NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have accused a top aide to former New York City Mayor Eric Adams of accepting diamond earrings from two real estate developers, then pressuring city regulators to expedite their construction projects, despite safety concerns.
In court papers filed Tuesday, prosecutors in Manhattan offered new details about one of several bribery schemes they say was carried out by Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a close confidant of Adams who once served as the second-most powerful person in city government.
She resigned in late 2024 shortly before she and her son were charged with raking in over $100,000 in bribes from the two developers, Raizada Vaid and Mayank Dwivedi. All four have pleaded not guilty.
Lewis-Martin was then hit with a separate set of bribery charges in August, alleging she traded political favors — including nixing a planned bike lane and steering shelter contracts toward a favored developer — for cash, home renovations and even a speaking role on the TV show “Godfather of Harlem.” She has also pleaded not guilty to those allegations.
An attorney for Lewis-Martin has maintained that she was only helping her constituents cut through red tape.
The latest filing expands on the initial charges brought against Lewis-Martin and her son, Glenn D. Martin II, who performs under the stage name DJ Suave Luciano.
Shortly after meeting with Vaid and Dwivedi in 2022, Lewis-Martin received a set of 2-carat diamond earrings worth around $3,000 from the developers, according to the new court filing.
Lewis-Martin then pressured city regulators to speed up approvals for the developers’ projects, prosecutors allege. In one case, she urged the acting commissioner of the Department of Buildings to approve the proposed renovation of a Manhattan hotel owned by Vaid, despite “legitimate safety concerns” raised by building inspectors, prosecutors said.
After city regulators agreed to expedite the application, Lewis-Martin texted her son indicating that Vaid would have him “completely covered. You(r) fashion line is 100 percent,” according to the court filing. Vaid also promised to help Martin II open a Chick-fil-A franchise, prosecutors said.
In an email, an attorney for Lewis-Martin, Arthur Aidala, criticized the length of the filing, without addressing its substance.
“We look forward to submitting our robust reply to the prosecutor’s desperate 170 page answer to our motion to dismiss,” Aidala said. “It is the longest answer to a motion we have ever seen and that speaks volumes about their insecurity in their case.”
Inquiries to attorneys for Martin II, Vaid and Dwivedi were not returned.
The case against Lewis-Martin, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, first emerged amid a period of overlapping scandals for the Adams’ administration. It is unrelated to Adams’ own indictment on federal corruption charges, which was dismissed last year by the Justice Department. Adams is not accused of any wrongdoing in Lewis-Martin's case.
A spokesperson for Adams did not respond to an inquiry about the latest allegations against Lewis-Martin.
FILE - Former NYC Mayor Eric Adam's Chief of Staff Ingrid Lewis-Martin appears for arraignment on corruption charges in Manhattan criminal court, Aug. 21, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A high school student carrying two pistols shot to death a fellow student before killing himself Tuesday in an attack in a southern Philippine high school campus that he livestreamed using a body-worn camera, police and other officials said. It was the second fatal school shooting in the country in just two months.
Hundreds of students were evacuated after shots rang out in the high school building of the Ateneo de Zamboanga university campus in the southern port city of Zamboanga. Two other people were injured, police and city officials said.
The suspect, identified by police as grade 9 student Mohammad Mael Jalani, fired at a teacher sitting in front of a class but apparently missed. He then shot a student on the fourth floor of the building before going up one floor and killing himself, police said in an initial report.
“He entered and started indiscriminately firing, hitting a Grade 10 student at the fourth floor then subsequently went to the fifth floor and jumped from the said building and committed suicide,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla told reporters.
“He showed this on Facebook Live starting when he was climbing up the stairs but there were only snippets,” Remulla said. “We'll look into his gaming history and his chat history so we cannot come up with a complete answer why this happened until we do a complete forensic analysis.”
Zamboanga city Mayor Khymer Adan Olaso and the police said the suspect shot himself.
The high school building, where the gun attack happened, is in a secured campus, separate from a larger campus of the privately owned Catholic university, where its colleges and professional schools are located in Zamboanga.
A few hours after the shooting, police said the situation was under control. They asked parents and guardians of students to remain calm and follow the high school's advice and arrangements to pick up their children.
“Authorities are currently establishing the circumstances surrounding the incident,” national police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said. The police “will provide verified information as appropriate and appeals to the public to refrain from sharing unconfirmed reports, photos, or videos that may cause unnecessary concern.”
The national police “assure the public that the safety and well-being of the school community remain a priority. We thank the school administration, parents, guardians, and the community for their patience, cooperation and understanding as authorities continue to manage the situation,” Nartatez said.
The shooting happened despite police assurances that security in schools across the country would be strengthened after a shooting in June in which three high school students were killed and at least 20 others were wounded in central Tacloban city. Police arrested two students, ages 14 and 15, and accused them of carrying out that shooting.
Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly due to the proliferation of unlicensed firearms, but school shootings are relatively rare.
Days after the school shooting in Tacloban, Philippine authorities said they temporarily blocked an online gaming app to assess whether it played a role in fostering such violence. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said its decision to indefinitely block Gorebox was prompted by an ongoing police investigation which showed that one suspect was an avid user of the app.
The shooting in the Philippines also occurred less than two weeks after a school shooting in Thailand.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul took steps to restrict guns in the Southeast Asian country after a 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents, five school staff members and a 12-year-old girl in Nonthaburi province outside Bangkok.
Thailand’s high rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia, and far surpasses its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Associated Press journalist Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.
Police and security guards secure a junior high school building on the Ateneo de Zamboanga University campus following a shooting incident in Zamboanga, southern Philippines Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
A guard secures an area at the junior high school building on the Ateneo de Zamboanga University campus following a shooting incident in Zamboanga, southern Philippines Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
Vehicles exit the Ateneo de Zamboanga University following a shooting incident in Zamboanga, southern Philippines Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo) CORRECTION: Corrects date and day
Security guards keep watch as vehicles exit the Ateneo de Zamboanga University following a shooting incident in Zamboanga, southern Philippines Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo)
