WOMAN’S ASHES WASHED ASHORE; REMAINS FOUND IN CAN AT RESERVOIR

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 21, 1991

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

Woodcliff Lake police are waiting for relatives to reclaim a canister containing the ashen remains of a Westwood resident.
A Hackensack Water Co. maintenance crew found the canister on the bank of the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir.
It was the wish of the deceased, whom police declined to identify, that her remains be scattered over the reservoir, said Woodcliff Lake Police Capt. Richard Poliey.
“They just didn’t use the proper procedure or contact the water company for permission,” Poliey said.
Martha Green, a Hackensack Water Co. spokeswoman, said that, much as the water company respects a person’s last wish, this was one she thought the company could not grant.
“This comes somewhat as a surprise to me that that is how it got there. I haven’t seen a formal request, and I don’t think that is something that we could or would grant a request for. “
Poliey said he didn’t know how long the canister had been in the water or when it washed ashore.
The canister was sealed and the ashes did not get into the water, Green said. Workers found the canister while cleaning the bank of the reservoir Friday.
Woodcliff Lake is a storage reservoir that feeds the larger Oradell Reservoir, where the Hackensack Water Co. draws water for treatment and purification, before piping it to customers in 60 towns in Bergen and Hudson counties.

Keywords: WESTWOOD; WOMAN; DEATH; WOODCLIFF LAKE; LAKE; WATER; SUPPLY; UTILITY

MAN KILLS ESTRANGED WIFE, SELF; SLITS HER THROAT AND CUTS HIS OWN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 17, 1991

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

About 7:30 a.m. Friday, the day Mladen Fatovic was going to die, he called his supervisor at work, said he was not feeling well, and asked for the day off.
Sometime before 3 p.m. that day, the 48-year-old man went to the home of his estranged wife in Cliffside Park and slit her throat.
He then went back to the Little Ferry apartment he moved into at the outset of the couple’s separation about six months ago and killed himself, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
Fatovic had cuts to his throat, his wrist, his chest, “all over his body,” Fahy said.
A kitchen knife with a 8-inch blade, believed to have been used in both killings, was found in Fatovic’s bedroom, Fahy added. A note at the scene indicated the death was suicide, he said.
Autopsies will be performed today on the bodies of Fatovic and his wife, Marija, 43, Fahy said. The post-mortems are expected to confirm the cause and exact time of the deaths; otherwise, the investigation is considered closed, he said.
Henry Fatovic, the couple’s 20-year-old son, had left their Cliffside Park home for work about 7 a.m., and their other son, Robert, 21, left about an hour later. Henry Fatovic discovered his mother’s body in the bedroom when he returned home from work about 3 p.m. Friday, and called police.
“Her throat was slashed and it appears that she bled to death,” Fahy said.
There were signs of struggle in the house, Fahy said, but the door was locked when Henry Fatovic returned home and there was no sign of forced entry and no indication that anything was taken from the house.
Investigators went to Fatovic’s apartment because he had a key to the family house, Fahy said.
Homicide investigators from the Prosecutor’s Office, Cliffside Park police detectives, and Little Ferry police arrived at 36 Marshall Ave. in Little Ferry about 4 p.m. to find Fatovic’s fully clothed body on the bedroom floor, he said.
On Saturday afternoon, at the modest single-family West End Avenue home in Cliffside Park, the mail was uncollected and the porch light was on. An old Chevrolet truck with a “For Sale” sign in the window was in the driveway, in front of a blue Ford Thunderbird.
No one was home, and neighbors were not talking. A 20-year-old man who said that he had worked for four years at Shop Rite with Henry Fatovic and that he knew the family well said he never noticed any discord. He said he was shaken by the deaths, and declined to give his name.
Nino Fatovic of Little Ferry would say no more than that Mladen Fatovic was his brother. Neither son could be reached.
Marija Fatovic was an aide at North Bergen Senior Citizens Nutrition Center. The center could not be reached for comment.
David Ivanac, 49, supervisor at Rochelle Park’s FIMS Manufacturing Corp., where Fatovic was an assembly-line machinist, said he was a good, hard-working man who was sometimes impatient and hot-tempered.
“He loves his wife so much; he was so jealous,” Ivanac said. “I said to him, `Stay away. You know, two people, they can’t live together. These are nice people, no question about it.
“I can expect him to do something, like walk away, or something like that, but never something like this. “
Ivanac said he and Fatovic knew each other as children in Sestrunj, a small island of about 500 people, near Zadar in the Croatian republic of Yugoslavia, but weren’t friends then. They worked together in France for about 11 years and came to the United States about seven years ago, he said.
The Fatovics lived with his wife’s brother for a few months before moving to the West End Avenue home, Ivanac said. He said he did not know the cause of the couple’s separation.
Fahy said the couple was in the process of getting a divorce.
Ivanac said Fatovic often worked about 50 hours per week, but that he left an hour early Thursday to have dinner with his son Henry. Then he called in sick Friday morning.

