18 YEARS OF HELL: Bully Robs Old Man Twice A Month Since 1993

The amount of money deducted from Golden’s check by the armed bully, at about $700 per paycheck, would total nearly $18,200 per year or $327,600 over the 18 years.

[Redlining]


He’s Been Sweating for Nothing all these years….

BY KRIS GOUNDEN

Every two weeks, when William Golden gets his paycheck, a man with a gun accompanies him to a Pay-o-matic check-cashing place at 508 Clarkson Ave., in Brooklyn. When the check is cashed, the man takes about $700 dollars from the tax-home pay of $897.67 and allows Golden to keep the balance.

Golden’s gross paycheck is $1,390.50.

The man tells Golden that he keeps the money he takes as “savings” for him. Golden is often broke and has to come for me for support in order to buy food or for transport money to get to work at King’s County Hospital, in Brooklyn.

This exttortion has been going on for about 18 years now and the amount of money deducted from Golden’s check by the armed bully, at about $700 per paycheck, would total nearly $18,200 per year or $327,600 over the 18 years.

The bully also relieves Golden of his tax refund every year. Golden, until now, had been fearful and unwilling to report the theft since the man carries a gun and has shown the weapon to Golden, he tells me. Goldman says the man goes by the name Motion Heginal, or Manuel Heginal; probably just some of several aliases. He is a dark-complected Panamanian. He’s about 5′ 6″ and about 170 pounds and sports a greyish goatee, according to Golden and one of my employees, who has seen him.

But finally, last week, I convinced Golden to accompany me to the 71st police precinct in Brooklyn to report the matter. The police initially gave us the run-around. Later, I spoke to officers who seemed interested in investigating the matter. Then suddenly, there was an about-face and the officers refused to investigate. I believe this occurred after the officers discovered my own identity and the fact that I and my family was involved, as victims, in an infamous race bias case in Howard Beach. (A recap of that story in next week’s Black Star News).

So, simply because the police precinct in Howard Beach seemed to have “black listed” me, I believe, every time they check my name on a computer, I am again victimized — even when I try to assist a victim such as Golden.

Here’s what happened last week, including the background about Golden’s story.

William Golden is an employee of kings County Hospital for over 39 years as a custodian. He is a 65-year-old African American. He keeps to himself and has no immediate family, having divorced many years ago. He is barely literate. My father, Rama Gounden, worked with Golden for many years, until his own retirement and my family has known him for about 20 years. When my father left for Florida, he asked me to keep an eye on Golden.

I usually give him money for taking care of the garbage at my family’s rental property in the East New York section of Brooklyn. My family also provides food and housing for Golden.

Heginal’s Easy King’s County Pickings
After constantly demanding to know why Golden was always broke, last month, he finally confessed that most of his paycheck was “taken” by Heginal; if that is indeed his name. He said Heginal, who is in his late 30s, is well-known to other employees at King’s County Hospital. He alleges that Heginal has for years been selling everything from bootleg cigarettes, weed, crack-cocaine, pills, uppers and downers, clothing, and shoes, to hospital employees. Heginal claims to be a former king’s county hospital employee. He normally drives to King’s County Hospital in a Jeep, every pay Thursday, with a female accomplice.

About 18 years ago, Heginal started giving Golden some “advances” on cigarettes, shirts, shoes, and socks in between pay periods. Golden says eventually Heginal even started bringing him the products to his home. Finally, he started accompanying Golden whenever he went to a check cashing place every two weeks and routinely “deducting” $700 from his pay, even though the “advances” came nowhere close to that amount.

Golden says when he tried to resist the extortion in the beginning, Heginal pulled out a gun –he says it appears to be a .38– and threatened to kill him if he refused or if he ever exposed the shakedown. He alleges Heginal once said, “‘I’m saving this money for your retirement. I’m better than a bank.'”

Golden has no pension. Desperate to severe ties, Golden even took out a loan from work, the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp. for over $3,000 believing that a lump-sum payment would release him from the extortionate bondage. It was to no avail.

In the past, whenever I confronted him about his money he would always say he was supporting an adult daughter and an ex-wife. He had made this tale to conceal Heginal’s extortion. When Golden told me the truth, I told him to go to the King’s County Hospital Center police.

On August 1, 2011, Golden went to the hospital police and while there, he put me on the phone and I spoke to an officer. I identified myself as Golden’s landlord and informed them of the extortion being carried out by the armed man, who also sold contrabands within the premises of King’s County Hospital to the employees. The Hospital police refused to become involved and instead gave Golden a New York Police Department (NYPD) information pamphlet.

So at this point, we don’t even know if Heginal is extorting money from other hospital employees or elderly people elsewhere.

Things were coming to a head. I asked Golden to set up a meeting with Heginal so I could photograph him and provide his picture to the police when the last pay period approached. Golden was too scared. He even said let’s “leave it alone.” I said that was fine with me but also insisted that he could not remain in my building –where he lived in one of the units– so long as he was involved with someone engaged in illegal activities. He broke down in tears before my wife and I and said, “Give me another chance. I don’t have anyone.”

