michael o. allen, Author at MICHAEL O. ALLEN

SHE LOSES CASH, STEREO TO CON MEN

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, March 26, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Two men conned a 32-year-old Paterson woman out of $300 and stole her car stereo Tuesday after persuading her to give them the money in exchange for a share in lottery winnings, police said.

The woman was shaken but not injured, police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said. He gave this account from a report written by Patrolman Ronald Schaarschmidt:

The scam occurred between noon and 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. One man approached the woman as she stood at a phone booth on Engle Street and asked for directions to a church. A second man then walked up and they talked.

“The first man indicated that the second male had won money from the New York State lottery, a large sum of money,” Tinsley said. “He told her that the second male would give her part of that money if she would give him some money to hold as trust.”

Tinsley said it was unclear how much money the man said he won or how much he said he would give the woman. She drove the men to the Midlantic Bank at 1 Engle St. in her car, cashed a $300 personal check, and gave the money to the supposed lottery winner.

They asked her to drive up Engle Street to a friend’s house. When she and one of the men got out of the car to go to the apartment, he ran. When she returned to her car, the other man had removed the stereo and fled, Tinsley said.

March 26, 1992

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POLICE MUST USE CARE WITH ELDERLY

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 25, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 3 Star | NORTHWEST BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD | 12

A patrol officer stopped an 80-year-old woman driving 5 mph on the highway, then wondered what to do when she told him she was driving so slowly because she was hungry and needed to find a place to get a slice of pizza.

“What is the captain going to say? What is the judge going to say?” John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said in recalling an incident early in his 25 years as a law-enforcement officer.

To avoid citing the woman for driving too slowly, then having to answer to his captain or a judge, Pescatore said he would have delivered pizza to the woman’s house every day of his career.

“Our primary responsibility is no longer just enforcing the law, but to assist the people in our community to live a safer life,” he said.

Pescatore spoke about the incident to about 55 police officers attending a training program last week on older-adult behavior.

The half-day session, sponsored by the northern New Jersey chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and Hackensack Medical Center’s Geriatric Assessment Program, looked at ways police should handle older adults, who appear to be committing crimes but may in fact be confused or suffering dementia.

Police officers often notice confusion and dementia in an older adult before family members do, Janet Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program said. The center is an outpatient program for families and other health-care professionals on how to keep older adults healthy and independent.

“There are many reasons why an older adult can be confused,” Reynolds said. “They include everything from Alzheimer’s disease, to reaction to medication, to depression from being alone and isolated.”

Bergen County was selected as the first place to hold the police training seminar, because it has the state’s largest population of adults over 60 years old about 174,000 said Marcia F. Mohl, executive director of the Northern New Jersey Alzheimer’s Association. The chance that a person will get Alzheimer’s, a progressive degenerative brain disease that often results in irreversible dementia, increases with age.

It also often results in a loss of memory, erratic driving, fear, and confusion. About 150,000 New Jersey residents have Alzheimer’s, Mohl said.

Because victims of Alzheimer’s might sometime lash out in frustration at their loved ones, Englewood Police Detective Barry Johnson pointed out that the state’s new Domestic Violence Prevention Act mandates police make an arrest when they see evidence of abuse.

Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program advised that it may be better to leave the person in that situation because, often, they would have forgotten what they did before police arrived at the scene. Arresting them might only increase their confusion, she said. But officers told her the mandate of the law does not leave them room for discretion.

Both Rochelle Park Police Chief William Betten and Hackensack Sgt. John Elefante said the seminar was useful, if only to amplify the care officers need to use in certain situations.

Rochelle Park, with a nursing home and a huge residential development for the elderly, has Bergen County’s largest percentage of adults over 60, Betten said. “Police, sometimes, are the only friends and contact some elderly people who live alone have,” he said.

March 25, 1992

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DECAL PROGRAM TO FIGHT AUTO THEFTS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 25, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | SOUTH CENTRAL BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD |
4

Police are asking residents to help them fight auto theft by registering their cars with the department and authorizing police to stop and search the cars if they see them on the road during the middle of the night.

Participants in the Combat Auto Theft program, which is voluntary and free, sign a consent form saying they do not drive their cars between 1 and 5 a.m., and that they authorize any law enforcement officer to stop and check if it is seen on the road during those hours, said Lt. Paul Romaine.

Residents receive a reflective yellow sticker bearing the letters CAT that they put in the rear, left-side car window.

Police have to have probable cause to stop a car and search it, Romaine said. The sticker is numbered and has information on the car’s owner.

The program is part of a statewide attempt to combat auto theft, Romaine said. “It’s a good program,” he said. “It protects the car owner.”

