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TWO ARE SOUGHT IN GUN ASSAULT; INCIDENT LEAVES 2 WOMEN HURT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Arrie Moore of 60 Newman St. and the gunman whom Moore allegedly instructed to kill Charles Reyes of 147 Sherman Ave., Teaneck are wanted on two counts of attempted murder, police Capt. John Aletta said Thursday.

Reyes and Theodore Bolden, 18, of 280 American Legion Drive, Hackensack, had arrived at the parking lot of Bolden’s apartment building at 2:35 a.m. Wednesday when the incident occurred. Lisa R. Manago, 21, of 77 Maple Ave., Hackensack, and a friend had driven the two men there, police said.

Moore and the gunman confronted the two men in the parking lot. According to police, Moore told the gunman to kill Reyes.

Reyes and Bolden both ran off when the gunman removed an automatic handgun from his waistband and fired. They were not hit by the gunshot, Aletta said. The gunman then fired at Manago’s car, and it crashed into a tree, he added. Moore and the gunman then ran toward Central Avenue, and have not been seen since, Aletta said.

Manago’s head hit the steering wheel when the car struck the tree, Aletta said. Bullet fragments struck Anita M. Powell, 23, of 41 E. Forest Ave., Englewood, a passenger in the car, on the left arm, he said. She also had cuts on her right foot, head, and chin.

Aletta said the women were taken to the Hackensack Medical Center. Hospital officials said they had no record of their being admitted.

The victims knew the gunman but not his name, Aletta said. Although it was unclear what caused the shooting, he said, they all knew each other.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; WEAPON; ASSAULT; SHOOTING

August 30, 1991

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2 JUNE ROBBERY SUSPECTS HELD IN SIMILAR CASE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B04

Two men charged in June with pulling a bank messenger from his car and robbing and beating him were arrested Wednesday for a similar offense, authorities said.
Christopher Camacho and Alan Amador were two of four men on foot who demanded money from the driver of a commuter van as he waited at a red light at 79th Street’s intersection with Boulevard East, then attacked him when he refused, Police Lt. Timothy Kelly said.
A resident who saw the 5:40 p.m. attack called police, Kelly said. Police chased the men and arrested them a short while later, Kelly added.
The van driver, Jose Mucha, 35, of Kearny, suffered bruises, Kelly said. He said Mucha was treated at the scene by North Bergen Ambulance Corps paramedics.
Charged with robbery were Camacho, 20, of 7521 Bergenline Ave.; Amador, 18, of 6223 Liberty Ave.; Carlos Castro, 18, of 7721 Bergenline Ave., North Bergen; and Alberto Arroyo, 18, of 30 Prospect St., Palisades Park.
All four suspects were being held on $2,000 bail each in the Hudson County Jail.
A messenger for the Trust Co. of New Jersey was robbed of $12,000 in cash and $4,000 in checks on June 24. Raymond Ayala, the messenger, was hospitalized for severe bruises over his body, a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, and a broken jaw.
Amador and Camacho were among eight men arrested three days later in connection with that attack. Accused of helping plan that robbery, they were charged with conspiracy, aggravated assault, and robbery.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; ROBBERY

August 30, 1991

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TWO ARE SOUGHT IN GUN ASSAULT; INCIDENT LEAVES 2 WOMEN HURT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 20-year-old city man and an unidentified gunman are being sought for shooting at four people Wednesday, two of whom were injured when a gunshot caused the driver of a car to crash into a tree, police said.
Arrie Moore of 60 Newman St. and the gunman whom Moore allegedly instructed to kill Charles Reyes of 147 Sherman Ave., Teaneck are wanted on two counts of attempted murder, police Capt. John Aletta said Thursday.
Reyes and Theodore Bolden, 18, of 280 American Legion Drive, Hackensack, had arrived at the parking lot of Bolden’s apartment building at 2:35 a.m. Wednesday when the incident occurred. Lisa R. Manago, 21, of 77 Maple Ave., Hackensack, and a friend had driven the two men there, police said.
Moore and the gunman confronted the two men in the parking lot. According to police, Moore told the gunman to kill Reyes.
Reyes and Bolden both ran off when the gunman removed an automatic handgun from his waistband and fired. They were not hit by the gunshot, Aletta said. The gunman then fired at Manago’s car, and it crashed into a tree, he added. Moore and the gunman then ran toward Central Avenue, and have not been seen since, Aletta said.
Manago’s head hit the steering wheel when the car struck the tree, Aletta said. Bullet fragments struck Anita M. Powell, 23, of 41 E. Forest Ave., Englewood, a passenger in the car, on the left arm, he said. She also had cuts on her right foot, head, and chin.
Aletta said the women were taken to the Hackensack Medical Center. Hospital officials said they had no record of their being admitted.
The victims knew the gunman but not his name, Aletta said. Although it was unclear what caused the shooting, he said, they all knew each other.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; WEAPON; ASSAULT; SHOOTING