Keywords: MURDER; FAMILY; SUICIDE; CLIFFSIDE PARK; LITTLE FERRY; MLADEN FATOVIC

COPS HUNT GUNMEN IN STRING OF HOLDUPS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 17, 1991

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

Police departments are on the lookout for two or more armed men following a series of gas station holdups that authorities believe may be related.
Over the last week, police reported six similar armed robberies in Clifton, Passaic, Wallington, and Rutherford. Most were at service stations on highways, and all but one were committed by a single gunman confronting a lone attendant.
“We’re coordinating with those departments and alerting other departments in the area with gas stations on highways,” said Detective Sgt. William De Vos of Clifton, where three holdups occurred on consecutive days last week.
The latest robbery was at a Getty station in Rutherford on Thursday evening. It was the only one in which a shot was fired, police said.
A 37-year-old attendant was sitting behind a desk at the Getty station about 8:30 p.m. when a man came into the office, asked for change of a dollar, and then produced a gun and announced a robbery, said Rutherford police Detective Lt. Steven Nienstedt.
The gunman took about $300 from the attendant and pushed him into a boiler room next to the office, Nienstedt said. A second man joined the gunman, rifled through the desk, and took more money. They fled on foot, police said.
Before leaving, the gunman shot at the attendant but struck the door, Nienstedt said.
Police said the method in that robbery resembled the other five under investigation.

Keywords: ROBBERY; GARAGE; CLIFTON; PASSAIC; WALLINGTON; RUTHERFORD

5 ARRESTED IN COCAINE, GUN STING

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, February 15, 1991

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

Francisco Torres double-parked his white 1989 Porsche in front of a Hackensack house Wednesday, put a “Doctor On Call” sign on the dash, and, briefcase in hand, walked into a police narcotics sting.
The arrest of the 30-year-old Jersey City man and an accomplice culminated an investigation that yielded 2 1/2 pounds of cocaine and the arrests of three other men Tuesday night, city Police Chief William Iurato said Thursday.
Tuesday’s arrests came in “a volatile situation that was defused with no gunplay” when an officer disarmed a suspect who appeared ready to fire a machine gun, Iurato said.
Detective Sgt. Arthur Mento, who backed up narcotics officers posing as weapons and drug dealers, credited Detective Sgt. Michael Mordaga with saving his and other officers lives when he disarmed the suspect, who had trained the gun on Mento.
Police had decided to act as “middlemen” after they got wind of an operation in which people were trading guns for cash or cocaine, said Iurato, who gave the following account:
The first leg of the investigation was the purchase of the machine gun in the parking lot of a diner on Essex Street at about 10:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Mordaga and Officer Al Guitierrez were at the open door of a truck negotiating the $2,300 asking price for the gun with Eduardo Gomez, 26, of Union City, and Jairo Gondolo, 32, of Weehawken.
The third suspect, Abel Maldonaldo, 29, of Paterson, who was standing watch, saw other undercover officers approaching and yelled, “It’s a rip. “
“They thought they were being ripped off,” Iurato said. “They didn’t realize we were police officers until after the arrest. “
Gondolo picked up the machine gun, which was at his feet in the back seat, and raised it.
Mordaga jumped into the truck, and jammed his thumb in the trigger housing of the machine gun, slightly injuring his thumb as he disarmed Gondolo.
“We were in a situation where we couldn’t shoot,” Mento said. “If Sgt. Mordaga had not done what he did, we would have been seriously hurt. “
The gun was loaded with 30 rounds of 9mm ammunition. A .45-caliber handgun was also seized.
Tuesday’s arrests led police to Torres and Domingo Acosta, 29, of Union City, who were to provide 2 1/2 pounds of cocaine at a price of $30,000, a figure less than the street value, Iurato said. Torres and Acosta agreed to reduce the price if the undercover officers would buy 5 pounds of cocaine a week.
Iurato declined to say how police connected the suspects in Tuesday’s arrests with Torres and Acosta.
Torres and Acosta, who were arrested without incident, were charged with possession of and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and possession of a semi-automatic handgun. Torres was freed on $25,000 bail and Acosta was released on $50,000 bail.
Gondolo, charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, weapons charges, and resisting arrest, was released on $50,000 bail.
Gomez was being held in the Bergen County Jail on $50,000 bail on weapons charges and a charge of resisting arrest. Maldonaldo was held on $26,000 bail on the same charges.
Police confiscated the Porsche and the 1988 Toyota truck.

