‘Sex slave’ settles in suit vs. socialite
THE CITY has shut down a South Bronx shooting gallery — a nightmarish site known as “The Hole” where addicts had openly pumped heroin into their veins for years.
The Daily News profiled the area in its series “Opioid Nation” — an in-depth examination of the city’s opioid crisis and the NYPD’s new approach to handling it.
Mayor de Blasio ordered the closing of the St. Anns Ave. site before city workers bulldozed the mounds of trash and bloodstained needles blanketing the abandoned railroad bed. The News interviewed users just weeks ago and watched as addicts injected their pals with heroin.
Local residents familiar with the popular drug spot, which users nicknamed “The Hole” were thrilled to see the sudden change.
“I hope they keep it clean, because my kids go to school on the next block and we have to walk through here every morning, and there are needles everywhere,” said Sophia Lindao, 33, a mother of three.
Hizzoner said the city would install “additional physical measures” to make sure the vacant property behind a chain-link fence remains off-limits to its former inhabitants.
“I don’t think it’s safe to have a place where people can congregate to do something that’s dangerous,” de Blasio said. “I believe that’s the right strategy, to constantly limit the places where people can engage in illegal and dangerous activity.”
The city workers also patched up holes in the fence surrounding the site. An NYPD patrol car sat parked outside the suddenly empty area all day Wednesday, with not a single user in sight.
A group of schoolkids walking home Wednesday afternoon noticed the police presence and asked why the cops were there.
“Because of all the crackheads?” one asked.
“Are they cleaning up all the needles?” asked another.
“The Hole” was located in the Mott Haven-Hunts Point area, the city’s deadliest neighborhood for heroin overdoses. Its 2015 tally of 18.8 per 100,000 people was higher than the fatal overdose rate of every U.S. state except West Virginia.
The city previously emptied the location near E. 149th St. in September 2015 as part of a crackdown on homeless encampments — only to find it buzzing with activity within days.
The News published a 3,800-word story on Sunday, chronicling the despair and degradation of heroin addicts who used the site to hang out and shoot up. Left behind by the users was a carpet of used syringes and shiny orange caps from single-use needles.
“The whole point of our plan to reduce the number of opioid deaths is that we want to connect people with treatment,” said the mayor. “But if we’re leaving people in a dangerous situation on an ongoing basis that’s not acceptable.”
The News found addicts who began visiting the site years ago. But a police officer posted at “The Hole” said addicts will need to find a different — and hopefully safer — place to spend their time.
“We’re going to do what we can to get them out of here and get them help,” said the cop. “And clean up the area, because that’s really all we can do.”
Ric Curtis, an expert on the city’s heroin trade and chairman of John Jay College’s Department of Law, says the cleanup will do little to solve the problem.
“It’s disappointing to hear the same old strategies that have been ineffective there for more than 40 years are getting a reprise,” he said. “Be assured that it will only be a matter of time before they are gone and the same old scene will reemerge.”
Police investigated 1,370 opioid-involved deaths last year, far more than double the combined number of homicides (311) and car wreck fatalities (220). AN ALLEGED former teen sex slave to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein has settled a lawsuit against a socialite who allegedly pimped her out.
Virginia Giuffre filed a federal lawsuit against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in September 2015 claiming Maxwell arranged sick encounters with Epstein.
Giuffre then sued Maxwell for defamation in Manhattan Federal Court saying the media heiress smeared her while denying the disturbing sex claims.
Giuffre, 33, and Maxwell, 55, reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday, according to court documents.
The details of the settlement were not immediately made public.