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Aug 20
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COP’S GUN GOES OFF; TEENAGER HIT IN ARM

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 20, 1991

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

A state trooper wounded a Bronx teenager in the arm Sunday when his service gun went off accidentally during a traffic stop, officials said.
Louis Mancuso, the 17-year-old passenger in a car stopped for alleged speeding, was in fair condition at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, a hospital spokesman said Monday.
Trooper Joseph Genova, a three-year veteran of the state police, was not criminally negligent in the shooting, Bergen County First Assistant Prosecutor Paul Brickfield said Monday.
“Our conclusion at this point is that it was an accidental discharge of the weapon,” Brickfield said.
The incident occurred about 8:15 a.m. Sunday in the northbound lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike in East Rutherford, said Lt. William Hillis, a state police spokesman.
Genova, on patrol in an unmarked car, clocked a 1990 Nissan 300 ZX driven by Vincent Gaudio, 18, of the Bronx at 31 mph over the 55 mph speed limit, police said.
Hillis said Genova, 23, saw a box of ammunition in an open glove compartment while examining Gaudio’s driver’s license.
“He ordered the driver to step out of the car,” Hillis said. “The passenger was ordered to place his hands on the dash. The passenger did not comply, and was again instructed to place his hands on the dash. He made a movement toward the glove box.
“The trooper, fearing a weapon may be in the glove box, drew his service weapon, and the weapon accidentally discharged and struck the passenger in the right bicep.”
No weapon was found in the car.

Keywords: EAST RUTHERFORD; POLICE; ACCIDENT; WEAPON; SHOOTING; YOUTH

ID: 17352888 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 20
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TWO DIE IN RTE. 80 COLLISION; CAR REAR-ENDS TRUCK ON SLICK HIGHWAY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

A Bronx couple were killed and their two children injured Monday morning when their car spun out of control on rain-soaked Route 80 in Bogota and struck the back of a truck parked on the shoulder, state police said.
Haredin Sokoli, 33, who was driving, and his common-law wife, Farije Xheraj, 32, died at the scene. Neither was wearing a seat belt, state police Sgt. Bob Cooney said.
Lide Sokoli, 11, and her brother, Niam, 10, were in fair condition at Hackensack Medical Center, the girl with a broken leg and the boy with cuts and bruises, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Dr. John LoCurto, director of the hospital’s trauma center, and paramedics Don Holmes and Zach Weissman, as well as numerous Ridgefield Park police, firefighters, and rescue workers, helped remove the children from the back seat, where they were pinned.
Bob Carlson, a senior member of the Ridgefield Park Rescue Squad, said they had to use air bags and hydraulic lifts to raise the truck to allow the paramedics to get to the children.
The accident occurred at 11:35 a.m. in the local lanes of Route 80, about a half-mile from the intersection of Routes 95 and 46, Cooney said.
“There was a truck parked on the right shoulder, eastbound at milepost 67.4 in Bogota, due to a previous accident,” he said. “A 1985 Buick Century was eastbound when the driver lost control for an unknown reason on the wet roadway. It struck the left rear of the parked truck.”
Jeannette Gnecco, 41, of Ridgefield Park, said she saw the traffic jam about noon and noticed the accident ahead. She got off the road an exit before the accident and watched the rescue effort, along with about 30 other people, from the North Street bridge, which overlooks Route 80.
“The had to jack up the truck, pull off the roof of the car to get to the kids,” said James Gnecco, her 46-year-old husband. “You almost couldn’t believe anybody came out of it alive.”
Gail Campbell, 45, of Ridgefield Park also watched the rescue effort with her 12-year-old son, Mark. Her husband, Edward, a 10-year member of the rescue squad, was part of the rescue effort.
“It upsets me,” Campbell said. “Those poor people didn’t know what hit them. . . . Pray for them. That’s all you can do.”

Keywords: BOGOTA; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH

Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS BY DANIELLE P. RICHARDS / THE RECORD 1 – A rescue worker holding a child who was trapped in the back seat of a car involved in a fatal accident on Route 80 in Bogota. 2 – The Bronx couple in the front seat died, and their two children were hospitalized with injuries.

