FOR THE RECORD

Who said celebrities can't avoid the paparazzi?

The Correction Department is looking to discipline an officer who helped rapper Busta Rhymes evade photographers outside Manhattan Criminal Court after he posted bail following his arraignment on assault charges on Jan. 4.

According to witnesses, Mr. Rhymes - whose real name is Trevor Smith - was taken through a back door in the courthouse and then driven away in a Correction Department bus designated for prisoners.

"It's totally inappropriate," asserted DOC spokesman Stephen J. Morello. "There will be some disciplinary action."

According to Mr. Morello, the Correction Officer involved was apparently following orders from a Police Sergeant at the courthouse. "Correction Officers work with Police Department personnel in that building every day, and it may have been that they were doing a favor for a colleague," Mr. Morello remarked.

Mr. Rhymes was released after he posted the $3,500 bail. He was arraigned on two third-degree assault charges, which allege that he beat his former driver during a money dispute on Dec. 26 in his lower Manhattan office. The hip-hop star has maintained he's innocent and pleaded not guilty.

The events are the latest legal run-in for Mr. Rhymes, who Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has told reporters has continually refused to answer investigators' questions concerning the shooting death last February of his bodyguard, Israel Ramirez.

The unidentified NYPD Sergeant's violation of policy could leave her especially vulnerable to discipline given Mr. Kelly's unhappiness with Mr. Rhymes's stonewalling. Mr. Morello said the Correction Department will "find a way to re-emphasize" its policy concerning treating all prisoners equally. "We have a very basic policy; it doesn't talk about whether you let rap stars on a bus - it talks about equal treatment," he asserted.

One veteran correction official noted that Mr. Rhymes wasn't the only celebrity in recent years to receive star treatment from Correction Department personnel, mainly Correction Officers' Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook.

In December 1999, the union president allegedly drove P. Diddy to Rikers Island to visit fellow rapper Shyne, who was later sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement in a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub. Mr. Diddy, who was in the club at the time with his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, was acquitted of similar charges.

More recently, Mr. Seabrook drove home former Republican State Senator Guy J. Velella after he was released from Rikers Island on Sept. 28, 2004 by the little-known mayoral Conditional Release Commission. The disgraced legislator was initially set free after serving less than 12 weeks.

Mr. Velella, who was later ordered back to jail after a shakeup at the commission, pleaded guilty to 25 counts of bribery for accepting at least $137,000 in exchange for steering public contracts to paying business associates.

"We're not supposed to associate with prisoners," a veteran correction official said.

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Following a New York Post story citing City Council data about crime problems in some parks, the head of the union representing parks enforcement officers said a shortage of staff was a contributing factor.

Mark Rosenthal, president of Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983 of District Council 37, said the current complement of 170 Parks Enforcement Patrol staff is less than half the 400 performing that duty 20 years ago.

City officials added 70 staffers in recent years, but Mr. Rosenthal said, "That was only a band-aid because the money has never been permanently put in the budget. The money should be in there and they should hire more officers." The Council report, relying on figures from the NYPD covering April 1 to Sept. 30, 2006, found that Riverside Park in Manhattan had been the scene of 36 major crimes. That was one more than occurred in Flushing Meadows/Corona Park during the period, which predated the string of violent robberies in that park - including one murder - that led to the recent arrest of several youths.