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FRIEND CATCHES BOY IN FIRE LEAP

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, February 14, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B08

A 13-year-old boy escaped injury in a fire Thursday when he climbed off a second-floor balcony at his family’s apartment onto a storage shed roof, then jumped into the arms of a next-door neighbor.

Ricky Correale of 147 Washington Ave. admitted he was scared, but was laughing later when he said Sam Aguilar, 15, “saved my life.”

John Godfroy, 72, and his wife Alma, 71, tenants in the first-floor apartment where the fire started, were taken to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck for observation, Fire Chief William A. Weber said.

Following an alarm at 7:53 a.m., firefighters saw heavy, black smoke coming out the front door and windows of the building, which also contains three storefronts and two other apartments.

“The fire started in the bedroom closet,” Weber said. “A [lighted] cigarette accidentally fell into the pocket of the woman’s robe. She then hung the robe up in the closet.”

The fire was under control within 15 minutes, Weber said. Heat and water damage was confined to the couple’s living room and bedroom, although smoke damage extended to the second-floor apartment and a store next door, Weber said.

Correale, whose mother had left for work, was coming out of the shower when he heard a frantic knock on the door and shouts that the building was on fire, he said.

He grabbed a jacket, sweat pants, a T-shirt, and sneakers. Unable to go down the stairs because of heavy smoke, Correale went out the back door onto the roof of the shed.

Aguilar was in the parking lot when he saw the smoke, then saw Correale on the roof, which is about 12 feet from the ground. Aguilar said he told his friend, who weighs about 130 pounds, to jump, and that he would catch him.

“He kept saying, `Are you sure you’re going to catch me? He asked me that like six times. I said jump, jump, jump,” Aguilar said.

Correale said he took another look at the flames shooting out of the first-floor windows. He jumped, and Aguilar caught him in a bear-hug.

Little Ferry firefighters were assisted by the Carlstadt, Hasbrouck Heights, and Moonachie fire departments.

ID: 17368813 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 14, 1992
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TWO CHARGED WITH GUN, DRUG COUNTS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 12, 1992

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

Two men were charged with possession of a sawed-off shotgun and an automatic handgun and were being held in the Bergen County Jail, each on $25,000 bail, Police Chief John Orso said Tuesday.

Robert Cobb, 22, and Robert Scott, 19, were stopped in the parking lot of the municipal building about 9:30 p.m. Monday after detectives on patrol saw them drive back and forth several times, Orso said.

The men told the detectives they lived nearby and that the papers for the car were at their apartment, Orso said.

With the men’s permission, detectives entered the apartment at 2134 Mackay Ave., and found the shotgun and the .25-caliber automatic handgun on the bed, Orso said. They also found in a safe a record of drug transactions and $2,800, he added. Those items were confiscated.

Detectives later found out that Scott had two outstanding warrants, one for failure to appear in Bergen County Superior Court on a burglary charge and the other for failure to appear in Atlantic County Superior Court on a drug possession charge, Orso said.

Charges against the men include unlawful possession of weapons, unlawful possession of hollow nose bullets, and conspiracy to possess and distribute a controlled dangerous substance. Further details on the charges were not available.

Sgt. Bill Cullen, Detective Gary Moleta, and Detective John Klein, all of the borough’s Narcotics Squad, were involved in the arrest.

ID: 17368602 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 12, 1992
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INMATES BLAME FOOD FOR JAIL DISTURBANCE; Testify at Hearing on Class-Action Suit

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 8, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | A03

Two Bergen County Jail inmates testified Friday that dissatisfaction with the jail’s food led to a hunger strike and a disturbance last month in which one prisoner was bitten three times by a guard dog.

Gary Jones and Gregory Cannell testified at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack at continuing hearings on a 1988 class-action lawsuit filed by the state Department of the Public Advocate to reduce overcrowding at the jail.

Jones and Cannell said that prisoners are dissatisfied with the quality of food and the size of the portions. Until the protest, they said, food often was served cold.

Jones said that, as a leader of a group of white inmates, he persuaded black and Puerto Rican inmates in his dormitory to go on a hunger strike Jan. 11. All 64 inmates from the dormitory skipped lunch that day, he said.

That evening, all but five inmates, who ate because they were hungry and were allowed to leave ahead of the others, dumped their food into the garbage and tried to rush out of the dining hall past corrections officers to return to their dormitory, Jones said.

Officers used dogs to quell the disturbance, Jones said. Cannell said that corrections officers cornered a group of inmates, handcuffed and beat him, then allowed a dog to bite him on his left hand and once on each arm.

As a result of the disturbance, 15 inmates were charged with rule violations, and Cannell and Howard Tucker each face a charge of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.

