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ROBBERS KILL N.J. SHOPPER; TENAFLY MAN INTERVENED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, October 5, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

A 24-year-old Tenafly man who walked in on an armed robbery at a New York City clothing store and intervened was shot and killed by one of the robbers, police said Friday.
Benjamin Peisch of 91 Oak St. died at the scene on Thursday, 34th Precinct Detective Matthew Fallon said.
“He had an altercation with one of the people committing the robbery. They hit him a couple of times, then shot him,” Fallon said.
Peisch was shot once in the chest as he struggled with one of three men during the robbery, which occurred about 6:25 p.m. in the basement of Daisy Bariete Store, a unisex clothing store at 568 W. 171 St., Fallon said.
Peisch was an innocent bystander who “seemed to have walked into an apparent robbery in the store” and decided to get involved, Fallon said, adding that police were looking on Friday for witnesses.
No one else was injured, and the men escaped with an amount of money police would not disclose.
Peisch is believed to have been a 1986 graduate of Tenafly High School.
Sgt. Norris Hollmon, a police spokesman, said police used identification in Peisch’s wallet to trace him to Tenafly late Thursday. Tenafly Police Chief Allen Layne said he was called by New York police about the death at 10:19 p.m., and that his officers notified the family. Hollmon said the family identified Peisch’s body later that night.
A man reached at the family residence on Friday declined to comment.

Keywords: TENAFLY; ROBBERY; NEW YORK CITY; SHOOTING; MURDER; CLOTHING; STORE

October 5, 1991

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SUSPECTED KIDNAPPER IS SHOT; WAVED DYNAMITE AT MARSHALS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A 50-year-old man wanted for masterminding the kidnapping of a Union County businessman for ransom two years ago was shot and wounded by one of two U.S. marshals in North Bergen as he waved a stick of dynamite at them, authorities said.
Julio Sosa Rodriguez of Jersey City was holding a lighter to the dynamite, threatening to ignite it, and refusing the agents commands to drop it, said Arthur Borinsky, U.S. marshal for New Jersey.
The shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of 14th Street and Paterson Plank Road, said township police Lt. Timothy Kelly.
The marshals learned that Sosa was going to be in the area and, accompanied by local authorities, approached a van where they suspected he was hiding, said Bill Licatovich, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington.
When they told Sosa to come out, he emerged holding the dynamite, authorities said.
Sosa, who was shot in the upper torso, was in custody at the Jersey City Medical Center on Wednesday. A hospital spokesman said he was in stable condition.
He was wanted on a Sept. 7, 1989, complaint of kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms, said Union County First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Lapolla.
On Sosa’s order, Nydia Gonzalez Melendez and Hese Ayala, also known as Johnnie Ayala, kidnapped George Sanchez of Elizabeth in Union City on Sept. 1, 1989, Lapolla said.
Sanchez had a business in Union City, Lapolla said.
Sosa was in phone contact with the two men as they tried to get Sanchez’s wife to pay a $100,000 ransom.
The call to Sanchez’s wife, made by Gonzalez, was traced to a pay phone in Hoboken, and he was arrested there.
“When [Gonzalez] didn’t return,” Lapolla said, “the victim convinced Ayala that he had taken off with the ransom money, and he persuaded Ayala to take him home, that he would give him money.”
Ayala was arrested when he got to Sanchez’s home.
Both men pleaded guilty and are serving prison terms on kidnapping charges.
Sosa, however, was not seen again until Tuesday.