Interested residents have to register in person at the city’s police headquarters at 205 State St. between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. They must provide a valid New Jersey driver’s license and registration for the car. Participants can withdraw from the program at any time by writing the department and removing the sticker from their car windows.

For additional information call Romaine in the Hackensack Police Crime Prevention Bureau at 646-7725 or 646-7726.

Caption: PHOTO of Hackensack Police auto theft decal.

March 25, 1992

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BUCHANAN VISITS NIXON IN N.J.; Sees Former Boss in Woodcliff Lake

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 22, 1992

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

Descending a marble staircase into the galleria of the Perillo Tours Plaza in Woodcliff Lake on Saturday, former President Richard M. Nixon joked that Patrick Buchanan had insisted on standing on the right when the two walked into a room filled with reporters.

Although Nixon favors President Bush over Buchanan, who is presenting himself as the true conservative in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the personal warmth between the two was evident as they stood side by side.

“I appreciated the opportunity to see Pat Buchanan, particularly to see Shelly again after all these years,” Nixon said of Buchanan’s wife. The former president spoke little during the photo opportunity. “We had good conversations with regard to the campaign to date, and what I believe we should do in the future,” Nixon said.

Although Nixon said he and his his onetime speech writer disagree on some issues, he had a good word for Buchanan.

“There’s only one thing in politics that is worse than being wrong, and that’s to be dull. Pat Buchanan is never dull,” he said.

Nixon, who lives in Park Ridge and has offices in Woodcliff Lake, then handed Buchanan a 5-ruble coin from the former Soviet Union.

Buchanan characterized his one-hour, closed-door visit with Nixon as “delightful, pleasant, and constructive.”

Buchanan said Nixon cautioned that if something was not done to help the former Soviet republics, the resulting economic chaos might give rise to new despots.

Buchanan said Nixon advised him to direct “part of my fire” toward Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and to emphasize Clinton’s lack of foreign policy and national security experience.

“I agree with President Nixon. I don’t think a Clinton administration with a Democratic Congress would be good for America,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan vowed to remain in the race, at least through the June 2 primaries in New Jersey and California.

Although the photo opportunity was attended primarily by reporters, Buchanan supporters appeared at the Nixon offices.

Diane Bollerman, who waited with her son Jeff, 17, almost two hours for Buchanan, was rewarded when he spotted her, walked over, and clasped her hands in a firm shake.

“I’m big supporter of yours. We are hoping that you do well,” she told Buchanan.

March 22, 1992

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MAHWAH COP SHOOTS SUSPECT WHO HELD RIFLE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 22, 1992

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

A Mahwah police officer on Saturday shot and critically injured a 29-year-old man whose father had reported was drunk and firing shots in the basement of their home, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.

Police Officer Richard Kikkert shot Stephen Michael Megles of 83 Eastview Ave. after Megles pointed a .22-caliber rifle at the officer, Fahy said.

“The bullet hit him [Megles] in the left arm in the shoulder area, then traveled into the ribs, and into the abdomen area,” Fahy said.

Megles was taken in a helicopter to University Hospital in Newark, where he was listed in critical condition. Megles, a welder, was recently laid off and was depressed, his father told authorities.

Megles was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and illegal possession of a weapon.

The incident began about 1:10 p.m., when Stephen Megles Sr. called police.

Fahy said that when four officers arrived at the house a few minutes later, they heard loud music accompanied by the sound of gunshots coming from the basement.

Kikkert and police Lt. Thomas Brennan entered the house and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the younger Megles into giving up his gun, Fahy said.

“At a point in time, Officer Kikkert was on the landing at the top of the stairs, trying to get the defendant to come upstairs and put his gun down,” Fahy said.

Megles raised his gun to shoot, and the officer fired his 9mm pistol once, hitting Megles, Fahy said.

In the basement, the officers found an empty vodka bottle and evidence that Megles fired dozens of shots in the room, Fahy said.

The younger Megles was known to Mahwah police, but had not been convicted of a serious crime, Fahy said. He added that the father told police his son had fired shots in the house, of which they were the only occupants, several times before.

Kikkert has been with the Mahwah Police Department for four years. Before that, he spent 12 years with the Carlstadt Police Department. He had never fired his weapon on duty while on the Mahwah force, Police Chief Samuel Alderisio said.

Kikkert, 39, was scheduled to be off work the next four days. He will be on an additional four-day medical leave, after which he will undergo medical and psychological evaluation to see if he is fit for duty, Alderisio said. He would first be assigned to desk duty if he is found to be fit, the chief added.

The Megleses have an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment. A relative living nearby declined comment.

March 22, 1992

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2 HAWTHORNE TEENS STILL IN HOSPITAL INJURED IN WEATHER-RELATED CRASH

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Gregory Beals, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, March 18, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 4 Star | NEWS | B03

Two Hawthorne teenagers remained hospitalized from injuries in what police say was a weather-related, head-on collision in the village last week.

