NEW LAW ON SWEATSHOPS CALLED WEAK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 23, 1991

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

The strain of trying to regulate the apparel industry in the state and put an end to sweatshops became clear in an unguarded moment Friday, when state Labor Commissioner Raymond Bramucci admitted that even an expected new law isn’t strong enough.
Before retracting that statement, made at a news conference, he added that he did not have enough inspectors to enforce the current law, which expires June 30.
“We have very, very poor means to police this industry,” Bramucci said. “We are trying to make it much more difficult to operate here. It is not easy. . . . We try to do a job with the tools given to us. It took us a whole lot of arguing to get this [the new law] through, and I don’t think it is strong enough.”
Someone asked how many people would be needed to inspect the thousands of sweatshops in the state. He declined to say.
“I want to work this out first,” he said. “I’m sorry I said that. Scratch it. I want to try to enforce this law first, vigorously.
“We have enough people to give a powerful signal. We don’t have to hit every factory, every minute of every day. But if we have means like we’re going to have with this new law, which gives us the right to seize goods and close down factories after repeated violations, we will have the beginning of the tool to have a reasonable control of the industry.”
Bramucci had invited the journalists along for raids Friday by federal and labor officials on two sweatshops. Since the crackdown started on Monday, 23 shops have been cited for violations of the state Apparel Registration Act, and for various federal and state wage, hour, child labor, home work, and records infractions.
Legislation awaiting Governor Florio’s signature would establish an Apparel Industry Unit, which would investigate violations of state laws and exploitation of workers. Starting this fall, the Labor Department will train industry workers at regional technical and vocational schools, Bramucci said.
At the first stop on Friday, state, federal, and city inspectors followed by about 25 journalists entered a garage with red roofing shingles for siding behind 4002 Palisade Ave., Union City. The shop was about 70 feet by 25 feet. Inside was an operation known as Lucy Fashion, with 11 sewing machines and, on several clotheslines, hundreds of blouses and skirts tagged “Made in USA.”
Lucy Fashion was one of the worst examples of the shops inspectors visited in Hudson and Essex counties last week, Bramucci said. A Union City fire inspector also cited the shop for building and fire code violations.
Bramucci said the shop would probably be long gone before the state could make it comply with regulations. Fly-by-night operations are rampant in the industry, making it difficult to keep count of the sweatshops. He estimated that about 10,000 people work in North Jersey sweatshops.
Bramucci blamed the conditions on New York garment manufacturers who farm out work to contractors without paying them enough to adequately compensate workers.
The renewed enforcement would help combat one of the plagues that the legitimate apparel industry faces: low labor costs in the sweatshops, said Aleta Hernandez, assistant political education director in New Jersey for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
The low labor costs in foreign countries drove the jobs in the industry underground, and made doing business legally difficult for local companies that often have to pay at least minimum wage, health insurance, and other benefits, Hernandez said.
Hernandez also blames greed on the part of the manufacturers because the low costs do not necessarily translate to low prices for consumers. All profits go into the pockets of manufacturers, she said.
Labor lawyer Craig Livingston said he sees at least another culprit in what he called an assault on the American worker: the U.S. government.
“The United States is probably unique in the world in not protecting its basic industries from cheap imports,” Livingston said. “Our basic industries are being crucified on the cross of free trade.”

Keywords: CLOTHING; EMPLOYMENT; LAW; STORE; VIOLATION; NEW JERSEY; UNION CITY

FACTORY RAIDS FIND LABOR LAW VIOLATIONS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 22, 1991

