North Bergen Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

DENTIST WITH NO LICENSE ARRESTED AFTER COMPLAINT

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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.

March 13, 1992

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SMOKY BLAZE GUTS 3 BUILDINGS; North Bergen Fire Being Investigated

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 26, 1992

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

A fire that raged through a perfume warehouse on Paterson Plank Road on Tuesday destroyed two adjacent residential buildings and forced the evacuation of about 15 buildings on the block.

No one was injured, and authorities were investigating the cause of the fire, which was reported about 3:20 p.m., North Bergen Detective William Solan said. Apartment buildings on the 1100 block of Paterson Plank Road and buildings on 11th Street, downwind from the fire, were evacuated immediately, North Bergen police Sgt. Boze Bozicevic said.

Tears streaked down Virgin Minna’s cheeks as firefighters pumped water through her bedroom window, trying to put out the stubborn fire. Minna, 33, lived in an upstairs apartment at 1108 Paterson Plank Road with her husband and two children. The fire spread to her home from La Cibeles Inc., a warehouse at 1110 Paterson Plank Road.

Kathy Vargas, 29, of 1102 Paterson Plank Road, said she went into her neighbors house when her daughter told her she smelled smoke.

“I walked out and the street was filled with smoke,” Vargas said. “The flames were shooting above the roof of the building next to us.”

She went next door and got Luz Guzman and her three young daughters and Minna’s 13-year-old son, Hilton, out of the house. Hilton said he smelled the smoke and was checking around the apartment when Vargas came knocking and told him of the fire next door.

Four employees were working in the warehouse at the time the fire started, but they were not injured, he said.

North Bergen firefighters were assisted by the Union City, Jersey City, and Weehawken fire departments.

People who were evacuated from dwellings because of dense smoke near the warehouse were sent to the nearby John F. Kennedy School. By Tuesday evening, they still had not been allowed to return home, and Red Cross representatives were working to arrange temporary shelter.

Caption: Firefighters dousing buildings ignited by a fire in a perfume warehouse on Paterson Plank Road in North Bergen on Tuesday. PHOTO – ED HILL/THE RECORD

February 26, 1992

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VICTIM IDS ROBBERY SUSPECTS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, January 20, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page C18

A 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman who was held up at gunpoint has identified two Newark men in a police photo lineup as the robbers, police said.

Township police charged Kenneth Snead, 24, with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon on Friday, and are looking for Melvin Crooks, 26, on the same charges, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.

An employee of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., which was robbed last Monday night, also identified Snead as the gunman who, with another man, came to the drive-up window and demanded money, Kelly said.

The Cliffside Park woman was walking on Eighth Street on Wednesday when she was chased by the robbers, struck on the back of the head, and knocked to the ground before they drove away with her pocketbook.

The woman wrote down the license plate number of the assailants car. Snead and Crooks were later arrested by Newark police. The car, which had been stolen earlier Wednesday, was recovered with the woman’s purse and a cash till from the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave. The restaurant was held up about 15 minutes after the woman was attacked, police said.

Newark police had Snead, who they were holding on an outstanding warrant, in custody when North Bergen police came calling later Thursday, Kelly said. Newark police had released Crooks on bail.

January 20, 1992

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SUSPECTS HELD IN 2 ROBBERIES IN N. BERGEN

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 17, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B08

Two men being held by Newark police are suspects in two robberies in North Bergen, including one in which a 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman was struck and knocked to the ground, police said.

The woman was walking on Eighth Street, just east of Grand Avenue, about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday when a man stepped out of a car and demanded her pocketbook, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.

“She started to run, and he struck her on the back of the head with an object,” Kelly said. “She fell, then she gave up the pocketbook.”

The woman wrote down the New York license plate number of the white, two-door 1982 Chevrolet Camaro as it sped away with two men in it. She was treated at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center for a head wound and released, a hospital spokesman said.

About 15 minutes later, the same car pulled up to the drive-up window at the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave., about a quarter-mile from where the woman was robbed, Kelly said.

A restaurant employee told police he was confronted at the window by a man holding a gun and demanding money. The man appeared nervous and said, “Give me everything,” the employee told police. He handed over a tray with an undisclosed amount of money in it, Kelly said, and the men drove off.

About 8:30 p.m., in Newark’s Weequahic Park, police who heard a broadcast from North Bergen seized the car and arrested Melvin Crooks, 26, and Kenneth Snead, 24, both of Newark.

