DRAG RACING CITED IN FATALITY

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 1990

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

North Bergen police Tuesday charged a Plainfield youth and issued a warrant for the arrest of a 27-year-old Jersey City man in connection with a fatal collision that police now say was the result of drag racing.

A Ridgefield woman was killed instantly in the head-on collision Nov. 7, and her mother-in-law remains unconscious and in critical condition from the accident.

The youth, a 17-year-old whom police would not identify because of his age, was charged with death by auto and assault by auto in the crash at 49th Street and Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen.
An arrest warrant on the same charges was issued for Antonio Castella of 135A North St. in Jersey City.

Police said Castella was driving with a suspended license, and the youth was driving without a license. Four people were packed into the red 1985 two-seat Porsche that the youth was driving, police said.

The two “wantonly, willfully, and carelessly drove their vehicles . . . with disregard for life or property,” said North Bergen Police Officer George Alburtus. “According to witnesses, they were traveling at a high rate of speed, leaving smoke and screeching tires. “

Carmela Berardo, 49, of 414 Abbott St., Ridgefield was killed instantly when the Porsche crossed into the northbound lane on Tonnelle Avenue and struck the car she was riding in. Michelina Berardo, 69, of the same address, remained Tuesday in St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City with a fractured skull and two broken legs.

The youth, who also was injured in the crash, was in stable condition Tuesday at Jersey City Medical Center.

In all, six cars were involved in the pileup that followed the collision, and six people were injured.

Berardo’s husband, Florindo Berardo, 50, left the hospital Nov. 12 to attend his wife’s funeral.

Berardo, who was driving when the collision occurred, suffered a broken right foot and facial abrasions.

Madeleine M. Sheldrick, 30, a pregnant North Bergen resident, and Tamburas Ortiz, 18, brother of the arrested youth, were treated and released the same day. Allen Betancourt, 19, of Piscataway was released Nov. 14 from Jersey City Medical Center.

“No one is interested in retribution,” De Vito said Tuesday. “We are interested in justice, but justice here pleads out for severe penalties to be imposed and incarceration.

“Words like disgusting, tragic, and senseless don’t even begin to define the horror and the loss to this family. “

The family was returning in two cars from visiting an aunt in Jersey City at about 10:30 on the night of the accident.

The Berardos 27-year-old daughter, Michelle Sosa, who was driving ahead of her parents, said she was stopped at a light at 51st Street when she noticed the Porsche and Castella’s Mustang.

“As soon as the light changed, they pulled out, like, they peeled out so fast that there was smoke and noise and everything,” she said.

“It was just overwhelming how much smoke and noise. And all of a sudden I looked in my rearview mirror. I noticed that the red Porsche was in the opposite side of the lane, in the northbound lane. He must have hit my parents then.”

MAN DIES AFTER CAR CRASHES INTO TREE

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, November 18, 1990

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

A 21-year-old Brick Township man died Friday from injuries he suffered when he lost control of his car and it ran off the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and struck a tree, police said.

Police believe William J. Bischowff Jr. may have been speeding, said Lt. Donald Stouthamer, commander of the Wayne Police Traffic Bureau, in a statement released Saturday.

Bischowff, a former Wayne resident, was pronouced dead at 11:21 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, Stouthamer said. He was alone in a 1990 Ford Mustang GTI headed south when the crash occurred on Doig Road at about 10:15 p.m., Stouthamer said.

Notes: Passaic page

FOOTBALL-GAME FIGHT ESCALATES INTO MELEE; POLICE CALLED TO CLIFTON STADIUM

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 18, 1990

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

A dispute between a Bloomfield coach and a Clifton football player boiled over Saturday into a melee between players at a game between the freshman teams from the two communities high schools, according to witnesses.

Details of what occurred at the Clifton High School stadium were sketchy, but witnesses said the players scuffled after the traditional postgame handshake.

Pete Colesano, a Clifton Board of Education member who attended the game, said the melee lasted about 15 minutes and that police were called to help restore order. Colesano said a coach for the Bloomfield team attempted to assault a Clifton player and the scuffle followed.

Chet Parlavecchio, varsity coach at Bloomfield High, said there had been an “incident,” but denied that the Bloomfield coach tried to assault a Clifton player.

Parlavecchio, who was not at the game, refused to identify the coach allegedly involved, but said the coach was consulting a referee, not intending to assault a player, when he left his bench.

“If a coach of mine went after their player, there is no excuse for that and he would be dismissed right away,” Parlavecchio said. “We were on their 10-yard line, ready to score. It was a good football game. They are undefeated and we were ready to pull an upset and all this happened.”