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

In ongoing raids on garment industry sweatshops, state Labor Commissioner Raymond Bramucci on Friday led journalists to two shops where undocumented Mexican aliens worked.
As in the 21 shops inspected since the raids began Monday, Lucy Fashion at 4002 Palisade Ave., Union City, and Tlaloc Fashion at 6029 Hudson St., West New York, were found to be in violation of state and federal child labor laws. They also did not keep proper work and wage records, authorities said.
Formal citations will be filed, pending further investigation, Bramucci said.
Many of the 34 people working in the two shops inspected Friday were undocumented aliens, one of them a 13-year-old boy who arrived from Mexico on Monday, Bramucci added.
“This is our own Third World,” he said. “What we are trying to do is correct an egregious industry. Shops like these have no place in New Jersey in 1991.”
Bramucci said the current New Jersey Apparel Registration Act, which expires June 30, will be replaced by a law now awaiting Governor Florio’s signature. The new law establishes the Apparel Industry Unit, which will investigate violations of state laws and exploitation of workers.
The law will allow increased fines of up to $500 per violation and seizure of the clothing and machinery in the shops that are cited for repeated offenses.
Along with imposing increased penalties, the Labor Department will start a training program at Bergen County technical and vocational schools for workers in these shops who want to learn better work and English skills, he said.
“Because these workers don’t know their rights,” Bramucci said, “they are exploitable.”
Valentin Contla, 26, who said he would be getting proper papers soon, said he had been working at Lucy Fashion for only about a week and he made 20 cents per blouse. He sews about 300 blouses per day.
Louis Miranda, a Union City Fire Department investigator, said Lucy Fashion also violated several city building codes: A second door in the converted garage was blocked; the 11 sewing machines were too close together, restricting freedom of movement in case of fire, and there was no smoke detector or fire extinguisher.

Keywords: UNION CITY; CLOTHING; INDUSTRY; EMPLOYMENT; LAW; VIOLATION

2 FACE STOLEN CAR CHARGES MAHWAH POLICE NAB N.Y. COUPLE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 20, 1991

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

A Queens woman who left a stolen car at a borough service station came back to claim it on Tuesday in a second stolen car and was arrested, police said.
Sherrilyn Clark, 23, was being held in the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday on $2,500 bail on charges of possessing stolen cars.
A Brooklyn man who accompanied her on Tuesday, Bernadino Torres, 31, also was arrested on the same charge and was being held on the same amount of bail.
Both the 1988 Mercury Sable that Clark left at the Citgo service station on the Franklin Turnpike on Saturday and the 1980 Buick that Torres drove to Mahwah Tuesday were stolen, Detective Lt. Ray McGill said.
Clark asked that the Sable be towed to the station for repairs when it stalled on the New York State Thruway about 8:15 a.m., McGill said, adding that she also told the mechanic that the car was a 1985 Sable.
The mechanic became suspicious and notified police when he realized the Ford Motor Co. did not start building Sables until 1986.
McGill said the Sable was reported stolen from Manhattan on Feb. 7.
Officers from the Mahwah police force and the Bergen County Sheriff Department’s Auto Crime Unit were on hand to arrest Clark when she arrived about 11:50 a.m. Tuesday to claim the car.
Noticing that an identification tag in the Buick had been altered, an officer checked and found it had been stolen from Manhattan on March 15, McGill said.

Keywords: MAHWAH; MOTOR VEHICLE; THEFT

EX-WESTWOOD TEEN DIES IN FLA.

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, June 16, 1991

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

A 15-year-old former resident of Westwood has died at a Florida hospital from head and leg injuries he suffered when he was struck by a car late Wednesday.
Robert L. “Buddy” Foss III had lived in Westwood until moving to Poinciana, Fla., five years ago. He was pronounced dead Friday at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
The driver of the car that struck Foss and a companion, David Cruz, 20, has been charged with one count of murder and one of attempted murder.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that the driver, Felix Ruiz, 22, denies the charges.
Foss would have been a sophomore at Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Fla., this fall.
Surviving are his mother, Randi Maniscalco of Poinciana; his father, Robert L. Jr. of River Edge; three brothers, Joseph of Poinciana and Brian and Justin, both of River Edge; two sisters, Michele Foss of Poinciana and Vanessa Foss of River Edge; his maternal grandfather, Michael Maniscalco of Poinciana; and his paternal grandparents, Robert J. Sr. and Irene Foss of Westwood.
Arrangements were by Grissom Funeral Home, Kissimmee.