ID: 17352895 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 10
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KILLER’S REQUEST FOR PAROLE IS REJECTED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 10, 1991

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

A request for parole by Christopher Righetti serving a life sentence for the 1976 rape and murder of a 20-year-old New Milford woman was rejected this week, the state Parole Board’s executive director said Friday.
Robert Egles said the panel, weighing the seriousness of Righetti’s crime, also ordered a hearing on whether his next eligibility date in three years should be delayed.
Kim Montelaro, a journalism and English student at the University of Rhode Island, had gone shopping at Paramus Park Mall when she was abducted on Aug. 31, 1976, raped, then stabbed several times in the chest. Her body was found in a ravine near Washington Township’s Pine Lake Beach Club a few days later.
Righetti maintained through most of his trial that the killing had been an act of self-defense or an accident. In a hearing to determine whether he would tried as an adult, Righetti, then 16, claimed Montelaro lured him into her car, had sex with him, then turned on him with his knife.
Righetti’s lawyer abandoned the self-defense claim on the last day of trial, saying his client should be convicted of manslaughter.
In appeals of his murder conviction, the last one in 1982, a public defender contended Righetti’s police lineup appearance was illegal. The evidence was insufficient to compel Righetti to appear in the lineup during the search for Montelaro’s killer, the lawyer said.
But Righetti’s alibi witnesses failed to show up during his trial and prosecutors proved a knife and sheath found at the scene matched items he admitted purchasing shortly before the killing.
At age 15, Righetti was released from the state Training School for Boys and Girls after serving 13 months for raping an 18-year-old woman in a Bergen County park in 1974. In March 1976, he accosted another woman at knifepoint and demanded a ride home, but charges were not pressed after authorities assured the victim Righetti would receive psychiatric help.

Keywords: NEW MILFORD; MURDER; PRISON; WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP; KIDNAPPING; PARAMUS

ID: 17352075 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 09
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A BURGLARY SPREE ENDS ON NIGHT OUT; UNION CITY POLICE ARREST PAIR OF TEENS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 9, 1991

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

A nightmare ended for Roosevelt Street residents Tuesday night when they came out on their front porches to mark National Night Out against crime, Mayor Robert Menendez said.
Police led two teenagers who may have burglarized as many as 50 homes in the city including eight that night, and many of them on Roosevelt Street out of a house on the street about 30 minutes after the Night Out events began.
“One of them, a juvenile, told us they did so many he lost count,” Union City police Detective Brian Barrett said.
The juvenile, a 17-year-old boy, confessed to more burglaries 50 than police could charge him with. They could verify only 18.
Jeffrey Sweeney, 18, was arrested with the youth and was charged with eight of the burglaries. Sweeney is a student on the dean’s list at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, Menendez said.
It was ironic that the two were arrested on National Night Out in a neighborhood where residents were beginning to feel besieged by the rash of burglaries, Menendez added.
Barrett and Detective Thomas Callahan had been investigating the burglaries since a Roosevelt Street home was broken into on May 5, the mayor said.
Barrett said the first lead came last week when an informant told authorities that the juvenile was responsible for the burglaries.
The two were arrested at an apartment the youth rented from a homeowner who found him in his hallway, about to burglarize his home last week, Barrett said. The youth had convinced the man that he wanted to rent an apartment, paid a month’s rent on the spot, and moved in Aug. 1, Barrett said.
“The juvenile told the man he was 22 years old,” Barrett said. The youth, who had lived alone for about two years and weighed about 220 pounds, looked older than his age, Barrett added.
The youth told police that when word got to him that the police were on his trail, he staged a burglary of his own apartment and the one below his on Tuesday to make himself look like a victim, rather than a suspect, Barrett said.
The plan backfired because police, while investigating that burglary, found credit cards, jewelry, and electronic and video equipment from other burglaries during the past three months in his apartment, Barrett said.
Barrett and Callahan began watching the house about 6 p.m. National Night Out events began on Roosevelt Street at 8 p.m.
McGruff the Crime Dog was on hand. The block was closed off, a searchlight went on, and a band started playing.
“We thought that would blow it for us,” Barrett said.
But they saw the two suspects going up the stairs right about then. The teens cooperated when they were confronted, Barrett said.
Barrett said Sweeney was released to the custody of a parent and that the youth was being held in the Hudson County Juvenile Detention Center.

