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MAN CHARGED IN WIFE’S ORDEAL; HE DRENCHED HER WITH GAS, COPS SAY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, December 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page C05

A 27-year-old man abducted his estranged wife from a Teaneck street, drenched her with gasoline, and threatened to set both of them afire if she did not reconcile with him, police said.

Russell J. Kutcher was arrested in a Ridgefield motel where he had taken her, police said. Kutcher was being held Thursdau on $500,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. His wife, whom police declined to name, was not injured.

The couple, separated since September, were in the process of getting a divorce. The woman had obtained a temporary restraining order against Kutcher on Dec. 13 because he was bothering her, Teaneck police Detective Leonard Pinto said. They were married in February.

Kutcher, a former Garfield resident who had been living at the motel, abducted the 24-year-old Elmwood Park woman about 12:45 p.m. Wednesday as she was talking with a friend at Bergen Street and Blauvelt Avenue near Ridgefield Park, Pinto said.

He dragged her into his 1978 Ford Thunderbird, then pulled a container from the back seat and poured gasoline over her head, Pinto said.

“He held a lighter to me and threatened to kill us both if I didn’t stop screaming,” the woman later told police.

A few minutes later, the frantic friend hailed Ridgefield Park police Sgt. Timothy LaTour, who had just left his house after a lunch break, and told him what had happened. LaTour broadcast a description of Kutcher’s car, and police from Teaneck and Ridgefield joined Ridgefield Park police in the search.

About 1:30 p.m., LaTour found Kutcher’s car in the parking lot of the Turnpike Motor Hotel on Route 46 west.

LaTour said he waited for backup from Ridgefield Park Capt. William Morton and Officer Philip McEntee, Pinto, and Ridgefield Detective Richard Stoltenborg, Investigator William Candeletti, and Officer William Pych, and that police then kicked in the door of Room 59.

“She was inside the room, sitting on the bed, crying,” LaTour said. “He was just walking around with pants, no shirt on.”

Kutcher gave up without incident, police said. Ambulance personnel found his wife covered with gasoline, Stoltenborg said.

Police said Kutcher, an unemployed chef, was staying in the motor hotel for the past week. His last known address was 271 Lanza Ave., Garfield.

He was charged Thursday in Teaneck Municipal Court with abduction and aggravated assault. Bail was set at $100,000. He was charged in Ridgefield with criminal restraint, unlawful imprisonment, making terroristic threats, and contempt of court for violating the restraining order. Bail there was set at $400,000.

ID: 17364118 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 20, 1991
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DRIVER USES GUN TO VENT FRUSTRATION

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 19, 1991

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

A 19-year-old Englewood man fired several shots in the air, apparently in frustration that the car he was riding in was hemmed into a spot at a parking lot behind The Rink in Bergenfield on Wednesday, police said.

Werner Lewis of East Terrace Circle, being held on $10,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail Annex, was charged with firing the handgun as patrons left the rink about 1:17 a.m. Wednesday, Deputy Police Chief George Grube said.

Two men in the car with Lewis, Miguel Brown of 304 West Palisade Ave., and Marlon Anderson of 217 Wilber St., both 18 and from Englewood, were charged with illegal possession of the same handgun and were being held on $5,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, Grube said.

About 20 off-duty police officers were working as security guards at The Rink that night, one of the busiest nights there, Grube said. They found a .32-caliber handgun, three spent shells, and nine live rounds in the car, he added.

“Apparently, he didn’t try to hit anybody,” Grube said of Lewis.

The deputy chief said it was the third shooting in Bergenfield during the past nine days. A man fired two shots Sunday into the bulletproof window at the South Washington Street Amoco gas station during a robbery, Grube said. The attendant was uninjured, although the man escaped with $58.

A 27-year-old Englewood Cliffs man was freed on $20,000 bail Dec. 8, after being charged with firing a gun at a crowd outside a Bergenfield Tavern. No one was hit.

Grube said Wednesday’s shooting at The Rink was the second one there this year. A man fired a shot into a crowd in January but did not strike anyone, he said.

ID: 17364080 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 19, 1991
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ENGLEWOOD WOMAN HOME SAFELY; HUSBAND MAY FACE KIDNAPPING CHARGE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star 3| NEWS | Page B03

A 37-year-old Ridgefield woman, allegedly kidnapped by her estranged husband and taken to his Middletown, N.Y., home, has returned home unharmed, police said.

City police are seeking to extradite John Louis Ruggiero from New York to face a kidnapping charge, Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said Wednesday.

Ruggiero, 41, was being held without bail in Orange County Jail on charges of criminal possession of cocaine, drug paraphernalia, two handguns, and fireworks, New York State Police Investigator Thomas Wood said.

Margaret Ruggiero was reported missing by her mother, Dorothy McDermott, about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Workers at the obstetrician’s office where Ruggiero works called McDermott to say they had not seen her daughter all day, although her car was parked outside, said Detective Scott Jenkins, who investigated the case with Detective Sgt. David Bowman.

