MAN FLEEING COPS STRUCK ON RTE. 4; ALLEGEDLY TRIED TO USE FAKE CREDIT CARD AT BANK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 1990

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

A man fleeing Paramus police after he tried to get $2,500 from a bank using a fake credit card was struck and badly injured Tuesday when he ran into speeding traffic on Route 4, police said.

The man, who police said was carrying only false identification, underwent surgery at Hackensack Medical Center on Tuesday evening. Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney said the man’s legs were shattered and he suffered severe internal injuries when he was struck by a Mercedes-Benz in the fast lane on the westbound side.

“He could have just as easily been killed, the way he ran into the highway,” Delaney said.

“I don’t know how he ever expected to get across the highway, especially at that time, with the traffic across Route 4,” Delaney said. “He probably didn’t see the footbridge. There’s a footbridge right above him on Forest Avenue.”

The chain of events began at about 11:20 a.m. when the man tried to obtain $2,500 from First Fidelity Bank at 10 Forest Ave. with the credit card, police said.

A teller called police, whispering that she needed assistance, Delaney said, but the call was discontinued before the desk officer could ask for more information.

Thinking a bank robbery was in progress, the officer dispatched several cruisers to the bank.

Police Officer Steve Mercer, who saw the man run out of the bank as he arrived at the scene, chased him on foot to the roadway, where the man darted into the traffic, crossing two lanes before he was hit.

Police believed the man drove to the bank and were looking for a car late Tuesday, Delaney said.

Delaney said police later learned that about $4,500 had been obtained from banks in Florida with the credit card, which police said was issued to a fictitious person in Florida.

The chief said the man carried only the Florida identification, “which was obviously fraudulently manufactured,” Delaney said, adding that police would try to establish his identity through fingerprints. “Even at the hospital, when they were asking him questions relative to who he is, where he’s from, he was being extremely evasive. “

Delaney said investigation of the accident caused a backup of the busy lunchtime traffic on Route 4 for about two hours from Forest Avenue to Hackensack Avenue.

The traffic jam caused ancillary roads to River Edge and Hackensack to clog, Delaney said.

Caption: PHOTO – LINDA CATAFFO/THE RECORD – Paramus police collecting evidence around the car that struck a man fleeing from them Tuesday.

DRAG RACING CITED IN FATALITY

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B01

North Bergen police Tuesday charged a Plainfield youth and issued a warrant for the arrest of a 27-year-old Jersey City man in connection with a fatal collision that police now say was the result of drag racing.

A Ridgefield woman was killed instantly in the head-on collision Nov. 7, and her mother-in-law remains unconscious and in critical condition from the accident.

The youth, a 17-year-old whom police would not identify because of his age, was charged with death by auto and assault by auto in the crash at 49th Street and Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen.
An arrest warrant on the same charges was issued for Antonio Castella of 135A North St. in Jersey City.

Police said Castella was driving with a suspended license, and the youth was driving without a license. Four people were packed into the red 1985 two-seat Porsche that the youth was driving, police said.

The two “wantonly, willfully, and carelessly drove their vehicles . . . with disregard for life or property,” said North Bergen Police Officer George Alburtus. “According to witnesses, they were traveling at a high rate of speed, leaving smoke and screeching tires. “

Carmela Berardo, 49, of 414 Abbott St., Ridgefield was killed instantly when the Porsche crossed into the northbound lane on Tonnelle Avenue and struck the car she was riding in. Michelina Berardo, 69, of the same address, remained Tuesday in St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City with a fractured skull and two broken legs.

The youth, who also was injured in the crash, was in stable condition Tuesday at Jersey City Medical Center.

In all, six cars were involved in the pileup that followed the collision, and six people were injured.

Berardo’s husband, Florindo Berardo, 50, left the hospital Nov. 12 to attend his wife’s funeral.

Berardo, who was driving when the collision occurred, suffered a broken right foot and facial abrasions.

