michael o. allen, Author at MICHAEL O. ALLEN

FIREMAN, YOUTHS ACCUSED OF ARSON IN FAIRVIEW FIRE HELD IN MAY 9 BLAZE AT HOUSE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Lisa Rein, Record Staff Writers | Friday, July 26, 1991

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

A 21-year-old volunteer firefighter and two borough juveniles were arrested Wednesday on charges that they broke into an abandoned house on May 9, doused it with kerosene, and set it on fire, officials said.
George Joseph Leuffgen of Maple Street and two 17-year-olds, whom Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy declined to identify because of their age, were charged Thursday with burglary and aggravated arson.
Fahy said someone cut off a padlock in the rear of the single-family house at 658 Prospect Ave. on the day of the fire. The fire started in the first-floor bathroom of the house and was reported about 1:10 a.m., he said.
“When investigators went to the scene right after the fire,” Fahy said, “there was a strong odor of kerosene.”
Investigators subsequently received information that Leuffgen was involved in setting the fire. He was arrested about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, Fahy said.
Leuffgen was one of 80 firefighters on Fairview’s force. Craig Krivda, a councilman and the town’s fire commissioner, said he was searching for reasons why Leuffgen might have set a vacant house on fire.
“He’s a helpful guy who lends a hand whenever he’s around,” Krivda said. “Maybe for the younger guys, this is something exciting, to set a fire and put it out. I can’t figure this out.”
The prosecutor also said he did not know why Leuffgen, a four-year veteran of the department, set the fire.
“The fireman [Leuffgen] had no proprietary interest in the house. He would have gained nothing, as far as we could determine,” Fahy said.
Leuffgen was being held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. The juveniles were released to the custody of their parents.

Keywords: FAIRVIEW; FIREMAN; YOUTH; ARSON; PROBE

July 26, 1991

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HUSBAND CHARGED IN BAT ATTACK ON WIFE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Caroline Herzfeld, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, July 25, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B02

A 41-year-old borough man was charged with attempted murder Wednesday for allegedly assaulting his wife with a baseball bat earlier this month, police said.
Henry Quagliani, 41, of 90 Chestnut St. was arrested at 12:15 a.m. at the Harmon Meadow Shopping Mall in Secaucus after he returned from Canada to find out his hospitalized wife’s condition, said police Sgt. Thomas Farrell.
Quagliani had left the country shortly after the July 17 assault in the home they shared, Farrell said. Police said he was allowed to live there but was under a restraining order against domestic violence.
Quagliani’s wife, whom police declined to name, was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The couple, who have been married for 18 years, were arguing about 9:50 p.m. when the assault occurred. The two had a history of domestic problems, Farrell said.
After Quagliani used a mall telephone booth to call family and friends to inquire about his 43-year-old wife, police found him in the mall parking lot.
He was also charged with aggravated assault, possession of a knife and another weapon the baseball bat and contempt of court for violating the restraining order.
He was being held in the Bergen County Jail Wednesday on $175,000 bail.

Keywords: RUTHERFORD; MARRIAGE; ASSAULT

July 25, 1991

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SETTLEMENT IN WORKS FOR JAIL OVERCROWDING LAWSUIT

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, July 25, 1991

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

A 1988 federal lawsuit seeking to reduce overcrowding and improve conditions at the Bergen County Jail is nearing a settlement, the state Public Advocate Department says.
“We still have to fine-tune it,” said Audrey Bomse, an attorney for the agency, which represents the inmates. “I would say it’s a matter of months.”
Murshell Johnson, assistant Bergen County counsel, declined to discuss the case.
Patricia Leuzzi, special assistant to Attorney General Robert J. Del Tufo and the lawyer representing the state in the lawsuit, acknowledged that the inmate population and jail conditions were two major topics in the ongoing talks.
The October 1988 lawsuit, filed by the Office of Inmate Advocacy and nine inmates, charged that overcrowding at the jail creates conditions that make it unfit for human habitation and violates inmates constitutional rights.
Bergen County contended during hearings in 1990 that the conditions were not inhuman and that the New Jersey Corrections Department was responsible for the overcrowding. More than 300 of the jail’s roughly 1,000 inmates should be housed in a state prison, Bergen County lawyers charged.
In two recent letters to the state Corrections Department, Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune warned that an overload of state inmates was making the county jail unmanageable. Under a state executive order signed in 1981 and renewed every six months since, Bergen County must take 72 state inmates. About 425 inmates now in the jail are state prisoners.
Recently, inmates were put in disciplinary “lockdowns” following a food fight and a separate gang attack.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; LAWSUIT; NEW JERSEY; GOVERNMENT