McDermott called police about 6 p.m., after receiving a call from her daughter, and said that Ruggiero had been kidnapped by her husband that morning and was being held at his home.

Ruggiero later told police that her husband had come up behind her and forced her into his car as she arrived at work in Englewood about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday, Jenkins said.

He drove her to Middletown, telling her that he would not harm her and that he just wanted to talk. He allowed her to make the call that led to her return home, she said.

ID: 17364085 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 19, 1991
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POLICE CHASE, CHARGE SIX TEENS AFTER REPORT OF HOUSE BREAK-IN

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B02

Six Dwight Morrow High School students were charged with burglary and theft after police, responding to a report of a break-in at a house, caught the suspects after a chase.

Five of the students four girls ages 14 to 17, and a 15-year-old boy were taken into protective custody after the chase, which ended a few minutes after noon Tuesday in a field at the rear of the high school, police said. The five were released to their parents.

Police were looking for the sixth student, a 14-year-old girl, on Wednesday, Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.

Several police officers on patrol, including Police Chief William Luciano, heard the report of the burglary at a house on Liberty Avenue, Tinsley said. A resident called police and told them he saw youths carrying brightly colored knapsacks coming out of his neighbor’s house.

Luciano and several patrolmen caught the students after a short foot chase.

The students had several rings and other jewelry determined to have been stolen from the Liberty Avenue home, along with a sealed United Parcel Service packet that had just been delivered to a Lantana Avenue address, police said.

A Bergen County police dog, employed to search the area because of the distance between where the students were caught and where the break-in was reported, found a knapsack containing wrapped presents and jewelry in a bush behind the burglarized home, police said.

Police could not say whether the students had been involved in other burglaries in the area.

“There have been previous burglaries in that area, and we’ve made arrests of young adults, but we haven’t linked these youngsters to other burglaries in the area,” Tinsley said.

Dwight Morrow Principal Richard Segall said he was unaware of the arrest but that the students would be appropriately punished if they had been charged with such crimes.

ID: 17364091 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 19, 1991
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NEIGHBORS AID TENANTS DISPLACED BY FIRE

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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.

ID: 17363584 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 14, 1991
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COPS CAST MASSIVE DWI NET

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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.

ID: 17363605 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 14, 1991
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TIP LEADS COPS TO ALLEGED DRUG DEALER

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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.

ID: 17363503 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 13, 1991
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250 ATTEND DRUG ABUSE SEMINAR

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B02

In June, the state reclassified anabolic steroids as a Class 3 Controlled Dangerous Substance. The change placed anabolic steroids, a muscle-enhancer said to be making inroads among youths, under the umbrella of the state’s drug-free school zone law. Anyone caught distributing drugs near a school is subject to a mandatory prison sentence.

Educators and law enforcement officials in Bergen County gathered Wednesday to hear state and local representatives outline recent changes in drug laws and urge greater vigilance in identifying drug abuse.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy, who sponsored the conference with the Bergen County superintendent of schools, emphasized cooperation between educators and law enforcement agencies.

The conference, which drew 250 to the Sheraton Heights hotel, is the second of its kind in Bergen County, and is an outgrowth of the New Jersey Statewide Narcotics Action Plan, developed in 1987 to enforce state narcotics laws on school properties.

New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Ron Susswein discussed recent changes in drug laws. In June 1991, for instance, the state reclassified anabolic steroids as a Class 3 Controlled Dangerous Substance. The change placed anabolic steroids under the umbrella of the state’s drug-free school zone law, Susswein said. Anyone caught distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school is subject to a mandatory prison sentence.

Thomas Bellavia, a Hasbrouck Heights doctor, said in an interview that anabolic steroids appear to have made inroads among students, including some as young as 15 years old.

Anabolic steroids are often used to increase muscle and body mass for improved athletic performance, he said.

Although steroids have medical applications, the use by teenagers is usually 10 to 40 times the usual medicinal dose, he said. The drug could cause adverse effects on the heart, liver, bones, reproductive organs, and skin, as well as on behavior, including causing severe aggressiveness. Bellavia said parents and educators should look for any sudden increase in body and muscle mass, severe acne, development of breasts, and loss of hair in both males and females.

Fahy said he hoped the conference would become an annual event.

ID: 17363425 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 12, 1991
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THANKS GIVEN TO DRIVERS; LAW ABIDERS PULLED OVER

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 28, 1991

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

Cornell Adams of Hillsdale said he did not know what to think when Bergen County Police Sgt. Vincent DeRienzo told him to pull over on Route 17 in East Rutherford Wednesday morning.

“We thought they were just messing with folks,” Adams wife, Dejuanna, said.

Rather than a summons, DeRienzo handed the Adams family a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne and thanked them for wearing their seat belts.

In a twist, John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said police were stopping motorists who were wearing their seat belts on the day before Thanksgiving to thank them for obeying the law.

“We thought the best way to get people to wear their seat belts is to enlist the help of those people who are already wearing their seat belts to help us spread the message through word of mouth,” Pescatore said. “It is a positive reinforcement of a good habit.”

