New Milford Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

SAMARITAN TURNED ROBBER, COPS SAY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, March 8, 1992

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

A 25-year-old man who was stranded when his car broke down Saturday fought off an attacker who reluctantly gave him a ride, then drove him to a secluded spot, put a hunting knife to his throat, and demanded his money, police said.

Although both men are New Milford residents, chance threw them together for the first time Saturday, Teaneck Detective Dean Kazinci said.

After his late-model car broke down on New Milford Avenue in Bergenfield shortly before 4 a.m., the victim walked to Teaneck Road and crossed paths with David Wohllenben.

Wohllenben, 20, at first refused to give the victim a ride but he “circled the block, then came back and offered to give him a ride,” Kazinci said.

Wohllenben allegedly drove to the rear of Jobber Auto Parts at 1555 Teaneck Road. He opened the passenger door, produced a hunting knife that he put to the victim’s throat, and demanded his money, Kazinci said.

The victim used his right hand to fend off knife, sustaining a slight cut in the palm, police said. The victim then fled into a back yard and onto Teaneck Road, where he hailed Teaneck Police Officer Dennis Kleiber.

When Bergenfield Police Officer John Casper stopped Wohllenben about 4:20 a.m. at West Main Street and Franklin Avenue, he saw the hunting knife under the driver’s seat, Kazinci said.

After the victim identified Wohllenben as the attacker, Bergenfield police charged him with unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and bail was set at $2,500. Teaneck police charged him with armed robbery, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and aggravated assault, Kazinci said.
Wohllenben was remanded to the Bergen County Jail on $75,000 bail.

Notes: Bergen page

March 8, 1992

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HEARING-IMPAIRED CAN CONTACT POLICE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 26, 1992

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

Just in time to comply with a federal law that takes effect today, borough police on Friday installed a device that will enable people with speech and hearing impairments to contact police headquarters.

“This is long overdue,” Detective Michael Burns said Saturday. “It opens a whole new world of communication for people.”

The legislation, called the Americans With Disabilities Act, was signed into law in July 1990. Under one of its provisions, police must be equipped with a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf, or TDD.

New Milford is one of more than a dozen Bergen County police departments that either recently purchased such a device or, like Allendale, have been using one for a number of years. But spokesmen for more than 40 other Bergen departments contacted Saturday said they still lack the equipment.

Most models of the machine are about the size of a small console telephone, with a typewriter keyboard and a display screen.

To contact police, users need a matching device at home. They type their message and it is carried through phone lines to police headquarters, where it is displayed on a screen and copied on a printer. The home units also can receive messages.

Lee Brody, a pioneer in the development of the TDD and now a vendor of the devices, said about 6,000 families across the state have one in their homes, most of them in Bergen and Middlesex counties. However, many people with impairments do not have the devices, he said.

Burns said he first became aware of the law’s requirement in October, when a company wrote him a letter trying to sell the department a TDD. After researching the law with the federal Justice Department, he solicited prices and found they ranged from $300 to $4,000. Burns said he opted for one that cost $625.

“It’s a state-of-the-art unit which allows us to handle any type of call,” he said.

The law mandating the equipment is a far-reaching measure requiring that any place serving the public be made accessible to the disabled.

January 26, 1992

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KILLER’S REQUEST FOR PAROLE IS REJECTED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 10, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03

A request for parole by Christopher Righetti serving a life sentence for the 1976 rape and murder of a 20-year-old New Milford woman was rejected this week, the state Parole Board’s executive director said Friday.
Robert Egles said the panel, weighing the seriousness of Righetti’s crime, also ordered a hearing on whether his next eligibility date in three years should be delayed.
Kim Montelaro, a journalism and English student at the University of Rhode Island, had gone shopping at Paramus Park Mall when she was abducted on Aug. 31, 1976, raped, then stabbed several times in the chest. Her body was found in a ravine near Washington Township’s Pine Lake Beach Club a few days later.
Righetti maintained through most of his trial that the killing had been an act of self-defense or an accident. In a hearing to determine whether he would tried as an adult, Righetti, then 16, claimed Montelaro lured him into her car, had sex with him, then turned on him with his knife.
Righetti’s lawyer abandoned the self-defense claim on the last day of trial, saying his client should be convicted of manslaughter.
In appeals of his murder conviction, the last one in 1982, a public defender contended Righetti’s police lineup appearance was illegal. The evidence was insufficient to compel Righetti to appear in the lineup during the search for Montelaro’s killer, the lawyer said.
But Righetti’s alibi witnesses failed to show up during his trial and prosecutors proved a knife and sheath found at the scene matched items he admitted purchasing shortly before the killing.
At age 15, Righetti was released from the state Training School for Boys and Girls after serving 13 months for raping an 18-year-old woman in a Bergen County park in 1974. In March 1976, he accosted another woman at knifepoint and demanded a ride home, but charges were not pressed after authorities assured the victim Righetti would receive psychiatric help.

Keywords: NEW MILFORD; MURDER; PRISON; WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP; KIDNAPPING; PARAMUS

August 10, 1991

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