Keywords: UNION CITY; THEFT

ID: 17351965 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 08
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SEARCH FOR LOST MAN ENDS AT A PAUPER’S GRAVE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A01

Six weeks after he was reported missing, Edward Gee Jr.’s family finally knows where he is: buried in a New York cemetery as “Edward Lee Jr.”
Mystery surrounds his last days. Gee, 32, died at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center on June 20. The hospital had his identification, sent his relatives a bill for $278 for emergency room services on July 7, and told them he was discharged June 27.
But Gee had died June 20, the day he had entered the hospital, and was buried on July 9 in a potter’s field in the city under the wrong name.
“Whatever person or entity is responsible for this shocking scenario must be held accountable for the outrage that the family has suffered and continues to suffer,” said William J. Ewing, a lawyer retained by the family.
The hospital’s spokeswoman was unaware of the situation. But she said, “There is no way we are sweeping this under the rug.
“Something happened, and we want to get to the bottom of this,” said Leslie Bernstein, the spokeswoman. “It is hospital policy to make every possible effort to notify next of kin when somebody comes into the hospital, certainly when somebody dies. . . . We regret that we were unable to notify next of kin in Mr. Gee’s case.”
Ewing said Gee had a wallet containing his driver’s license, Social Security card, student identification card, and Army veteran’s card when he was taken into the hospital.
Bernstein said Wednesday that she could not explain the mix-up until the hospital had a chance to investigate.
Gee was suffering from cardiac arrest brought on by an overdose of cocaine when he was brought in that day, Bernstein said. The cause of death was acute cocaine intoxication, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
Although the hospital did not notify the family of the death, it sent two medical services bills totaling $510, including $50 for “acetaminophen (Tylenol)” in the July 7 bill.
Asked how the hospital could tell the family Gee had been discharged June 27 when he had died seven days earlier, Bernstein replied: “I don’t understand that at all. This was on the bill. I don’t have an answer for it. I don’t know. The hospital has a regret here, at the least, and they are investigating exactly what went on.”
Complicating matters, Bernstein said, was the lack of a police report. It was unclear when the city’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) brought Gee into the hospital or where they brought him from, she said. In most cases, the only way to find that out would be the police report, she added. But an EMS spokeswoman said that information should be available from Gee’s hospital records.
After saying she would check the billing discrepancy and specifics on how Gee’s identification was mixed up, Bernstein later said she would no longer comment on the case because, “It’s a confidentiality issue.”
The mystery started coming unraveled when the family received the first bill from Columbia Presbyterian on July 23, he said.
Borakove said the New York Police Department was responsible under state law for verifying the identification of anyone for whom a hospital could not find the next of kin.
That is not necessarily the case, especially if the person was never in police custody, said Sgt. Peter Berry, a police spokesman. He said he did not know about the case and would need time to research whether the department ever came in contact with Gee.
The family referred all questions to Ewing.
“It is a sad commentary on what can happen in a metropolitan hospital. People do get lost,” Ewing said. “The family tried desperately through the police to find this man and couldn’t. So did the police.”
Pete DeLuise, a manager in the parts department at Englewood’s Town Motors, where Gee had worked for about a year, said he came to work Thursday, June 20.
“He didn’t show up for work that Friday,” DeLuise said. “He didn’t pick up his paycheck that day. Then his family called us about a week later to tell us he was missing.”
Englewood police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said Gee’s sister Jimmie, his mother, and his father, Edward Sr., came to the Englewood Police Department June 28 to report that he was missing.
Tinsley declined to discuss the police investigation, however.
Bergen County Undersheriff Jay Alpert said the Sheriff’s Department’s missing-persons unit started working with Englewood on the case on July 11. Three days later, they received a report that someone saw Gee in the area of 138th Street in New York, Alpert said.
Investigators, armed with Gee’s fingerprint for comparison, were also sent to the New York City morgue about that time because several unidentified bodies that fit Gee’s general description were reported to be there, Alpert said.
But Gee had been buried July 9 at Hart Island, where unclaimed bodies are sent, under the misreading of his name after the medical examiner could not verify his identification. His family identified a photograph of Gee’s body Monday at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Manhattan.