Gerald Robinson, 16, the Clifton player who reportedly was the target of the Bloomfield coach’s anger, traced the dispute to a play late in the fourth quarter.

Robinson said that after the game, players were beginning to shake hands when the Bloomfield coach started running after him. “One of my teammates said, `Gerald, look out. I turned around,” Robinson said. “There was a big riot on the field. Everybody was fighting.”

Robinson was uninjured, but Bobby Capo, 14, a teammate who intervened, was struck on the helmet by the Bloomfield coach, according to Capo’s father, Kenneth.

Clifton High School Principal Robert Mooney and police Sgt. John Zipf both described the incident as minor. There were no serious injuries and no one was arrested.

Clifton won the game, 26-14. The varsities of the two schools are scheduled to play in Clifton on Thanksgiving Day.

DAILY NEWS INCIDENT TRIGGERS CAR CHASE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 16, 1990

The labor feud between the Daily News and its workers spilled into North Jersey Thursday morning as a management employee and security guards for the newspaper chased a striker through the streets of Washington Township in their cars, police said.

Georgetti said.

The bundle was in front of the Myel Stationery store at the Washington Shopping Center on Pascack Road. When Loftus, 45, returned to his car after inspecting newspapers delivered to a food store at the end of the mall, he was confronted by the security guards and Hulahan, Georgetti said.

“Loftus told police the four men had approached him “in a threatening manner,” Georgetti said.

Loftus “got into his vehicle and tried to drive away. He said he was pursued by two or more vehicles” containing Hulahan and the security people, Georgetti said.

The chase went north on Pascack Road, then into side streets before two police cruisers put an end to it on Jackson Avenue. Loftus, a member of the Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department, called the police desk on his portable radio to inform them he was being pursued.

Loftus signed simple assault complaints against Hulahan, 51; Lemert Joseph Wright, 41, of Houston, Texas; Thomas Bruce Ellis, 33, of Hampton, Va.; and a fourth person who he said escaped. Loftus also signed a complaint of aggravated assault against Ellis, who he said tried to run him off the road with his car.

Hulahan, a Washington Township resident, signed a complaint of malicious destruction of property against Loftus.

Loftus and Hulahan were issued summonses to appear in municipal court and were released.

Bail was set at $1,500 for Ellis and $500 for Wright. Georgetti said the men were being held because they had no permanent local address.

Jay Thakkar, manager of Myel Stationery, said no copy of the Daily News delivered Thursday was damaged.

ACADEMY CHIEF STILL IN CRITICAL CONDITION

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 15, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

The director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy, injured in an accident last week when he lost control of his van and was broadsided by a truck, remained in critical condition at The Valley Hospital Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ronald Calissi’s condition has stabilized and he is showing improvement, hospital spokeswoman Jackie Welch said, but he is still being monitored in the intensive care unit for multiple injuries he suffered Thursday afternoon in the accident along Sicomac Avenue, not far from his home in Franklin Lakes.

Peter Neillands, Bergen County police chief and director of public safety, said short-term operation of the academy would not change. Scheduled classes are continuing, and Neillands is managing the academy in Calissi’s absence.

Neillands said he had assigned Bertram Kerrigan, chief police instructor, and John Evans, chief fire instructor, to oversee the day-to-day operation of the academy.

Graduations for the corrections officers class on Nov. 21 and for the basic police class on Dec. 14 will take place as scheduled, Neillands said.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said the accident occurred when Calissi, eastbound on Sicomac at about 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, passed on the left a vehicle making a right turn. A utility truck was traveling westbound on Sicomac.

Calissi lost control of his 1988 Ford van as he attempted to go back into the eastbound lane, and the truck broadsided the van, Fahy said.

Calissi’s van rolled over onto the passenger side from the force of the impact, and rescue workers had to cut the roof off the van to extricate him.

3 ARRESTS IN CAR-THEFT TRY AT GARDEN STATE PLAZA

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 14, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

Three Paterson men who allegedly tried to steal a car in the Garden State Plaza parking lot Monday were arrested after a chase by car and on foot into Rochelle Park, police said.

Manny Torres, 18; John Velez, 19, and Miguel DeJesus, 20, were charged with theft of an automobile and attempted theft of an automobile and were being held in the Bergen County Jail Tuesday.

Torres, facing additional charges of eluding police and resisting arrest, was being held on $7,500 bail. Velez and DeJesus each were being held on $2,500 bail.

Police Chief Joseph Delaney said one of the suspects confessed the three were looking for a car to steal, after stealing the 1990 Hyundai they were traveling in from the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne earlier in the day.