July 25, 1991

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SUSPECT CAPTURED, WITH HELP OF TIPSTER; LEFT SON WITH COPS AS HE DUCKED ARREST

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, July 19, 1991

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

An anonymous tip Wednesday led to the capture of a 42-year-old man who last week had fled police leaving his son in their custody after being recognized as wanted on several charges.
Officers from five municipal police departments chased Nicola Lomuscio after he bolted from his home at 176 Woodland Ave. and arrested him about 4:45 p.m., said Little Ferry Detective Sgt. Michael Walsh.
Lomuscio was being held on $56,536 bail in the Bergen County Jail on Thursday. Little Ferry police charged him with eluding police and with two counts of resisting arrest. Police in Hackensack, where the case originated, charged Lomuscio with violating a restraining order, harassment, theft, and escape from custody.
Hackensack Police Capt. John Aletta said the incident began July 11 at their headquarters, when an officer recognized Lomuscio as the man they wanted in connection with a domestic abuse case and other charges. Lomuscio had come to report that someone had assaulted his 10-year-old son. He fled, leaving the boy, Aletta said. The assault claim was determined later to be unfounded, police said.
Hackensack police released the boy to his mother, who lives in the city.
Police had been unable to find Lomuscio at home since that incident, until a caller told police Wednesday that Lomuscio was heading toward Little Ferry, Aletta said. Four borough officers were waiting outside his home when he arrived. He defied the officers, entered the home, and escaped out the back door, Walsh said.
Police from South Hackensack, Moonachie, and Ridgefield Park and a Bergen County Police K-9 unit joined the brief chase before Lomuscio was arrested on Route 46 in Little Ferry, Walsh said.

Keywords: POLICE; LITTLE FERRY; HACKENSACK; ABUSE; THEFT; ASSAULT

July 19, 1991

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TRUCKER IN FATAL ACCIDENT WAS SOBER

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, July 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A tractor-trailer driver arrested Sunday in Teaneck after he left the scene of a Washington Heights accident in which two elderly sisters were killed was not drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time, officials said Thursday.
Blood and urine samples taken from Harold Heitzman at the time of his arrest came up negative in New Jersey State Police laboratory tests, said Terry Benczik, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Heitzman, who had a Texas driver’s license but lives in Peru, Ind., was released from the Bergen County Jail Monday on $1,000 bail. He was charged with driving while impaired, use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, eluding police, and going 10 miles above the 55-mph speed limit.
At least the two drug-related charges will likely be dropped, Benczik said.
Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan, were on their weekly outing to a restaurant at the time of the accident. Rosen and Muller, holding hands as they crossed the 179th Street-Broadway intersection about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, were struck and killed.
New York police said witnesses supported Heitzman’s statement to Port Authority police officers about 20 minutes after the accident that he was not aware he had hit the women. New York police did not charge Heitzman in the death of the two women because there was no evidence of a crime, said a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Heitzman did not heed the lights and sirens of two Port Authority police officers attempting to stop him as he crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey after the accident, police said. He stopped at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck.
A Sept. 10 court appearance had been scheduled for Heitzman in Fort Lee on the charges of impaired driving, eluding police, and speeding.
“Until I speak with my officers and review the case, I can’t make a decision whether the charges will be dropped,” said Matthew Fierro, municipal prosecutor. “I have to see what other charges the police officers have brought against him. He will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law once I review the charges.”
Teaneck Municipal Prosecutor Howard Solomon said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it. Heitzman is charged with use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance in Teaneck.
“We’ll go forward with the complaint if it is provable,” Solomon said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; VICTIM