Edward Mullins III, 17, the driver of one of the cars, was in fair condition at Hackensack Medical Center on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.

His passenger and classmate at Hawthorne High School, Corinne Dockray, 14, was in stable condition in the surgical intensive care unit with head injuries at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, a spokesman said. A helicopter took Dockray to the hospital after the accident on March 11, police said.

Two of Mullins other passengers, and the driver of the other car and her passenger, suffered minor injuries. Treated at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and released were Patrick Murphy, 17, and Allison Taylor, 14, both of whom were riding in Mullins car; Judith M. De Boer, 42, the driver of the other car; and Kirk De Boer, whose age and relationship to Judith De Boer were unavailable.

Murphy and Mullins have been friends since the age of 7, when they began playing football together, said Theresa Murphy, mother of Patrick Murphy. Both are members of the Hawthorne High School football team. Mullins is a halfback, Murphy an outside linebacker.

Murphy suffered a few abrasions to the face and required a few stiches, his mother said, adding that he was in shock after the accident and was deeply concerned about Mullins.

“It was very upsetting,” said Theresa Murphy, a 17-year Hawthorne resident. “He didn’t go to school for two days. He’s been at his buddy’s all the time.”

Mullins father, Edward Mullins, said: “My family, my friends, and my faith have kept me going. We are very, very positive right now.”

Students at Hawthorne High School have been kept advised of the condition of their injured classmates. One student said announcements have been made over the public address system.

Mullins had been traveling eastbound on Godwin Avenue about 6:45 p.m. last Wednesday when his car moved into the path of oncoming traffic and struck De Boer’s car at a bend in the road, according to the police report.

Ridgewood Police Capt. Louis Mader on Tuesday attributed the accident to the weather, saying it had snowed and there was a patch of ice in the roadway where the accident occurred.

Richard Sperito, the assistant superintendent of schools in Hawthorne, said: “Unfortunately, I think a lot of times when this happens we say, `Oh, they were speeding, or `Oh, they were drinking. But that was not the case here. It could have happened to you or me.”

Correction: Allison Taylor, one of the six Hawthorne residents injured last week in an accident in Ridgewood, remained in the hospital Friday and was in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said. A story in Wednesday’s editions said she had been released from the hospital. Also, the name of one of the injured was misspelled. She is Corin Dockray. (PUBLISHED, SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1992, PAGE a02.)

March 18, 1992

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BERGEN POLICE FORCE SWEARS NEW CHIEF

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 15, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A07

Joel Trella has been sworn as chief of the Bergen County Police Department, where he has spent his entire 23-year law enforcement career. He had been acting chief since October, when Chief Peter Neillands retired.

Eighteen newly promoted officers also were sworn Wednesday.

Trella began his career with the department in 1969, going on to serve in practically every division. As sergeant in charge of training, he developed the program for all K-9 work.

He was a trainer at the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy in Mahwah until 1987, when he became a tour commander. Then, after a stint in charge of police training at the academy, he became a supervisor of investigations with the Special Services Unit, a detective bureau. He held that position until he replaced Neillands.

Trella, 45, was born in Georgia and raised in the City of Passaic. He is a graduate of Garfield High School and Bergen Community College, where he received an associate degree in criminal justice.

Trella, a certified public manager and Navy veteran, has lived in Saddle Brook for the past 20 years. He is married and has two children.

The Bergen County Police Department begun as a one-person motorcycle patrol in 1917 is a 90-member force that handles law-enforcement chores that are too expensive or complicated for local departments to handle alone, as well as security at county-owned buildings and patrol of county highways. The department includes the K-9 unit, a SWAT team, a scuba-diving team, and a narcotics task force.

Promoted to captain were James Byrne, John Schmidig, and Edward Schmalz. New lieutenants are Paul Ortenzio, Victor Cuttitta, Steven Babiak, Paul Kohl, Uwe Malakas, Paul Hammell, Scott Storms, Frank Prelich, Joseph Kersting, James Spahr, Kevin Hartnett, and Marc Fenech. Promoted to sergeant were Stephen Blehl, Jean Rothenberger, and George Gibbs.

Notes: Bergen page

March 15, 1992

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BOGOTA MAN DIES IN CAR CRASH

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, March 15, 1992

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

A 29-year-old Bogota man apparently lost control of his car and crashed into a light pole base just off the George Washington Bridge before dawn Saturday, killing himself and injuring his passenger.

Peter J. LaSala was pronounced dead at the scene by Englewood Hospital paramedics, said Terry Benczik, a Port Authority spokeswoman. John Leahy Jr., also of Bogota, suffered facial cuts and possible internal injuries, she said.

