MICHAEL O. ALLEN

Menu
Jan 17
Love0

GUEST AT FORT LEE MOTEL SOUGHT IN BEATING DEATH

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 17, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | SPORTS | Page B01

A man who checked into a room at the Palisades Motor Lodge in Fort Lee on Tuesday is being sought for questioning in the beating death of a 26-year-old woman whose body was found in the room, authorities said Thursday.

The manager of the motel at 1415 Bergen Blvd. called police about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday after finding the body of Katherine Gallagher when he went into the room to do maintenance work, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.

Investigators believe the woman may have been staying at the motel since Tuesday evening with the unidentified man, who checked into the room about 7 p.m.

Fahy said an autopsy was not completed Thursday.

Gallagher was a former resident of Bayonne and Union City.

Authorities Thursday did not have a current address.

She was unemployed, Fahy said.

She had worked as a computer operator at Gold Coast Freightways Inc. at 450 Duncan Ave., Jersey City, for two years, but had not worked there in about a year, said a man who identified himself as an official of the company.

He declined to comment further.

ID: 17366307 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 16
Love0

SPECTATOR SEATS AREN’T ALL NEEDED BUT PRESS OVERFLOWS COURTROOM

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 16, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A11

Although spectators started gathering outside the Bergen County Courthouse about 7 a.m. on Wednesday, several of the 53 seats set aside for the public went begging on the day of opening arguments in Gary S. Spath’s reckless manslaughter trial.

The spectators who lined up before a double-glass door leading to the first-floor courtroom were waved in 10 at a time by Sheriff’s Officer George Kellinger shortly before the 9 a.m. start of the trial.

The initial seating included 39 spectators, plus six representatives of families of Spath and Phillip C. Pannell, as well as members of the press. Only 31 spectators attended in the afternoon.

Everyone entering the courtoom was frisked, sent through a walk-through metal detector, and then reinspected with a hand-held metal detector. Bergen County Undersheriff Jay Alpert attributed the tight security to anticipation of heavy demand for seats and the number of witnesses expected to testify at the trial.

All of the 19 seats set aside for the press were taken, and a special media room was set up on the second floor to handle the overflow. Nearly a score of reporters, cameramen, and technicians crammed into the 12-foot-square room to stare intently at two television monitors tuned to coverage of the trial provided by Court TV, a cable network. Space was so tight many sat cross-legged on the floor.

Several of the spectators including Beverly Lefkowitz, president of the Teaneck Parent-Teacher Association said they were drawn to the trial because they had closely followed the case since Spath shot Pannell in April 1990.

“The case reflects a lot of turmoil in the town that many of us are trying to address,” she said.

Lloyd Riddick, 57, a retired Teaneck resident, said he was attending to show support for the Pannells.

“Something happened to a friend of mine, an African-American, and I see the way the system is leaning. So, if my appearance here evens the scales of justice a little bit, then I’ll do so. Anything I can do to help,” he said.

Caption: PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD – The trial of Teaneck police Officer Gary S. Spath getting under way in a Hackensack courtroom Wednesday morning.

Notes: MAIN STORY FILED SEPARATELY – OPENING ARGUMENTS FOCUS ON ISSUE OF PANNELL’S GUN. DID SPATH KNOW OF WEAPON? THE SPATH TRIAL – Page a01

ID: 17366199 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 15
Love0

WIND AND RAIN, BUT NO TORNADO

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 15, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B03

A tornado watch called for North Jersey and parts of other northeast states on Tuesday sent school officials scrambling, but weather officials said no tornadoes were sighted in the state and called off the watch early.

Rutherford school officials put an early end to the school day by sending students home at noon.

Lyndhurst students who normally go home for lunch were kept in school and received a free pizza lunch.

“It’s our feeling that the kids are safer inside our buildings than walking to and from school in a weather crisis,” said Schools Superintendent Joseph Abate.

As it turned out, the tornado watch, which went into effect about 10 a.m., was called off by the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, a division of the National Weather Service based in Kansas City, Mo., at about 1:40 p.m. It originally was to be posted until 3 p.m.