They were charged with being in possession of a stolen car, which had been taken in Newark early Wednesday evening, said Sgt. Alonzo Evans, Newark police spokesman.

The victims of the North Bergen robberies will be shown a photo lineup that includes the suspects, Kelly said.

Police are also investigating the men in connection with Monday’s robbery of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., he added. As in the Roy Rogers holdup, two men drove to the restaurant’s drive-up window and, with one of them brandishing a gun, demanded money. They escaped with an undetermined amount of cash.

January 17, 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.

January 15, 1992

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N. BERGEN COP HELD ON DRUG CHARGES

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, November 18, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS | Page A03

North Bergen Patrolman Michael Williams was suspended from the township Police Department on Saturday after he was arrested in Union City on drug charges, authorities said.

Williams was being held without bail in the Hudson County Jail on Sunday, following his arrest by members of the Jersey City Police narcotics squad.

Jersey City Police Sgt. Brian McDonough said Williams would face charges of cocaine possession, distribution, aggravated assault on a police officer, and resisting arrest. North Bergen Police Lt. Bruce McBreen declined comment on the case Sunday, but he confirmed that Police Chief Angelo Busacco had suspended Williams, 34.

About 7:30 p.m. Saturday, McDonough said, Williams bought about 5 grams of cocaine in three clear plastic bags at 61 Graham St., a Jersey City residence that the squad had under surveillance because neighbors had complained of drug activities there.

He drove up to the house, knocked on a window and was let in through a door, McDonough said. When he emerged moments later and left in a car occupied by a woman, the detectives followed in unmarked cars, later stopping Williams at 13th Street and Kennedy Boulevard in Union City.

Williams appeared nervous and informed the detectives he is a North Bergen police officer, McDonough said.

After he was placed in the back of one of the unmarked cars, Williams “became very abusive,” McDonough said, and “in a threatening manner, quickly pulled up his sweat shirt” to reveal a small revolver in a holster.

The officer disarmed Williams and retrieved the drug.

The detectives later executed a search warrant at 61 Graham St., where they arrested three people and recovered $3,029 and an undetermined quantity of cocaine.

November 18, 1991

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SUSPECTED KIDNAPPER IS SHOT; WAVED DYNAMITE AT MARSHALS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A 50-year-old man wanted for masterminding the kidnapping of a Union County businessman for ransom two years ago was shot and wounded by one of two U.S. marshals in North Bergen as he waved a stick of dynamite at them, authorities said.
Julio Sosa Rodriguez of Jersey City was holding a lighter to the dynamite, threatening to ignite it, and refusing the agents commands to drop it, said Arthur Borinsky, U.S. marshal for New Jersey.
The shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of 14th Street and Paterson Plank Road, said township police Lt. Timothy Kelly.
The marshals learned that Sosa was going to be in the area and, accompanied by local authorities, approached a van where they suspected he was hiding, said Bill Licatovich, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington.
When they told Sosa to come out, he emerged holding the dynamite, authorities said.
Sosa, who was shot in the upper torso, was in custody at the Jersey City Medical Center on Wednesday. A hospital spokesman said he was in stable condition.
He was wanted on a Sept. 7, 1989, complaint of kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms, said Union County First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Lapolla.
On Sosa’s order, Nydia Gonzalez Melendez and Hese Ayala, also known as Johnnie Ayala, kidnapped George Sanchez of Elizabeth in Union City on Sept. 1, 1989, Lapolla said.
Sanchez had a business in Union City, Lapolla said.
Sosa was in phone contact with the two men as they tried to get Sanchez’s wife to pay a $100,000 ransom.
The call to Sanchez’s wife, made by Gonzalez, was traced to a pay phone in Hoboken, and he was arrested there.
“When [Gonzalez] didn’t return,” Lapolla said, “the victim convinced Ayala that he had taken off with the ransom money, and he persuaded Ayala to take him home, that he would give him money.”
Ayala was arrested when he got to Sanchez’s home.
Both men pleaded guilty and are serving prison terms on kidnapping charges.
Sosa, however, was not seen again until Tuesday.