Cannell, whose testimony will continue next week, hired Westwood attorney Leopold A. Monaco to represent him on the charge. Cannell said inmates had many complaints, ranging from how corrections officers treat them to physical conditions. Monaco said his client has been held in isolation since the incident as punishment.

County officials have maintained that the correction officers actions were proper, saying the inmates provoked the response by rushing for the doors.

The hearings resumed this week before James A. Zazzali, a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman in September 1989, when the parties failed to reach an out-of-court settlement. They are expected to last at least through February.

ID: 17368253 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 8, 1992
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SEARCH BEGINS FOR FIRE’S CAUSE; 3 Garfield families homeless

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 6, 1992

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

Investigators continued their search Wednesday for the cause of a fire that severely damaged a Main Street house and displaced three families.

The fact that the probe is ongoing “doesn’t mean it was arson, or anything like that,” said police Capt. Babe Cimino.

A Garfield schoolteacher saw the fire at 7 Main St. at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and called police.

“It spread through the rear of the house rapidly, and eventually consumed the entire house, causing extensive damage to the house and its contents,” Cimino said.

The fire was declared under control about 5:50 p.m. by Fire Chief John Adametz.

A firefighter, two ambulance corps members, and an unidentified woman were treated for minor injuries at Saddle Brook Hospital and released.

The displaced families were able to find temporary shelter with relatives.

ID: 17368109 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 6, 1992
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PAIR ARRESTED TRYING TO FLEE

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By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Wednesday, February 5, 1992

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

Two men suspected of a string of robberies in New Jersey were being treated Tuesday at Bellevue Hospital Center for broken limbs after they injured themselves trying to escape from Fort Lee and New York police officers, police said.

Ramon Harper, 24, of Edison and Derrick Sheridan, 31, of Avenel were arrested Monday night in New York, police said.

Rochelle Park Detective Don Simon said the men grabbed a 33-year-old woman as she walked into the West Passaic Street Shop-Rite at about 9:50 p.m. One of them pulled her pocketbook from her shoulder, Simon said.

Fort Lee police spotted the men’s car approaching the George Washington Bridge and chased it into the city.

The suspects abandoned their vehicle and jumped off a roof 25 feet to the ground, where they were arrested, Royster said.

Police said Harper and Sheridan are suspects in recent strong-arm robberies in communities including Hackensack, Lodi, Wayne, West Orange, Denville, Parsippany, and Rahway.

ID: 17367905 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 5, 1992
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POLICE QUELL NEAR-RIOT IN TEANECK

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 2, 1992

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

About 100 Englewood youths armed with sticks, stones, and bottles converged on a Teaneck High School dance, but were met by an almost equal number of police officers who quelled a near-riot.

Breaking up sporadic fights at the flanks of crowds and keeping most of the youths apart on opposite sides of Teaneck Road, officers Friday night eventually herded the Englewood youths north into Englewood to put an end to the incident, said Lt. William Broughton, head of the Teaneck Police Department Youth Bureau.

Three juveniles from Hackensack, Englewood, and Teaneck taken into custody were released to the custody of parents or guardians about 1 a.m., he said. Andre Devon Perrin, 18, of West Hudson Avenue, Englewood, was arrested. He was charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, rioting, and resisting arrest, Broughton said.

Perrin, who had a heavy 18-inch fire hydrant wrench when he was arrested, was in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday on $7,500 bail, he added.

Broughton, who was injured when he was hit on the head by a piece of thrown metal, said the only other injuries were to Detective Dean Kazinci, who was hit on the shin with a bottle, and Sgt. Mark Tiernan, who suffered bruised ribs. Neither was taken to a hospital, he said.

Broughton said he did not know why the Englewood youths came to Teaneck, but said they may have been retaliating for a past incident or some perceived slight by Teaneck youths. Sgt. Robert Adomilli said there may have been a dance at Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School.

“The type of behavior we saw last night is not going to be tolerated by the Teaneck Police Department or the residents of Teaneck,” Broughton said Saturday.

Also responding were about 75 to 100 police officers from the Dumont, Bergenfield, Englewood, Tenafly, Haworth, Palisades Park, Paramus, and Bergen County departments, he said.

Uniformed Teaneck officers went to the corner of Washington Place and Sunrise Terrace about 10:45 p.m., as the Teaneck dance wound down, on a report from residents that youths were fighting, Adomilli said. Officers saw a group of youths but did not see any fighting, he said.

The students at the dance, meanwhile, were told to stay at the school.

A few minutes later, police cars blocked off the Margaret Street bridge when they heard a report that a large group of youths were headed into the township from Englewood.

Police soon heard another report that another group of Englewood youths was coming from Forest Avenue.

“At that point, we knew they were coming to the high school,” Broughton said.

Despite discouragement from police, Adomilli said, a group of about 60 Teaneck youths formed and was ready to meet the Englewood youths.