August 30, 1991

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TESTING IN PLACE IN N.J.

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 29, 1991

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

Random drug testing, now being reconsidered for New York subway workers in the wake of Wednesday morning’s fatal derailment, is a fact of life for NJ Transit employees, who move most of the state’s bus and rail travelers, officials say.
Five passengers died and 259 people, including rescuers, were injured when a Manhattan IRT train derailed near the Union Square station at 14th Street shortly after midnight. A vial that later tested positive for crack cocaine was found in the motorman’s cab.
Most mass transit passengers in New Jersey come under federal drug-testing regulations that were enacted three years after the 1987 collision between Conrail locomotives and an Amtrak passenger train in which 16 people were killed and 175 injured. Those rules, enacted by the Federal Railroad Administration, mandate random drug testing for about 1,400 NJ Transit rail employees who hold safety-sensitive positions, said NJ Transit spokesman Jeff Lamm.
The New Jersey Supreme Court last year swept away a challenge of drug testing’s constitutionality by about 4,200 NJ Transit bus employees in similar jobs.
PATH train workers holding the safety-sensitive jobs are also subject to the federal agency’s regulations on periodic random testing, said John Kampfe, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subways, is not subject to the federal agency’s guidelines. Instead, it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority, which has been seeking federal legislation that would allow it to set drug-testing guidelines.
New York City Mayor David Dinkins and MTA Chairman Peter Stangl both said drug-testing procedures may have to be reexamined and random drug testing might be instituted because of the derailment.
The testing would have to be negotiated with the transit unions, which have fought to cut back on the amount of testing.
This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Keywords: DRUG; TEST; NEW JERSEY; EMPLOYMENT; TRANSIT; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; ABUSE; ALCOHOL; BUS

August 29, 1991

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COP-ASSAULT SUSPECT CAUGHT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 20-year-old city man wanted for assaulting a policeman in March was arrested Tuesday after a brief chase and a scuffle with an officer, police said.
John Hawkins of 230 Central Ave. had just stolen a car and was eastbound on Mary Street when Hackensack detectives, in the area on an unrelated investigation, spotted him at about 1 a.m. at a stop sign on Polifly Road, police said.
When Hawkins tried to run one of the unmarked police cars off the road, police said, the stolen car a 1985 Cadillac Eldorado careened into a wall under the Route 80 overpass on Polifly Road. Hawkins fled on foot before being caught by a detective and a dog from the Bergen County Police Canine Unit, authorities said.
In the ensuing scuffle, a loaded .38-caliber handgun was taken from Hawkins, police said. He kicked the police dog in the face and continued fighting after he was disarmed, police said.
Hackensack police Officer Michael Williams, while patrolling on March 2, had attempted to arrest Hawkins in Carver Park for a Jan. 18 contempt-of-court warrant from Lodi. Hawkins allegedly bit Williams on the hand and punched him in the face several times before fleeing on foot.
Police had been looking for him since.
Hawkins was being held in the Bergen County Jail Tuesday on $50,500 bail. He was charged with the March 2 aggravated assault on Williams, and also received several charges from Tuesday’s incident. Those charges include illegal possession of a weapon, possession of cocaine, assault on a police officer, assault on a police dog, possession of burglary tools, and theft and burglary of the car.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; POLICE; ASSAULT

August 28, 1991

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FUND-RAISING ACCUSATIONS FAMILIAR TO PAL

