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SPOTTING DRUG USE; Police Trained to Test Drivers

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 6, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | B01

In a program hailed as a new weapon against drugged drivers, state and local law enforcement officials Tuesday dedicated a center where suspected impaired drivers will be tested. They also recognized 40 police officers who have completed training as the state’s first drug recognition experts.

The Drug Recognition Enforcement program takes the guesswork out of prosecuting motorists suspected of using drugs, said Paul Brickfield, first assistant Bergen County prosecutor.

Instead of relying mainly on a police officer’s description of a motorist’s conduct, prosecutors will be able to use the results of a set of tests administered soon after a driver is stopped.

The officers 20 from the state police, 10 from the Bergen County Police Department, and 10 from municipal police departments have been trained to recognize and measure symptoms induced by various types of drugs, Brickfield said at the dedication.

The testing center is located in a wing donated by Bergen Pines County Hospital in Paramus.
John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Office of Highway Safety, said the program plugs a gap that exists in the prosecution of drunken and drug-impaired drivers.

“Take the Bergen County Police Department,” Pescatore said. “They make over 200 drunk-driving arrests each year, well over 300 arrests of people driving with narcotics in their car, but fewer than 10 arrests of those under the influence of drugs.

The Drug Recognition Enforcement Program was developed in Los Angeles and is now used in 20 states, including New York, Brickfield said.

The state Highway Traffic Safety Division, working with a $14,000 seed grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, chose Bergen County as the place to test the program because of its almost 3,000 miles of interstate, state, county, and municipal roadways.

The training included classroom examinations and practical experience working with drug suspects and identifying what types of drugs they were using, Brickfield said. The officers worked with suspects arrested on sweeps by narcotics bureaus in Jersey City and Paterson.

An examination of a suspect should take about 45 minutes, said state police Sgt. Frank R. Emig, who, along with Bergen County Police Sgt. Robert Brenzel, is a coordinator of the program. Some tests, such as the balance, walk and turn, one-leg stand, and finger-to-nose, are similar to the roadside tests administered to suspected drunken drivers.

Others, such as examinations of pupils, measurement of pulse rate, blood pressure, and body temperature, and toxicological tests, are scientific tests designed to determine which category of drugs a person may be using, Emig said. By the time a test is concluded, the officer would be able to testify as an expert in court on the category of drugs the suspect was using at the time of the arrest, he said.

About 18 people have been charged since DRE officers began issuing summonses to people for driving under the influence of drugs in January, Brickfield said. A few suspects pleaded guilty while several cases are pending, he said.

No one has been convicted in a contested case, however. Brickfield said the first case was lost last week when a Bergen County Superior Court judge questioned not the credibility of the drug recognition expert, but the initial stop that led to the suspect’s being charged.

He added that the program also would have to survive a judicial challenge of a conviction in New Jersey, as it has in other states, before it is accepted as an established enforcement mechanism.

James A. Arena, director of the state Highway Traffic Safety Division, said it was a natural evolution from drunken driving enforcement to trying to get drugged drivers off the road. In 1981, he said, 33 percent of fatal accidents in the state involved a drunken driver or victim, compared with 18.7 percent in 1991. The national average for 1991, the latest figure available, was 39 percent, he said.

“Consistent with the scourge of drugs in our schools, workplace, the whole society, really,” he said, the percentage of drug-related fatal accidents and injuries has increased alarmingly, to as high as 30 percent in 1991.

Caption: 2 COLOR PHOTOS – The testing center includes a holding cell, top. 2 – Above, Sgt. Frank Emig watching Jennifer Dalton, a public information assistant, in a simulated driver test. – PETER MONSEES / THE RECORD 1

ID: 17376436 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

May 6, 1992
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2 CHARGED IN ASSAULT, THEFT TRY; ALLEGEDLY ATTACKED GUARD WITH PIPE, BAT

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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)

January 15, 1992
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COPS CAST MASSIVE DWI NET

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 14, 1991

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

More than 200 law enforcement vehicles were ordered onto the streets and highways of Bergen County on Friday night in a 12-hour campaign to get drunken drivers off the road.

Operation Eagle was launched at 6 p.m. and involved all divisions of the Bergen County Public Safety Department, the state police, and officers from each of the county’s 70 towns. It was the brainchild of John Pescatore, director of the county’s Highway Safety Office.

“The eagle may have landed on Friday the 13th, but the feathers will be flying for a long time to come,” Pescatore said, because the crackdown is to continue into January.

The effort’s cost will be covered through fines levied against people convicted of driving drunk, not by the taxpayers, Pescatore said.

The state police established a sobriety checkpoint in Rutherford, and 15 troopers were deployed on Interstates 80 and 95 and routes 3, 4, 17, and 208.

The Bergen County Police Department had 20 cars in the field; the Prosecutor’s Office 15. “DWI Task Force” decals were displayed on the vehicles.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said deterrence was the main focus. He said people tend to drink more during the holiday season, especially on weekends.

“If we end up with no arrests, I will be happy, because it would mean that we’ve had an impact,” Fahy said.