July 19, 1991

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3 SOVIET EMIGRES END UP IN GOLF CRISIS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Patricia Alex, Record Staff Writers | Friday, July 19, 1991

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

Police say a trio of Soviet emigres caught sopping wet after diving for golf balls in Rockleigh Golf Course ponds early Thursday were carrying free enterprise a bit too far.
Yuri Slobodkin, 20, and Vyachestu Shablvusky, 20, both of Brooklyn, and Pavel Krants, 25, of Queens were charged with defiant trespass and theft of movable property about 2,500 golf balls.
They were arrested after Northvale police stopped them in a 1982 Oldsmobile on Haring Farm Lane at about 3:45 a.m. soaking wet and in possession of wet suits, scuba gear, and a duffel bag full of the duffers bounty.
Detective Jean Rothenberger of the Bergen County Police Department said the men dove for golf balls which fetch from 35 to 75 cents each for a living in New York, where they had legitimate contracts to do so.
“They just came out here to free-lance,” Rothenberger said.
The three were given summonses and released.

Keywords: RUSSIA; GOLF; LAKE; ROCKLEIGH; VIOLATION; NEW YORK CITY; THEFT; NORTHVALE

July 19, 1991

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VICTIMS ADVOCATES LAUNCH CAMPAIGN; SEEK APPROVAL OF RIGHTS AMENDMENT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 17, 1991

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

Advocates of a state constitutional amendment recognizing crime victims rights met in Paramus on Tuesday to begin their drive to get voter approval of the measure in a Nov. 5 referendum.
The state Legislature recently approved the amendment, which says that a crime victim “shall be treated with fairness, compassion, and respect by the criminal justice system.”
The amendment also states that a crime victim should not be denied the right to be present at public judicial proceedings. Currently, crime victims are not allowed in the courtroom unless they are giving testimony.
A crime victims rights panel convened by Assembly members Rose Heck, R-Hasbrouck Heights, and Patrick J. Roma, R-Palisades Park, to discuss the amendment was videotaped and will be given to groups around the state as part of a public education effort, Heck said.
Dr. Jill Greenbaum of the Bergen County Rape Crisis Center said the amendment would begin to balance the rights that criminal defendants have with a measure of rights for the victims.
The amendment would help restore victims faith in the criminal justice system, said James O’Brien, chairman of the Coalition of Crime Victims Rights Organizations.
Right now, “a victim of a crime is not denied constitutional rights. That implies he has them,” O’Brien said. “He does not have them.
“We absolutely do not want to infringe on the rights of the defendants, because who is to say that I won’t be a defendant tomorrow? What we are saying is that the rights of the victims do not have to conflict with the rights of the defendant.”
The New Jersey Association of Defense Lawyers opposes the amendment, saying victims rights are adequately protected by current law.

Keywords: CRIME; VICTIM; FAMILY; ORGANIZATION; MEETING; NEW JERSEY; CONSTITUTION; RIGHT

July 17, 1991

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NO CHARGES PLANNED IN TRUCKING ACCIDENT THAT LEFT SISTERS DEAD

By michael o. allenUncategorizedNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 16, 1991

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

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a tractor-trailer driver arrested Sunday in Teaneck after he left the scene of a Washington Heights accident in which two elderly sisters were killed.
Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, said Harold Heitzman would not be charged in the deaths of Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, because there was no evidence of a crime.
Witnesses supported Heitzman’s statement that he did not know he had struck and killed the women, New York police said. Afterward he continued onto the George Washington Bridge and into New Jersey.
Heitzman, arrested after a short pursuit by Port Authority police about 20 minutes after the accident, was released from Bergen County Jail on Monday night on $1,000 bail. Police charged him with driving under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, driving while intoxicated, eluding police, and driving 65 mph in a 55 mph zone.
“The witness statements did not support charges of leaving the scene,” said New York police spokeswoman Sgt. Tina Mohrmann. “That would have been the only charge in New York. It appears he didn’t know they [the sisters] were there.”
McKelvey said investigators were talking to witnesses and would charge Heitzman, 35, if they turn up information indicating he knowingly left the scene.
The sisters holding hands as they crossed at Broadway and 179th Street about 4:15 p.m. were on their weekly outing to a restaurant. Muller was buried Monday at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, Long Island. Services for Rosen were pending.
He appeared to be under the influence of a drug other than alcohol, said Port Authority police Lt. George Albin, who added that state police test results on blood and urine samples taken from Heitzman should be ready in about three days.
Evidence confirming Heitzman’s impaired state during the accident could influence whether New York charges him in the deaths, McKelvey said. He added that Heitzman had a Texas driver’s license but lived in Peru, Ind.
This article contains material from The Record’s news services.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH; AGED; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; ALCOHOL; ABUSE