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

The arrest Monday of two men for allegedly passing themselves off as police officers to obtain $1,000 on behalf of the Hackensack Police Athletic League was not the first time a fund-raiser for the organization has come under scrutiny.
Five men hired by a Connecticut fund-raising firm were acquitted of charges stemming from their January 1985 arrest for solicitation of funds under false pretenses to benefit the group.
The men had been charged with using aliases instead of their real names in soliciting funds. Although police accused them then of impersonating officers in their pitch, they were never formally charged on those counts.
The Hackensack police said the Hackensack PAL is not connected to the department.
John Simonelli and Mark Carter, employees of Theatrical Marketing Services of Middletown, were arrested Monday and were being held in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday on $7,500 bail each.
In 1990, Theatrical Marketing Services a Monmouth County firm raised about $106,000 on behalf of the Hackensack PAL, according to a financial statement filed with the Consumer Affairs Division. About $31,800 went to the PAL, with the firm and an office manager dividing the remainder.
Simonelli, of Pawtucket, R.I., was arrested after he gave John Carrino of Race Excavations Co. on Sussex Street a receipt for a $1,000 check that Carrino had given him in the presence of a detective, police said.
Carter, of Feeding Hills, Mass., was arrested shortly afterward at the 302 Ridge Road, Lyndhurst, office of the fund-raising firm. Police said they recorded a telephone conversation between Carter and Carrino in which Carter told Carrino several times that he was a member of the Hackensack Police Department.
Both were charged with wrongful impersonation of a police officer and theft by deception.
Ollie Hartsfield, a spokeswoman for the state Consumer Affairs Division, said they have no record of complaints about impersonations against Theatrical Marketing Services. The company has contracts with a number of other PALs around the state, she added.
Charles McHarris Jr., PAL executive director, said he did not find out about the arrests until Tuesday but declined to comment until he consults with the group’s lawyer. He said, however, that Simonelli and Carter were innocent of the charges against them.
No representative of Theatrical Marketing Services could be reached at the Lyndhurst or Middletown office.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; POLICE; FINANCE; FRAUD; PROBE

August 28, 1991

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2 ACCUSED OF POSING AS POLICE OFFICERS; SOLICITED $1,000 FROM BUSINESSMAN

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

Two men from a fund-raising firm hired by the Hackensack Police Athletic League were arrested Monday on charges that they passed themselves off as officers to solicit $1,000 from a city businessman, police said.
John Simonelli of Pawtucket, R.I., was arrested about noon after he gave John Carrino of Race Excavations Co. on Sussex Street a receipt for a $1,000 check that Carrino gave him in the presence of a detective, police said.
When the detective, who was posing as one of the owners of the excavation company, asked Simonelli why the department did not send a uniformed officer, he told the detective all the uniformed officers were busy, police said.
Mark Carter of Feeding Hills, Mass., was arrested shortly after Simonelli at the Lyndhurst offices of the fund-raising firm, T.M.S. Fund Raising Co., of 302 Ridge Road.
Police said they taped a telephone conversation between Carter and Carrino in which Carter told Carrino several times that he was a member of the Hackensack Police Department.
Simonelli and Carter both were charged with wrongful impersonation of a police officer and theft by deception. They were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $7,500 bail each.
Carrino’s donation would entitle his business advertisement to be placed on the inside front cover of the Hackensack PAL “Drug and Alcohol Prevention Handbook and Business Directory,” the receipt said.
No one answered the telephone or returned a message left on the answering machine at the PAL’s Hackensack office. Representatives for T.M.S. could not be reached for comment. Carrino also could not be reached Monday.
Patrolman Charles Redstone, president of the Hackensack local of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said that although the athletic league has “Hackensack” as part of its name, it is in no way connected to the Hackensack Police Department.
The athletic league’s fund campaign often confuses residents and businesses that the PBA solicits during the fall to raise money for charity, he said. People often call the PBA to say they had already contributed money to the “Hackensack police,” he said.
Complaints of deception by telephone solicitors for police-related groups are common statewide, officials say. Investigators say the solicitors, who work on commission, often imply, if they don’t state it outright, that they are members of the local police department.
“Most people, when they hear it’s a police department, will donate money because they think it is a worthwhile cause,” said Redstone.