Madeleine M. Sheldrick, 30, a pregnant North Bergen resident, and Tamburas Ortiz, 18, brother of the arrested youth, were treated and released the same day. Allen Betancourt, 19, of Piscataway was released Nov. 14 from Jersey City Medical Center.

“No one is interested in retribution,” De Vito said Tuesday. “We are interested in justice, but justice here pleads out for severe penalties to be imposed and incarceration.

“Words like disgusting, tragic, and senseless don’t even begin to define the horror and the loss to this family. “

The family was returning in two cars from visiting an aunt in Jersey City at about 10:30 on the night of the accident.

The Berardos 27-year-old daughter, Michelle Sosa, who was driving ahead of her parents, said she was stopped at a light at 51st Street when she noticed the Porsche and Castella’s Mustang.

“As soon as the light changed, they pulled out, like, they peeled out so fast that there was smoke and noise and everything,” she said.

“It was just overwhelming how much smoke and noise. And all of a sudden I looked in my rearview mirror. I noticed that the red Porsche was in the opposite side of the lane, in the northbound lane. He must have hit my parents then.”

MAN DIES AFTER CAR CRASHES INTO TREE

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Sunday, November 18, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A06

A 21-year-old Brick Township man died Friday from injuries he suffered when he lost control of his car and it ran off the Newark-Pompton Turnpike and struck a tree, police said.

Police believe William J. Bischowff Jr. may have been speeding, said Lt. Donald Stouthamer, commander of the Wayne Police Traffic Bureau, in a statement released Saturday.

Bischowff, a former Wayne resident, was pronouced dead at 11:21 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson, Stouthamer said. He was alone in a 1990 Ford Mustang GTI headed south when the crash occurred on Doig Road at about 10:15 p.m., Stouthamer said.

Notes: Passaic page

DAILY NEWS INCIDENT TRIGGERS CAR CHASE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 16, 1990

The labor feud between the Daily News and its workers spilled into North Jersey Thursday morning as a management employee and security guards for the newspaper chased a striker through the streets of Washington Township in their cars, police said.

Georgetti said.

The bundle was in front of the Myel Stationery store at the Washington Shopping Center on Pascack Road. When Loftus, 45, returned to his car after inspecting newspapers delivered to a food store at the end of the mall, he was confronted by the security guards and Hulahan, Georgetti said.

“Loftus told police the four men had approached him “in a threatening manner,” Georgetti said.

Loftus “got into his vehicle and tried to drive away. He said he was pursued by two or more vehicles” containing Hulahan and the security people, Georgetti said.

The chase went north on Pascack Road, then into side streets before two police cruisers put an end to it on Jackson Avenue. Loftus, a member of the Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department, called the police desk on his portable radio to inform them he was being pursued.

Loftus signed simple assault complaints against Hulahan, 51; Lemert Joseph Wright, 41, of Houston, Texas; Thomas Bruce Ellis, 33, of Hampton, Va.; and a fourth person who he said escaped. Loftus also signed a complaint of aggravated assault against Ellis, who he said tried to run him off the road with his car.

Hulahan, a Washington Township resident, signed a complaint of malicious destruction of property against Loftus.

Loftus and Hulahan were issued summonses to appear in municipal court and were released.

Bail was set at $1,500 for Ellis and $500 for Wright. Georgetti said the men were being held because they had no permanent local address.

Jay Thakkar, manager of Myel Stationery, said no copy of the Daily News delivered Thursday was damaged.

ACADEMY CHIEF STILL IN CRITICAL CONDITION

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 15, 1990

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

The director of the Bergen County Police and Fire Academy, injured in an accident last week when he lost control of his van and was broadsided by a truck, remained in critical condition at The Valley Hospital Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ronald Calissi’s condition has stabilized and he is showing improvement, hospital spokeswoman Jackie Welch said, but he is still being monitored in the intensive care unit for multiple injuries he suffered Thursday afternoon in the accident along Sicomac Avenue, not far from his home in Franklin Lakes.