July 16, 1991

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ENGLEWOOD POLICE DISPATCHER IS KILLED IN MOTORCYCLE CRASH

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, July 16, 1991

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

A 24-year-old city police dispatcher died and his wife was critically injured in a collision Sunday between their motorcycle and a car, police said.
Ronald Zadrozna of Bergenfield, a dispatcher in Englewood since June 1988, suffered a broken neck in the accident, said Police Lt. Charles Dillon.
Tammy Zadrozna, 23, was in critical condition in Englewood Hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday. Mrs. Zadrozna broke her hips and both ankles and sustained serious bruises.
The accident occurred about 9:55 p.m. at the intersection of Engle and Concord streets, Dillon said.
Zadrozna’s 1991 Honda motorcycle and a 1987 Chrysler driven by Claudia Conrado were both northbound on Engle Street when they collided, Police Chief William Luciano said.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened,” Luciano said. “There is no charge at this time, but the case is under investigation.”
Conrado, 32, of West Caldwell was uninjured, Luciano said.
Luciano said Zadrozna was a community-oriented person who would be missed by the Police Department. He was also a volunteer fireman and ambulance worker in Bergenfield and Englewood, and had just taken the test to become a full-time firefighter in Englewood, the chief added.
Deputy Chief Edward Kneisler of the Bergenfield Fire Department said the Zadroznas had been married only three months.
Kneisler recalled Zadrozna as “a good kid” who “had his life snapped from him.” Zadrozna had just bought the motorcycle and brand-new helmets, Kneisler added.
Record Staff Writer Laura Impellizzeri contributed to this article.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; POLICE; EMPLOYMENT; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH

July 16, 1991

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2 DEAD IN N.Y.C. HIT-AND-RUN; TRUCKER ARRESTED ON ROUTE 80

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, July 15, 1991

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

A 34-year-old Indiana tractor-trailer driver was arrested in Teaneck on Sunday after he fled the scene of an accident in upper Manhattan in which two elderly sisters were struck and killed by a truck, police said.
The accident occurred about 4:16 p.m. at the intersection of 179th Street and Broadway, said Sgt. Tina Mohrmann, a New York City police spokeswoman.
“We had a tractor-trailer going westbound,” Morhmann said. “He struck two elderly women, both of whom died at the scene.”
Eyewitnesses told police that the women, who had come out of an A & P supermarket near the intersection, were dragged along the pavement several feet by a truck.
Police identified the women as sisters: Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan.
A police lieutenant at a bus station at the intersection notified Port Authority Police at the George Washington Bridge about the truck, and two officers on the bridge spotted it, said Port Authority spokeswoman Terry Benczik.
Port Authority Police Officers Dennis Higgins and Michael Bucholz stopped the truck about 4:35 p.m. at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck, Benczik said.
The suspect, identified as Harold J. Weitzman of Peru, Ind.,was charged with eluding police and driving under the influence of a controlled substance, Benczik said.
Additional charges are pending in New York.
Benczik said the suspect was being held at the Port Authority police lockup at the George Washington Bridge and would be transferred to the Bergen County Jail to await arraignment.
Forensic technicians were examining the truck to confirm it was the vehicle involved in the accident, police said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; WOMAN; AGED; VIOLATION; DEATH; VICTIM

July 15, 1991

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