Saturday, February 24, 2007
DWI case againstopera star is dismissed
NEW YORK -- A drunken-driving case against opera singer Jerry Hadley -- who was arrested while sitting in a parked car -- was dismissed at the request of prosecutors.
Prosecutors moved to drop the charge after concluding they could not make a case that Hadley intended to drive drunk, Jennifer Kushner, a spokeswoman for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, said Thursday.
Hadley, 54, was arrested on Manhattan's Upper West Side in May. A woman had reported seeing him in a drunken state before getting into a car, and he was found at the wheel with the key in the ignition, authorities said.
Prosecutors said at the time that the "intent" to drive was enough to warrant a DWI charge. Hadley's lawyer, Lou Freeman, said then that the singer never intended to drive because he realized he was too tipsy to do so once he got behind the wheel.
"While I certainly was under the influence -- I had too much to drink at a business lunch -- I went back to my car because I needed to collect all my things before going to the home of my friend so I wouldn't have to drive," Hadley said. "Out of habit, I stuck the key in the ignition of the car. ... The car was never started."
The Grammy-winning Hadley is considered a world-class romantic tenor.
Former 'Sopranos' star:I didn't cause cop's death
NEW YORK -- Former "Sopranos" actor Lillo Brancato Jr., who faces a real-life murder charge in a police officer's death, said he isn't the thug he believes he has been made out to be.
"I'm not the monster that they portray me as in newspapers, a cold-blooded killer and all of that. I'm not that person at all," he told WCBS-TV in a jail interview that aired Thursday.
Brancato and a co-defendant are awaiting trial in the December 2005 shooting of Officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was shot while off-duty.
Prosecutors said Enchautegui confronted Brancato and Steven Armento while they were breaking into a Bronx apartment in search of prescription drugs. Armento is accused of firing the fatal shot.
"I know in my heart I was in no way responsible for the death of that police officer," Brancato told WCBS. His lawyer barred questions about the shooting, according to the television station.
Brancato made his debut starring opposite Robert De Niro in "A Bronx Tale" in 1993. Brancato went on to appear in more than a dozen movies and had a recurring role as a would-be mobster on HBO's "The Sopranos."
Today's birthdays
Country singer Ralph Stanley is 80. TV writer-producer Larry Gelbart is 79. CBS newsman Bob Schieffer is 70. Rock singer-musician Mike Peters (The Alarm) is 48. Actress Tea Leoni is 41. Comedian Carrot Top is 40. Singer Daniel Powter is 36. Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr. is 34. Actors James and Oliver Phelps ("Harry Potter" movies) are 21.