“It’s a fortunate thing we were there, in the number we were there,” Adomilli said. “I’m telling you, somebody would have gotten hurt. . . . It was very bad scene. We got good support from the surrounding towns.”

Michele March, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Teaneck, was at the scene with her husband, Curtis, who was a chaperone at the dance, helping police calm the youths.

March expressed frustration at what appear to be continuing fights between rival youths in different local communities, especially between Teaneck, Englewood, and Hackensack youths.

“You know what I see? I see a lot of nice kids who just need somebody to point them in the right direction, to tell them that this is not what we are about as black people,” March said.

March commended the police for their professionalism, quick response, and the efficient manner in which they quelled the incident.

“There is a total misfocus here on racism; it’s a black-on-black thing,” she said. “This is a thing that the black community has to solve for itself. We have to reach out to our kids and tell them that we love them, but that we do not accept this kind of behavior; that it is not a way for them to enjoy their future, that they might end up dead or injured.”

Notes: Bergen news page

ID: 17367659 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 2, 1992
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ROBBERY SUSPECT AIMS GUN AT COP

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 1, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03

A robbery suspect who had leveled a gun at a police officer dropped his weapon after a second officer, who came up behind the suspect, ordered him to freeze, police said.

The suspect, Thomas O’Kean, had just walked out of a Roy Rogers restaurant on Route 46. He allegedly had a bag of money in his left hand and a gun in his right when he was confronted by Officer Donald Anzalone, said Police Chief Donald Fleming.

Anzalone and Officer Craig Hartless had responded to a silent alarm at the restaurant about 11:25 p.m. Thursday, then waited for the suspect to come outside, because they did not want him to take the five restaurant employees hostage, Anzalone said.

O’Kean allegedly waited for the last customer to leave before accosting the manager, who tripped a silent alarm. After taking money from a safe, a cash-drop box, and a register, the suspect emerged from a side door into the parking lot, where Anzalone, who was behind cover, ordered him to freeze and drop his gun.

Anzalone said O’Kean instead began to slowly raise his weapon, which turned out to be a pellet gun, before Hartless also called on him to freeze.

“He had the gun leveled at me,” Anzalone said. “I don’t know why I didn’t shoot him. I think we both handled it pretty well. The outcome is what we like to see.”

O’Kean, who gave a Lodi address that police could not confirm, was charged with the armed robbery of about $1,800 from the restaurant. He was being held without bail in the Bergen County Jail.

ID: 17367597 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 1, 1992
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CRASH KILLS DRIVER OF COUNTY VAN

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 1, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star | NEWS | A05

Authorities are investigating the crash of a Bergen County special transportation van whose driver died after he apparently lost control and landed in a ravine.

Detective George Gibbs of the Bergen County Police Department said eyewitnesses reported the van was headed south on Polifly Road about 11 a.m. Thursday when it crossed into the northbound lane, drove through the Exxon gas station on the Hackensack-Hasbrouck Heights border, then landed in a ravine behind the station.

The witnesses said the driver was not visible when the vehicle went out of control.

The driver, Charles Strunck, 49, of Wood-Ridge, was taken to Hackensack Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:22 a.m., Gibbs said.

“Right now, we are waiting for the autopsy report and mechanical inspection of the van. A preliminary inspection indicated everything was OK on the van,” Gibbs said.

Margaret Cook, director of special transportation for Bergen County, said Strunck was on his way to pick up an elderly woman for a doctor’s appointment when the accident occurred. He had just dropped off about 10 passengers at a senior citizens center in Hackensack.

“It will be a tremendous loss to us,” said Cook, who described Strunck as a compassionate and outgoing worker.

ID: 17367590 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 1, 1992
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JAIL STILL DEFICIENT, EXPERT TESTIFIES

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 30, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page: B01

Conditions that led Bergen County Jail inmates to file a class-action suit against the county and state remain largely unchanged since a sanitary expert last inspected the jail more than a year ago, the expert testified Wednesday in Newark.

Ward Duel, who was hired by the state Department of the Public Advocate after it had filed the suit on behalf of the inmates, said that upon reinspection Wednesday he found some improvements in health and food services. Duel said other jail facilities and programs had deteriorated, however.

The suit, filed in 1988, charges that overcrowding in the jail and its annex exacerbates violations of inmates constitutional rights. Of 984 inmates currently in the jail which has a rated capacity of 423 inmates 379 are state-sentenced prisoners.

Duel, an Illinois consultant who has seen prison conditions in 33 states, inspected the jail and testified extensively in 1990 on what he saw there.

Wednesday morning he reinspected the jail to look for improvements; during a resumed hearing on the suit, he said that he did not find many.

Inmates still contend with filthy walls, mouse droppings, sewage dripping from overhead pipes in the kitchen, unsafe electrical wires, leaky fixtures, and toilets that back up, he testified.

