The man accused of killing a Boerum Hill cop after throwing the police officer off a stoop may spend the rest of his life behind bars now that he has been indicted on murder charges — but his attorney claims the cop’s death was a tragic accident.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes announced the indictment against George Villanueva, 42, — who is now facing charges of murder, manslaughter in the first degree, criminally negligent homicide and assaulting a police officer — on March 18. If convicted of just the top murder count, Villanueva’s facing life in prison, Hynes said.
Prosecutors say Villanueva killed Officer Alain Schaberger of the 84th Precinct during the early morning hours of March 13 when a domestic violence call went horribly awry.
Officers responded to Villanueva’s girlfriend’s home on Bergen Street between Third and Fourth avenues on a 911 call of a domestic dispute. His girlfriend claimed Villanueva had called her repeatedly through the night, then showed up, prompting an argument.
When police arrived at his girlfriend’s home, Villanueva had already returned to his apartment on St. Marks Place between Third and Fourth avenues — just around the corner from his paramour’s pad.
Cops went there and grabbed Villanueva at the top of his stoop. The officers were slapping handcuffs on Villanueva when he began fighting them off, shoving Officer Schaberger over a low railing.
Schaberger fell nine feet into a basement staircase below. He died of a broken neck.
Stunned cops tasered and cuffed Villanueva as paramedics declared Schaberger dead at the scene.
Police said Villanueva has 28 prior arrests — three of which were for assaulting his girlfriend. Yet his attorney Kleon Andreadis said Villanueva never laid his hands on Schaberger.
“He never shoved the officer. He never touched the officer,” Andreadis told reporters, claiming that witnesses told a grand jury that another cop collided with Schaberger during the struggle, knocking him over the railing.
Andreadis said that even if prosecutors can prove that the struggle led to Schaberger’s death, they can’t prove that Villanueva intended to kill someone.
Methodist drug mule may plead guilty
A stripper turned medical student facing 10 years in prison for dealing the attention deficit disorder drug Aderall out of New York Methodist Hospital is ready to broker a deal in hopes of shortening her stay in jail.
Attorneys for Pauline Wiltshire are in the middle of hammering out a plea with the U.S. Attorney’s office in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence for the stunning would-be drug baroness.
“We’re in negotiations with the government,” attorney Paul Kish told Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom during a brief court appearance on March 18.
Wiltshire, a medical student at Windsor University School of Medicine in St. Kitts, is accused of selling more than 11,000 Aderall pills prescribed to her from her boyfriend, a former resident at the hospital on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope.
Investigators believe Wiltshire and a handful of colleagues sold the pills to friends and people on Craig’s List since 2008.
A number of these buys took place either in or around the hospital, according to court papers.
Her boyfriend, identified as Dr. Michael Gabriel, used the money from his share of the sales to pay off his gambling debts, officials said. Before grabbing Wiltshire, federal investigators arrested Gabriel, who has since cut a deal with prosecutors.
Wiltshire was arrested in January for her part in the Aderall ring and is currently out on $100,000 bail.