Keywords: MISSING PERSON; DEATH; NEW YORK CITY

ID: 17351886 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 03
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PA COP SHOOTS HUDSON MAN; INCIDENT FOLLOWS CHASE IN TUNNEL

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 3, 1991

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

A 26-year-old North Bergen man was reported in critical condition following surgery Friday for a gunshot wound suffered in a police chase that ended in the Lincoln Tunnel, authorities said.
Authorities said Brian T. Powers of 7110 Madison St. was shot in the head when he drove his pickup truck toward a police officer after leading police on a chase through the tunnel from Manhattan. The chase and the ensuing gunfire caused the tunnel’s center tube to be closed to westbound traffic from 11 p.m. Thursday until 4:30 a.m. Friday, said D. Joy Faber, a Port Authority spokeswoman.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office will charge Powers with several offenses, including aggravated assault on a police officer, assault, eluding police, and reckless endangerment, Faber said.
The incident began at about 10:45 p.m. Thursday when a Manhattan patrolman observed Powers, driving a 1989 Ford pickup truck, run a red light at 23rd Street and 11th Avenue and then drive along the sidewalk, Faber said.
Powers did not heed the patrolman’s signal that he pull over and was pursued by marked and unmarked New York City police cars as well as a car of the New York Transit Authority police, the spokeswoman said. Powers went onto Roadway A, into the westbound center tube of the tunnel, striking as many as six cars during the chase, Faber said.
Manhattan police got out of their cars and ran toward Powers after a bus driver ahead of the chase angled his vehicle across the roadway to block Powers path. Port Authority Police Officer Joseph Audino fired four shots, one of which struck Powers as he gunned his truck toward the officer, Faber said.
Powers was being treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan. Audino, a 12-year veteran, and another Port Authority police officer were taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan for observation and were released, Faber said.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; SHOOTING; TUNNEL; POLICE

ID: 17351417 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 03
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MURDER SUSPECT IS AT PINES; LINKED TO N.Y. ARTIST’S DEATH

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 3, 1991

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

A 23-year-old Bronx woman, under psychiatric care at Bergen Pines County Hospital following a disturbance in Palisades Park on Thursday, is awaiting extradition to New York City as a suspect in the murder of a 93-year-old woman, police said.
Michelle McWilliams pushed her way into amateur painter’s Mathilde Poggensee’s Bronx home looking for money to buy drugs, Detective Thomas Aiello said Friday.
A neighbor who looked in regularly on the award-winning artist, who was said to be losing her hearing and sight in recent years, found Poggensee on Wednesday night face down on the living room floor, her mouth gagged and her arms tied behind her back with an electrical cord, Aiello said.
She died of asphyxiation, caused by the gagging, and multiple rib injuries, according to a medical examiner’s report. Police think Poggensee was attacked Sunday or Monday.
Police do not know why or how McWilliams came to New Jersey. Palisades Park Police Capt. Frank Martini said borough officers picked up McWilliams, barefoot and unkempt, about 9 a.m. Thursday when they went to a Roff Avenue taxi stand where a disturbance had been reported. McWilliams was violent and appeared to be emotionally disturbed, he said.
“We did not know she was wanted in New York at that time,” Martini said.
It was discovered during routine questioning before she was committed for psychiatric evaluation that a pocketbook in McWilliams possession was one of the items taken from Poggensee’s home after it was ransacked, Aiello said.
McWilliams mother, who was informed by the hospital that her daughter was under their care, informed police of her whereabouts when 43rd Precinct detectives called her Thursday morning, Aiello added.
McWilliams faces charges of second-degree murder and robbery in New York, Aiello said.

