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NEIGHBORS AID TENANTS DISPLACED BY FIRE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A04

Neighbors have begun raising money to help tenants of 6 Edison Place, who were displaced Wednesday by a fire that gutted the wood-frame, two-family house.

The fire was caused by an electrical malfunction, Detective Jerry Winston said Friday.

Robert Johnson, 65, jumped out a window of his second-floor apartment but was uninjured, Winston said. Joshua Favor, 16, was taken to Hackensack Medical Center with cuts on both hands and an injury to his right toe. Elviria Dewf also was taken to the hospital and was treated for smoke inhalation.

Favor’s mother, Luella, 39, Detective Sgt. Kenneth Felten, and police Officer Dennis Rivelli were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Firefighter Mario Rivezzi was treated for eye irritation.

Neither police nor fire officials could confirm how many people lived in the house.

Cheryl Chenier of 1 Edison Place said neighbors, in a door-to-door effort, collected about $300 for the families and have opened an account at the National Community Bank for boroughwide fund-raising.

The families are being lodged by the American Red Cross at Days Inn in East Rutherford.

December 14, 1991

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COPS CAST MASSIVE DWI NET

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 14, 1991

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

More than 200 law enforcement vehicles were ordered onto the streets and highways of Bergen County on Friday night in a 12-hour campaign to get drunken drivers off the road.

Operation Eagle was launched at 6 p.m. and involved all divisions of the Bergen County Public Safety Department, the state police, and officers from each of the county’s 70 towns. It was the brainchild of John Pescatore, director of the county’s Highway Safety Office.

“The eagle may have landed on Friday the 13th, but the feathers will be flying for a long time to come,” Pescatore said, because the crackdown is to continue into January.

The effort’s cost will be covered through fines levied against people convicted of driving drunk, not by the taxpayers, Pescatore said.

The state police established a sobriety checkpoint in Rutherford, and 15 troopers were deployed on Interstates 80 and 95 and routes 3, 4, 17, and 208.

The Bergen County Police Department had 20 cars in the field; the Prosecutor’s Office 15. “DWI Task Force” decals were displayed on the vehicles.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said deterrence was the main focus. He said people tend to drink more during the holiday season, especially on weekends.

“If we end up with no arrests, I will be happy, because it would mean that we’ve had an impact,” Fahy said.

December 14, 1991

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TIP LEADS COPS TO ALLEGED DRUG DEALER

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, December 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B07

Acting on an anonymous tip, city detectives have arrested a suspected drug dealer and a couple he had hired to sell crack and heroin for him, police said.

Frankie Lee, 28, of Berdin Place, Hackensack, was being held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail Annex in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Lee was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of heroin and marijuana, and possession within 1,000 feet of a school, Deputy Police Chief John Aletta said.

Facing the same charges but released on $5,000 bail were Gregory Bease, 35, and his common-law wife, Brenda Bathes, 44, both of 370 Park St., Hackensack, police said.

The arrest occurred sometime after 10 p.m. Wednesday, the time that narcotics detectives received information that a drug rip-off would be taking place at the Park Street address, Aletta said.

Detective Sgts. Arthur Mento, Robert Wright, and Louis D’Arminio, who responded to the tip, pursued Lee after he left the apartment, Aletta said. Officers Thomas Foschini and Thomas Staron, in marked patrol cars, arrested Lee a few blocks down Park Street, he said.

The detectives arrested Bease and Bathes, seizing about 25 vials of crack, a bag of heroin, and assorted drug paraphernalia, he said. Further investigation revealed that Lee delivered the drugs to the couple so they could sell it for him, Aletta said.

December 13, 1991

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TEANECK YOUTH SHOT IN LEG

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, October 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A10

A 16-year-old Teaneck youth was shot in the leg accidentally Friday as he and three other township youths played with a gun at the victim’s home on Genesee Avenue, police said.

The victim, whom police declined to identify because of his age, was treated at Holy Name Hospital for a wound above his left ankle and was released, said Detective Sgt. Robert Adomilli.

A 15-year-old boy who was being questioned by police Saturday about the shooting was charged with illegal possession of the .22-caliber handgun used in the shooting and aggravated assault, the sergeant said.

The shooting occurred about 5 p.m., Adomilli said. Someone reported a drive-by shooting, but police were able to determine within an hour that the youths had not been telling the truth, Adomilli said, adding that it did not appear that the shooting occurred as a result of an argument.

