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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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POLICE MUST USE CARE WITH ELDERLY

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 25, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) |  3 Star | NORTHWEST BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD | 12

A patrol officer stopped an 80-year-old woman driving 5 mph on the highway, then wondered what to do when she told him she was driving so slowly because she was hungry and needed to find a place to get a slice of pizza.

“What is the captain going to say? What is the judge going to say?” John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said in recalling an incident early in his 25 years as a law-enforcement officer.

To avoid citing the woman for driving too slowly, then having to answer to his captain or a judge, Pescatore said he would have delivered pizza to the woman’s house every day of his career.

“Our primary responsibility is no longer just enforcing the law, but to assist the people in our community to live a safer life,” he said.

Pescatore spoke about the incident to about 55 police officers attending a training program last week on older-adult behavior.

The half-day session, sponsored by the northern New Jersey chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and Hackensack Medical Center’s Geriatric Assessment Program, looked at ways police should handle older adults, who appear to be committing crimes but may in fact be confused or suffering dementia.

Police officers often notice confusion and dementia in an older adult before family members do, Janet Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program said. The center is an outpatient program for families and other health-care professionals on how to keep older adults healthy and independent.

“There are many reasons why an older adult can be confused,” Reynolds said. “They include everything from Alzheimer’s disease, to reaction to medication, to depression from being alone and isolated.”

Bergen County was selected as the first place to hold the police training seminar, because it has the state’s largest population of adults over 60 years old about 174,000 said Marcia F. Mohl, executive director of the Northern New Jersey Alzheimer’s Association. The chance that a person will get Alzheimer’s, a progressive degenerative brain disease that often results in irreversible dementia, increases with age.

It also often results in a loss of memory, erratic driving, fear, and confusion. About 150,000 New Jersey residents have Alzheimer’s, Mohl said.

Because victims of Alzheimer’s might sometime lash out in frustration at their loved ones, Englewood Police Detective Barry Johnson pointed out that the state’s new Domestic Violence Prevention Act mandates police make an arrest when they see evidence of abuse.

Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program advised that it may be better to leave the person in that situation because, often, they would have forgotten what they did before police arrived at the scene. Arresting them might only increase their confusion, she said. But officers told her the mandate of the law does not leave them room for discretion.

Both Rochelle Park Police Chief William Betten and Hackensack Sgt. John Elefante said the seminar was useful, if only to amplify the care officers need to use in certain situations.

Rochelle Park, with a nursing home and a huge residential development for the elderly, has Bergen County’s largest percentage of adults over 60, Betten said. “Police, sometimes, are the only friends and contact some elderly people who live alone have,” he said.

ID: 17372311 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

March 25, 1992
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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

ID: 17370883 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

March 8, 1992
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PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE JAIL SUICIDES; Rate of Death `Out of Kilter,’ Fahy Says

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, March 5, 1992

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

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy announced Wednesday that he would investigate the deaths of seven county jail inmates including four suicides during the past 11 months.

Fahy said the investigation was sparked by the death last week of Robert Irving, who killed himself in his cell about eight hours after he was jailed on a charge of murdering his girlfriend’s grandmother.

“I see an inordinate number of deaths in the jail, including four suicides in less than a year,” Fahy said. “That is a very high number as compared to other county jails. I don’t know what the problem is, but I see that the numbers are way out of kilter, and it’s my duty to investigate and make sure that the procedures are working.

“The Bergen County Jail is overcrowded, but every jail in the state is overcrowded. I suspect that is a factor, but the other jails are not having the same problem with suicides.”

Fahy said he would hire an expert in jail management to look at the jail’s policies and procedures, the training of corrections officers, intake screening, and supervision of inmates once they’ve been processed. He said he wants to see if someone routinely keeps an eye on each inmate, if only to make sure the inmate is all right. A report should be completed in about six weeks, Fahy added.

“In fairness to the sheriff, he may be running a very good jail, and just as a matter of bad luck, there’s a lot of misfortune there. That’s a possibility,” the prosecutor said. “But it’s an inordinate number of deaths, and we want to take a look at that.”

Patricia Mulcahy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said the Passaic, Essex, Hudson, and Morris county jails reported no suicides during 1990 and 1991. In the state’s 12 adult prisons and three juvenile institutions, two suicides were reported in 1990 and one in 1991, she said.

Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune said Wednesday, his first day back to work after a vacation, that he had talked at length with Fahy and would cooperate fully.

“I welcome his investigation of the department’s policies and procedures,” Terhune said. “Since I’ve become sheriff, we have amended a number of procedures relating to our intake policies and our mental health unit.”

In all of the suicides, the jail staff followed established procedures, Terhune said. One other death was an accident, he said, and the other two resulted from preexisting medical conditions.

The changes made by Terhune included adding a second officer in the mental health unit at the jail annex. He said he is considering hiring a part-time, on-site psychiatrist to supplement the services provided by Bergen Pines County Hospital, along with renovation and possibly expansion of the mental health unit.

