge deadline is March 11.

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