Keywords: FLORIDA; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH

KIDNAPPED MAN’S BODY FOUND

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 15, 1991

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

A 55-year-old Fort Lee man kidnapped earlier this week was found shot to death in the trunk of his car at LaGuardia Airport, authorities said.
Ralph DeSimone Jr. of 1516 10th St. was last seen leaving Brushless Car Wash at 1620 Bergen Blvd., where he was a manager, about 3 p.m. Wednesday, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said. His family received a call demanding $150,000 ransom later that afternoon.
DeSimone, whose body was found late Thursday afternoon, was shot three times in the head and twice in the back, authorities said. He was hog-tied and had a plastic bag over his head.
The FBI is investigating whether DeSimone was involved with organized crime, Special Agent William Tonkin said. The Associated Press reported that New York police said DeSimone was a Gambino family associate.
“The motivation for the kidnapping is not known yet,” Tonkin said. “There are several avenues of investigation. Certainly, an organized-crime link will be pursued.” DeSimone had served a 10-year sentence, beginning in 1976, on federal drug charges, authorities said.
No witnesses to the kidnapping have come forward, Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said. The ransom call came into the car wash, owned by DeSimone’s son, Anthony, about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, Fahy said.
“We’ve got Ralph, and if you want to see him alive, come up with $150,000,” Fahy said a male voice told a car wash employee.
The family waited in vain for information on where to pay the ransom, Orso said. They called Fort Lee police at about 9:30 p.m. to report the kidnapping and the ransom demand, he added.
An FBI all-points bulletin led Port Authority police to DeSimone’s white-and-red 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass in a long-term parking lot at the airport at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, a New York City police spokesman said.

Keywords: FORT LEE; MAN; KIDNAPPING; VICTIM; SHOOTING; MURDER; RALPH DeSIMONE JR

MOTHER, 3 CHILDREN DIE AS FIRE DESTROYS HOME

By Michael O. Allen and Laura Impellizzeri, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, June 12, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page A18

After being driven back twice by heavy smoke and intense heat, a disoriented William McClain could do nothing but scream for help as a raging fire destroyed his home and family early Tuesday.
Four members of the family the mother, a daughter, and two sons died in the two second-floor bedrooms as a result of the 12:30 a.m. blaze at 86 Haring St. in Bergenfield.
The youngest child, Patrick, 7, was in “extremely critical condition” Tuesday evening at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.
Firefighters found Lelia McClain, 39, unconscious in bed upstairs in the master bedroom. Katie, 9, was found unconscious on the floor in that room. The mother died at 5:30 a.m. at Hackensack Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. Katie was admitted to Englewood Hospital in critical condition, and died before dawn.
The two oldest sons William “Billy” McClain, 16, and Brian, 13 were found, with Patrick, huddled in the northwest corner of their bedroom, said Lt. Robert Kops, chief of the prosecutor’s arson investigation unit. They were dead on arrival at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.
Kops said the fire started in the kitchen, in the southwest corner of the house, spread into the dining and living rooms, and sent a thick wall of smoke and intense heat up the stairs. The heat and a black haze apparently prevented the father from crossing the tiny upstairs hallway to the children’s bedroom when he heard one of them yell “fire,” Fahy said.
The house was gutted. Tuesday afternoon, its powder-blue siding, though melted and bent around the charred kitchen window, was still mostly intact, hiding the devastation within.
Bergenfield Deputy Fire Chief Edward Kneisler said there was no smoke detector in the 75-year-old house, where the McClains had lived since 1977. The alarms are not required.
“When we got there it was fully involved,” he said. “A $20 smoke detector in this house and it might have saved someone’s life.”
Kneisler said about 30 Bergenfield firefighters, with standby support from Dumont, Closter, and Tenafly, extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes.
Bergenfield Police Officer Pete Murphy said he was in the area about 12:35 a.m. Tuesday on an unrelated investigation when he heard someone screaming.
Murphy said that when he turned the corner at West Clinton Avenue onto Haring Street, black smoke blanketed the whole block. He found McClain, 39, sitting on the first-floor porch’s roof, which forms a sloped ledge outside his bedroom window, screaming that his family was trapped inside. Murphy said he could not talk him into jumping from the roof.
Murphy and Bergenfield Police Officer Owen M. Rynn, who is also a volunteer firefighter, tried to go into the house.
“We kicked in the front door,” Murphy said. “We got into the living room, about halfway through, but the smoke was too thick and the heat.”
“We came out and it went up,” said Rynn. He could see flames in the kitchen as he crawled several feet into the living room beneath the acrid, knee-level smoke.
Neighbors Peter Field, 23, and Matt Gelis, 21, rushed over with a ladder when they heard McClain shouting, and saw smoke billowing out of the house.
“The father was on the roof and my first reaction was to grab the ladder and help him down,” said Gelis, who has known the family since the younger children were babies.
“It’s horrifying,” Gelis said. “You’re just sitting there, and you can’t get in the house and you’re just waiting for firefighters.”
The police helped McClain from the roof. Field and Gelis brother Jason ran to the back of the house yelling the children’s names, but got no answer, the youths said. The police officers then climbed the ladder and tried to go into the master bedroom, but were again beaten back by the heat. Seconds later, firefighters arrived.
Murphy said McClain was suffering from shock and smoke inhalation and appeared to be “completely devastated.”
“I don’t know how this guy is going to make it,” Murphy said.
Fahy said the cause of the fire was not determined, but it did not appear suspicious. Neighbors said a planned two-room, one-story addition on the back of the house was nearing completion; Fahy said the work was not a factor in the fire.
Volunteer Bergenfield firefighter Jack DeLucia, who drove the ladder truck that put out the blaze, returned to the scene about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, still shaken by the experience.
“If somebody could have seen the fire 10 minutes earlier,” DeLucia said. “It’s been said many times before, but smoke alarms, smoke alarms.”
Bergenfield Mayor Robert Gallione said the borough follows the state building code, which does not require that single-family dwellings have smoke detectors. The building department, however, began looking at ways to strengthen the codes earlier this year, he said.
“We will be getting a report regarding changes to be made,” Gallione said. “Any opportunity that we get to save just one life, we will take the appropriate action. We have relied on public education and voluntary compliance, with smoke suppression and smoke detection devices.
Record Staff Writers Tom Toolen and Linda Voorhis contributed to this article.