LaSala was the driver and Leahy his passenger as they returned to New Jersey about 4:30 a.m., Benczik said. The car struck the concrete base of a light pole near the Center Avenue overpass as the car traveled westbound on the lower level of the bridge, Benczik said.

Leahy, who was taken to Englewood Hospital, told investigators he had his eyes closed and did not see how the accident occurred, Benczik said. The pavement was dry, there was no construction nearby, and no evident reason for the accident, she said.

LaSala worked in the parts department for Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in New York City.
His funeral is to be Wednesday.

Notes: Bergen page

March 15, 1992

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GLEN ROCK GOLF PRO ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, March 15, 1992

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

A Glen Rock golf instructor was arrested Friday on charges of selling cocaine, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Saturday.

Rodney R. Frith, 31, of 36 Grover Terrace was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and was being held Saturday in the Bergen County Jail on $100,000 bail, Fahy said. Fahy said Frith works as a golf pro at Hillman’s Golfland in Elmwood Park.

A friend of Frith’s, Ceser Brienza, a Chestnut, N.Y., rubbish removal company owner, also was being held on the same amount of bail on the same charge, Fahy said.

Fahy said that Brienza, who had sold cocaine to Bergen County narcotics agents on two previous occasions, brought Frith with him to a Friday night rendezvous in Hackensack with people who, unknown to the suspects, were county narcotics agents. The meeting occurred behind Channel Home Center in Hackensack. They were taken into custody about 6:05 p.m.

Agents seized 1 kilogram of cocaine, with an approximate value of $25,000.
GLEN ROCK; GOLF; PROFESSIONAL; DRUG; ABUSE; SALE; HACKENSACK; ELMWOOD PARK; NEW YORK STATE; RODNEY R. FRITH

March 15, 1992

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SEX-ABUSE CASE TIED TO SNAPSHOTS; Bergen Teen in Photos, Not Baby Hope

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 15, 1992

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

The Baby Hope mystery will have to endure, for now at least.

New York City detectives, who attached the moniker “Baby Hope” to a dead girl whose body was found last year in a cooler near the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan, continue to search for the girl’s identity and the circumstance of her death.

Bergen County prosecutor’s sex crime investigators identified a 13-year-old Paterson girl who last week reported that she had been sexually assaulted as the person in photographs widely held to be of the dead girl.

Welling Wedemeyer, 54, of 123 Kennedy Drive, Lodi, was charged Friday with aggravated sexual assault on the girl, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said. He was being held Saturday in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Though she is older than Baby Hope is believed to have been, authorities are sure they have the right girl, attributing the difference in age to the fact that the photographs show only the victim’s head and shoulders.

The mystery of the photographs began June 14 when an unidentified man walking west on Route 46, near the Midland Avenue overpass in Garfield, found a brown paper bag containing five glossy snapshots that show a girl being sexually assaulted and being forced to perform a sex act with man whose head is not visible. He turned the bag over to police.

Construction workers found the body of a girl in a cooler near the West Side Highway more than a month later. The girl, thought to be 3 to 5 years old, was malnourished and had been beaten, sexually abused, bound, and suffocated.

A Bergen County prosecutor’s sex crimes investigator made the connection between the two cases in October when he noticed similarities in the features of the girl in the snapshots and New York City police composites of Baby Hope, leading to cooperation between the two departments.

There were other clues that seemingly tied the dead girl to the girl in the snapshots: Route 46 is one route leading to the George Washington Bridge, which has an exit to the Henry Hudson Parkway.

An anthropologist working at the FBI crime laboratory in Washington, D.C., created a single photograph from the five snapshots, then compared the photograph with the skull of the girl in the cooler.

Saying he was 90 percent positive the highest degree of certainty in cases like this, Fahy said Saturday the anthropologist three months ago concluded the dead girl and the girl in the photographs were the same.

The mystery of the girl in the snapshots began to unravel last week, however, Fahy said. A 13-year-old girl, accompanied by her mother, went to Lodi police Monday. Directed to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, which investigates all sexual abuse cases in the county, the girl alleged that Wedemeyer sexually assaulted her, Fahy said.

Wedemeyer was arrested Tuesday and charged.

An investigator, who noticed the similarities in the features of the girl and the girl in the snapshots, asked her more questions and she told them that photographs had been taken of her. Authorities executed a search warrant at Wedemeyer’s home and found several photographs.

“The background of the house was the same as the background in the pictures found on [Route] 46 the drapes, the couch, windows, and things like that,” Fahy said. “I mean, there is no doubt that this girl is the girl in those photographs.”

Wedemeyer was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and Superior Court Judge William C. Meehan added $75,000 to the $25,000 bail from his arrest on the initial charge Tuesday.

March 15, 1992

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