Keywords: KIDNAPPING; SHOOTING; NORTH BERGEN; POLICE; BOMB

October 3, 1991

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TEANECK ROBBERY SUSPECT HAD BEEN ON PAROLE 3 DAYS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A Jersey City man who robbed a Teaneck savings and loan twice in a two-month period committed the first crime three days after he had been paroled for robbing another bank, authorities said.
Alfred N. Ferguson, 34, was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newark with one count of robbery, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brown said. On Tuesday he jumped over the counter at Oritani Savings and Loan at 560 Cedar Lane and took about $5,000 from tellers drawers, police said.
Ferguson, being held without bail in the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, also is expected to be charged with the Aug. 1 robbery of the savings and loan, in which $10,000 was taken, and with the July 31 attempted robbery of the United Jersey Bank branch at 21 Park Place in Englewood, authorities said.
After his capture following the robbery Tuesday, Ferguson confessed to the two robberies of the savings and loan and to the attempted robbery at the Englewood bank, in which his note demanding money was refused, police said.
That attempt occurred two days after Ferguson was released from the Albert C. Wagner Youth Correctional Institution in Bordentown. He had been paroled after serving three years of an eight-year term for robbing a Jersey City bank in 1988, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Corrections Department said.
Teaneck Police Detective Lt. Warren White said Ferguson walked into Oritani Savings and Loan about 2:25 p.m. Tuesday and vaulted over the bank counter including a transparent, protective barrier that was installed after he allegedly robbed the bank in the same manner two months earlier.
Sweeping past two tellers, both of whom were on hand for the first robbery, Ferguson reached into their cash drawers and took about $5,000 before running out the door, police said.
A customer in the bank ran after Ferguson as he dashed across Cedar Lane. The customer, who got into his car and drove after the suspect, saw him jump into his car and drive away. He gave upthe chase when police pulled behind Ferguson and arrested him a short time later. The customer is expected to testify as a witness.
The FBI, which had been investigating because bank robbery is a federal offense, questioned Ferguson late Tuesday and charged him under federal statutes. Also instrumental in the investigation, said FBI spokesman William Tonkin, were the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department.

Keywords: TEANECK; BANK; ROBBERY

October 3, 1991

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BIKER LEADS COPS ON TWO-COUNTY, THREE-HOUR CHASE

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By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, October 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A 24-year-old man stole a motorcycle in South Nyack, N.Y., on Tuesday, then led police on a chase across Bergen County before being arrested three hours later in Paterson, authorities said.
Christopher Rea, who faces numerous charges in Passaic County and New York, was being held in the Passaic County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail on the New Jersey charges and on a detainer on the New York charges.
Bergen County Police Sgt. Paul Hamel said Rea was a blur through Bergen County as he darted on and off highways onto local roads on the powerful 1991 motorcycle. Although officers from several departments allegedly saw Rea, none came close enough to catch him.
Among the highways he was spotted on in Bergen were the Palisades Interstate Parkway, Route 4, Route 17, and Route 46, police said.
He was captured just past 2 p.m. after he rode onto Union Avenue in Totowa and was spotted by a Passaic County sheriff’s officer who had just heard a broadcast of the suspect’s description.
Sgt. Dennis Schlosser chased Rea, who fled at high speed, according to Sgt. Kathy Kryszko, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman.
Kryszko did not elaborate on the speeds reached during the chase. But she said Rea drove quickly through red lights and stop signs as he led Schlosser on a three-mile slalom down Union Avenue, onto Preakness Avenue in Paterson, over to Front Street, and finally to Spruce Street by the Great Falls.
There, Kryszko said, Rea abandoned the motorcycle and plunged into the Passaic River. Schlosser had alerted other authorities, however, and officers from the Sheriff’s Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office persuaded Rea to swim to the riverbank and surrender.
No one was injured in the chase, Kryszko said. She said Rea gave addresses in North Bergen and Weehawken, but said his home base was in Daytona Beach, Fla.
South Nyack Police Chief Alan Colsey said when Rea returns to his town, the charges will include burglary, criminal mischief, grand larceny, resisting arrest, criminal possession of stolen property, and about 10 motor vehicle violations.
He was charged in Totowa with one criminal count of reckless eluding. He faces a similar charge in Paterson, as well as charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools the screwdriver used to steal the motorbike and resisting arrest by fleeing.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; VIOLATION; NEW YORK STATE; BC; PC; POLICE

Caption: PHOTO – KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / THE RECORD – Officer Bryan Dalton radioing information on a stolen motorcycle that police chased from New York to Paterson.

October 2, 1991

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BANK HEIST A REPEAT PERFORMANCE; THIS TIME, CRIME DOESN’T PAY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B01