Keywords: FRAUD; POLICE; HACKENSACK; CHARITY

August 27, 1991

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SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR PAIR

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, August 25, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A08

A routine call to pick up a dialysis patient Saturday morning turned joyous for two emergency medical technicians and a couple whose baby girl they helped deliver in the Holy Name Hospital parking lot.
Frank Sapienza and Carl Putkowski Jr. of Adamo Medical Services in Pompton Plains were at the back of an ambulance about 10:25 a.m. preparing to take a 79-year-old Garfield man home when a car screeched into the lot.
An agitated man came running out of his car toward the men. “My wife, my wife, she is having a baby,” the man said to Putkowski.
Sapienza and Putkowski, neither of whom had delivered a baby before, ran to the car.
At 10:30 a.m., in the back of a blue Ford Taurus, they assisted in the birth of an 8-pound, 3-ounce girl.
“It was an experience beyond belief,” Putkowski said. “It’s such a heartwarming feeling, to bring a life into the world. That is just something spectacular.”
A nursing supervisor at the hospital confirmed the men’s exploits but was unable to provide additional information on the birth or the family.

Keywords: TEANECK; BABY; PEQUANNOCK; GARFIELD; AMBULANCE; RESCUE

August 25, 1991

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AIRPORT DRUG BUST SETS RECORD 40 POUNDS OF HEROIN SEIZED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 24, 1991

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

Customs agents arrested two sisters arriving at Newark Airport from Sweden on Thursday with about 40 pounds of heroin, worth $18 million on the street, authorities said Friday.
“This is the largest heroin seizure at Newark International Airport,” said Robert Van Etten, special agent in charge for the U.S. Customs Service.
The previous largest shipment seized at the airport was 11.7 pounds on Oct. 11, 1990, Van Etten said. “As the number of international flights at Newark Airport increases, U.S. Customs has seen an increase in narcotics smuggling at Newark,” he added.
Judy Merle Corbin, 42, of Atlanta and her sister, Sandra Sue Corbin, 41, of Kansas City, Mo., were arrested about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in possession of a suitcase and roller bag that had secret compartments and false bottoms filled with heroin, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana T. Escobar.
Van Etten said the women were couriers for a Nigerian heroin-smuggling organization. The organization shipped the heroin from Thailand to Sweden, then employed the women to bring it into the United States, he said.
Van Etten declined to disclose what led Customs to the women or the circumstances of the arrest. He did say that the women had lengthy criminal records.
They were charged with importing heroin and were being held without bail in the custody of U.S. marshals, Escobar said.

Keywords: NEWARK; AVIATION; DRUG; CRIME; RECORD

August 24, 1991

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MAN, 23, FATALLY SHOT OUTSIDE HIS HOME

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 22, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 23-year-old man was fatally shot in front of his home Tuesday night by a man who had come to his door asking for water for his car radiator, officials said.
Sergio Novo died at 3:55 a.m. in the surgical intensive care unit of University Hospital in Newark of a gunshot wound to the head, a hospital spokesman said.
Investigators do not know the motive for the shooting, nor do they have a suspect, said Bergen County First Assistant Prosecutor Paul Brickfield. Authorities do not believe robbery was a motive, he added.
“We are actively investigating his movements over the last few days and his associations and activities to try to come up with who might have had a motive to shoot him, or if this was a random activity,” Brickfield said.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, Brickfield said, an unidentified man knocked on the door at 30 Truman Road, where Novo lived with his parents and grandmother. Novo went outside with a pitcher of water for the man, who had requested it for his car radiator.
Shortly afterward, Novo’s family and neighbors heard a “metallic noise and the sound of a car screeching,” Brickfield said. A neighbor went outside and found Novo lying on the street.
Brickfield said witnesses saw a late-model, four-door car, blue or black, possibly a Buick Century or Electra, stopped in the middle of Truman Road.
On Wednesday afternoon, John Penetra, whose son Luis was a friend of the victim, went to visit Novo’s family at their single-family home at the corner of Halsey Place and Truman Road. No one answered the door.
Penetra had heard about the shooting and wanted to find out if it were true.
“Sergio, he’s a beautiful man,” Penetra said in heavily accented English. “What a shame. I can’t believe this.”
He spoke in Spanish with a woman on Halsey Place; she told him no one had seen the shooting but that afterward everyone had come out of their homes.
Other neighbors, including a woman who said Novo was “a nice young fellow,” declined to comment or to be identified.
Novo had been a New Jersey Bell cable installer for the past 16 months and was a U.S. Navy veteran, officials said.
The shooting is being investigated by North Arlington police, the homicide squad of the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department.
Anyone with information is asked to call the North Arlington police at 991-4400 or the homicide squad at 646-2300.

Keywords: NORTH ARLINGTON; SHOOTING; DEATH; MURDER

August 22, 1991

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