A National Weather Service meteorologist said Tuesday’s storm dumped nearly three-tenths of an inch of rain on North Jersey.

In Wayne, heavy winds toppled a towering pine tree just past noon, and it fell on electric lines on Valhalla Way, briefly cutting off power to some residents and closing the roadway for about an hour, police said.

A Public Service Electric & Gas crew repaired the break and power was restored and traffic allowed to move freely by about 1:10 p.m.
Record Staff Writer David Gibson contributed to this article.

Caption: PHOTO – KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / THE RECORD – In Wayne, storm gusts caused a towering pine tree on Valhalla Way to fall on power lines, briefly cutting off electricity to some residents and closing the street for about an hour.

ID: 17365974 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 15
Love0

2 CHARGED IN ASSAULT, THEFT TRY; ALLEGEDLY ATTACKED GUARD WITH PIPE, BAT

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 15, 1992

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

Two men were charged Tuesday with attempted robbery and assaulting a security guard who walked by as they were trying to steal a truck, police said.

Abundio Cortes, 27, of Brooklyn and Francisco Contreras, 32, of 87 Park Place, Passaic, were arrested at Tonnelle Avenue and 76th Street, about 1 1/2 miles from 4401 Dell Ave., an office building where the men tried to steal the truck, said Lt. Timothy Kelly.

Security guard Guiseppe Occhano, 22, of Union City noticed a broken window on the truck while talking to the men, whom he had seen walking from the side of the building about 1:30 a.m. The men attacked Occhano and a friend who was with him, Jose Zenon, 21, of Union City, with a metal pipe, baseball bat, and a crutch, Kelly said.

They defended themselves, hitting one man and breaking his arm and giving the other a deep cut on the mouth, Kelly said.

Cortes and Contreras then fled in a black Chevrolet Trans Am, and Occhano called police. They were arrested a few minutes later by Patrolman Robert Scudieri. Occhano was taken to the scene and identified the two men as his attackers, Kelly said.

In an unrelated incident, two men robbed the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave. at 6:45 p.m. Monday, Kelly said.

The two drove to the drive-up window, and one of them brandished a gun and demanded money. They escaped with an undetermined amount of cash, Kelly said.

ID: 17365983 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 13
Love0

2 ARRESTED IN USED-CAR DISPUTE

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 15, 1992

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

A mechanic and his son-in-law face charges following a yearlong dispute with a Teaneck man over a used car that disappeared and a check that bounced.

Theft charges have been filed against George Nicolaou of 26 E. Madison Ave., Dumont. Nicolaou was released Saturday on $2,500 bail from the Bergen County Jail, said a spokeswoman for the county Sheriff’s Department. His son-in-law, Anthony Mamalian, who faces fraud charges in the case, also is out on bail.

Dumont Police Detective Sgt. Robert Fischer said Nicolaou, 53, who owns G. N. Auto Electric in Dumont, sold a 1971 Mercedes-Benz to Carmello Bellia in December 1990. The car, for which Bellia paid $3,000, was supposed to have a rebuilt engine and transmission, Fischer said.

Bellia told police that after he got home, “he went to his own mechanic to check the car out,” Fischer said. “He found out that the car did not have a rebuilt engine or transmission. ”

Bellia returned it the next day and asked that it be repaired or that his money be refunded, Fischer said. About a month later, Bellia was given $1,000, but a $2,000 check written by Mamalian bounced, Fischer said.

Fischer said Bellia told police he tried three times but was unable to cash the check because of insufficient funds. A civil court awarded Bellia, 51, a $5,000 judgment in June, but he has not collected, Fischer said.

Then, Fischer said, Bellia noticed that the car, which had been sitting in the lot at G. N. Auto Electric during the dispute, was missing. Bellia signed complaints against Mamalian and Nicolaou. .