Lt. Don McNair of the Paramus Police Department Street Crime Unit saw one of the men trying to break into a car in the Garden State Plaza parking lot at about 4 p.m. and called for help, Delaney said. They fled when they saw McNair approaching in his car.

McNair, assisted by officers Kurt Massey and Albert Sadro in another patrol car, chased the men as they drove south on Route 17, Delaney said. The men abandoned the car and fled on foot after the car struck an embankment in Rochelle Park, he said. They were arrested a short distance away.

POLICEMAN’S ELBOW SLAMMED IN CHASE

Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 14, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A borough police officer was injured Monday evening when a suspect he was chasing allegedly slammed the door of a house on his elbow, police said.

Anthony Masucci of San Francisco was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, and was released on $6,000 bail, said Cliffside Park Detective Sgt. Donald Umland.

Umland said the injury is expected to keep Officer Frank Biasco out of work for three weeks.

The incident occurred about 5:45 p.m., when Biasco came upon a 1972 Chevrolet pickup that he thought was abandoned on Lafayette Avenue, Umland said. He said Biasco found that its registration had expired.

Masucci, who walked up and identified himself as the owner of the truck, became angry when Biasco asked him about the registration, Umland said.

Biasco requested assistance, and was joined by a Fort Lee patrolman and a Fairview police officer.
Umland said Masucci, 34, fled on foot, running up the driveway of a residence at 42 Lafayette Ave., and slammed the side door on Biasco as the officer chased him.

The other officers then wrestled with Masucci as he came out of the front door of the house, and arrested him, Umland said.

3 BERGEN MEN ARRESTED; JEWELRY SEIZED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 11, 1990

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

One man remained in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday while two others were freed on $15,000 bail each following their arrest Friday on charges of receiving stolen property.

The three were seized about 7:50 a.m. Friday as they sat in a parked car on Fletcher Avenue, behind the Red Oak Diner, Police Chief John Orso said. Orso said police seized jewelry, believed stolen in burglaries in at least two nearby communities, and $4,500 in cash.

The suspects were identified as Jeffrey Whitaker, 27, of Tryon Avenue, Teaneck; and Peter Cheremisinoff, 34, of Gorge Road, Cliffside Park, both of whom were freed on bail; and Troy Montgomery, 24, of West Palisade Avenue, Englewood.

Orso said Cheremisinoff faced an additional charge of receiving stolen property with intent to distribute it.

WOMAN, 87, RESCUED – THANKS TO MAILMAN

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, November 10, 1990

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

An elderly borough woman is alive today, neighbors say, thanks to the care and alertness of her mail carrier, who noticed Thursday that she had not collected her mail the day before.

Else Beisler, 87, fell down the stairs into her basement Tuesday evening and lay there for nearly two days, said Nancy Bachmann, her neighbor on Feronia Way.

Bachmann, 33, said Beisler fell while taking out newspapers to be recycled. She said she entered the house, found the woman, and called an ambulance Thursday afternoon after the mail carrier, Robert Drecshel, rang her doorbell.

Beisler “gets a lot of mail, and she picks up her mail every day,” Drecshel said.

So when he noticed that the mail he had delivered Wednesday was still in the mailbox on Thursday, he asked Bachmann if she had seen Beisler.

Beisler was in fair condition with two broken wrists at Hackensack Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.

A YEAR LATER, A SHOOTING SUSPECT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 9, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page B03

A 33-year-old New York City man arrested Thursday by city police and charged with possessing a stolen car was wanted for a shooting in Englewood a year ago, police said.

Eric Flake was wanted for two counts of attempted murder, four counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of gun possession in the Nov. 18, 1989, shooting of Neville G. Tyrell of Teaneck, said Englewood Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley.

Flake was arrested at 1 a.m. Thursday along with Herbert Smith, 35, of New York City, who was a passenger in the car Flake was driving.

Tinsley said Police Officer James Morgan ran a check on the car’s license plate when Flake made a turn without signaling. Morgan learned the car was stolen from Prince George County, Md., Tinsley said.

Morgan, assisted by officers George Coleman and Timothy Riley, pulled the car over and arrested the men. Flake and Smith, also charged with possession of stolen property, were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $5,000 bail.

As they were processing the men at the Englewood police station, Tinsley said, the officers discovered that Flake was wanted for contempt of court, attempted murder, and related charges in connection with the shooting of Tyrell.

Tinsley said the police report of that incident indicated that Flake, who was standing with a friend at Lafayette Place and Parkview Drive, waved Tyrell’s car over and fired several shots as Tyrell rolled down his window.

One shot passed through Tyrell’s arm and struck his chest, according to the report. Tyrell drove to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, where he was treated and released.