ID: 17363605 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

December 14, 1991
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THANKS GIVEN TO DRIVERS; LAW ABIDERS PULLED OVER

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 28, 1991

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

Cornell Adams of Hillsdale said he did not know what to think when Bergen County Police Sgt. Vincent DeRienzo told him to pull over on Route 17 in East Rutherford Wednesday morning.

“We thought they were just messing with folks,” Adams wife, Dejuanna, said.

Rather than a summons, DeRienzo handed the Adams family a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne and thanked them for wearing their seat belts.

In a twist, John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said police were stopping motorists who were wearing their seat belts on the day before Thanksgiving to thank them for obeying the law.

“We thought the best way to get people to wear their seat belts is to enlist the help of those people who are already wearing their seat belts to help us spread the message through word of mouth,” Pescatore said. “It is a positive reinforcement of a good habit.”

About 7 a.m. Wednesday, five officers from the Bergen County Police Department were out handing bottles of a sparkling apple drink imported from Spain to motorists at the Route 17 intersection with Union Avenue in East Rutherford. At the same time, three Mahwah police officers gave out bottles of a non-alcoholic sparkling wine from California at the Franklin Turnpike-Micik Lane intersection.

The champagne, 240 bottles in all, was donated by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus and Inserra Supermarkets Inc. of Mahwah.

On a frigid morning, as motorists drove through the rush-hour traffic, the officers would pick a driver at a red light. The drivers looked worried as they pulled over to spots designated by the officers.

A few took the offensive even before an officer spoke. One woman, speaking in rather clinical language, cursed at DeRienzo for stopping her. The officer waved her on.

“People go, `What did I do wrong? ” said Bergen County Police Officer Dwane R. Razzetti, a state-certified seat belt training officer. “Today, we are stopping cars that are properly inspected, where people are wearing their seat belts the opposite reasons that we normally stop cars.”

An exception was a 23-year-old Jersey City woman, who was stopped when an officer spotted her 2-year-old son lying in the front seat, not strapped in. The woman was given a child-restraint seat, instead of a summons.

Most drivers, when they opened their windows to hear the officers announce they were being stopped, were frowning.

“You know why we are stopping you ma’am? ” county police Officer Mark Solimando asked Carlstadt High School guidance counselor Marilyn Persico.

“No,” she answered, frowning.

“We stopped you because you are wearing your seat belt,” Solimando said. He handed her the bottle, and enjoined her not to drink and drive. He also gave her pamphlets with information on how to use seat belts and how to drive in winter conditions.

Like a flower blooming, her face lit into a full smile.

“This is nice,” she said, turning the bottle over in her hand. “This is nice.”

“Have a nice holiday, ma’am,” Solimando said, waving her on.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – BOB BRUSH / THE RECORD – Officer Chris Zovistoski “citing” Patti Jacobson of Wallington.

ID: 17362278 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 28, 1991
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LEGISLATORS ASSAIL INSURANCE CHIEF

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 3, 1991

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

State Insurance Commissioner Samuel F. Fortunato has come under fire by Assembly Democrats for saying that he opposes lifting surcharges on drivers who, except for minor infractions, have clean records.

Fortunato told The Record’s editorial board Wednesday that it would be unwise and wasteful to change the state-run Market Transition Facility, or MTF, so motorists with minor infractions would be spared the surcharges.

A group of Assembly Democrats, including Speaker Joseph V. Doria Jr. of Bayonne, said during a news conference Friday at Borough Hall that they disagree with Fortunato.

“We in the Legislature create the laws, and we don’t feel the commissioner should arbitrarily make decisions that contravene the intent of legislations,” Doria said. “Commissioners of departments are not above the Legislature. The surcharge system that currently exists in the MTF, the bureaucrats have created it. They created it without the approval of the Legislature.”

Assemblyman Louis J. Gill of Passaic, who is co-sponsoring a bill to prohibit the MTF from imposing surcharges greater than those in the private insurance market, said he would push to make the bill law in the Assembly’s next session.

Assemblyman William J. Pascrell Jr. of Paterson said Fortunato had better rethink his position or face losing his job.

“If he is not prepared to act before the next Assembly gets in session, I would be prepared to ask for his resignation, because this is an act of defiance of the Legislature,” Pascrell said.

Jim Berzok, an Insurance Department spokesman, said on Friday that Fortunato was merely expressing a personal opinion on the surcharge system during the editorial board meeting. Berzok said the commissioner will abide by whatever is decreed by the Legislature or Governor Florio.

“He is certainly willing to entertain any alternative plan,” Berzok said.