Keywords: MURDER; NEW YORK CITY; PALISADES PARK; DRUG; PARAMUS; MENTAL; ART

ID: 17351422 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 02
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CRASH FAILS TO SLOW A LEADER ON THE JOB AT FIRE AND POLICE ACADEMY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 2, 1991

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

For Ron Calissi, a glimpse of mortality when his van collided with a truck nine months ago did not change his life goals: It taught him to pursue them with more vigor.
“They said I died twice, but I don’t remember,” said the 44-year-old director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy.
Known for charismatic and energetic leadership at a post he has been reappointed to annually for the past 12 years, Calissi says he is now even more dedicated to his twin goals: preparing his academy students as well as possible, and continuing on a path of personal and professional growth.
“The rudiments start here,” he said of the academy. “That’s our job, to provide a climate conducive to learning modern approaches to solving problems.”
In firefighting education, for instance, the academy is designing a computerized fire-training burn building that he said would be the most advanced in the world.
Another Calissi goal is to make an associate degree the minimum requirement to become a police officer in Bergen County. The state standard is a high school diploma or GED (general equivalency diploma).
The Leonia Police Department requires a bachelor’s degree for entry-level officers, the only one in the county with such a standard.
Calissi is trying to create an environment to make the associate-degree goal a reality. Under an agreement with Ramapo College and Bergen Community College that would go into effect this fall or spring, Bergen County Police and Fire Academy students would be encouraged to take courses toward an associate degree in social science and bachelor’s degree in government, with a minor concentration in sociology.
“This goes to the mission of the academy, which is to professionalize the public-safety community through the offering of higher-education programs that are college-accredited, thereby indirectly raising the standards to the level they should be at,” Calissi said.
People in law enforcement credit Calissi with invigorating a moribund Bergen County Police and Fire Academy when he took over as director 12 years ago. Student enrollment rose from 2,000 then to about 15,000 students today, representing more than 50 percent of the state’s annual public-safety trainees.
Ridgefield Police Chief Lars N. Oyen, a 1967 academy graduate, said the school Calissi now heads is a huge improvement over the one from which he graduated.
“One of the first things that a senior officer said to me was, `Forget everything they taught you at the academy. Now, I’m going to show you how to do it,” Oyen said. “He was right. It was different. It didn’t have the scholastic value that [the academy] has today.”
On a personal level, Calissi, a Franklin Lakes resident, will continue rehabilitating his left leg, which was shattered in the Nov. 8, 1990, accident.
Returning to the academy for a meeting that day, Calissi’s van veered into the path of oncoming traffic as he avoided a vehicle turning from his lane. He collided with a utility truck coming from the opposite direction.
Along with the shattered bones, Calissi broke seven ribs and required transfusion of 15 units of blood.
He was back on the job 30 days after the accident. Although he still undergoes physical therapy and faces further surgery, doctors have told him to expect a complete recovery.
Calissi plans to continue studying toward a doctorate in public management to go with his masters of business administration degree, law degree, and certification as a public manager and financial planner.
He also will continue to teach graduate human-resource management and administrative-law courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; FIREMAN; SCHOOL; OFFICIAL; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; VICTIM; MAHWAH; RON CALISSI

Caption: PHOTO – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD – Ron Calissi in front of a fire simulator at the police and fire academy. He says the school aims to “professionalize the public-safety community.”

ID: 17351342 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 01
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THEIR FEAR OF FLYING OVERCOME BY WRECK