The investigation was continuing, Adomilli said.

Keywords: TEANECK; YOUTH; SHOOTING

October 13, 1991

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AFTER THE KILLING SPREE, SUICIDE WATCH FOR SUSPECT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Bill Sanderson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, October 12, 1991

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

Joseph M. Harris, the fired postal worker accused of killing four people early Thursday, was under a suicide watch Friday in a single cell in the Bergen County Jail’s mental health ward, said Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.

Harris, 35, of Paterson was being held on $1 million bail on charges of killing his former supervisor and her boyfriend in their Wayne home, and of later killing two employees at the Ridgewood post office. He surrendered to a SWAT team Thursday morning.

Harris was armed with two machine guns, several hand grenades, a samurai sword, and homemade pipe bombs when he was arrested.

Investigators were not sure Friday where Harris obtained his guns, or whether he had any gun permits. John J. Fahy, the Bergen County prosecutor, said two of Harris three weapons Uzi and MAC-10 semiautomatic rifles were assault weapons banned under a 1990 New Jersey law.

When the case is presented to a grand jury, the weapons offenses could be added to the list of charges against Harris, which include four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping, and possession of hand grenades.

Fahy said he may seek the death penalty against Harris. He said he will ask prosecutors and investigators for advice on the matter, and that he would also consider psychiatric evidence from Harris defense lawyers.

A state medical examiner’s autopsy of Carol Ott, Harris former supervisor, shows she was stabbed four to six times in the upper body. The other victims Cornelius Kasten Jr., Johannes M. VanderPaauw, and Donald McNaught were gunshot victims.

Keywords: RIDGEWOOD; WAYNE; MURDER; MAIL; EMPLOYMENT; BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Postal officer in Ridgewood Friday. Sign reads: “We thank you for your condolences at this difficult time. Please do not ask the window clerks any questions regarding the events of yesterday. Thank you.”

October 12, 1991

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KILLER’S HOME WAS WELL-KNOWN; HIS NEIGHBORS HAD COMPLAINED

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, October 11, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS Page A11

Type: PROFILE

The white brick and stucco home at Derrom and 14th avenues where Joseph M. Harris lived has been inspected many times by city zoning officials following complaints by neighbors that it was an illegal rooming house.
Neighbors standing outside Thursday as police entered and left sounded the same complaints, saying blaring horns, loud arguments, and fights at the house often punctuated the evenings. Harris is accused of killing four people during a murderous spree early Thursday morning.
City records show zoning officials began receiving complaints that the home was an illegal rooming house in 1985, zoning officer Thomas Shadiack said Thursday. “We went out there and found there were two rooms in the basement that were rented out,” he said.
Marianna Costa of Haledon owns the stately, spacious home where Harris lived in a second-floor room, above a kitchen at the back of the house.
The house has five bedrooms, five baths, and parquet floors throughout, Costa said. There are two fireplaces, one cobblestone and the other green marble, and one room has a bar with leather trimming and stainless steel fixtures.
Costa bought the house more than a decade ago for her daughter, but a year or so later the daughter decided to move and Costa made an option-to-buy agreement with Carmen Johnson, who put $2,000 down and agreed to pay several hundred dollars a month toward the purchase.
The city cited both Costa and Johnson for illegal conversion of the house to a rooming house after the September 1985 inspection, Shadiack said. Costa convinced a judge that Johnson was responsible for the house, he said, and Johnson pleaded guilty to the charge. She was fined $1,000, plus $25 in court costs.
Records show that zoning officials, responding to more complaints by neighbors, went to the house five times between February 1987 and June 1989 and asked for an affidavit listing the occupants of the house in October 1988. The city sent several letters to Costa and Johnson as a result of those inspections, but no legal action was taken.
Johnson on Thursday denied the home was a rooming house and said all those living there were related to her and didn’t pay rent.
In a Dec. 12, 1988, affidavit, filed by her lawyer, Clifford S. Hinds of Paterson, Johnson listed the following as occupants: herself, her husband, Earl; sons, Archie and Herman Burrell; daughter, Christine McDonald; and husband’s nephew, Harris.

Keywords: PATERSON; RIDGEWOOD; MAIL; EMPLOYMENT; SHOOTING; MURDER; JOSEPH M. HARRIS

Caption: (Early editions only) PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Members of a police bomb squad on Thursday leaving the home at 215 Derrom Ave. in Paterson where Joseph M. Harris lived.

October 11, 1991

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