For instance, damage done to the annex during a June 1990 riot has not been repaired, Duel said. In that riot, inmates ripped out urinals and sinks and smashed toilets and windows. Some dormitory and cell areas in the annex have worsened, he added. In one area, he said, he was unable to turn on 18 of 36 lights.

“I think one of the conditions that contributed to the lack of good housekeeping is that the building is so dark,” he said. “You need good lighting in order to have good housecleaning.

“My overall evaluation of the annex has not changed. I was disappointed to see the new pods deteriorating.”

One of the areas Duel said had improved, food services, was the focus of a Jan. 11 protest in which an inmate was bitten by a guard’s dog when corrections officers tried to restore order. Inmates involved in that protest are scheduled to testify in the hearing next week.

Neither Deputy Bergen County Counsel Murshell Johnson nor Deputy Attorney General Catherine M. Brown would comment on Duel’s testimony Wednesday. The hearings are scheduled to continue today and are expected to last at least through February.

Jerrold B. Binney, chief of staff to Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber, said Tuesday that the county has set up a jail advisory committee that monitors the sanitary and safety conditions cited and is developing a master plan to develop long-term solutions to problems in the jail.

Talks to settle the suit out of court broke down late last year. The hearings are being conducted by James R. Zazzali, a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman in September 1989 to make recommendations based on the hearings.

ID: 17367448 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 30, 1992
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VICTORY FOR JAIL COULD BE A LOSS; Hearings Resume on Overcrowding

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 29, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01

In an ironic twist to a class-action suit seeking to reduce overcrowding at the Bergen County Jail, a high-ranking county official says the county could wind up a loser if it wins the case.

Jerrold B. Binney, chief of staff to county Executive William “Pat” Schuber, said Tuesday that the state might walk away from the jail’s problems, if the recommendation of special master James R. Zazzali goes against the Department of the Public Advocate. It filed the federal suit in behalf of jail inmates in 1988.

The state and county are defendants in the case. Hearings on the suit were scheduled to resume today, after negotiations on an out-of-court settlement reached an impasse late last year.

Of 984 inmates in the jail which has a rated capacity of 423 379 are state prisoners, said a spokeswoman for Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.

Binney, who has been designated by Schuber to speak for the county on the issue, said that the county has maintained all along that the state is to blame for the overcrowding and a host of other problems at the jail.

If the state and county win, he added, the state would have no incentive to decrease the number of state prisoners in the jail, or to increase its per-diem subsidy for state prisoners.

Binney says the county may sue the state to get it to address the county’s concerns.

“We’ve already done that in one instance, on the per-diem issue,” he said. “We’ve joined the Gloucester County suit on the per-diem cost because, right now, it is draining our treasury.

“We get $45 a day from the state,” he went on. “That’s what we’ve been getting for about 12 years, and everybody knows the costs have been going up. We feel that at a minimum at a minimum it’s costing us $65 a day to house those state prisoners, and that’s not even including some capital costs.”

The Bergen County freeholders are to consider the per-diem issue at their next meeting, deciding how much to ask of the court in the Gloucester case.

Deputy Attorney General Patricia Leuzzi, representing the state Corrections Department in the suit, said she had not been notified that Bergen County joined the Gloucester suit.

Leuzzi also said she was reluctant to discuss the issues discussed during settlement talks, but that the state does not dispute that the per-diem rate needs to increase. The state Legislature is responsible for such an increase, she said.

“The budget is limited,” she said. “The governor and the Legislature are making difficult decisions on what can be funded. Things are being cut back. There are complaints from every constituent.”

Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse, who is handling the class-action suit, said the state deliberately overloads the county jails in order to avoid having its prisons declared unconstitutional.

Bomse said that overcrowding exacerbates the violation of inmates constitutional rights, and that an expert for the public advocate would testify today that, with the exception of health care, “almost next to nothing has been done to ameliorate” problems at the jail.

Among the problem areas cited were lack of exercise, poor lighting, improper sanitation, inadequate protection of inmates from other inmates, and a rising level of violence between inmates and corrections officers.

Corrections Department spokesman James Stabile said that overcrowding results from state prisons taking in more inmates than they let out. In 1991, for instance, 11,559 inmates came into state prisons and 8,216 were paroled, leaving a monthly average surplus of 279 inmates.

New Jersey is one of only five states in the nation not under a court order to drastically reduce its prison population, said Betsy Bernat, a spokeswoman for the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. The project seeks to reduce prison populations.

Bernat said the reasons vary among the five states. Vermont, Montana, and North Dakota have no prison overcrowding largely because they are sparsely populated states, and Minnesota doesn’t because it imprisons only the most dangerous criminals.

She agreed with Bomse that New Jersey, which operates at about 135 percent of its prison capacity, was able to stave off a court order by “backing up its prisoners into the county jail system.”

ID: 17367308 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 29, 1992
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