Assistant Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse, who represents Bergen County Jail inmates in an ongoing lawsuit to reduce overcrowding there, also said she welcomes Fahy’s probe.

The number of suicides “obviously is evidence of desperation,” Bomse said. “I really don’t know what specifically causes that state of despair, why it should be so different from other jails.”

Bomse was critical in particular of the way the jail handled John Russell, a Fair Lawn resident who hanged himself with a shoelace in a shower in the mental health unit on Oct. 4. Russell had been admitted to Bergen Pines County Hospital on Aug. 27 and was released Sept. 30.

“His medical intake screening at Bergen Pines indicated that he had four previous suicide attempts,” Bomse said. “The day he was sent to the hospital, he had attempted suicide in the shower, in the exact same situation that he would later kill himself. They couldn’t have been alerted any more to the need for this one man to be watched.”

Terhune said Russell was put on suicide watch upon his return to the jail, and killed himself while corrections officers were distracted by another inmate’s suicide attempt.

“At the time, we did not take shoelaces from everyone committed to the Bergen County Jail or everyone in the mental unit. The policy has since been reviewed, and we now provide slip-on shoes to everyone in the mental unit,” the sheriff said.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – “I see an inordinate number of deaths in the jail, including four suicides in less than a year. . . . It’s my duty to investigate.” Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy

ID: 17370627 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

March 5, 1992
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COPS GET LESSONS ON AIDING THE AGED

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 4, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 2 Star | PASCACK VALLEY-YOUR TOWN RECORD | 1

A patrol officer stopped an 80-year-old woman driving 5 mph on the highway, then wondered what to do when she told him she was driving so slowly because she was hungry and needed to find a place to get a slice of pizza.

“What is the captain going to say? What is the judge going to say?” John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said in recalling an incident early in his 25 years as a law enforcement officer.

To avoid citing the woman for driving too slowly, then having to answer to his captain or a judge, Pescatore said he would have delivered pizza to the woman’s house every day of his career.

“Our primary responsibility is no longer just enforcing the law, but to assist the people in our community to live a safer life,” he said.

Pescatore spoke about the incident to about 55 police officers attending a training program last week in Mahwah on older-adult behavior.

The half-day session, sponsored by the northern New Jersey chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and Hackensack Medical Center’s Geriatric Assessment Program, looked at ways police should handle older adults, who appear to be committing crimes but may in fact be confused or suffering dementia.

Police officers often notice confusion and dementia in an older adult before family members do, Janet Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program said. The center is an outpatient program for families and other health-care professionals on how to keep older adults healthy and independent.

“There are many reasons why an older adult can be confused,” Reynolds said. “They include everything from Alzheimer’s disease, to reaction to medication, to depression from being alone and isolated.”

Bergen County was selected as the first place to hold the police training seminar, because it has the state’s largest population of adults over 60 years old about 174,000 said Marcia F. Mohl, executive director of the Northern New Jersey Alzheimer’s Association. The chance that a person will get Alzheimer’s, a progressive degenerative brain disease that often results in irreversible dementia, increases with age.

It also often results in a loss of memory, erratic driving, fear, and confusion. About 150,000 New Jersey residents have Alzheimer’s, Mohl said.

Because victims of Alzheimer’s might sometime lash out in frustration at their loved ones, Englewood Police Detective Barry Johnson pointed out that the state’s new Domestic Violence Prevention Act mandates police make an arrest when they see evidence of abuse.

Reynolds of the Geriatric Assessment Program advised that it may be better to leave the person in that situation because, often, they would have forgotten what they did before police arrived at the scene. Arresting them might only increase their confusion, she said. But officers told her the mandate of the law does not leave them room for discretion.

Both Rochelle Park Police Chief William Betten and Hackensack Sgt. John Elefante said the seminar was useful, if only to amplify the care officers need to use in certain situations.

Rochelle Park, with a nursing home and a huge residential development for the elderly, has Bergen County’s largest percentage of adults over 60, Betten said. “Police, sometimes, are the only friends and contact some elderly people who live alone have,” he said.

Hackensack is a special case because, as the seat of county government and criminal justice and a nexus of commerce and transportation, it has a mix of population rivaled, perhaps, only by Paramus, Elefante said. The study material would be used by the department to raise officers awareness, he said.

SOUTH CENTRAL BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD SOUTH BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD SOUTHWEST BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD NORTH CENTRAL BERGEN YOUR TOWN RECORD SOUTHEAST BERGEN/NORTH HUDSON YOUR TOWN RECORD NORTHERN VALLEY YOUR TOWN RECORD

ID: 17370391 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

March 4, 1992
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POLICE QUELL NEAR-RIOT IN TEANECK

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 2, 1992

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

About 100 Englewood youths armed with sticks, stones, and bottles converged on a Teaneck High School dance, but were met by an almost equal number of police officers who quelled a near-riot.