Keywords: KIDNAPPING; SHOOTING; NORTH BERGEN; POLICE; BOMB

October 3, 1991

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WOMAN STABBED TO DEATH; POLICE HAVE SUSPECT IN MIND

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer

Friday, September 13, 1991

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

A 24-year-old Irvington woman who had been stabbed several times in the chest and neck was found dead in a car in North Bergen on Wednesday, authorities said.
Guy Gregory, assistant Hudson County prosecutor, said police are looking for a man who was with Maria Arroya of 44 Grace St. at the time she was killed.
“We have a suspect in mind, but he’s not in custody, and I’m not going to be able to give you his name,” Gregory said. “I don’t really want to talk about the details of the killing because of that.”
North Bergen Police Officer Bernadette Paul found Arroya in the front seat of the 1980 Datsun underneath a railroad trestle on 83rd Street shortly before 9 p.m., North Bergen police Lt. Timothy Kelly said.
“We got a call to go to 83rd Street, east of Westside Avenue, on a possible motor-vehicle accident,” Kelly said.
A man standing next to the car told Paul another man killed Arroya, then fled east on 83rd Street, Kelly said. North Bergen police, assisted by the Bergen County Police Department’s Canine Unit, searched the area but did not find the alleged assailant, he said.
Kelly referred all further questions to the Homicide Squad of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. Gregory declined further comment, refusing to say whether investigators knew the relationship between the victim and the two men.
Irvington Police Chief Bernard DeLucia said a check of township police records did not turn up any information concerning Arroya or contact between her and the department.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; MURDER; PROBE

September 13, 1991

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2 JUNE ROBBERY SUSPECTS HELD IN SIMILAR CASE

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, August 30, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B04

Two men charged in June with pulling a bank messenger from his car and robbing and beating him were arrested Wednesday for a similar offense, authorities said.
Christopher Camacho and Alan Amador were two of four men on foot who demanded money from the driver of a commuter van as he waited at a red light at 79th Street’s intersection with Boulevard East, then attacked him when he refused, Police Lt. Timothy Kelly said.
A resident who saw the 5:40 p.m. attack called police, Kelly said. Police chased the men and arrested them a short while later, Kelly added.
The van driver, Jose Mucha, 35, of Kearny, suffered bruises, Kelly said. He said Mucha was treated at the scene by North Bergen Ambulance Corps paramedics.
Charged with robbery were Camacho, 20, of 7521 Bergenline Ave.; Amador, 18, of 6223 Liberty Ave.; Carlos Castro, 18, of 7721 Bergenline Ave., North Bergen; and Alberto Arroyo, 18, of 30 Prospect St., Palisades Park.
All four suspects were being held on $2,000 bail each in the Hudson County Jail.
A messenger for the Trust Co. of New Jersey was robbed of $12,000 in cash and $4,000 in checks on June 24. Raymond Ayala, the messenger, was hospitalized for severe bruises over his body, a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, and a broken jaw.
Amador and Camacho were among eight men arrested three days later in connection with that attack. Accused of helping plan that robbery, they were charged with conspiracy, aggravated assault, and robbery.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; ROBBERY

August 30, 1991

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PA COP SHOOTS HUDSON MAN; INCIDENT FOLLOWS CHASE IN TUNNEL

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 3, 1991

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

A 26-year-old North Bergen man was reported in critical condition following surgery Friday for a gunshot wound suffered in a police chase that ended in the Lincoln Tunnel, authorities said.
Authorities said Brian T. Powers of 7110 Madison St. was shot in the head when he drove his pickup truck toward a police officer after leading police on a chase through the tunnel from Manhattan. The chase and the ensuing gunfire caused the tunnel’s center tube to be closed to westbound traffic from 11 p.m. Thursday until 4:30 a.m. Friday, said D. Joy Faber, a Port Authority spokeswoman.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office will charge Powers with several offenses, including aggravated assault on a police officer, assault, eluding police, and reckless endangerment, Faber said.
The incident began at about 10:45 p.m. Thursday when a Manhattan patrolman observed Powers, driving a 1989 Ford pickup truck, run a red light at 23rd Street and 11th Avenue and then drive along the sidewalk, Faber said.
Powers did not heed the patrolman’s signal that he pull over and was pursued by marked and unmarked New York City police cars as well as a car of the New York Transit Authority police, the spokeswoman said. Powers went onto Roadway A, into the westbound center tube of the tunnel, striking as many as six cars during the chase, Faber said.
Manhattan police got out of their cars and ran toward Powers after a bus driver ahead of the chase angled his vehicle across the roadway to block Powers path. Port Authority Police Officer Joseph Audino fired four shots, one of which struck Powers as he gunned his truck toward the officer, Faber said.
Powers was being treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan. Audino, a 12-year veteran, and another Port Authority police officer were taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan for observation and were released, Faber said.

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; SHOOTING; TUNNEL; POLICE

August 3, 1991

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