Keywords: FIRE; DEATH; VICTIM; BERGENFIELD; FAMILY

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – A shocked neighbor looking at house where four family members died.

Notes: 2 of 2 versions

Column: SECOND LOOK–LODI’S FORGOTTEN, UNSOLVED AX MURDER

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, June 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A02

The blinds were drawn on the carefully locked house at 221 Union St. in Lodi. Inside the gas-filled home of Mary Moll was her hatchet-hacked body.
Even after 58 years, Moll’s murder is one of North Jersey’s most bizarre unsolved crimes.
Moll, 69, had been a recluse for several years after her husband, Gottfried, died. Two daughters-in-law coming to look in on her about 5:30 p.m. on May 15, 1933, peered through the window of the house when she didn’t answer the knock on the door. Blood stains on the floor clued them to call police.
Moll’s body was found slumped in the kitchen of her home. She had been dead several hours, said Dr. Raphael Gilady, county physician.
Investigators said it was murder but considered the possibility she may have committed suicide, according to contemporary reports.
But an ax wound in the back of Moll’s skull indicated little possibility that it could have been self-inflicted. Detectives said the murderer probably struck Moll with the ax and turned on the gas jets while leaving to insure her death if she regained consciousness.
The locked house, signs of struggle on the main floor, and absence of any evidence of robbery presented tangled clues for detectives to unravel. A blood-covered ax with bits of bone clinging to it was some of the gruesome evidence scanned by detectives who sought to reconstruct the murder.
But Mary Moll’s killer eluded them.
Today, virtually no one remembers Moll. Not Lodi’s acting police chief, John Pizzuro, who searched unsuccessfully for several days for files on the case. Not Sharyn Peiffer, Bergen County assistant prosecutor in charge of homicide.
“We do have files from the 1930s, but not that one,” Peiffer said. “An ax is generally, at least in my experience, an odd method to commit suicide. . . . This is an awfully violent way to commit suicide, even murder.”
Not even the cause of Moll’s death is certain. An autopsy was performed at noon on May 16, 1933, but the Bergen County medical examiner’s records before 1946 were destroyed in a fire.