Mamalian was arrested Dec. 28 on a complaint of fraud for the bounced check, and Nicolaou on Jan. 11 on complaint of theft for the missing car, Fischer said. The men will appear in Dumont Municipal Court at a date to be determined, Fischer said.

ID: 17365984 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 12
Love0

TARDINESS LEADS TO ARREST IN HOLDUP

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 12, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A07

After a gunman demanded money from a teller at the Lemoine Avenue branch of First Fidelity Bank on Monday and calmly walked out with $935, he was seen driving off in style in a white 1992 Ford Taurus.

Police say the robber was Renard Mercer of Queens and that his getaway car was rented. Mercer was in the lockup at the Queens Borough Central Booking on Friday when Fort Lee detectives caught up with him.

Had he returned the car to Budget Rent-A-Car at La Guardia Airport where he rented it when he was supposed to, Mercer might still be free. As it was, the eyewitness information led detectives first to the rental company, then to the lockup, where Mercer was cooling his heels for failing to return the car, Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso said Saturday.

Mercer, 28, had been arrested in Queens about 5:30 p.m. Thursday by the 115th Precinct Anti-Crime Squad. He is awaiting extradition to Fort Lee to face charges of armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon.

Walking unobtrusively past several customers, then showing a handgun to the teller, Mercer demanded money and walked back out just as quietly as he came in, Orso said. The bank’s camera got a clear photograph of Mercer, the chief said.

The bank robbery went unnoticed until the alarm sounded, but by that time, the robber had already left.

Using the information from the eyewitness, whom police declined to identify, the Fort Lee police followed the trail to Mercer, Orso said.

He said that bank robberies are not easy to solve, and praised his officers tenacity in tracking Mercer.

Notes: Bergen page

ID: 17365797 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 12
Love0

11 CHARGED IN PROBE OF GAMING RING; BETS TOTALED $500,000 A MONTH

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 12, 1992

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

Executing simultaneous warrants in an investigation that began when an informant came to Rutherford police a month ago, authorities have arrested 11 people described as members of a New Jersey-New York sports betting operation.

The crackdown on Friday put an end to more than $500,000 in betting each month, authorities said, in a ring that operated in Bergen, Hudson, and Essex counties and the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island. The office of Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy coordinated the investigation.

All those arrested were charged with gambling conspiracy.

Described as linchpin of the operation was John E. Pflug Jr., 48, of 222 Jay St., Wood-Ridge, who Fahy said was the link between New Jersey and the New York portion of the operation. He was being held Saturday in $35,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

Also being held in the jail in bail of $25,000 apiece were Frank Ingram, 48, of 9 Roosevelt St., North Arlington, and Michael C. Sears, 24, of 188 Teaneck Road, Ridgefield Park.

“Sears and Ingram took bets and contacted Pflug,” Fahy said. “Pflug would then deal with bookmakers in New York.”

Fahy said it is sheer coincidence that the crackdown took place just before football’s Super Bowl, the busiest betting time of the year. The informant who approached Rutherford detectives gave them the opportunity to start the investigation in December, he said.
Authorities mounted surveillances of the suspects homes, and a picture of the operation’s scope began to emerge.

“This was a big operation,” Fahy said. “We did an awful lot of surveillance. We are very grateful to the Rutherford Police Department, because they supplied us with the manpower. Their entire detective unit was involved.”

Authorities found $4,500 and a computer that was used to maintain gambling records at Ingram’s house when he was arrested, Fahy said. That money, plus $22,000 seized in Pflug’s home and $1,300 confiscated from Sears is subject to forfeiture to the county, authorities said.

Pflug’s 1985 Cadillac and Sears 1987 Cadillac also have been seized, and authorities are looking into the possibility of confiscating the homes where the suspects were arrested, Fahy said.

Among those arrested in Manhattan were John Caruso, 49, of 1155 Emerson Ave., Teaneck; Robert Lee, 43, of Jersey City; James Girolamo, 51, of Bloomfield; and John Casullo, 39, and Richard Chirco, 30, both of Woodbridge.

