Manhattan
An ex-con allegedly raped a former girlfriend in a subway station near City Hall, police sources said yesterday.
Eric Coke, 39, was arrested on rape charges Tuesday when he arrived at Manhattan Criminal Court for an unrelated, unspecified open case, the sources said.
He allegedly attacked his ex as she slept at the Fulton Street station at about 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 13. It was unclear whether she was homeless or had passed out.
State records show that Coke — who’s accused of pulling the woman’s hair, punching her in the face, ripping off her pants and raping her — did two stints in prison for robbery and attempted criminal possession of a forged instrument.
An Upper East Side man beat his girlfriend up so badly that she required hospital treatment, police sources said yesterday.
James Greene, 53, allegedly hit the unidentified 35-year-old Edgewater, NJ, woman upside the head at 5:10 a.m. Tuesday, then threw her to the floor of his East 75th Street apartment near Second Avenue, jumped on her, and punched her in the face, cops said.
During the brutal assault, her head hit a wall and an earring was ripped from her ear, sources said.
Officers answering a call arrested Greene on assault charges.
The victim was taken to New York Hospital.
Brooklyn
A 20-year-old East New York man was fatally stabbed in the back at 3:30 a.m. yesterday around the corner from where he lived, cops said.
Kendall Witherspoon was knifed by an unidentified assailant after an argument on Georgia Avenue, cops said. Witherspoon’s home was on nearby Blake Avenue.
He staggered into his building before collapsing near his fifth-floor apartment.
His brother found him and called an ambulance, but Witherspoon was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital.
Bronx
A 32-year-old man was stabbed to death during a Christmas-morning bash in Parkchester, cops said.
George Talavera was at a house party on McGraw Avenue near Pugsley Avenue at 2 a.m. when he clashed with a man for unknown reasons, sources said.
Talavera, stabbed in the neck and chest, was pronounced dead at the scene.
His killer was still at large last night.
A friend found Cynthia Sauser’s body face down in her third-floor Claremont apartment on Fulton Avenue near East 170th Street at 11 a.m. Wednesday, police said yesterday.
Police sources said there were signs that Sauser, 39, put up a struggle before she was fatally struck in the head.
It was unclear whether anything was taken from her home, they added.
Queens
An unlicensed cabby was captured this month after escaping police during a high-speed chase through Kennedy Airport more than a year ago.
Yaw Sarfo, 32, was illegally soliciting passengers in the arrival area outside Terminal 6 on March 8, 2008, when he offered one a ride to Manhattan for $55, sources said.
As the person was getting in the van, a Port Authority cop spotted Sarfo and asked for his taxi license, sources said.
Sarfo kicked the would-be passenger out, stepped on the gas and sped away — blowing through two red lights and shaking his pursuers, the sources said.
When cops tracked him down him on Dec. 9, he said he initially fled because he was “scared to go to jail,” according to court papers.
He was charged with reckless endangerment.
A Brooklyn man is accused of trying to cash a phony check at an Elmhurst bank, authorities said yesterday.
Ivy Abdul-Mumin, 22, allegedly sought to cash a $521 check in a Chase Bank branch in Elmhurst on Dec. 16.
The check was made out to the Little Shop of Shamrocks in Inwood, LI, but a bank official determined it to be fraudulent.
When questioned, Abdul-Mumin allegedly replied, “I work for them. I got it in the mail.”
Also charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument, he was held on $2,500 cash bail, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
A man was arrested after buying a flat-screen TV with a bogus credit card at a College Point store, authorities said yesterday.
Walter Malone, 43, allegedly used an American Express card bearing a fake name to pay for the $1,377 set at BJ’s Wholesale on 20th Avenue near 132nd Street at 8 p.m. on Dec. 16.
The store manager became suspicious and called the credit-card company, which declared the card a forgery, sources said.
Cops used surveillance video to track down Malone, who was arrested two days later on charges of grand larceny and possession of a forged instrument.