DENTIST WITH NO LICENSE ARRESTED AFTER COMPLAINT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 13, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | D02

The state Consumer Affairs Division and police say Miguel Gonzalez was the dentist of choice for a Hispanic clientele in the township. The problem, officials said, was that Gonzalez did not have a license.

Police this week arrested Gonzalez at his apartment at 304 72nd St., where he practiced, Lt. Timothy Kelly said Thursday.

Nancy Erickson, director of communications for the division, said the arrest followed an anonymous complaint. The agency’s enforcement bureau, which acts on complaints to the New Jersey Dentistry Board as well as all other professional boards in the state, inspected Gonzalez’s apartment on Tuesday.

The investigator found syringes and anesthetic drugs and concluded that Gonzalez, 40, was practicing without a license, Erickson said.

Sgt. Joseph Bode executed a search warrant at the apartment about 4 p.m. Wednesday and seized bottles of Novocain, syringes, patients records, and dental equipment. Gonzalez, a dental technician at a Union City laboratory, was arrested.

However, Gonzalez could not be charged with practicing medicine without a license because there is no state law that penalizes failure to have a dentistry license, Kelly said.

Gonzalez is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court next week on charges of illegal possession of the Novocain, unlawful possession of hypodermic needles, and wrongful impersonation. Erickson said the Consumer Affairs Division could fine Gonzalez for practicing without a license and issue a cease and desist order.

Kelly said Gonzalez may have been a dentist in Cuba, but did not have a license to practice in this country. Working mostly at night, Gonzalez treated about four patients a day, he said.

TRACK WORKERS UNDER SCRUTINY; REGULATORS VOW BETTER CHECKING

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 21, 1991

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

The New Jersey Racing Commission plans to meet with state and federal agencies in a effort to tighten up its worker licensing procedures, after 70 Meadowlands Racetrack stable hands were taken into custody Tuesday as illegal aliens.

Bruno Verducci, assistant director of the commission, said Wednesday that except in obvious cases, Racing Commission workers cannot determine the authenticity of immigration papers presented by the workers.

Allen Kampel, a supervisory special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said most of the workers taken into custody obtained licenses from the commission by using false immigration papers. The workers need the state licenses before they can be hired by trainers.

The INS investigation has now shifted to the trainers, Kampel said. The agency will try to determine whether they knowingly hired illegal aliens.

Verducci said that he would meet with immigration officials and state police to talk about teaching commission workers how to do a better job of spotting bogus documents.

Describing the current procedure, Verducci said: “If there is ever a question as to the identity of the individual seeking a license, or the credentials that he presents, that person is refered to the state police racetrack unit that is lodged at the backstretch of the track. So, that is the safety valve. If they don’t come back, then you know.”

Although the state’s five racetracks check workers commission licenses, horse trainers like small businesses are responsible for ensuring that the stable hands they hire are authorized to work, Verducci said.

The INS recognizes that it is hard for employers to determine the authenticity of resident-alien ards ndth orkthiauments that people present to them, Kampel said. The INS would not hold them responsible if they could show they made good-faith efforts to determine whether the employees are legal.

In the next phase of the investigation, Kampel said, the INS will check whether the trainers knowingly hired illegal workers or checked their documentation. The 1986 Immigration Reform Control Act mandated that employers fill out a special form verifying that each worker is authorized to work in this country.

If it can be proved that the employers either knowingly hired illegal workers or did not fill out the form, the employers could be fined, Kampel said. Fines could range from a minimum of $250 per illegal worker in a first offense by an employer to a maximum of $10,000 per employee, he said.

Meanwhile, the 70 stable hands detained Tuesday by the INS, with assistance from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and state police, were released pending deportation hearings.

Most of the stable hands are Mexican.

2 CHARGED WITH SELLING PHONY IDS TO MINORS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, April 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A 32-year-old Jersey City man who police said sold “several hundred” fake New Jersey driver’s licenses to underage students in four states was released Friday from a Delaware jail on $15,000 bail.
For the past two years, Howard A. Lubowsky produced and sold the bogus licenses to high school students in the Cresskill area and to college students in Delaware, Philadelphia, and New Rochelle, N.Y., police said.
“The only purpose of a 17-year-old getting one of these is so they could get served in bars and liquor stores,” said Cresskill Detective Sgt. William Macchio, noting that 17-year-olds can obtain legal New Jersey driver’s licenses. Charges are pending against Lubowsky in Cresskill.
About a month ago, Cresskill and Newark, Del., police discovered that they were investigating the same man, Macchio said, when Newark police called borough police about a fake New Jersey license they had confiscated. The license bore a borough address.
On three separate occasions, Macchio said, Lubowsky came to Cresskill for photo sessions at a teenager’s house. At least 20 students would pay $25 to have their pictures taken, then pay $25 a week later at a license-signing and laminating session, Macchio said.
At a University of Delaware dormitory Wednesday night, one of the people Lubowsky photographed was an undercover Newark, Del., police officer, a university security official said. Lubowski had sold 58 licenses at the school in October and was prepared to sell 55 Wednesday, the security official said.
In Delaware, charges against Lubowsky include 12 counts of forgery, unlawful production of driver’s licenses, and possession of forgery devices. A Morris Plains woman, Claudia Silverberg, 31, also faced similar charges. She was being held Friday in a Delaware correctional facility, authorities said.