ID: 17365802 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 11
Love0

POLICE NAB 3, THWART TWO THEFT ATTEMPTS

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 11, 1992

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

Two men were arrested after police got a tip that they were stealing luggage from a warehouse in the city, police said.

Officers George Alston and George Coleman, responding about 10:10 a.m. Thursday, arrested Ivan Torres, 34, and Alberto Vega, 37, both of West New York, after a short foot chase, Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said.

The two were charged with burglary, theft, and resisting arrest and were being held Friday in the Bergen County Jail on $10,000 bail.

The warehouse, located at 35 S. Van Brunt St., is an unmanned storage building for a North Bergen luggage store, Tinsley said. Vega and Torres backed a truck up to the rear of the warehouse and had filled it with 45 cases of portfolios worth about $12,000 when the officers arrived.

They fled on seeing police, but the officers found them hiding near the Englewood Municipal Building a few minutes later, Tinsley said.

In an unrelated incident later Thursday, police arrested William T. Blaine, 19, of 248 W. Forest Ave., Englewood, on charges of attempted armed robbery, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest, Tinsley said.

Officers responding to a report of a robbery in progress about 8:45 p.m. arrested Blaine after a short foot chase. Blaine was one of five men who allegedly tried to steal a bicycle at knifepoint from a 36-year-old Englewood man near the McDonald’s restaurant on West Palisade Avenue.

Blaine was being held on $7,500 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

ID: 17365696 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 11
Love0

MAN CHARGED IN REVENGE ATTACK ON TEANECK TEEN

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 11, 1992

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

A man who retaliated for an alleged assault on his brother by attacking a Teaneck High School student with a bat was charged Friday with criminal trespass, police said.

Kimathi Knox, 19, also known as Kimathi Muhammad, was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond, said Detective Lt. William Broughton, who added that police are considering other charges against him.

On Thursday, Knox, of Griggs Avenue, hit the 16-year-old student on the right arm with an aluminum baseball bat but did not injure him, police said. He pulled a fire alarm to get students to the school parking lot, where the attack occurred, a vice principal said.

The night before, two 16-year-old high school students, one of whom was Knox’s brother, were attacked by other Teaneck students as they got off a school bus returning from a basketball game, police said.

Charges may be brought against the youths identified as the attackers, Broughton said. The victim of Thursday’s assault was identified as one of the attackers in Wednesday night’s incident, police said.

ID: 17365699 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 11
Love0

4 SOUGHT IN HOLDUP THAT NETTED $20,000

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 11, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A04

Four men, at least two of whom brandished handguns, robbed Midlantic National Bank-North and four customers of more than $20,000 shortly after the bank opened at 9 a.m. Friday, police said.

No one was injured in the incident.

The robbers announced the holdup as they entered the bank at 1050 Main St., Lt. Ron Starace said. A bank camera recorded images of some of the suspects, he said.

“At least two of the individuals gained access behind the counter, and money was taken from various drawers in the teller area,” Starace said.

“They then fled on foot and were last seen going over the walkover from Route 4 and River Edge to Hackensack.”

He declined to provide further details about the robbery.

Starace said Friday’s robbery appeared not to be connected to the robbery Monday of the First Fidelity Bank branch in Fort Lee because the method of operation was different. About $935 was taken from a teller by a lone gunman in that incident.

Starace said anyone who was on Main Street or in the vicinity of the Cherry Hill shopping center, the Route 4 bus stop, or the walkover from shortly before 9 a.m. to about 9:15 a.m. should contact River Edge police at 262-1233 or the FBI at 684-6614.

Names will be kept confidential, and Crime Stoppers reward money will be available, he added.

“It doesn’t matter what they saw. If they were in the area, and even thought they saw something, we want them to contact us,” Starace said.

ID: 17365706 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 10
Love0

AFTER-SCHOOL FRAY LEADS TO 7 ARRESTS; SOME FORMER STUDENTS INVOLVED

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 10, 1992

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

A fight involving a handful of current and former Ridgefield Park High School students broke out as a crowd of about 100 students walked home from the school, police said.

