September 22, 1995

After a veritable masquerade party involving 38 city undercover officers, the Hoboken Police Chief, Carmen LaBruno, said yesterday that sting operations over two months had brought more than 60 arrests on charges including burglary, drug selling, prostitution and vandalism; 39 summonses for taxi violations and 8 summonses against bars for serving underage drinkers.

In a directive that will mean slower subway service in many places throughout New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board yesterday decided to post speed limits wherever signal lights are too close together, to prevent accidents like the one on the Williamsburg Bridge in June. About one-third of the system has the antiquated signals that are considered candidates for speed limits, though officials said not all of them will require one. Just how many will is still under study.

Judge Lance A. Ito today handed O. J. Simpson a major setback and jurors some maneuvering room, ruling that even if they found that Mr. Simpson killed two people impulsively rather than with deliberation, he could still be convicted of murder. Over impassioned objections from the defense, Judge Ito essentially accepted prosecutors' arguments that jurors should not be boxed into an all-or-nothing situation in which, unless they concluded that Mr. Simpson had planned and premeditated the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman, they would be bound to set him free.

Creating what may be a horse race for its top job, the Bankers Trust New York Corporation yesterday named Frank N. Newman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary, to its No. 3 position. Filling a new position as the bank's senior vice chairman, Mr. Newman would be a leading candidate to fill the chairman's spot, which Charles S. Sanford Jr. plans to vacate by mid-1996. Analysts said yesterday that it was curious that Bankers Trust would announce the hiring of Mr. Newman, who is 53, without naming a choice for the top job.

NEW YORK CITY 47 ARE CHARGED WITH INSURANCE FRAUD In what a Manhattan grand jury indictment called "a pervasive pattern of criminal conduct," 47 people were charged in a widespread scheme in which insurance company adjusters were said to have been bribed to expedite personal injury settlements involving unsuspecting clients and more than a dozen insurance companies. [ Page B3. ] SHADOW OVER THE SPY SHOP BUSINESS Federal authorities in Manhattan charged three men with buying illegal eavesdropping equipment, in what they said was the beginning of a crackdown on customers of the multimillion-dollar spy shop industry. The charges are part of a Federal crackdown on the growing spy industry, which, investigators say, is increasingly selling eavesdropping devices illegally to businessmen, lawyers and private investigators. [ B3. ] TURNING A FIELD INTO A HOUSE OF PRAYER Arthur Sikula walked slowly across the dusty ball fields of Central Park's Great Lawn, imagining a cathedral where others saw only trees and blue skies. As the man who will design the outdoor site where the Pope will say Mass, Mr. Sikula has the job of turning a place for ballplayers into a house of prayer. [ B3. ] SCHOOL CANDIDATES WOO BOTH SIDES All three candidates to become the next New York City Schools Chancellor have assured Mayor Giuliani they favor giving him a greater role in the schools' finances and security while also assuring the Board of Education they would be loath to give the Mayor new powers without the board's consent. [ B4. ] Private support has been mixed for replacing some of New York City's large, overcrowded schools with small alternatives. [ B4. ] Now that the city has three finalists for school chancellor, the Board of Education president and the Mayor began their endgame in earnest over the selection. [ B4. ] SCHOOL OFFICER HELD IN ABUSE OF STUDENT A New York City school safety officer was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a 14-year-old special education student in the bathroom of the school safety office at Intermediate School 190 in Forest Hills, Queens. [ B4. ] BANK MERGER WILL COST SEVEN BRANCHES Low- and middle-income neighborhoods in New York City will lose seven bank branches because of the pending merger of Chemical and Chase Manhattan banks, a Chemical official announced. The two banks now have 95 branches in these neighborhoods, but that number will be reduced to 88 when the 7 branches -- none more than two blocks from another -- are consolidated. [ B4. ] Game 7 of the world chess championship ended in a draw, the seventh in a row. [ B5. ] REGION ON VISION AND LACK OF IT The folks at the Helen Keller Services for the Blind Nassau County Senior Center in Hempstead, L.I., are often on the go. One day it's Atlantic City. Another, Broadway. On Tuesday, the center was making plans for a group to be on America's Talking, a cable network. But the network said no when an audience coordinator found out group members are blind. Our Towns by Evelyn Nieves. [ B5. ] GIRL IS HELD IN DEATH OF TEEN-AGER A 13-year-old girl was fatally stabbed in front of a school in Rochester after she got into a quarrel with another student, authorities said. A 12-year-old girl was taken into custody. [ B5. ]