Keywords: DRUG; JERSEY CITY; WEAPON; HACKENSACK; POLICE

SHOPLIFTING SUSPECT IN MINK; TOOK 3 SLIPPERS, DUSTER, POLICE SAY

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 14, 1991

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

Emerson police called in the Bergen County Police Department canine unit Wednesday to catch a 64-year-old New York State woman who stole three slippers and a house coat from a clothing store and eluded police and the store owner, authorities said.
Robert Malto, the 67-year-old owner of Wendy Drew Inc., a women’s clothing store at 368 Kinderkamack Road, said Garfinkel came in shortly before noon, wearing a full-length mink coat.
“As she left the store, my wife called my attention to the fact that a duster a house coat was hanging beneath the mink,” Malto said. “You couldn’t miss it. She left the store quickly and walked at a very fast pace across the parking lot. “
Malto said he thought Garfinkel was going to her car, and he and a store manager chased after her.
“She turned around and shouted, `Why are you following me? Why are you after me? ” Malto said.
Garfinkel ran behind the department store, dropped three slippers, and ran through the woods onto Kinderkamack Road, then Highland Avenue, with Malto and the store manager in pursuit, Malto said.
“Just as police came, she disappeared from our view,” he said.
Police saw her on Kinderkamack, then on Highland Avenue and Orchard Street, before losing her in the back yards, a police spokesman said.
County Police Officer Robert DiPalma and his dog, Connie, caught Garfinkel hiding behind the bushes about 30 minutes after the chase began.

Keywords: EMERSON; STORE; WOMAN; SHOPLIFTING

MAN ACCUSED OF MAKING THREATS

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Thursday, February 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B04

Police charged a 33-year-old Carlstadt man with making terroristic threats after taking a butcher knife away from him and arresting him Tuesday at the home of a Center Avenue resident.
Fhahram Zarrabi of 612 Division Ave. threatened to kill two borough residents because they owed him $18,000 for work he did for them, said Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso. After his arrest, Zarrabi was released on $500 bail.

Keywords: FORT LEE; ASSAULT; WEAPON

GLEN ROCK MAN CHARGED IN GAS STATION HOLDUP

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Thursday, February 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B05

A 27-year-old Glen Rock man who robbed a gas station attendant at gunpoint Tuesday night was arrested 45 minutes later in Paramus, police said.
Roberto Perez of 132 Gaynor Place was charged with armed robbery and was being held in the Bergen County Jail Wednesday on $20,000 bail.
The incident began about 9 p.m. Tuesday, when Perez pulled his van up to a pump at the Route 4 Exxon gas station in Englewood. Englewood Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said the gas station attendant told police that when he approached the van, he saw Perez point a paper bag, with what appeared to be the barrel of a pistol poking out, at him.
“Don’t run. Give me all the money you have or I’ll blow your head off,” Perez told the attendant, according to Tinsley.
The attendant gave Perez about $200, and he drove east on Route 4. Englewood police sent descriptions of the suspect over police radio, Tinsley said.
A Paramus police officer arrested Perez as he traveled west on Route 4, at the Forest Avenue exit. Police recovered $66 of the stolen money but did not find a gun, Tinsley said.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; GARAGE; ROBBERY