We Go To 71st Precinct
I decided we should waste no time. August 4, last week, was my special day; my birthday, as I turned 43 years old. I had planned to be with my four-year-old daughter at The New York Eye Center, in Manhattan, for her eye surgeon’s medical scripts.

But it was also Golden’s pay day and I did not want another two weeks to go by. So I called the 71st precinct, gave my name, and informed the detective unit of the impending crime against Golden, a King’s County Hospital employee, by an armed man, Heginal. at 4PM. The officer I spoke with told me to wait until after the extortion occurred, then to call 911. I called again and this time spoke with the operator, providing the same information; again I was told to call 911 after the robbery.

Since the precinct was acting like the Keystone Kops, I offered an alternate proposal to Golden. I called him and said I could accompany him with one of my own employees –from my rental property– to witness and even stop the robbery. Golden said he was afraid that someone might get hurt and balked at the plan.

So we decided to go to the police precinct instead. On our way to the 71st precinct, Golden’s phone kept ringing furiously. It was Heginal calling, wanting to get his regular piece of Golden’s pie.

We arrived at the 71st precinct, which is located at 421 Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn at around 4.30 PM. A desk sergeant identified as Orecchia referred us to the detective unit upstairs after I recounted this ongoing case of weekly extortion involving the armed gunman who also sold drugs.

I informed the officers we initially met with about Golden’s 18 years nightmare at the hands of the extortionist and bully. A female detective identified as Corion, took Golden aside and started interviewing him nearby. I could overhear her words; she sounded incredulous, even hostile. Why had Golden not reported the matter earlier?, she demanded. How could someone let another person rob them for 18 years?

Eventually, I had heard enough. I told the detective it was my birthday and that I wanted to go and be with my family. I would bring Golden back the next day, I said. Golden was also too frustrated by now. “Forget it,” he declared, and went outside to my minivan.

When I approached the desk sergeant again, Orecchia, he snapped: “I’m busy.”

Somehow I was not surprised. Here were two Black men reporting a crime that had gone on for years, with a fresh one pending, and there was no interest. A simple sting operation would have sufficed.

Then two detectives who were walking by overhead the story and stopped to listen. When they heard that the bully had sometimes come to Golden’s apartment, they instead wanted to know whether Golden was a drug dealer. At this point, I told them I would go home and put everything in writing and return it the next day to Capt. Michael Telfer and Capt. Thomas Kamper, two officers whose names I saw at the precinct.

I then joined Golden in the car. When the two detectives who seemed interested walked out, Golden again told them about his ordeal. One officer asked for my I.D., and I also gave him my business card. One of the detectives asked us to call the extortionist on his mobile phone. Golden did; the man was waiting for his cut of the paycheck and Golden told him we would be there in minutes. The detectives said they would follow us.

Finally; we were getting somewhere, I thought. But the detectives drove off in the opposite direction not toward the check cashing place.

Then a White uniformed officer came from inside the precinct and took my business card and also checked my license plate. I drove after the two detectives and asked them what was going on. They did not seem interested anymore and one of them waved me off, shouting “go!.”

“Where?” I asked, still unsure about what was going on. “Get out of here!” he yelled.

We Were Redlined
Something had happened since the officer checked on my identification. He had probably realized that I was the individual involved in the landmark controversy, in 2006, when my family purchased a home in Howard Beach and some neighbors –hostile to a family of color moving there– tried to drive us out of the community. There was even a court case when one neighbor almost attacked me with a baseball bat while spewing the N-word, and he was arrested. Since that case, I have faced numerous harassment and I believe that I have been “Black listed.”

I have concluded that the NYPD must be running the agency like a bank. Your ID first; anything with your name in their system showing a prior matter the authorities did not like, even when you’re blameless, gets you a bad rating and quality of NYPD service you get is based on this “rating” system. Redlining of justice and other essential services; much as a bank would deny one a loan.

I am confident that I don’t have a Triple-A with the NYPD. For example, I believe that people who are stopped and frisked get a bad “rating” and denial of NYPD services thereafter. (Next week, an article here in The Black Star News about my encounters will demonstrate some of the negative consequences of a “bad rating.”)

Meanwhile, the 71st Precinct refused to do anything to help Golden end the nightmare of being robbed for the last 18 years. Telling me to wait until the crime occurred and then dialing 911 meant the police were willing to have Heginal harm both of us. Ask yourself: if we had both been White males would that have been the response?

At the end of the day, I got on the phone myself and informed Heginal that I was now handling all of Golden’s affairs and that if he wanted the check he should call me. Last week was the only time that Golden got to keep his entire paycheck of nearly $900, for the first time in 18 years. He held it up in his hands for a long time just to see how it felt.

In the meantime, I have asked some of my own employees at my rental properties to keep an eye on Golden and to stay in his apartment with him at night since he is fearful for his life.

This begs the question; why do we have a police force then?

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”


Editor’s Note: Any readers who have encountered similar experiences or other injustices please send an email message to
[email protected] for his new column in The Black Star News, Redlining

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