FEDERAL LIMIT ON INMATES ASSAILED; Del Tufo Weighs Legal Challenge

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 1, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B01

New Jersey Attorney General Robert J. Del Tufo said Tuesday that he is considering challenging federal court orders that limit the number of state prisoners in some county jails.

“I would prefer not to have a federal judge telling the state what it can and cannot do,” he said.

Del Tufo said he talked Monday with U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr about a new U.S. Justice Department policy to provide legal help to states that are trying to lift court-ordered limits on prison populations.

He said he wants to review the current consent decrees restricting the number of state inmates in the Essex, Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, and Union county jails, with an eye toward challenging those limits.

Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune said lifting the cap on state inmates at other jails might help the Bergen County Jail because some state prisoners could be removed, but that the problem would remain with the state.

“If the state realizes it has an overcrowding problem, then it must address it at the state level, not at the expense of the county jail system,” Terhune said.

The new Justice Department policy was first put forth by Barr in a Jan. 14 speech in which he said the ability of states in recent years to manage their own prisons has been hampered by lower federal court rulings that came out of lawsuits filed by inmates.

“Many courts went far beyond what the Constitution requires in remedying purported Eighth Amendment violations,” Barr said in the speech. “Caps, in particular, have wrought havoc with the states efforts to get criminals off the street.”

But on Jan. 15, the day after Barr’s speech, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that undercut his position, said Elizabeth Alexander, deputy director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ruling, in a case originating in Boston, made reopening consent decrees easier, but put limits on how much they could be rewritten, Alexander said.

“I’m really surprised that Barr is continuing to make this argument,” she said. “In the face of the decision, I would have thought that he would stop, because it was so soundly rejected by the Supreme Court.”

The Bergen County Jail operates at an average of 235 percent of its rated capacity of 423 inmates, with its population hovering around 1,000 during the week and exceeding that on weekends. The county and state are co-defendants in a 1988 lawsuit filed by inmates who charged that their constitutional rights were being violated by conditions at the jail.

James Stabile, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, said the state prison system currently runs at 135 percent capacity. Although the department removed 1,559 inmates from county jails in February, the caps in the five counties prevented the state from spreading that number out, he said.

For instance, the department removed 348 prisoners from the Essex County Jail, one of the jails under consent decrees, but only 72 inmates from Bergen County. The number could have been divided more evenly among the counties if the state could be flexible with the cap, Stabile said.

BOGOTA POLICE HUNT MAN WHO FLED; SOUGHT FOR NON-PAYMENT OF FINE IN AUTO DEATH

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 27, 1990

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

A 22-year-old man who was convicted of drunken driving in the 1988 death of a 5-year-old boy escaped through a window on Tuesday as his wife prevented police from arresting him for not paying a fine levied as part of his sentence, police said.

Peter Lamanna, who police said was still at large Wednesday, did not pay the $1,645 fine imposed by a Superior Court judge in Bergen County in May. The court referred his case to Teaneck Municipal Court, which issued a warrant last week, said a Bogota police spokesman.

Lamanna answered the door at 389 Linden Ave., where his in-laws live, after police Officer Daniel Maye knocked at the door about 11:40 p.m. Tuesday, the spokesman said. Police said Lamanna married a Bogota woman and moved to Florida after his June 19 release from the Bergen County Jail.

When Maye tried to arrest him, Lamanna allegedly ran into the house. Joanne Lamanna, 24, grabbed Maye and prevented him from going after her husband, police said. The Bergen County Police canine unit later searched the area for Lamanna, but was unable to find him.

Mrs. Lamanna was charged with interfering with a police officer and with assault on a police officer. She was released on $450 bail Wednesday.

Lamanna was acquitted May 23 of a death-by-auto charge in the death of Sultan Chaudhri, who was crossing the street with his mother when Lamanna hit them with his Chevrolet Camaro. The mother, Nighat Chaudhri, 32, suffered minor injuries.

Lamanna was sentenced to 30 days in jail on drunken-driving and other charges. His license was revoked for two years, consecutive to a four-year suspension imposed in 1988 by the Division of Motor Vehicles.

THREATS ON JUDGE PROMPT ARREST

By Michael O. Allen and Caroline Herzfeld, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, October 4, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B04

State police have charged a 43-year-old Cliffside Park woman with making terroristic threats against an appellate court judge who is handling the appeal of her divorce case.

State police spokesman Danny Cosgrove said Judge James J. Petrella received two phone calls from Susan V. Waldman in his chamber in the Appellate Division of Superior Court in Hackensack Friday, threatening him with bodily harm.

Waldman was arrested at 10 p.m. Tuesday at her home at 250 Gorge St. She was released from the Bergen County Jail Wednesday after posting 10 percent of her $25,000 bail.

Waldman could be sentenced to five years in prison and fined up to $7,500 if she is convicted.

Waldman’s appeal of a Morris County Superior Court ruling in her divorce from Morristown dentist Herman Waldman was filed Oct. 24, 1989, and came before a three-judge panel headed by Petrella.

She said in phone calls to The Record this week that she filed charges of judicial misconduct against Petrella with John Sweeney, Governor Florio’s counsel. She claimed Petrella has been rubber-stamping all of her husband’s motions in the ongoing case while ignoring hers, and that Petrella was harassing her because of her charges against him.

Her former husband is a personal friend of Petrella and the two other judges hearing the case, Mrs. Waldman said in her calls to The Record.

Petrella and Herman Waldman could not be reached for comment.