{"id":355073,"date":"2026-09-23T22:36:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T22:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355073\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T22:36:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T22:36:50","slug":"accused-leader-of-washington-square-park-drug-ring-found-guilty-in-od-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/355073\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused leader of Washington Square Park drug ring found guilty in OD deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

An accused leader of a Washington Square Park drug ring<\/a> was found guilty at trial of dealing narcotics that led to three overdoses \u2014 two of which proved fatal \u2014 officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A Manhattan Federal Court jury returned a unanimous verdict finding John Livigni, 48, guilty of two counts of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in bodily injury, according to federal prosecutors. The charges carry a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Livigni tried to turn Washington Square Park into an open-air drug market, brazenly peddling fentanyl, heroin and crack cocaine that led to multiple fatal overdoses,\u201d NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. \u201cLivigni\u2019s conviction sends a clear message that there will be zero tolerance for anyone who floods our communities with drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney for Livigni thanked the jury for acquitting his client on a federal weapons charge, adding, \u201cWe will be pursuing an appeal and continue to advocate vigorously on Mr. Livigni\u2019s behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Livigni was a ranking member of a criminal network that distributed millions of doses of opioids that included fentanyl, fentanyl analogs and heroin, in addition to crack cocaine in Washington Square Park and the surrounding area, federal drug enforcement officials said.<\/p>\n

Among those whose lives were destroyed by the narcotics sold by his organization was Bailey Shaw, an 18-year-old high school grad who had migrated to the city from Aspen, Colo., and was set to start a prestigious theater internship, federal officials said. Shaw was found dead in the bedroom of a Manhattan apartment one day after purchasing a purple bag of dope supplied by one of Livigni\u2019s dealers, officials said.<\/p>\n

Another victim was Bethany Hine, 43, who was homeless and routinely purchased drugs of Livigni, officials said. Hine was found unconscious, blocking the entrance to a building on Greenwich Ave. near the park, with bags containing crack and dope beside her. Hine was taken to a hospital where she died of an acute overdose caused by fentanyl, according to officials.<\/p>\n

With Molly Crane-Newman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An accused leader of a Washington Square Park drug ring was found guilty at trial of dealing narcotics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[33374,23552,71143,132320,6277,2519,6275,132321,75,277,84,83,9,24,63,44274,132322,15081],"class_list":["post-355073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-crack-cocaine","tag-drug-overdoses","tag-drug-ring","tag-fatal-od","tag-fentanyl","tag-greenwich-village","tag-heroin","tag-john-livigni","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opiates","tag-u-s-attorney-for-the-southern-district-of-new-york","tag-washington-square-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}