COPS PROBE HOW WOMAN IN SPAT FELL FROM WINDOW

By MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Thursday, May 30, 1991

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

Investigators are trying to determine how a 24-year-old Jersey City woman, a bystander in a spat between a man and his two girlfriends, fell out of a third-floor apartment window Wednesday and cracked her skull, police said.
“Everything indicates that she didn’t want to go out of that window,” Union City Detective Sgt. Maurice Ryan said.
Wanda Colon of 1812 Fifth St. was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at University Hospital in Newark, a hospital spokesman said.
Ryan said the dispute started when Carmen Natal of 2508 Adams Place, Union City, and Jacqueline Casco of 228 Fourth St., Jersey City, found out they had been dating the same man Michael Lugo, 23, of Queens and decided to confront him early Wednesday.
Natal, 24, telephoned Lugo and told him her husband was beating her, Ryan said, adding that Natal is not married. Ryan said that when Lugo arrived at Natal’s place, armed with a gun, he was surprised to find Casco, Colon, and two other women there, along with Natal.
The gun was a catalyst in the ensuing melee, during which Colon fell out of the window, Ryan said. Broken window panes, scratches on her wrist, and her fingernail marks on the sill, showed that Colon struggled to prevent her fall, Ryan said.
Lugo was charged with possession of a weapon and aggravated assault. He was being held in the Hudson County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Keywords: UNION CITY; ACCIDENT; PROBE

SUSPECT SOUGHT IN TWO ATTEMPTED ABDUCTIONS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 10, 1991

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

Police in the borough and Hasbrouck Heights are searching for a suspect in the attempted abductions of a Lodi teenager a month ago and of a Rutherford teen on Sunday.
Although descriptions of vehicles used in the incidents are different, descriptions of the suspects are so similar police believe the same man was responsible for both, Rutherford Police Lt. Steven Nienstedt said.
The Hasbrouck Heights incident happened about 2 p.m., April 2, at the intersection of Boulevard and Baldwin avenues, said Hasbrouck Heights Detective Bill Castiglione. The victim, a 16-year-old Lodi girl, reported that a man approached her as she walked along Boulevard Avenue. The man then had “sexual contact” with the girl and tried to abduct her, Castiglione said.
The suspect was described as a 25- to 35-year-old Hispanic male, driving a black, midsize car, possibly with four doors.
Rutherford police said a man fitting that description grabbed a 17-year-old borough girl by the arms on Orient Way at Winslow Place about 9:40 p.m. Sunday. The suspect, said to be about 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds, with dark complexion and short brown hair, spoke Spanish to the girl before grabbing her. He then fled in a “newer-model” pickup truck. The truck had a white cap with windows and a dark-color stripe on the side.
A second suspect was seen standing near the truck during the Rutherford incident, Nienstedt said. Anyone with information on either incident should call Rutherford police at 939-6000, or Hasbrouck Heights police at 288-1000.

Keywords: RUTHERFORD; HASBROUCK HEIGHTS; CHILD; KIDNAPPING; PROBE; POLICE

Caption: DRAWING – Police composite.

SHOCKED EDUCATORS DEAL WITH SEX CASE; POLICE INVESTIGATE ACCUSED PRINCIPAL

By Michael O. Allen and Thomas Moran, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, December 2, 1990

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

As Bergen County law-enforcement officials continued their investigation of an elementary school principal accused of molesting pupils, Elmwood Park educators began scheduling counseling sessions for children and meetings with parents.

“To say that we were shocked would be an understatement,” said Michael Schill, president of the school board. “Our first and foremost concern has been the children, and that will always be our concern.”

Victoria Williams, Elmwood Park’s superintendent of schools, called a Monday meeting with parents to begin answering questions arising from the arrest Friday of Samuel R. Bracigliano, principal of the Gilbert Avenue Elementary school for 10 years.

Authorities say the alleged victims three boys, two age 11 and one age 9 are students at the school.

Bracigliano, who prosecutors said is single and lives with his mother in Elmwood Park, was accused of touching the buttocks of one student and taking photographs of three boys in “provocative poses” in his school office.

Law-enforcement investigators will review with school officials whether photographs and videotapes seized at Bracigliano’s home are those of former and current students at the school.

John J. Fahy, the Bergen County prosecutor, said parents who have questions or suspicions should call the Bergen County Sex Crimes Unit at 646-3600.

Williams said that at Monday’s meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. she will attempt to reassure parents that everything possible is being done to help the children.

Also Monday, counseling services will be made available to students and parents during school days for as long as they are needed, Williams said.

“We have a team of counselors, school psychologists, social workers, learning consultants, crisis-intervention counselors, and school nurses, and Bergen County personnel that will help us with this,” she said.

Except to express their shock and disappointment, several school trustees declined to comment on the situation. Many urged that the investigation be allowed to take its course.

Schill issued a formal statement, saying:

“The board suspended Mr. Bracigliano because that is the proper thing to do. We are not implying in any shape or form his guilt in this matter. He is suspended with pay. We want to get this cleared up as quickly as possible. Whether he’s guilty or innocent, the nature of the charges itself triggers a very strong reply.”

Fahy said his office acted swiftly when a parent of one of the alleged victims called to complain Thursday afternoon. Investigators armed with a search warrant seized boxes containing photographs and videotapes of young boys from Bracigliano’s home.

Bracigliano, an unsuccessful candidate for principal of Memorial High School this year, was arrested at about 7 p.m. Neither he nor his lawyer, Louis Mangano, a member of the school board, could be reached on Saturday.

Saturday, a woman who identified herself as the mother of one of the three boys allegedly photographed said the Prosecutor’s Office called her Thursday night and asked her to bring the boy in for to be interviewed.

She said her son told her he had been summoned to the principal’s office through the school intercom during his regular classes on Thursday, and he described what occurred inside the office.

Elmwood Park Mayor Richard A. Mola said that in the 20 years he has known Bracigliano, as a public official and an educator, “people have always held him in high regard.”

“I’ve never heard anything derogatory about him.”