Pressley Postpones Financial Disclosure Amid Questions About Real Estate Dealings
'Cancel rent' champion earned thousands as landlord
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) postponed filing her 2020 financial disclosure as the liberal congresswoman faced questions about whether she made money as a landlord during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pressley moved to extend her filing deadline by 90 days on April 26, just one week after the Washington Free Beacon reported that she collected up to $15,000 in rental income during a four-month period in 2019. Pressley has championed rent cancellation bills throughout the pandemic, calling such legislation "literally a matter of life and death."
Months into the pandemic, Pressley and her husband refinanced their Boston building as a multifamily investment property, local records show. The arrangement requires the couple to maintain rent loss insurance. Pressley's disclosure—which was originally due on May 15—would have shown any rental income the "Squad" member earned in 2020. The Democrat has until Aug. 13 to report her income for the year.
Pressley did not return a request for comment. She has ignored repeated requests for comment on her rental property from multiple outlets—including the Boston Herald—since the Free Beacon‘s original report.
Pressley and her husband purchased their two-unit building for $658,000 in April 2019, according to property records. The couple then posted one of the two units for a monthly rent of $2,500 in June 2019. The posting was removed in August.
If Pressley did waive rent during the pandemic, she could recoup the forfeited earnings through the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act. The legislation, which Pressley cosponsored in both 2020 and 2021, would create a "landlord relief fund" to reimburse landlords for lost rent due to the virus.
The Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act specifically prioritizes landlords with "the fewest available amount of assets," thus prioritizing minor lessors such as Pressley over large real estate firms. The Democrat promoted the bill in March by arguing that rental payments force Americans to "choose between putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their head."
"With the economic impact of this pandemic worsening and the threat of eviction and homelessness looming large for families nationwide," Pressley said, "we must take every measure possible to keep families safely housed, forgive all rental debt, and ensure that the credit scores of hard-hit families are not forever tarnished."
NYPD Looking For Attacker Who Repeatedly Punched and Bit Asian Man's Fingers
A 48-year-old man of Asian descent was allegedly punched multiple times and bitten on the hand by a shirtless attacker at a sidewalk in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan on Tuesday morning.
Unprovoked attack: The unnamed victim was walking along West 43rd Street and 11th Avenue when an unknown assailant approached him and started punching him repeatedly, reported WABC.
The attacker then allegedly yelled, "Go back to China," and bit two fingers of the victim's left hand before fleeing.
The tip of the victim's middle finger was severed during the attack. He was brought to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment and is now in stable condition.
In a statement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned the violent attack, which he says a part of “an alarming, disgusting pattern.”
“As New Yorkers, we are forever proud of our diversity, and we reject any cowardly attempts to divide us,” he said. “Justice needs to be done, and I am directing the New York State Police Hate Crimes Task Force to offer their assistance in the investigation of this attack."
Ongoing investigation: The NYPD Hates Crimes Task Force, which is now looking for “a suspect wearing white and black sneakers, with no shirt, carrying a sweatshirt,” released a video of the alleged suspect on Twitter.
⚠️INFO NEEDED-May18th, 09:50 AM, at W. 43rd St. and 11th Ave, a male Asian, 48, was repeatedly punched in the face by a male who said "go back to your country" and also bit two of the victim's fingers causing the tip of one to be severed.☎️1-800-577-8477 @NYPDDetectives @NYPDMTN pic.twitter.com/oPDAMYRiPu
— NYPD Hate Crimes (@NYPDHateCrimes) May 19, 2021
The incident -- the area’s third anti-Asian attack in two months -- occurred not far from where a 31-year-old Asian woman was hit with a hammer earlier this month and where an Asian woman was brutally stomped on her head back in March.
The NYPD urges anyone with relevant information to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Featured Image via NYPD Hate Crimes
Suspect in Iowa girl's murder had been paroled weeks earlier
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa granted an early release from prison to a repeat offender just months before he allegedly kidnapped and killed a 10-year-old girl, according to parole documents released Tuesday.
The Iowa Board of Parole granted Henry Dinkins parole from a Davenport minimum-security residential facility in March 2020, determining he was “able and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law abiding citizen.”
“There is a reasonable probability that you can be released without detriment to the community or yourself," according to the parole order signed by the board's chair, Helen Miller, that The Associated Press obtained under the open records law.
Less than four months after his parole, Dinkins, a registered sex offender with a history of violent and reckless behavior, allegedly kidnapped Breasia Terrell from a Davenport apartment complex, shot her to death and hid her body in rural eastern Iowa.
At the time he was granted parole, Dinkins, 48, was awaiting trial on felony charges in Illinois of possession of methamphetamine and amphetamine with intent to deliver stemming from an April 2019 traffic stop. It’s unclear whether Iowa authorities took that into consideration.
Breasia was the half sister of Dinkins’ son, and investigators say both children were staying the night with him at an apartment where he was living with a girlfriend. The girl's July disappearance prompted a monthslong search that ended in March when two people fishing near DeWitt discovered her remains in a pond.
Dinkins is charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping, each of which carry a possible life term. A public defender representing him didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Dinkins is set to be arraigned next month.
Iowa Board of Parole records detail Dinkins’ criminal history and some leniency he received along the way, even as he committed crime after crime.