KIDS EXCITED BY DRUG LESSONS PARAMUS PROGRAM DRAWS ENTHUSIASM

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NORTH CENTRAL BERGEN/YOUR TOWN RECORD | Page 1

To fifth-graders at the Paramus public schools, the Police Department’s DARE program urging children to stay away from drugs is a hit.
And to Paramus Police Detective Kevin Smith and Patrolman Bill Nutland, who are coordinating the 18-week pilot Drug Abuse Resistance Education program at Eastbrook and Westbrook middle schools, the students enthusiasm has been infectious.
The excitement was evident at DARE flag-raising ceremonies at the two schools. A rousing ovation, punctuated with “woof, woof, woof,” a la Arsenio Hall’s “dog pound,” greeted Nutland and Smith when they spoke before 115 10- and 11-year-olds and their teachers gathered at the gymnasium of the Westbrook School last week.
The officers were treated to a similar reception several weeks earlier at the Eastbrook School.
Both times the children had gathered to hoist the DARE flag and recite the pledge to say no to drugs. Rainy weather moved last week’s ceremony indoors. The change did not discourage the children, however. They remained as rambunctious as ever.
“What are you going to say when someone comes to you on the street and says, `Hey kid, you want to try some drugs? ” Nutland asked.
“No!” came the deafening reply, their voices bouncing off the walls of the gymnasium.
“Do you really mean it?” asked Nutland, like a preacher warming to the task.
“Yes!” echoed the chorus.
The DARE flag black with DARE in red letters and the credo, “To Keep Kids off Drugs,” in white is to remind visitors to the school that DARE is there, working everyday of the year, Nutland told the students.
The message seems to be sinking in. The children excitedly talked about what they are learning and how they feel about Nutland, Smith, and the other officers from the Police Department who come and help out.
Westbrook School’s Sumon Nandy, 10, said he learned that drugs are bad for him and could kill him. Jennifer Ward, 10, of the Eastbrook School said all the children were always excited to have “Kevin” Detective Smith around.
The officers go to the schools Nutland at Westbrook and Smith at Eastbrook three times each week. They play softball and football with the children and teach the DARE curriculum, which Eastbrook Principal Barbara Hyde said focuses on self-esteem and drug-related education.
Hyde said the school district and the Police Department chose the fifth grade to start the pilot program because it is a critical age to try to reach the children: They are under less parental supervision; they are sometimes with older students; and they are exposed to bad influences from the television and other media.
“There are more chances for them to make wrong decisions,” Hyde said. “There’s no guarantee that this is going to turn the world around, but a lot of things haven’t worked and this is a really positive program.”

Keywords: PARAMUS; DRUG; ABUSE; STUDENT; CHILD; SCHOOL; POLICE

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Fifth-graders standing with policemen who taught them how to avoid drugs. From left, Keith Smollin, Detective Kevin Smith, Laura Hofsommer, Patrolman Bill Nutland, and T.J. Cullen.

VICTIMS HOPE TO CLAIM STOLEN GOODS AT `BAZAAR’

