Two retired FDNY chiefs arrested for alleged corruption: Sources
(NEW YORK) — Two now-retired chiefs from the New York City Fire Department were arrested early Monday morning following a yearlong corruption investigation, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Retired Chief Brian Cordasco was arrested at home on Staten Island. Retired Chief Anthony Saccavino was arrested at home in Manhattan, the sources said.
Saccavino and Cordasco “repeatedly abused their positions of trust as high-ranking officials in the New York City Fire Department” by soliciting and accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribe payments in exchange for providing preferential treatment to certain individuals and companies, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The two men were chiefs with the FDNY Bureau of Fire Prevention, which regulates the installation of fire safety and suppression systems in commercial and residential buildings. For nearly two years, the indictment said, Saccavino and Cordasco misused this authority for their own financial gain.
The two allegedly accepted $190,000 in bribes in exchange for expediting inspections, according to the indictment.
The FBI had searched their homes and offices earlier this year. he FDNY placed the chiefs on modified duty at the time. The New York City Department of Investigation searched FDNY headquarters as well.
The alleged scheme appears to have been discovered as an offshoot of the investigation into whether Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign took illegal money from Turkey in exchange for expediting the inspection of the new Turkish consulate.
Cordasco publicly complained about a so-called “City Hall List” of building projects that should be prioritized by FDNY inspectors, according to the indictment.
(GASTONIA, N.C.) — A North Carolina man accused of fatally poisoning his wife with eyedrops is now being accused of attempting to poison their 11-year-old daughter with the same substance, resulting in her hospitalization, according to court documents.
Joshua Lee Hunsucker’s was booked on Tuesday and his bond was revoked amid concerns he is abusing and neglecting one of his children, neglecting another child and intimidating witnesses in his murder case. Prosecutors argued that he has become “increasingly aggressive” and that his “dangerous actions will continue to escalate,” according to court documents.
Hunsucker, 40, is accused of poisoning his then-10-year-old daughter with eyedrops over a year after he allegedly killed his wife with the same substance. He put the eye drops into his child’s beverage and the substance was found in their urine sample, according to court documents.
A drug commonly prescribed for depression and not approved for children was also found in her blood. Investigators had found the drug in Hunsucker’s truck, according to court documents.
The 10-year-old was suffering from low blood pressure, low heart rate, extreme exhaustion and sleepiness and constricted blood vessels leading to her hospitalization, court documents show.
Prosecutors accused Hunsucker poisoned his daughter in an attempt to implicate John and Susie Robinson, who are witnesses in his wife’s murder case. Hunsucker was indicted on Monday on four counts of intimidation and four counts of obstruction of justice, according to court documents.
Prosecutors alleged that while his daughter was receiving treatment, Hunsucker told medical professionals that it appeared she had been given eyedrops which prosecutors said “does not appear to be a reasonable conclusion based on the symptoms” she was exhibiting.
Hunsucker is accused of poisoning his wife Stacy Robinson Hunsucker with tetrahydrozoline — eyedrops — and submitting false information to an insurance company, claiming his wife died “due to myocardial infarction when, in fact, it was due to homicide by poisoning,” according to court documents.
Joshua Hunsucker then cremated her before filing for her $250,000 life insurance policy two days after she died. He received an insurance payout of over $200,000, according to court documents.
Because Stacy Hunsucker was an organ donor, a vial of her blood was preserved after she died. When her husband raised suspicion, an investigation into her death was opened and the blood sample was tested, revealing a high presence of eyedrops, according to court documents.
Joshua Hunsucker is accused of putting eyedrops in her drinks over a period of time, leading to her death. Before her death, Joshua Hunsucker had told two coworkers that if he killed someone he would do so using eyedrops, according to court documents.
He was arrested in December 2019 and released after he paid a $1.5 million bond and has been wearing an ankle monitor and maintained a curfew.
Joshua Hunsucker is also accused of threatening or attempting to intimidate the Robinsons by sending a package to their residence, filming and following them in public places, routinely driving by their house and making vulgar gestures towards them in the parking lot of the church they attend, demanding that they drop the charges against them, according to court documents.
Joshua Hunsucker also falsely accused John Robinson of assaulting and kidnapping him, according to court docs.
He is accused of staging his own kidnapping, falsely reporting that he stopped to change a flat tire and a pistol-whipped him in the head multiple times before his hands were zip-tied and injected with an unknown substance. Hunsucker then accused him of attacking him to “shift responsibility from the defendant to the Robinsons for his wife’s death,” according to court documents.
(MESA, Ariz.) — An Arizona detective has been arrested and charged in his wife’s death after he allegedly strangled her and locked her body in their bedroom before fleeing the scene.
John Byrd, 47, has been arrested and charged with one count of second degree murder after he admitted to police that he strangled his wife to death, according to the Mesa Police Department in Arizona.
Byrd told police that he has had “some mental issues lately and has been very stressed about his home and work life,” according to a police booking report obtained by ABC News.
Byrd had a heated argument with his wife the morning her body was found and said that “during that argument ‘a switch just flipped’ in him and he put his hands around the victim’s neck and strangled her to death,” Byrd told police, according to the police report.
Byrd then told police that he left her body in their bedroom and locked the door so that the children would not see her. He told police that he knew what he had done was wrong, according to the report.
Byrd’s wife was found dead in their home after a woman reported her missing on Wednesday after she had not been seen or heard from for most of the day and failed to show up to a gym class they always attended together.
The woman who reported her missing had contacted the couple’s 11-year-old son by text and was told the boy and his siblings — ages 8 and 4 — had not seen their mother all day and her bedroom door was locked, according to police.
The woman also told police that the victim’s husband had left home at around noon Wednesday and had not returned, so she picked up the three children and took them to her home, police said.
When police arrived on the scene, Byrd’s employer was at the residence to pick up his work vehicle because Byrd was on medical leave from his job. Police gathered additional information before they entered the house to conduct a welfare check on the victim, police said.
The victim was found dead on her bedroom floor, with no major visible injuries seen on her body, according to police.
Byrd was not in the residence and police could not find or reach him by phone. No calls had been made from the residence to report that the woman had been injured.
Officers and detectives found Byrd driving a vehicle registered to the victim and he was detained. A search warrant was authored for the couple’s residence and physical evidence was collected from Byrd.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, where Byrd was employed, told ABC News it is “in the process of ending Byrd’s employment.”
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office will handle Byrd’s prosecution.
(FOREST PARK, Ill.) — Four people were killed in a shooting early Monday on a Chicago Transit Authority train in Forest Park, Illinois, officials said.
The Forest Park Police Department received a 911 call about three people shot on a westbound train at the CTA Blue Line station in Forest Park, just west of Chicago, around 5:30 a.m. local time, according to a statement from police.
Authorities cleared the station, finding four victims. Three were pronounced dead on scene and the fourth was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where they died.
Forest Park police, along with CTA security, used video surveillance to help identify the offender. Then the Chicago Police Department located a suspect who matched the description on a CTA Pink Line train. The subject was taken into custody and a firearm was found, Forest Park police said.
According to Forest Park officials, the shooting appears to have been an isolated incident with no immediate additional threat to the community.
In a statement, the CTA called the incident a “heinous and egregious act of violence” that “should never have occurred, none the less on a public transit train.”
“As soon as it was reported, CTA immediately deployed resources to assist the Forest Park Police in their investigation into the matter, including review of all possible security camera footage, which proved to be vital in aiding local enforcement,” the statement read.
The CTA commended the Forest Park Police Department and the Chicago Police Department for their rapid response and coordination.
CTA said it will continue to work with local law enforcement regarding the ongoing investigation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.