Crime Blotter

An unnamed Long Island man got a bit more to remember his 21st birthday by than just a nasty hangover.

He decided to celebrate the occasion in proper fashion: by getting royally stewed. When he stumbled out of the Fin Bar in Atlantic Beach about 3:30 a.m. two Sundays ago, the birthday boy saw that one of his friends had found himself on the short end of a vicious beating. When he clumsily tried to intervene, however, he was bashed in the head with a beer bottle. Then 31-year-old Victor Nerys bit his ear clean off. Nerys was arrested and charged. The ear was later discovered outside the bar.

In a strange web of coincidence, the third high-profile restaurateur to be attacked in the last few weeks was shot in the belly Monday morning.

A gunman busted his way into the Balmville mansion of 64-year-old pizza magnate Cosimo DiBrizzi, shooting both the restaurateur and his son in the stomach before fleeing on a bicycle. Regular customers of DiBrizzi's restaurant who seem to know more than they should told investigators that they suspected "a disgruntled employee or a vengeful customer."

At last report, both men were in critical condition.

A second home invasion the following day left another man all messed up. Bronx resident Lynton Clarke, 55, returned home from work at 3 a.m. Tuesday, when three men forced their way inside his apartment. They tied him up, shot him in the shoulder and the elbow, then poured an unspecified "hot liquid" on him. Apparently his assailants were convinced he had a secret (and mythical) "safe full of cash."

When he could tell them nothing, they ransacked his apartment, then fled empty-handed after dumping a bleeding Clarke on the sidewalk. He'll be okay, though.

Still a third home invasion took place the next morning, and in much the same manner. Again, three men-one disguised as a FedEx deliveryman-forced their way into the Brooklyn home of 36-year-old Hassan Murphy. Again, they were looking for a secret cash pile (Murphy runs a discount store). This time, however, upon failing to uncover the suspected loot, they shot Murphy several times, killing him.

One suspect was later arrested after showing up at the hospital with a gunshot wound. Police were still searching for the other two.

Finally, in this week's episode of New York's Cruelest Practical Jokes, 29-year-old Leon Grimaldi called Bernadette Mamakas of Brooklyn and asked her to meet him at a bar.

That's not so outrageously nasty in itself. But Mamakas has been searching desperately for her 22-year-old bipolar son, who disappeared in early April. Family and friends have posted thousands of flyers around the city-flyers that included Mamakas' home phone number. Grimaldi called and claimed he had kidnapped Mamakas' son-and that if she met him at Nell's on W. 14th and had sex with him, he'd release the boy safely.

Grimaldi has been charged with aggravated harassment. The boy is still missing.