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By Daniel Solomon
Brooklyn Daily
A Brooklyn man who police say murdered his mother — then confessed his alleged crime to a 911 operator — is facing life in prison now that he’s being brought up on homicide charges.
Officials claim that Richard Cohen, 31, stabbed his 64-year-old mother, Anne, in the abdomen 41 times following an argument in his apartment in Midwood on Saturday evening. He then called 911 and confessed to his crime.
The elder Cohen was transported to Community Hospital, where she died of her injuries. An autopsy later revealed that she died of “multiple stab wounds to the torso and an incised wound of neck with internal injuries.”
Cops arrested the younger Cohen on charges of second-degree murder and he was remanded to jail after he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Richard had a history of mental illness, and was known to feud with Anne over money after she sold her home for $800,000 and won a medical malpractice lawsuit, according to the Daily News. Police sources said that Anne Cohen was flush while her son scraped by, never holding a job and struggling to pay basic expenses.
His anger allegedly took a destructive form in the past, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly explained.
“There was a record of domestic incidents, domestic violence in that household between the son and the mother,” Kelly said.
Anne’s neighbor, Betsy Fares, told the Wall Street Journal that police had been called to Anne’s home before and Richard had once menaced his mother with a knife.
Attempts to reach Cohen’s lawyer were unsuccessful by Monday night.
Caught red-handed
Airplane passengers may have gotten used to intrusive Transportation Security Administration pat downs and body scanners, but one person got more than he bargained for when he was groped by a fellow airline passenger as their plane headed into Kennedy Airport, according to court documents released in Brooklyn federal court.
Othniel Polanco, 29, was arrested by Port Authority police and charged with sexual assault last week and released on $100,000 bail. He was ordered to undergo a mental examination — which his lawyer suggested — and will be confined to his parents’ home, pending a trial, his arraignment judge declared.
A fellow passenger on the July 9 flight caught Polanco reaching up his 18-year-old victim’s shorts and touching the man’s genitals as he slept.
When the victim woke up and realized what was going on, he punched Polanco in the face, setting off a commotion that caused their Jet Blue flight to land.
— Daniel Solomon