ID: 17359926 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 3, 1991
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BIKER LEADS COPS ON TWO-COUNTY, THREE-HOUR CHASE

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By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, October 2, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B03

A 24-year-old man stole a motorcycle in South Nyack, N.Y., on Tuesday, then led police on a chase across Bergen County before being arrested three hours later in Paterson, authorities said.
Christopher Rea, who faces numerous charges in Passaic County and New York, was being held in the Passaic County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail on the New Jersey charges and on a detainer on the New York charges.
Bergen County Police Sgt. Paul Hamel said Rea was a blur through Bergen County as he darted on and off highways onto local roads on the powerful 1991 motorcycle. Although officers from several departments allegedly saw Rea, none came close enough to catch him.
Among the highways he was spotted on in Bergen were the Palisades Interstate Parkway, Route 4, Route 17, and Route 46, police said.
He was captured just past 2 p.m. after he rode onto Union Avenue in Totowa and was spotted by a Passaic County sheriff’s officer who had just heard a broadcast of the suspect’s description.
Sgt. Dennis Schlosser chased Rea, who fled at high speed, according to Sgt. Kathy Kryszko, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman.
Kryszko did not elaborate on the speeds reached during the chase. But she said Rea drove quickly through red lights and stop signs as he led Schlosser on a three-mile slalom down Union Avenue, onto Preakness Avenue in Paterson, over to Front Street, and finally to Spruce Street by the Great Falls.
There, Kryszko said, Rea abandoned the motorcycle and plunged into the Passaic River. Schlosser had alerted other authorities, however, and officers from the Sheriff’s Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office persuaded Rea to swim to the riverbank and surrender.
No one was injured in the chase, Kryszko said. She said Rea gave addresses in North Bergen and Weehawken, but said his home base was in Daytona Beach, Fla.
South Nyack Police Chief Alan Colsey said when Rea returns to his town, the charges will include burglary, criminal mischief, grand larceny, resisting arrest, criminal possession of stolen property, and about 10 motor vehicle violations.
He was charged in Totowa with one criminal count of reckless eluding. He faces a similar charge in Paterson, as well as charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools the screwdriver used to steal the motorbike and resisting arrest by fleeing.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; VIOLATION; NEW YORK STATE; BC; PC; POLICE

Caption: PHOTO – KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / THE RECORD – Officer Bryan Dalton radioing information on a stolen motorcycle that police chased from New York to Paterson.

ID: 17356955 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 2, 1991
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2 N.Y. MEN HELD IN ARMED THEFT OF CAR IN FORT LEE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, September 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B06

Two New York City men were arrested after they robbed a couple of their car at gunpoint in a store parking lot near the police station Tuesday, police said.
Dwayne McDaniel and Ross Ramseur, both 21, were arrested shortly after the 11:35 p.m. robbery in the parking lot of the ShopRite at 1355 Inwood Terrace, a couple of doors from police headquarters at 1325 Inwood.
Patrolman Philip Ross was pulling out of the Police Department parking lot when he was stopped by two people who told him that their car had just been taken from them by two armed men, Police Chief John Orso said.
Ross relayed descriptions of the suspects, the car they came in, and the stolen car over the police radio.
Fort Lee Detective Tom Sweeney saw the stolen car, a blue 1991 Acura, heading north on Center Avenue, near Main Street, and pulled it over at the Bridge Plaza South intersection, Orso said.
The suspects had the .44-caliber revolver used in the robbery, the chief said.
Orso declined to identify the victims, except to say the woman, 23, is a borough resident, and the man, also 23, is from Connecticut.
The charges against McDaniel and Ramseur, now being held in the Bergen County Jail on $20,000 bail each, are two counts each of aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and receiving stolen property.

Keywords: FORT LEE; ROBBERY; WEAPON; MOTOR VEHICLE; THEFT

ID: 17355735 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

September 19, 1991
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TRAPS TO SNARE PARKWAY SPEEDERS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, September 11, 1991

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

In a pilot program to crack down on speeding, the state police will set up speed traps at nine points along the Garden State Parkway one day a week, beginning this week.
“The main goal of the program is to have people voluntarily comply with the speed limit, to reduce their speed,” said Capt. Clifford Miller, commander of Troop E, which patrols the 173-mile parkway. “We don’t want to issue speeding summonses. We want them to slow down. ”
Miller said 31 people died in accidents on the parkway between January and August, compared with 27 all of last year. More than 344 million vehicles travel on the parkway each year; about 58,000 speeding tickets were issued on the highway last year, he said.
“Although the parkway is still one of the safest toll roads in the nation, we are aiming at reducing the number of fatal accidents and the number of serious-injury accidents,” Miller said. “We think that by reducing speed and wearing their seat belts,” motorists “can substantially reduce the number of serious accidents. ”
“Operation Slow Down” will be evaluated in three months, and the state police plan to extend it to other highways if it is successful, said Lt. William Hillis, a state police spokesman.
New Jersey has tried a variety of programs to curb speeding on its 34,246 miles of public roads, including enforcement from helicopters, Hillis said. Regular patrols of the parkway and other state highways will continue during the crackdown, he said.
The state police will not announce where the speed traps will be or which day of the week they will be operating, Hillis said. The days and sites of the crackdown will be staggered and will run for 24 hours at a time, he said. Troopers will be using both radar and non-radar equipment to catch speeders, he said.

Keywords: ROAD; NEW JERSEY; POLICE; MOTOR VEHICLE; EQUIPMENT; VIOLATION

Caption: PHOTO – LINDA CATAFFO / THE RECORD – State police are kicking off “Operation Slow Down” this week in an attempt to crack down on speeding on the Garden State Parkway.

ID: 17354846 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

September 11, 1991
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