Two months to the day after he jumped over a bank counter in Teaneck and stole about $10,000, police say, Alfred N. Ferguson returned Tuesday afternoon and repeated the routine, getting about $5,000.
This time, however, Ferguson was captured when employees at the Oritani Savings & Loan Association at 560 Cedar Lane telephoned police. A patrol car pulled over the suspect’s car about a mile away.
Ferguson, 34, of Jersey City, gave police a lengthy statement admitting both robberies, said Lt. Warren White, head of the Teaneck Detective Bureau. The FBI questioned the suspect, who will be charged under federal statutes.
Police said Ferguson entered the bank at about 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, startling the two tellers and one customer as he vaulted over the counter. Those same two tellers had been working behind the counter on Aug. 1, when the first robbery occurred.
That day, at about 11:15 a.m., Ferguson wearing a dark baseball cap and sunglasses and displaying a small revolver allegedly jumped over the counter and announced, “Yo, yo, this is a robbery! Stand back so no one gets hurt! ” About $10,000 was stolen.
He did not have a gun Tuesday, said Capt. Gary Fiedler, but he was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, a baseball cap, and a blue bandana, Fiedler said.
Without saying a word, Ferguson allegedly proceeded to take wads of cash from the teller drawers before leaping back over the counter and fleeing.
Detective Sgt. Robert Adomilli and Detective Francis McCall were in an unmarked patrol car around Windsor and Beverly roads when they heard a broadcast of the robbery and a description of the suspect.
The detectives then saw the suspect’s black 1984 Buick leaving a parking spot about a 1 1/2 blocks ahead on Beverly Road, Adomilli said. The driver went west, turning north on River Road.
Adomilli said that as the car moved along at 10 mph, the two lawmen pulled up behind and then alongside it only to hear Ferguson yell: “What, am I speeding? ”
“We answered back, `Yes, you are speeding.”
With weapon drawn, McCall approached the suspect after he pulled his car to a stop. The detective then instructed him to place his hands on the wheel.
“He did everything we asked him to do,” McCall said.
Tuesday’s robbery was the fifth in Bergen County since Aug. 1. On Labor Day weekend, there was a break-in at an Urban National Bank branch in Franklin Lakes. The safe-deposit vault was looted in that instance.

Keywords: TEANECK; BANK; ROBBERY

October 2, 1991

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RESCUE TRAINING AT DEADLY POND TO SAVE LIVES, NOT FIND BODIES

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, September 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Kingsley Pond, with its shimmering brownish-green surface, has been the site of many drownings in past years. Saturday, it was the site of rescue training for the Oakland Fire Department scuba team.
Joe Bogonian, the team’s coordinator-dive master and a member of Oakland’s first dive team, said the emphasis since the group was formed 21 years ago had been on recovering bodies and objects.
“We weren’t so much thinking about rescuing people,” Bogonian said.
But, as Oakland Fire Chief Roy Bauberger said Saturday, new methods of reviving near-drowning victims have since been developed.
On Saturday, the procedures were being taught by Lifeguard Systems, a training group, to Oakland’s 10-member scuba team, plus 10 divers from the Bergen County Police Department and the Pompton Lakes, Lyndhurst, and Wallington fire departments. Butch Hendrick, president of the Hurley, N.Y., group, said it teaches tactical water operations to military, police, fire, and emergency medical service workers.
Oakland has several bodies of water including Potash Lake, where two men drowned last year, and Kingsley Pond, where a 17-year-old drowned four years ago.
Matt Gallup, an Oakland firefighter and a member of the first aid squad, said he was startled at first when he came face to face with a bass on his first dive Saturday. He was supposed to rescue a baby-size mannequin in the training.
“It looks pretty easy, jumping in the water and just swimming,” Gallup said. “But you take a pretty good beating down there.”
A diver may have to go around many objects tree limbs, refrigerators, automobile parts, and other debris to reach the victim.
The problem with most dive teams, Hendrick said, is that they are sport oriented and not prepared to retrieve a body or objects in black or difficult waters.
The weekend’s training the first leg was at the man-made Kingsley Pond three weeks ago concludes there today.

Keywords: RESCUE; FIREMAN; LAKE; OAKLAND; SWIMMING; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM

Caption: 1 – PHOTO – ROBERT S. TOWNSEND / THE RECORD – Above, rescue personnel participating in training exercises from the banks of Kingsley Pond on Saturday. 2 – PHOTO – ROBERT S. TOWNSEND / THE RECORD – Below, Robert Ventura, left, and Tony Galka of the Wallington Fire Department practicing procedures as a dive team one man stands by just offshore to aid the diver.