Keywords: JERSEY CITY; CRIME; LICENSE; YOUTH; SALE; CRESSKILL

N.J. CUTS ALCOHOL BUREAU

By Patricia Alex and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, March 7, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A09

The “backbone” of the state bureau enforcing liquor laws will be gutted under a cost-cutting plan that calls for 32 of the 72 enforcement agents to lose their jobs by the end of the month, inspectors said Wednesday.
The agents, who work for the New Jersey State Police Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau, said they feared the layoffs were the first step toward total elimination of the unit.
But Chris Florentz, spokesman for the state Division of Law and Public Safety, which ordered the cuts, said he was aware of no such plan.
Many areas of the division are facing similar cuts, as are departments throughout state government. “We decided these cuts could be made without seriously affecting the ability of the agency to monitor and regulate the alcoholic beverage industry,” said Florentz.
The bureau is charged with enforcing laws that affect the more than 1,200 legal liquor purveyors in the state, including statutes that prohibit the sale of liquor to minors. The agency also ferrets out illegal establishments and investigate liquor license applications.
“I find it very hard to believe that the state can lay off half our force and still believe that we can work as effectively,” said Edward Corrales, a senior inspector.
Corrales said the unit’s investigations often lead to fines that offset its operating costs.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; ALCOHOL; GOVERNMENT; LAW; FINANCE; COST; LICENSE

MAN SEEKING GUN PERMIT FIRES SHOT AT BOROUGH HALL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 29, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B05

A 33-year-old former resident waiting for a gun permit from the borough was arrested late Tuesday night after he shot at Borough Hall, police said.

Robert M. Teter of 351 River Road, Little Ferry, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and with having a loaded semiautomatic rifle in his possession, Ridgefield Detective John Bogovich said.

Police Chief Lars N. Oyen said Teter had appeared “somewhat disoriented” when he came into into the police station earlier Tuesday to apply for a gun permit. He was told the police needed time to check his background before he could be given a permit, Oyen said. Teter had received a permit from the department several years earlier, the chief said.

“Interestingly enough, there was nothing in his background that would indicate a problem,” and a permit would have been issued on Wednesday, Oyen said. Bogovich said Teter moved to Little Ferry a week ago after seven years as a Ridgefield resident.

Bogovich said police received a call about a gunman who had shot at Borough Hall at about 10:40 Tuesday night. Police found Teter in his car near the railroad tracks on Edgewater Avenue, he said. Teter refused to put up his hands and keep them in plain view, and it took four officers to subdue him, Bogovich said.

The shot hit the front of building, to the north side of the front door, and missed a window near a police lieutenant’s desk, Oyen said. No one was in that office at the time, authorities said, but police were on duty in other offices in the building.

Teter had two bullets in the rifle’s magazine, one in the chamber, and 54 additional rounds of ammunition in his car, police said.

He was undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Bergen Pines County Hospital on Wednesday and was being held on $25,000 bail, Oyen said.

MAN, 27, IS CHARGED WITH DEATH BY AUTO

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 22, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A76

A 27-year-old Jersey City man has been charged with death by auto stemming from an alleged drag race with a Plainfield youth that killed a Ridgefield woman.

Franco Castella of 135A North St. was also charged with assault with an automobile and driving on a suspended license, stemming from the Nov. 7 crash on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen, said North Bergen Police Officer George Alburtus.

Castella, whom police originally identified as Antonio Castella, was released on $1,000 bail following his arrest Tuesday, police said.

The Plainfield youth, who is 17, was charged on Tuesday with the same felony counts that Castella faces. The teenager, whose identity is being withheld by police because of his age, also faces a charge of driving without a license.

He remained in stable condition at the Jersey City Medical Center Wednesday.

Alburtus said at least one more person involved in the pileup on Tonnelle Avenue and 49th Street faces motor-vehicle violation charges. Allen Betancourt, 19, of Piscataway will be charged with allowing an unlicensed driver to operate a motor vehicle and allowing people to sit in a compartment not designated for passengers.

Betancourt borrowed the red 1985 Porsche, driven by the 17-year-old, from its owner, and was one of four people packed into the two-seater when the accident occurred, Alburtus said.

Carmela Berardo, 49, of 414 Abbott St., Ridgefield, was killed instantly when the Porsche crossed into the northbound lane of Tonnelle Avenue and struck the car she was riding in. Her husband, Florindo, who was driving, suffered a broken right foot and facial abrasions. His mother, Michelina Berardo, 69, broke both legs, suffered a fractured skull, and remained unconscious in critical condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City on Wednesday.