He had been in and out of prison and correctional programs since 1990, when he was convicted of third-degree sexual abuse of a child when he was 17 and required to register as a sex offender. He’d been arrested and cited dozens of times, on charges that include violating sex offender registry requirements, assault while displaying a dangerous weapon, domestic violence, drug possession, theft and eluding. A 2009 murder charge was dropped after police said he was a witness, not the killer.
His most recent return to prison stemmed from a March 2019 arrest, in which he was allegedly high on crack and crashed into a Davenport yard while trying to flee from police. It was at least his fifth arrest for operating while intoxicated since 2007. In 2014, officers used a stun gun and pepper spray to subdue him after he crashed his car while on cocaine. In 2011, he allegedly caused an accident involving multiple semi-trailers and cars when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 80 while intoxicated. In another incident that year, he drove 90 mph (145 kph) while high through a residential area where children were playing, with his SUV's engine later exploding.
Days after the March 2019 OWI, he was arrested while allegedly in possession of more than 900 grams of meth and 200 grams of amphetamine in Bureau County, Illinois. He was released from jail after posting a $100,000 bond.
Judge Joel Barrows sentenced Dinkins to up to five years in prison in October 2019 for the OWI and barred him from driving for six years. Records show Dinkins served 60 days before he was transferred to the minimum-security Davenport Residential Facility.
There, he completed a four-month substance abuse treatment program and “secured fulltime employment,” records show. A probation officer recommended he be released by April 6, 2020, then moved up his release date to March 19. Miller approved both requests, ending a sentence that had been projected to last until January 2022.
Waylyn McCulloh, director of the 7th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services in Davenport, said the handling of his sentence was “standard process” for repeat OWI offenders and that the coronavirus pandemic didn't appear to have an impact on the release decision. But he said the case was complicated by the Illinois charges, which have not yet been resolved.
Records show Dinkins appeared in an Illinois courtroom on July 8, 2020, for a conference ahead of a July 27 trial date. Breasia disappeared two days later.
“It’s a horrible situation and a horrific crime,” McCulloh said. “But of course we have to keep in mind that he has yet to be convicted.”
Canton police: Toddler beaten and killed, parents charged with murder
CANTON – A woman with a history of mental disabilities was standing naked in the street when police arrived at her home Monday.
She told them her baby was dead, according to Police Chief Jack Angelo.
Officers searched the house, found the 18-month-old boy and rushed him to Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital.
Now the parents have been arrested and charged with murder.
More about Canton police:Canton police detective serves as mental health liaison between patient, care
Mary T. Guarendi, 26, and Kevin L. Walker, 29, who live together in the 1900 block of Maple Avenue NE, were taken into custody at their home, according to Stark County Jail records.
She was jailed on a murder charge; he was jailed on a felony obstructing justice charge, police said. The charge against Walker was later upgraded to murder.
Bystanders call 911 call to report naked woman walking Canton streets
Angelo said officers were called out at 4:58 p.m.
A woman called 911 to report seeing a naked woman walking up and down Maple and then heading toward U.S. Route 62.
"It's scary. She's probably mental and needs help, you know?" the caller said.
Another woman from Canton City Schools transportation department said her driver reported seeing someone "standing on the sidewalk out there completely naked. You now, and I'm only calling because we have a busload of kids out in that area."
Guarendi, who has a history of mental illness, told arriving officers her son had been murdered, according to police.
"Officers rushed to the address and made entry through an unlocked window and discovered a small child beneath several large pieces of furniture," according to a police department news release. "The child was unconscious with apparent severe head and body trauma."
Two officers took the child to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 5:41 p.m., the chief said.
What happened inside Mary T. Guarendi's home?
Detectives allege the toddler's death is the result of a domestic dispute during which Guarendi is accused of assaulting her child "with several pieces of household furniture."
Angelo said the child appeared to have suffered "blunt force trauma," but that the Stark County Coroner's Office would be ruling on his cause of death
Jail records allege Walker was trying to conceal the homicide by initially telling arriving officers that the child was asleep inside the house, knowing that he was already dead and that his girlfriend was missing.
Detectives continued to investigate Tuesday as the couple remained behind bars.
Guarendi was held without bond and Walker was held in lieu of $25,000 bond, both pending Canton Municipal Court hearings.
Previous domestic dispute reported
Police said they had been called to the couple's home Jan. 25 in response to a domestic dispute.
Stark County Court records allege Walker attacked Guarendi with multiple household items, striking her. Initially charged with misdemeanor domestic violence, he was convicted in March of a reduced charge of disorderly conduct. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail with all but the three he'd already served suspended. He was also ordered into an anger management program.
Guarendi had been declared "incompetent" in Stark County Probate Court in 2014 because of "mental disabilities."
Her adoptive father Dr. Ray Guarendi filed paperwork in court at the time as he sought guardianship noting that she was "incapable of taking proper care of herself."
He is a clinical psychologist and host of the radio program "The Doctor Is In" on ETWN. He declined to comment Tuesday for this story.
In February 2015, he relinquished his guardianship, writing in court documents that "... I have been progressively unable to influence Mary to act in her best wishes" and that she had become "increasingly hostile to our efforts."
Reach The Canton Repository at 330-580-8300 or newsroom@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @CantonRep
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