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 7, 1991

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

More than 200 North Jersey and New York State residents whose homes were hit by burglars filed through the Bergenfield police station this week, searching through a cache of recovered goods for their belongings.
Detective T.J. Lee Jr. was directing people Wednesday morning past the makeshift jewelry table arrayed with dozens of rings, broaches, necklaces, armbands, medallions, and wristwatches. Larger items such as fur coats and electronic equipment were displayed in the basement.
“You may step up close,” Lee said to the procession. “If you see anything that you recognize, tell me. I’ll be glad to show it to you. “
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said at a briefing Wednesday that the items on display were among hundreds stolen from North Jersey homes and recovered in raids at two Bergenfield residences last week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, some 215 people had visited the station, but only a handful of items were identified by their owners.
A Teaneck woman brought a photograph of herself wearing a 24-inch herringbone gold necklace that was recovered in the raids. Detective Stephen Cassiero of the Mamaroneck Police Department in Westchester County identified a .357-caliber Magnum revolver that had been stolen in the town. It was one of four handguns recovered by police.
But most people could not identify any possessions.
A Washington Township couple searching unsuccessfully through the haul said all the gifts they received for their 50th wedding anniversary in October, along with jewelry and money, were stolen from their home Dec. 15, hours after they left for a vacation in upstate New York.
The couple, who declined to be identified out of fear they would be victimized again, hurriedly returned home the next day to find their home ransacked and strewn with debris. Peacock ornaments that had been mounted on the wall were on the floor, shattered.
“I hope it hit them on the head when they fell to the floor,” the man said.
A woman and her husband who accompanied Ridgefield Police Lt. Vincent Zacco to the station also didn’t see any property belonging to them.
“I was saying I wasn’t going to get my hopes up, but they were up,” she said, the disappointment evident in her face.
In the raids Friday night, detectives from Teaneck, Bergenfield, Englewood, Fort Lee, Hackensack, and the recently formed burglary squad of the Prosecutor’s Office seized the stolen goods at 16-B Morrissey Walk and 12 Carnation St. in Bergenfield.
Fahy declined to estimate the value of the items seized.
Police are hoping that many more items can be identified by their owners, and have set another session for residents to come into the station on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.
“We are hoping to have a lot of victims identify items so that we can not only give their property back to them, but sign additional complaints against the defendants,” said Bergenfield Detective Sgt. James J. Stoltenborg.
For instance, Stoltenborg said that Saulter, who raised his $100,000 bail and was released from the Bergen County Jail Tuesday, had been rearrested in Teaneck by detectives from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and the Bergenfield Police Department for violation of probation and on a complaint stemming from a burglary in Ridgefield. A woman from the borough identified a gold necklace with a diamond anchor as one of the items stolen in a burglary of her home.
On Wednesday, Englewood Municipal Court Judge Joseph M. Clark ordered Saulter held without bail for violation of probation on a marijuana-possession charge.
Beckford and Hicks, who are out on bail, also faced additional charges, police said.

Keywords: BERGENFIELD; POLICE; BURGLARY; VICTIM

Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS BY STEVE HOCKSTEIN / THE RECORD 1 – Bracelets, bangles, and chains – part of the cache of jewelry recovered by Bergenfield police – await their owners, left. 2 – A fur held by Detective Jonathan D. Cochran was among the items taken by burglars in New Jersey and New York State.

2ND SUSPECT IN PARAMUS HEIST NABBED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B04

A 40-year-old Fairview man who was arrested Monday night in Woodbridge for credit-card fraud has been identified as the second suspect in a Jan. 16 Paramus bank robbery in which a 15-year-old Bronx boy was arrested, police said.
Leon Busiello, also known as John Rizzo, of 685 Prospect Ave., was being held in the Middlesex County Jail on Tuesday, Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said.
On Tuesday, a Paramus Municipal Court judge set $100,000 bail for Busiello on charges of bank robbery and possession of a weapon while committing the robbery, Delaney said.
Busiello gave the youth, whom police declined to identify because of his age, a note that he read to a teller at the Midland Bank in the Bergen Mall on the day of the robbery, Delaney said.
“Give me all the money, large bills, no singles, or I’ll kill everyone. I have a gun,” Delaney said the youth told the teller. Busiello, who Delaney said drove the boy and a third suspect to the mall, was standing nearby with a gun.
Busiello took most of the $8,772 that the teller handed the boy and escaped, as did the third suspect, Delaney said. A Bergen County police officer driving nearby arrested the boy, who had $1,600 in his possession, in the parking lot behind the bank.
The boy is being held in the Bergen County Juvenile Center in Paramus, awaiting a hearing on charges of bank robbery and threatening to kill people in the bank.
Busiello faces charges of fraud and illegal possession of a weapon in Middlesex County. Delaney could not provide details about the incident.

Keywords: PARAMUS; BANK; ROBBERY