September 29, 1991

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FATHER CHARGED WITH KILLING INFANT; ACCUSED OF BEATING BOY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, September 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 24-year-old Cliffside Park man has been charged with beating his 11-month-old son to death, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Saturday.
Paul Yarwood Jr. was arrested at 11:59 p.m. Friday after autopsy results showed that his son, Paul Courtney Yarwood, died from a subdural hematoma bleeding in the head that Fahy said was caused by repeated blows.
“The baby had bruises in the forehead, near the eyebrow, buttocks, and thighs, and on the left and right arms,” Fahy said. “We believe the assault happened on a number of occasions between Tuesday night and Thursday afternoon, when he [Yarwood] called 911. ”
Yarwood took the infant from his mother, 20-year-old Allandra McCray of the Bronx, about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“The baby was going to stay with him for a few days,” Fahy said. At 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Yarwood called 911 for an ambulance to take the infant to a hospital, Fahy said.
The boy died two hours and 15 minutes later in the emergency room of Palisades General Hospital in North Bergen, he said.
Yarwood, who could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on the murder count, was being held on $500,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday. Fahy said McCray, a clerk at a New York law firm, was not implicated in her son’s death.
Yarwood moved to his Cliffside Park apartment about a week ago, Fahy said. Before then, he had lived for four years in the Bronx, then for four months in Manhattan.
Yarwood did odd jobs at Funky Base Productions, a recording company at 12 Mevan Drive, Englewood, including serving as a backup singer on recordings, a disc jockey, and, sometimes, a bouncer, Fahy said.
Rob Base, owner of the company, said Yarwood also performs with a rap band that Base formed four years ago. The group performs worldwide, he said.
“I know he didn’t do it not him, man,” Base said. “That’s why I’m still in shock now. I just can’t believe it.”
Base said the group was working to raise bail and hire a lawyer for Yarwood.

Keywords: ASSAULT; CLIFFSIDE PARK; CHILD; BABY

September 29, 1991

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WIFE OF FORMER OFFICIAL IS FOUND DEAD

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, September 26, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03

Josephine Irene Mary Schmid, wife of former Teaneck Township Manager Werner Schmid, has died in an incident police are investigating, officials said.
Josephine Schmid, 60, died Monday of multiple fractures, internal injuries, and hemorrhaging after she tumbled from a bridge on the New Jersey Turnpike’s western spur in Kearny, Pat Raviola, a Hudson County assistant prosecutor, said Wednesday.
Police did not know what happened. State Trooper Nick Cagnole found what appeared to be an abandoned car along the turnpike. He found Schmid’s body on a dirt road under the spur, adjacent to the Conrail tracks, police said.
Schmid was pronounced dead at the scene, and her husband identified her body, Raviola said.
Werner Schmid retired as township manager in July 1988 after 33 years in office. He could not be reached Wednesday.
Frank Hall, a Teaneck councilman and former mayor, expressed regret at the death. Werner Schmid is a private man who shielded his family from his public life, Hall said in declining to comment further.
Acting Township Manager Gary A. Saage called Werner Schmid the most honest public official he knew in the 25 years he worked with him, but declined to comment further.

Keywords: TEANECK; OFFICIAL; MARRIAGE; WOMAN; DEATH; PROBE

September 26, 1991

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GWB TRAFFIC ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, September 22, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A06

New Jersey-bound drivers who braved the George Washington Bridge on Saturday ran into a 20-minute delay in the morning caused by construction work on the lower level, Port Authority officials said.
Although traffic thinned later in the day, motorists still are advised to consider returning to the state via the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, said Port Authority Police Sgt. Dominik Evangelista.
Construction started at 7 p.m. Friday and will last until 3 p.m. Monday, he said.

Keywords: BRIDGE; CLOSING; ROAD; REPAIR; NEW YORK CITY; NEW JERSEY

September 22, 1991

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QUARTET ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES; POLICE SAY ONE SUSPECT ASKED FOR CRACK BACK

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, September 22, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Responding to neighborhood complaints, Hackensack police descended on First and High streets Friday, arresting four people on drug charges.
The four including two 17-year-olds, one of who allegedly insisted that police return 15 small plastic bags of crack seized in the arrest were charged with possession of drugs, possession of drugs with intent to distribute, distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.
The arrests boosted to 19 the number of people Hackensack police arrested on drug charges last week.
Officers Kevin O’Boyle and Chris Toomey saw several men scatter as they arrived at about 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of First and High streets, an area notorious for drug activity, police said. One of the suspects threw the bags of crack underneath a parked van on First Street.
Police said the officers arrested at the scene Jerry Carroll, 29, of 211 Passaic St., Hackensack, and the juvenile who later sought to reclaim the crack. Officer John Carroll, no relation to the suspect, and Sgt. Frank Lomia arrested another 17-year-old and 20-year-old Laron Boyd of 118 Atlantic St., Hackensack, after a chase, police said.
Although police went to the neighborhood because residents had complained that armed men were in the streets, no guns were found at the scene. Police said there was an arrest warrant for Carroll, charging him with violation of parole stemming from a conviction on numerous counts of drug distribution.
The juveniles were released to the custody of relatives. Boyd posted a $1,000 bail bond after spending the night in the Bergen County Jail, and Carroll, because of the parole violation, was being held without bail in the jail.

Keywords: DRUG; HACKENSACK

Notes: Bergen Page

September 22, 1991

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