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page A10

Richard Umbrino Jr. and Arthur Colombino took the train back from a Florida vacation because they were afraid to fly.
But after their experiences aboard the ill-fated Amtrak Silver Star, which they boarded in Winter Haven, Fla., early Wednesday, the Point Pleasant men said they won’t be getting on a train again anytime soon.
Umbrino, 20, and Colombino, 19, described several minutes of terror and mayhem aboard the train that crashed in Camden, S.C., killing at least seven aboard and injuring dozens more.
After landing Wednesday evening at Newark International Airport with four other survivors, Umbrino said one of the men killed was just ahead of him on the train.
“His leg was twisted around, he was bleeding from his head and chest, and I think his lungs were punctured,” said the junior at Kean College in Union.
The survivors also questioned claims by authorities that the train was going below the 79 mph speed limit before it crashed, saying that few aboard could sleep because it was moving so fast.
The train’s lights were knocked out almost immediately after the crash, Colombino said, and people were flung about the car as it skidded for a long distance on its side. Glass from shattered windows flew in all directions.
The two men, neither of whom was hurt, said a woman immediately behind them was traveling with two children.
“Everybody was screaming,” Umbrino said. “She was screaming, `Hold my hand. . . . You have to take care of my baby.”
Martin and Diana Santos of the Bronx and their two children also arrived in Newark on Wednesday. They said a local minister gave them a ride from the crash site to the airport in Columbia, S.C.
“At the point of impact, I only thought of running to my children and then off the train,” said Mrs. Santos, 31, a social worker. “It was terrifying.
“You know how you get scared when a car suddenly brakes?” she continued. “This was a hundred times worse.”
Reaching for luggage when the crash occurred, Martin Santos was tossed inside the car and suffered a sprained right ankle. He was on crutches Wednesday evening.
The Santoses had been at Disney World for a long-planned vacation and caught the train in Orlando. They said the train was running late and appeared to be moving at high speeds.
“The train was just flying,” Santos said. “I’m not sure what somebody was doing back there. I couldn’t sleep, it was going so fast.”
Umbrino described the same feeling.
“The train was bouncing so much that’s why I woke up,” he said.
Never on an airplane before Wednesday, Umbrino said flying would probably be his mode of long-distance travel from now on.
“I’m not going to be traveling on trains anymore,” he said. “Today was my first flight, and I liked it.”
Record Staff Writer John Mooney contributed to this article.

Keywords: NEWARK; FLORIDA; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; SOUTH CAROLINA; DEATH; DISASTER; VICTIM

Caption: PHOTO – RIC FRANCIS / THE RECORD – Richard Umbrino Jr., 20, left, and Arthur Colombino, 19, were among six survivors to arrive at Newark Airport on Wednesday.

Notes: 1 of 2 versions

ID: 17351240 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Aug 01
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ANGRY N.J. SURVIVOR CITES DELAY IN RESCUE

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By Elizabeth Auster and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, August 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A10

“You have no idea how horrifying this has been.”
It was 9 p.m., 16 hours after the disaster. But Peter Cepeda, pacing agitatedly in Washington’s Union Station amid busloads of passengers who had just arrived from South Carolina, still could barely control his rage.
Yes, he was alive and bound for his home in Newark. But he makes his living in New Jersey as a doctor, and he had lost a patient Wednesday a man he didn’t know until Amtrak’s Silver Star derailed, and Cepeda, who had been in the third car from the rear, went looking for casualties in the next car.
The man’s arm and leg had been severed, Cepeda said, and he was bleeding profusely from multiple lacerations. Cepeda and another passenger, Robert Moore of Miami, said they tried tourniquets to stanch the blood. They tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when the man periodically lost consciousness.
But at least an hour passed, Cepeda said, before he saw an ambulance. By the time help arrived, the man was gone, Cepeda and Moore said.
“There was nothing we could do,” said Cepeda. “It was a real traumatic experience.”
Cepeda was among several New Jersey residents on the Amtrak line who described the terror and mayhem that erupted when the train bound for New York derailed, killing at least seven passengers and injuring dozens of others.
Richard Umbrino Jr. and Arthur Colombino, both of Point Pleasant, took the train back from a Florida vacation because they were afraid to fly.
After landing Wednesday evening at Newark International Airport with four other survivors, the two men described bodies and glass flying about the train as it crashed. Umbrino said one of the men killed was seated just ahead of him.
“His leg was twisted around, he was bleeding from his head and chest, and I think his lungs were punctured,” said Umbrino, a 20-year-old junior at Kean College in Union.
Umbrino and other survivors contested claims that the train was below the 79 mph speed limit, saying that few on board could sleep because the train was moving so fast.
“The train was bouncing so much that’s why I woke up,” he said.
Cepeda, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is planning to move to Florida shortly, was not in the mood to be passive Wednesday night. While other weary survivors boarded trains in Washington to head north, he flatly refused, insisting that Amtrak find him another way of getting home.
“If they don’t put me on a plane I’ll find my own,” he insisted.
Cepeda was not the only survivor frightened of getting back on a train.
Thirteen-year-old Kim Williams of Brigantine, who was returning from a visit to relatives in Florida and traveling with her aunt, was flushed and clearly nervous as she followed directions from Amtrak personnel guiding her to a train headed north.
“It was very scary and I don’t know if it’s going to happen again,” she said. “I haven’t been able to eat all day because I’m afraid it’s going to happen again.”
Never on an airplane before Wednesday, Umbrino said flying would probably be his mode of long-distance travel from now on.
“I’m not going to be traveling on trains anymore,” he said. “Today was my first flight, and I liked it.”
Record Staff Writer John Mooney contributed to this article.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; RAILROAD; SOUTH CAROLINA; ACCIDENT; DEATH; DISASTER; NEWARK; VICTIM; FLORIDA

