Evening Roundup: Manhattan’s Top Prosecutor Resigns, Murder Charge for Man who Allegedly Packed Dead Roommate in Suitcase, City Council’s Minority Leader Tal...

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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC NOW, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan is resigning. Interim US Attorney Danielle Sassoon was appointed to run the Office of the Southern District of New York until President Trump's pick for a US attorney could be confirmed by the Senate. Sassoon's resignation comes days after the White House ordered her office to withdraw bribery and corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice officials said the bribery and corruption case against Adams should be dropped so he could better help President Trump's immigration crackdown. The US attorney's spokesperson did not cite a reason for the resignation.

A Lower East Side man is facing a murder charge after he allegedly killed his 65-year-old roommate and put his body in a suitcase in the East River. WNYC's Brittany Kriegstein has the details.

Brittany Kriegstein: Missing flyers for Edwin Echevarria are still up at the building where police say he lived with Christian Millet. According to the NYPD, the two men were sharing an apartment and got into a dispute over a food that led to Echevarria's killing. His daughter, Jennifer Matthews, says Millet was the grandson of Echevarria’s ex-girlfriend. She says Millet had beaten him up in the past.

Jennifer Matthews: "Last time when he left, I told my dad not to let him back in, and I didn't find out until my dad was missing that he had moved back in with my father."

Brittany Kriegstein: She says Echevarria recently retired after working for decades for the US Postal Service.

Janae Pierre: Attorney information for Millett was not immediately available.

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Republicans on the New York City Council have a new minority leader. After the break, a conversation with Councilmember Joann Ariola.

The New York City Council is the legislative branch of government for the five boroughs. Think Congress, but on the local level. Its 51 districts are made up of handfuls of neighborhoods, often with similar characteristics, but of those 51 seats, only five are occupied by Republicans. Now the City Council's Republican caucus has a new leader. Joann Ariola represents the Rockaway Peninsula, parts of southern Queens, and her home neighborhood of Howard Beach. The minority leader talked with WNYC's Sean Carlson about her new role.

Sean Carlson: You're leading a relatively small caucus, although we should note a recent election in the Bronx saw a seat flipped to the GOP in that borough for the first time in decades. How do you get stuff done when you're leading a minority party with such a small caucus?

Councilmember Joann Ariola: We've really gotten so much done. In our caucus, we're all on powerful committees. I'm the chair. I'm the only Republican in the delegation that is a chair of a committee. I'm the chair of Committee on Fire and Emergency Management. We've been very successful in passing legislation, and, as a matter of fact, what I like to call solution-oriented legislation myself, I just passed two bills that would keep the DOT accountable in notifying districts and the councilmembers when they're going to close streets. I was able to create the Mayor's Office of Marine Debris Removal and surrender because our waterways are polluted with just wrecks of boats and debris.

Councilmember Paladino has been active in her district with closing shelters, closing homes that had had squatters in there, closing cannabis shops. Kristy Marmorato has legislation that would stop children in schools from choking. There's an apparatus to go into the throat, into the bronchial tube so in case they're choking on food. These are solution-based legislation that no one can disagree with.

Councilmember Carr worked with people who had property taxes and were in arrears, had a bill passed that would give them some type of forgiveness and ways to pay. We are getting things done. We don't have to lose our conservative views to work across the aisle with the Democrats. That's what I would like to do as minority leader is work across the aisle to make sure that although we don't lose sight of who we are, we really make the Democrats who are there, the majority of them are moderates, really understand that we need to get this city back in shape, and it has to happen quickly.

Sean Carlson: Now I don't think anybody thinks that you're kicking back with the Speaker of the Council when you're not on the clock. What is your relationship with Speaker Adrienne Adams, who leads the Democrats.

Councilmember Joann Ariola: I know Speaker Adams from another life when she was the community board chairperson, and I worked for a hospital network that was within that community board. I have a long-standing relationship with her, and I have a lot of respect for her. I think that, as a Speaker, she is a very fair Speaker, and she is always available when any member of our delegation has needed to meet with her and discuss funding for their districts. We would not be able to bring back the money that we do to our districts without having a relationship with Adrienne Adams.

Sean Carlson: I think discourse about national politics often talks about how divided things feel, especially right now in this moment. Do you think that's true in local government, too, and how is it different or the same for that matter?

Councilmember Joann Ariola: I think that a lot of people, and we saw this in the last election. We saw a phenomenon, and we call it the Trump phenomenon because people voted for Trump overwhelmingly in areas that were blue normally and they turned red. Now, in New York, certainly his numbers were higher in some areas that were normally blue, but it didn't really affect the down ballot. People are now picking and choosing who they're voting for because they're really paying attention to how they voted.

Are they worried about crime on the streets? Are they worried about subway crime? Are they worried about putting recidivists behind bars? Are they worried about the criminal justice system? Are they concerned with all these things? Are they concerned with congestion pricing, which is making things very difficult for people in the outer boroughs to get into Manhattan in order to go to the doctor, and go to see shows or even to work?

These are the things they're looking at, and they're looking at who's running, and they're saying, does this person extol the kind of values that I do? That's how I believe Kristy Marmorato was able to flip the 13th in the Bronx, because Marjorie Velázquez who did not extol the ideology or the feelings of her constituency was beaten by a Republican, so people are starting to look to see, if I want to stay, I'm going to have to go with candidate X and not worry about the incumbents and not worry about party line, and just vote for the person who's going to do what I believe is needed to keep this city going and for me to be able to stay here, work here, and feel safe here.

Janae Pierre: That's Councilmember Joann Ariola, talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson.

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One thing about New Yorkers, they know how to make good use of their tiny backyards, from planting vegetable gardens, installing swimming pools, raising chickens, and even building tree houses, but none of that comes close to building a hockey rink in a 12-by-18-foot patch of Queens. WNYC's David Brand hit the ice with one dedicated defenseman.

David Brand: I never thought I'd go to Ridgewood, Queens to play ice hockey. That is until I met Gino Santaguida.

Gino Santaguida: "What's up?"

David Brand: "How you doing?"

Gino Santaguida: "Nice to meet you."

David Brand: "Thanks for-"

Gino Santaguida: "Welcome."

David Brand: "-having me over here."

David Brand: Santaguida is 34, plays on a semi-pro hockey team. He says he needed a place to work on his slapshot and hone his stickhandling.

Gino Santaguida: "I was like, 'How cool would it be if I could use my backyard as a practice area?'"

David Brand: He thought about covering it with a synthetic material. Too expensive.

Gino Santaguida: It was going to be over $1,000 to do my backyard.

David Brand: He decided to get creative. He bought lumber, framed out a rink, and taped goal lines to a tarp. Then he filled it with a hose, and let the water freeze.

Gino Santaguida: "I look next door, and there's a guy with a pool, and I'm like, 'You know what? It's the same thing, just different. Just frozen.'"

David Brand: And cheaper.

Gino Santaguida: In total, I spent about 180 bucks.

David Brand: He even got a free net from Facebook. He says he unwinds after work by lacing up his skates and taking shots.

Gino Santaguida: "Basically, I'm out there so much that I developed tendinitis in my elbow because I've just been shooting so much."

David Brand: He invited me to join him. We stepped onto a patch of ice beneath his building's fire escape.

Gino Santaguida: "I feel like this rink is my tribute to my love for hockey."

David Brand: We spent the morning shooting wristers.

Gino Santaguida: "All right. Gonna have to go get that part. There you go. Man, you want to come over more often? I could have a passing partner."

David Brand: Now I just need skates.

Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's David Brand.

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Thanks for listening to NYC NOW from WNYC, I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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