Ex-Governor of New York Will Not Face Perjury Charge

Former Gov. David A. Paterson of New York will not be charged with perjury in connection with accusations that he lied to the State Commission on Public Integrity about taking free World Series tickets from the New York Yankees while he was in office.

The Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, who had been investigating the episode, informed Mr. Paterson’s lawyer on Wednesday that his office had decided not to pursue criminal charges.

An inquiry last year by the commission found that Mr. Paterson had violated state ethics law by soliciting and accepting free tickets to the first game of the 2009 World Series from the Yankees, who have a wide range of matters before the state.

The commission and an independent counsel, Judith S. Kaye, the former chief judge of the State Court of Appeals, found that Mr. Paterson had misled ethics officials when he suggested in sworn testimony that he had intended all along to pay for the tickets, which were worth $425 apiece.

In a letter, Mr. Soares did not challenge the findings by the earlier inquiries, but said their conclusions were based only on the standard that there was a “reasonably likely” chance that Mr. Paterson intentionally lied in his testimony.

“By contrast, a criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard for which contemplates a far more exacting analysis than that required of either the P.I.C. or the independent counsel,” Mr. Soares wrote. “We have determined that such a standard cannot be met in this case.”

Mr. Soares’s letter, which was reported by The Daily News on Saturday, was released by Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for Mr. Soares.

The decision effectively puts an end to the most significant outstanding legal problem from the tumultuous administration of Mr. Paterson, a Democrat who assumed office upon the resignation of Eliot Spitzer and decided not to seek election last year to a full term.

In February, Mr. Paterson paid a $62,125 fine to the commission for accepting the tickets, a penalty imposed in the last month of his administration.

Last year, the commission asked Mr. Soares and the state attorney general’s office to consider whether Mr. Paterson had committed perjury.

The attorney general at the time, Andrew M. Cuomo, who succeeded Mr. Paterson as governor, turned the matter over to Ms. Kaye. She found in August that Mr. Paterson had been “inaccurate and misleading” when he testified under oath about the tickets, but she left it to Mr. Soares to determine whether Mr. Paterson should face criminal charges.

Mr. Paterson, for his part, has kept a low profile since leaving office.

He has started lecturing at New York University, where he will teach courses in government this fall, and he was a guest host for the New York sports talk radio station WFAN-AM in March.

Last weekend, he delivered the commencement address at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks.

In his speech, Mr. Paterson told the graduates not to “be deterred by setbacks.”

Cops rescue Williamsburg Bridge jumper

Emergency service workers scaled the Williamsburg Bridge and dramatically rescued a despondent man who wanted to take a death dive at 2:20 p.m., police said.

"Tell my mother I love her," the desperate 39-year-old said from his narrow perch. Harnessed officers gently attempted to coax the man off of the beam, a frightening 80 feet above Berry Street, but wound up cuffing him and carrying him back to safety when his plunge seemed imminent, police said.

"Get back, get back, get back," the jilted jumper repeatedly warned.

Dramatic photos capture the incredible rescue – and the Manhattan man planting his feet on thin beam on the Brooklyn side of the span, reclining with his arms outstretched and clinging by just his fingertips to a chicken wire fence.

Long way down: Cops use caution when approaching a man threatening to jump from the Williamsburg Bridge.

"We were attempting to talk to him to put his arm to the fence," said rescuer Detective Joseph Fermaint, of Staten Island’s Emergency Services Unit. "It looked like he was about to jump."

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Once the crazed man, dressed casually in a black T-shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, sat down on the ledge, Fermaint and Brooklyn ESU Detective Matthew Sproul moved in, they said.

A heart-stopping moment as the man slips while being rescued.

They had tried to talk him out of suicide for three hours, they said.

Child care issues drove the man to the suicide attempt, cops said.

The sullen man had climbed over the pedestrian walkway earlier in the day and cut a hole in a chicken wire fence to step onto the unprotected beam, cops said.

Worried callers began phoning 911 at 11:17 a.m., sources said.

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Safe! Cops escort the disturbed man off the bridge.

Saudi woman detained for defying driving ban

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Authorities detained a Saudi woman on Saturday after she launched a campaign against the driving ban for women in the ultraconservative kingdom and posted a video of herself behind the wheel on Facebook and YouTube to encourage others to copy her.

Manal al-Sherif and a group of other women started a Facebook page called "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself," which urges authorities to lift the driving ban. She went on a test drive in the eastern city of Khobar and later posted a video of the experience.

"This is a volunteer campaign to help the girls of this country" learn to drive, al-Sherif says in the video. "At least for times of emergency, God forbid. What if whoever is driving them gets a heart attack?"

Human rights activist Walid Abou el-Kheir said al-Sherif was detained by the country's religious police, who are charged with ensuring the kingdom's rigid interpretation of Islamic teachings are observed.

Al-Sherif was released hours later, according to the campaign's Twitter account. The terms of her release were not immediately clear.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

Women are also barred from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit on the kingdom's Cabinet. Women also cannot travel without permission from a male guardian and shouldn't mingle with males who are not their husbands or brothers.

The campaigners have focused on the importance of women driving in times of emergencies and in the case of low-income families. Al-Sherif said unlike the traditional argument in Saudi Arabia that driving exposes women to sinful temptations by allowing them to mingle with policemen and mechanics, women who drive can avoid sexual harassment from their drivers and protect their "dignity."

Through Facebook, the campaigners are calling for a mass drive on June 17 and more than 12,000 people viewing the page have indicated they support the call. To encourage women to get behind the wheel, al-Sherif went for a drive on Friday as another activist filmed her.

Dressed in a headscarf and the all-encompassing black abaya all women must wear in public, al-Sharif said not all Saudi women are "queens" who can afford to hire a driver. She extolled the virtues of driving for women, saying it can save lives, and time, as well as a woman's dignity. Al-Sharif said she learned how to drive at the age of 30 in New Hampshire.

"We are humiliated sometimes because we can't find a taxi to take us to work," she said.

On their Facebook page, the group says women joining the campaign should not challenge authorities if they were stopped and questioned, and should abide by the country's strict dress code.

"We want to live as complete citizens, without the humiliation that we are subjected to every day because we are tied to a driver," the Facebook message reads. "We are not here to break the law or demonstrate or challenge the authorities, we are here to claim one of our simplest rights."