Caption: PHOTO – RIC FRANCIS / THE RECORD – Richard Umbrino Jr., 20, left, and Arthur Colombino, 19, were among six survivors to arrive at Newark Airport on Wednesday.

ID: 17351241 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Jul 26
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FIREMAN, YOUTHS ACCUSED OF ARSON IN FAIRVIEW FIRE HELD IN MAY 9 BLAZE AT HOUSE

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By Michael O. Allen and Lisa Rein, Record Staff Writers | Friday, July 26, 1991

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

A 21-year-old volunteer firefighter and two borough juveniles were arrested Wednesday on charges that they broke into an abandoned house on May 9, doused it with kerosene, and set it on fire, officials said.
George Joseph Leuffgen of Maple Street and two 17-year-olds, whom Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy declined to identify because of their age, were charged Thursday with burglary and aggravated arson.
Fahy said someone cut off a padlock in the rear of the single-family house at 658 Prospect Ave. on the day of the fire. The fire started in the first-floor bathroom of the house and was reported about 1:10 a.m., he said.
“When investigators went to the scene right after the fire,” Fahy said, “there was a strong odor of kerosene.”
Investigators subsequently received information that Leuffgen was involved in setting the fire. He was arrested about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, Fahy said.
Leuffgen was one of 80 firefighters on Fairview’s force. Craig Krivda, a councilman and the town’s fire commissioner, said he was searching for reasons why Leuffgen might have set a vacant house on fire.
“He’s a helpful guy who lends a hand whenever he’s around,” Krivda said. “Maybe for the younger guys, this is something exciting, to set a fire and put it out. I can’t figure this out.”
The prosecutor also said he did not know why Leuffgen, a four-year veteran of the department, set the fire.
“The fireman [Leuffgen] had no proprietary interest in the house. He would have gained nothing, as far as we could determine,” Fahy said.
Leuffgen was being held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. The juveniles were released to the custody of their parents.

Keywords: FAIRVIEW; FIREMAN; YOUTH; ARSON; PROBE

ID: 17350681 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

Jul 25
Love0

HUSBAND CHARGED IN BAT ATTACK ON WIFE

By Homepage, The Record No Comments

By Michael O. Allen and Caroline Herzfeld, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, July 25, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B02

A 41-year-old borough man was charged with attempted murder Wednesday for allegedly assaulting his wife with a baseball bat earlier this month, police said.
Henry Quagliani, 41, of 90 Chestnut St. was arrested at 12:15 a.m. at the Harmon Meadow Shopping Mall in Secaucus after he returned from Canada to find out his hospitalized wife’s condition, said police Sgt. Thomas Farrell.
Quagliani had left the country shortly after the July 17 assault in the home they shared, Farrell said. Police said he was allowed to live there but was under a restraining order against domestic violence.
Quagliani’s wife, whom police declined to name, was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The couple, who have been married for 18 years, were arguing about 9:50 p.m. when the assault occurred. The two had a history of domestic problems, Farrell said.
After Quagliani used a mall telephone booth to call family and friends to inquire about his 43-year-old wife, police found him in the mall parking lot.
He was also charged with aggravated assault, possession of a knife and another weapon the baseball bat and contempt of court for violating the restraining order.
He was being held in the Bergen County Jail Wednesday on $175,000 bail.

Keywords: RUTHERFORD; MARRIAGE; ASSAULT

ID: 17350585 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)