Peter Neillands, Bergen County police chief and director of public safety, said short-term operation of the academy would not change. Scheduled classes are continuing, and Neillands is managing the academy in Calissi’s absence.

Neillands said he had assigned Bertram Kerrigan, chief police instructor, and John Evans, chief fire instructor, to oversee the day-to-day operation of the academy.

Graduations for the corrections officers class on Nov. 21 and for the basic police class on Dec. 14 will take place as scheduled, Neillands said.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said the accident occurred when Calissi, eastbound on Sicomac at about 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, passed on the left a vehicle making a right turn. A utility truck was traveling westbound on Sicomac.

Calissi lost control of his 1988 Ford van as he attempted to go back into the eastbound lane, and the truck broadsided the van, Fahy said.

Calissi’s van rolled over onto the passenger side from the force of the impact, and rescue workers had to cut the roof off the van to extricate him.

A YEAR LATER, A SHOOTING SUSPECT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 9, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page B03

A 33-year-old New York City man arrested Thursday by city police and charged with possessing a stolen car was wanted for a shooting in Englewood a year ago, police said.

Eric Flake was wanted for two counts of attempted murder, four counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of gun possession in the Nov. 18, 1989, shooting of Neville G. Tyrell of Teaneck, said Englewood Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley.

Flake was arrested at 1 a.m. Thursday along with Herbert Smith, 35, of New York City, who was a passenger in the car Flake was driving.

Tinsley said Police Officer James Morgan ran a check on the car’s license plate when Flake made a turn without signaling. Morgan learned the car was stolen from Prince George County, Md., Tinsley said.

Morgan, assisted by officers George Coleman and Timothy Riley, pulled the car over and arrested the men. Flake and Smith, also charged with possession of stolen property, were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $5,000 bail.

As they were processing the men at the Englewood police station, Tinsley said, the officers discovered that Flake was wanted for contempt of court, attempted murder, and related charges in connection with the shooting of Tyrell.

Tinsley said the police report of that incident indicated that Flake, who was standing with a friend at Lafayette Place and Parkview Drive, waved Tyrell’s car over and fired several shots as Tyrell rolled down his window.

One shot passed through Tyrell’s arm and struck his chest, according to the report. Tyrell drove to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, where he was treated and released.

TRUCK CARRIED OLIVE OIL, $5M IN COKE

By Michael O. Allen and Bill Sanderson, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, October 20, 1990

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

A routine police inspection of a truck carrying olive oil led to the seizure of 393 pounds of cocaine valued at more than $5 million, the largest drug shipment seized on New Jersey highways this year, officials said.

State troopers followed the truck when it left a weighing station in South Jersey at 8:30 a.m. Thursday and arrested four men as they unloaded the cocaine that evening in Edgewater. A fifth suspect was charged in Salem County.

State police spokesman Dan Cosgrove said Trooper Manuel Gordillo was inspecting the truck on Interstate 295, at Carneys Point Township in Salem County, when he noticed fluid leaking from the rear of the truck.

Gordillo saw the cocaine behind the olive oil after being permitted to search, but he allowed the truck to leave, Cosgrove said. Gordillo, members of the Statewide Narcotics Task Force, and Salem and Bergen County police then followed the truck to the Havana Potato Truck Lot on River Road in Edgewater, he said.

Superior Court Judge Marguerite T. Simon in Hackensack set bail at $2.5 million each for four of the suspects, identified as Gonzalo Castellanos-Arroyave of North Bergen, Milton G. Vera of Queens, Edson G. Pantoja of Miami, and Alejandro Lumus of Miami.

They were charged with possession of cocaine, possession with intent to distribute, and conspiracy and were being held in the Bergen County Jail Friday.

A fifth man, Lidio Ocana of Union City, the truck’s driver, was charged with the same offenses and was being held in the Salem County Jail on $2 million bail.