Keywords: LODI; MURDER

TWO PATERSON MEN FACE GUN CHARGES CAR, MOTEL SEARCHES UNEARTH WEAPONS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 6, 1991

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

Two Paterson men were charged Wednesday with carrying a police baton and two automatic handguns following their arrest during a traffic stop on Route 46.
William G. Figueroa, 18, of 62 22nd Ave. and David Cruz, 24, of 96 Market St. were stopped about 9:50 p.m. Tuesday after pulling out of a motel driveway onto Route 46 westbound without coming to a full stop, said Arthur Montenegro, the acting police chief.
Montenegro, Detective Lt. Gene Roma, Patrolman Brian Veprek, and Detective Michael Montenegro were on special assignment when they saw the 1985 Volkswagen Rabbit pull out of the driveway.
Roma saw the baton in the car’s back seat and asked whether either man was a police officer or a security guard. Both said they were not and police arrested them.
“When the driver got out of the vehicle, I saw the butt of a handgun sticking out of a hole in the console of the vehicle,” Arthur Montenegro said.
It was a loaded .380-caliber automatic, and its serial number was scratched off, meaning it was probably stolen, Montenegro said. A search of the car revealed a .38-caliber Derringer, he added.
Montenegro said a search of the motel room where the men had been staying turned up several hollow-nosed bullets.
Both men face charges including possession of two loaded handguns, hollow-nose bullets, and a baton, as well as defacing a firearm by filing off the serial number. Figueroa was being held in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail and Cruz on $2,500 bail.

Keywords: SOUTH HACKENSACK; WEAPON; CRIME

CRASH JAMS GWB TRAFFIC FOR 9 HOURS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A05

A predawn accident on the westbound express lanes of Route 95 leading to the George Washington Bridge created massive traffic delays Wednesday.
The traffic jam was especially acute during the morning rush hour, as it took New Jersey-bound motorists as long as two hours to cross the bridge, said Catherine Bowman, the bridge’s operations supervisor.
The accident, on the upper level express lanes, involved an overturned garbage truck and two cars. It occurred about 2 a.m. near the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge bus station, said Port Authority spokesman John Hughes. Details were not available.
Hughes said westbound traffic backed up as far as the New England section of the New York Thruway and was rerouted onto local streets and the Henry Hudson Parkway. The westbound lanes were closed for nine hours because of difficulty righting the truck, he said.
Bowman said the bridge’s lower level lanes were closed for construction at the time of the accident and were not opened until 6:30 a.m., adding to the congestion.
A special crane was used to right the truck about 11:30 a.m., and the lanes were reopened about noon, Hughes said. He said the cause of the accident had not been determined late Wednesday. Although the cars suffered extensive damage, no one was injured, he said.

Keywords: BRIDGE; NEW JERSEY; NEW YORK CITY; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT

WATER MAIN BREAK HITS CARS, COMMERCE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, June 5, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A12

A water main break on Main Street on Tuesday snarled traffic and shut off water to about 15 stores, disrupting business, officials said.
A 12-inch main that dates to 1883 ruptured at about 2 a.m., Hackensack Water Co. spokeswoman Cindy Munley said. Workers located the rupture in front of the United Jersey Bank at 210 Main St. and turned off the pipe about 6:30 a.m., she said.
Santiago Patino, the bank’s operations division vice president, said the bank was closed for the day because the Fire Department, for safety reasons, advised that electrical power to the building be cut. Water drained into the bank’s basement, where all the bank’s electrical components were kept, he said.
Customers were directed to other branches, Patino said, adding that the bank will reopen today.
Perry Tsucalas, owner of Colby’s Luncheonette at 190 Main St., said the restaurant lost about 40 percent of its customers for the day when the bank closed. “A lot of our customers are from the bank, and that affects business,” Tsucalas said.
Tammy Hoffman, manager of Duby Florist, which is next door to Colby’s, said she was called in to work about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, five hours earlier than usual, to find about four feet of water in the basement.
“We couldn’t park in front of the store because of the water, Hoffman said. “It was like a big river on Main Street from the railroad track. The top of the store was fine, but downstairs in the basement there were three to four feet of water. It’s just a total mess. We lost all our supplies.”
Water was restored about 4 p.m., Munley said, adding that about 15 stores had to have water pumped out of their basements.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; WATER; ACCIDENT; BUSINESS; STORE