About 7 a.m. Wednesday, five officers from the Bergen County Police Department were out handing bottles of a sparkling apple drink imported from Spain to motorists at the Route 17 intersection with Union Avenue in East Rutherford. At the same time, three Mahwah police officers gave out bottles of a non-alcoholic sparkling wine from California at the Franklin Turnpike-Micik Lane intersection.

The champagne, 240 bottles in all, was donated by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus and Inserra Supermarkets Inc. of Mahwah.

On a frigid morning, as motorists drove through the rush-hour traffic, the officers would pick a driver at a red light. The drivers looked worried as they pulled over to spots designated by the officers.

A few took the offensive even before an officer spoke. One woman, speaking in rather clinical language, cursed at DeRienzo for stopping her. The officer waved her on.

“People go, `What did I do wrong? ” said Bergen County Police Officer Dwane R. Razzetti, a state-certified seat belt training officer. “Today, we are stopping cars that are properly inspected, where people are wearing their seat belts the opposite reasons that we normally stop cars.”

An exception was a 23-year-old Jersey City woman, who was stopped when an officer spotted her 2-year-old son lying in the front seat, not strapped in. The woman was given a child-restraint seat, instead of a summons.

Most drivers, when they opened their windows to hear the officers announce they were being stopped, were frowning.

“You know why we are stopping you ma’am? ” county police Officer Mark Solimando asked Carlstadt High School guidance counselor Marilyn Persico.

“No,” she answered, frowning.

“We stopped you because you are wearing your seat belt,” Solimando said. He handed her the bottle, and enjoined her not to drink and drive. He also gave her pamphlets with information on how to use seat belts and how to drive in winter conditions.

Like a flower blooming, her face lit into a full smile.

“This is nice,” she said, turning the bottle over in her hand. “This is nice.”

“Have a nice holiday, ma’am,” Solimando said, waving her on.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – BOB BRUSH / THE RECORD – Officer Chris Zovistoski “citing” Patti Jacobson of Wallington.

ID: 17362278 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 28, 1991
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N.Y.C. GANG SUSPECTED IN ROBBERIES; ARE VICTIMS FOLLOWED HOME?

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 2 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A New York City gang that preys mainly on Hispanic business owners may be responsible for four robberies in Bergen County in which the victims sometimes were followed home from their firms in the city, authorities say.

In two incidents in Englewood and two in Teaneck, residents who own businesses in New York or their family members were robbed in their homes.

The robbers have been armed in three incidents, and the victims, who were not hurt, were Hispanic, police said. In the fourth attack, the victim was beaten in the basement of his home. It could not be determined whether he was Hispanic.

Teaneck police Detective Tom Sikorsky said Tuesday that there is a strong possibility that the attackers belong to a gang wanted by New York City police for about 100 robberies in the past year.

Township police developed the link when they talked to officers from the Bronx robbery task force about descriptions of suspects and the New York license plates on a brown Dodge used in a robbery on Darien Terrace, Sikorsky said.

“These men will not hesitate to use violence,” he said. “You have nothing to gain by resisting these guys. I will say just go along with the robbery.”

About 12:30 p.m. on Nov. 13, two men knocked on the door of the Darien Terrace home. When a woman baby-sitting her 10-month-old grandson peeked through the door, a man asked to be let in, saying he was a police officer. Three men entered and ransacked the home, taking jewelry, cash, and a videocassette recorder, Sikorsky said.

They were seen getting into a four-door, brown Dodge with New York license plates.

About a month before, three men identifying themselves as police officers to the owner’s mother entered a Cooper Avenue home and ransacked it. Sikorsky said police are developing an inventory of items stolen in the robbery.

Englewood police Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said his department is following several leads, including the possibility that the victims were followed from New York.

About 12:45 a.m. on Nov. 8, a 63-year-old Englewood resident who worked in the city was beaten and robbed in the basement of his Windsor Road home and was hospitalized. Two gold rings and a brown briefcase were taken.

In September, three armed, masked men entered a Kenwood Road home whose owner worked in New York. They tied up the maid and the son of the homeowner, who was not present. They took $400, a videocassette recorder, and jewelry, but left without a safe that they ransacked the home looking for.

Police Detective Hector Beauchamp in the Bronx said descriptions and a composite drawing of a suspect in the Nov. 8 Englewood robbery fit a member of a gang from the Dominican Republic that has robbed several city business owners.

New York police have photographs of eight men who allegedly belong to one or more gangs of Dominicans believed responsible for the robberies, Beauchamp said.

The robbers, who are based in the Bronx and the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, also have followed victims to New Rochelle, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn., where two weeks ago they pistol-whipped a money broker and stole more than $80,000, Beauchamp said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police. In Teaneck, call the detectives bureau at 837-2565 or Crimestoppers at 833-4222. To reach Englewood police, call 568-2700.

New York police have set up a 24-hour hot line at -(212) 822-5474.

ID: 17362110 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 27, 1991
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