Cosgrove said the seizure was the first fruit of “Operation Roadside,” started with $478,000 in federal funds in July to combine state troopers and the commercial transport industries in a program emphasizing interdiction and public awareness.

Correction: CLARIFICATION: An article in Saturday’s editions reported that four men were arrested on drug charges in a truck lot in Edgewater. The company that leases the lot, Havana Potato Co., was neither implicated nor involved in the incident, state police said. (PUBLISHED, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1990, PAGE a02.)

SECAUCUS MAN, 22, HIT BY POLICE CAR IN HACKENSACK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 7, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A08

A 22-year-old man suffered what hospital officials called multiple trauma after he was struck by a Hackensack police car as he crossed Essex Street in the city early Saturday.

Jaime Fajardo, who Hackensack police said is from Secaucus, was listed in good condition in the surgical intensive care unit of Hackensack Medical Center on Saturday.

The accident occurred about 1:10 a.m. at 370 Essex St., said Patrolman Dennis Parente of the Hackensack Police Department’s traffic division.

“A marked police vehicle was traveling west on Essex Street when, for no apparent reason, a pedestrian ran across the street into the path of the police vehicle, according to a number of witnesses,” Parente said.

Parente said police investigators have talked to six witnesses who supported police conclusions on what occurred.

He said he had been instructed nonetheless not to identify the officer who was driving the patrol car that hit Fajardo.

Parente said the accident report indicated the officer was driving 25 miles per hour when his car struck the pedestrian. The posted speed limit on that section of Essex Street is 30 miles per hour.

On Saturday afternoon, a patron at O’Neil’s Summit Bar & Grill said he was at the bar when the accident occurred, and that Fajardo had not been among the customers.

Cars were parked in front of O’Neil’s Bar, at 362 Essex St., and along the street at the time of the accident, said the man, who declined to identify himself. A few people were walking along Essex Street at the time, but the area wasn’t crowded, he said.

WRONG WAY ON RTE. 46

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, October 6, 1990

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

Later saying he had been fleeing an attacker, the driver of a pickup truck drove the wrong way on Route 46 in Little Ferry and struck a South Hackensack police car that was answering an emergency call, authorities said.

Matt Bialorucki of Passaic told police that he was driving along Main Street in Little Ferry on Thursday night when a man he knew jumped on the back of his truck, hitting the doors and windows several times with a chain.

While attempting to flee, he said, he made a wrong turn onto Route 46, driving his truck west in the eastbound lane.

The truck then collided with a cruiser driven by South Hackensack Patrolman Nicholas Ulliana.

The officer was treated at Hackensack Medical Center for a slight back sprain and released.

Bialorucki and his passenger, John Ohagen, were not injured.

Police said the two men later signed complaints of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against Robert Jackson of 33 Aspen Place, Passaic.

Jackson had jumped off the truck before the crash and fled in another vehicle, police said.

No charges were filed by police against Bialorucki.

DRIVER PULLED FROM WRECK, THEN CHARGED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, September 30, 1990

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

A 33-year-old borough woman whose car hit a parked car early Saturday morning and burst into flames was pulled from the wreck by a policeman and a firefighter, authorities said.

Sandra L. Slockett of Center Avenue was rescued at about 1:30 a.m. by firefighter Albert Van Houten Jr. and Patrolman Michael Smith.

“When we got to the car, it was totally involved, and the driver was trapped in the vehicle,” said Midland Park Fire Chief Albert Van Houten Sr.

“Another 30 seconds, and it would have been too late. “

Van Houten said his son and Smith grabbed the door of the car, forced it open, and rescued Slockett, whom the chief described as semiconscious.

He said the accident occurred at 66 Bank St., a few doors from his home.

Slockett had been driving west on the street when the accident occurred, the chief said. He and his son left their house and headed down the street when they heard the fire alarm.

Police charged Slockett with careless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, and driving with a suspended license.

A police spokesman said Slockett, who refused medical treatment when she was taken to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood after the accident, told police she would return to the hospital later Saturday for treatment.