Police arrested seven people, including three students, during the fight Wednesday at about 2:30 p.m. at Overpeck Avenue and Union Place, about one-fourth mile west of the high school, Police Chief Walter Grossman said.

The dispute continued that evening in Little Ferry, where one of those arrested in the afternoon filed a simple assault charge against another who was involved in the after-school fight, Little Ferry police said. Little Ferry sends its high school students to Ridgefield Park.

“It’s all individuals who knew each other,” Grossman said. “Some were former students, and somehow or the other we don’t know how it happened they wound up at that intersection at that time.”

“There was a lot of pushing and shoving, some punching, that type of thing,” Grossman added, but he said it was unclear who fought with whom, or why. “That’s the big question. We don’t know if it’s from the past, when they knew each other.”

Charged with disorderly conduct were two 16-year-old boys who are high school students, one from Ridgefield Park, the other from Little Ferry; Lionel Quarales of Ridgefield Park, who was the third student; Horatio Hemmings of Englewood, Lawrence Pfaff of Hackensack, and Christopher Kaplan of Little Ferry, all 18-year-olds; and Amir Hakim-Davoud, 23, of Little Ferry. Hakim-Davoud and Pfaff also were charged with resisting arrest.

“They were all at one point fighting with each other,” Grossman said. “Right now, I couldn’t tell you who was fighting whom. Our officers got there just in time to pull them apart.”

No one was injured.

Later that night, the juveniles were released to the custody of their parents and the adults were released on their own recognizance pending a court date later in the month, the chief said.

“We’ll look into it further to determine why this thing happened,” Grossman said. “Occasionally, we’ve had kids have a little argument here and there, but not with the kind of number that we had here. And, of course, some of the kids were from out of town, which is dangerous.”

Little Ferry Police Capt. Dennis Hofmann said officers responded to a report of a crowd and a disturbance on Main Street at about 8:40 p.m. The crowd had thinned out by the time police arived, but Quarales, alleging that he had been hit with a pipe or a stick, signed a complaint of simple assault against Hemmings, Hofmann said.

ID: 17365615 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

Jan 05
Love0

ROBBERY VICTIM PURSUES SUSPECTS

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 5, 1992

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

There was no smooth getaway for two Bronx men Saturday afternoon when they encountered a jeweler who chased them after the pair held up his store at gunpoint, Police Chief William Luciano said.

Officer Emma Jackson was patrolling the business district about 3 p.m. when she saw the owner of Goldfinger Jewelry Store running after two men on West Palisade Avenue.

“They just robbed my store, at gunpoint,” said the owner, whom police declined to identify. Jackson radioed headquarters for backup and followed the men in her patrol car.

Eight patrol cars raced to the area and chased the pair through McKay Park, into a nearby brook, and through back yards on Elmore Avenue, where police arrested them, Luciano said.

James Cornick and Lamonte Hampton were being held in the Englewood Police Department lockup Saturday night, awaiting a bail hearing, he said.

They were charged with armed robbery and illegal possession of handguns for unlawful purpose.

“You know the old saying: `You can run but you can’t hide’?” a jubilant Luciano asked later. “Too many blue uniforms, too many cops for them to get away. ”

For Jackson, a 16-year veteran of the department, it was the second chase in about two weeks. A robbery victim stopped Jackson’s car as she drove past a bar on West Street and, gesturing because he could not speak English, told her to follow a car occupied by four men he claimed had just robbed him.

The suspects abandoned the car and escaped on foot after crashing into Jackson’s patrol car at a traffic light.

Saturday’s suspects were not so lucky, Luciano said. Patrolman Timothy Torell chased Cornick, who was seen coming out of the window of a home on Elmore Avenue, in the direction of Lt. James Crowley, who arrested him.

Patrolman Joseph Archer saw Hampton about 100 feet down the street, walking at a leisurely pace, Luciano said. The store owner identified him later as one of the men who came into his store and robbed him and his wife, the chief said.

ID: 17365167 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)