Breaking up sporadic fights at the flanks of crowds and keeping most of the youths apart on opposite sides of Teaneck Road, officers Friday night eventually herded the Englewood youths north into Englewood to put an end to the incident, said Lt. William Broughton, head of the Teaneck Police Department Youth Bureau.

Three juveniles from Hackensack, Englewood, and Teaneck taken into custody were released to the custody of parents or guardians about 1 a.m., he said. Andre Devon Perrin, 18, of West Hudson Avenue, Englewood, was arrested. He was charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, rioting, and resisting arrest, Broughton said.

Perrin, who had a heavy 18-inch fire hydrant wrench when he was arrested, was in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday on $7,500 bail, he added.

Broughton, who was injured when he was hit on the head by a piece of thrown metal, said the only other injuries were to Detective Dean Kazinci, who was hit on the shin with a bottle, and Sgt. Mark Tiernan, who suffered bruised ribs. Neither was taken to a hospital, he said.

Broughton said he did not know why the Englewood youths came to Teaneck, but said they may have been retaliating for a past incident or some perceived slight by Teaneck youths. Sgt. Robert Adomilli said there may have been a dance at Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School.

“The type of behavior we saw last night is not going to be tolerated by the Teaneck Police Department or the residents of Teaneck,” Broughton said Saturday.

Also responding were about 75 to 100 police officers from the Dumont, Bergenfield, Englewood, Tenafly, Haworth, Palisades Park, Paramus, and Bergen County departments, he said.

Uniformed Teaneck officers went to the corner of Washington Place and Sunrise Terrace about 10:45 p.m., as the Teaneck dance wound down, on a report from residents that youths were fighting, Adomilli said. Officers saw a group of youths but did not see any fighting, he said.

The students at the dance, meanwhile, were told to stay at the school.

A few minutes later, police cars blocked off the Margaret Street bridge when they heard a report that a large group of youths were headed into the township from Englewood.

Police soon heard another report that another group of Englewood youths was coming from Forest Avenue.

“At that point, we knew they were coming to the high school,” Broughton said.

Despite discouragement from police, Adomilli said, a group of about 60 Teaneck youths formed and was ready to meet the Englewood youths.

“It’s a fortunate thing we were there, in the number we were there,” Adomilli said. “I’m telling you, somebody would have gotten hurt. . . . It was very bad scene. We got good support from the surrounding towns.”

Michele March, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Teaneck, was at the scene with her husband, Curtis, who was a chaperone at the dance, helping police calm the youths.

March expressed frustration at what appear to be continuing fights between rival youths in different local communities, especially between Teaneck, Englewood, and Hackensack youths.

“You know what I see? I see a lot of nice kids who just need somebody to point them in the right direction, to tell them that this is not what we are about as black people,” March said.

March commended the police for their professionalism, quick response, and the efficient manner in which they quelled the incident.

“There is a total misfocus here on racism; it’s a black-on-black thing,” she said. “This is a thing that the black community has to solve for itself. We have to reach out to our kids and tell them that we love them, but that we do not accept this kind of behavior; that it is not a way for them to enjoy their future, that they might end up dead or injured.”

Notes: Bergen news page

ID: 17367659 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 2, 1992
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HEARING-IMPAIRED CAN CONTACT POLICE

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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.

ID: 17366997 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 26, 1992
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OFFICER DIES FROM HEAD INJURY; DAVID C. MORRIS WAS 26 YEARS OLD

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 19, 1992

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

A Park Ridge police officer who was critically injured when he fell in the parking lot of his apartment building and was later placed on life support died Saturday, a Pascack Valley Hospital spokeswoman said.

Patrolman David C. Morris was 26 years old.

Park Ridge Police Chief Robert Minugh called it a “terrible tragedy.”

Morris, who had been out with friends, arrived at his Hawthorne Avenue apartment about 1 a.m., the chief said. Two friends had lost sight of him for a few minutes, and when they next saw him he was lying on the ground with a head injury.

He was taken by ambulance to Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood and placed on life support after he was diagnosed as having suffered brain damage from a blood clot, the chief said. He was removed from life support at 5:50 a.m. Saturday after his family was consulted.

“He was an excellent officer, a very fine young man,” Minugh said.

At the Teaneck Police Department, where Morris began his career in January 1987, news that he had been injured and was not expected to live hit hard Friday. Although he resigned from the department in September 1988 to take the Park Ridge job, his mother lives in Teaneck and he had many friends on the force.

“Obviously, it was a shock to hear of the accident,” Teaneck Capt. Gary S. Fiedler said. “I saw him just the other day; he stopped by here Wednesday.”

Chief Donald Giannone said Morris was “a personable guy who performed his functions in a professional manner.” Although his tenure was short, he said, he left in good standing.

Obituary. A-20

ID: 17366369 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 19, 1992
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SPECTATOR SEATS AREN’T ALL NEEDED BUT PRESS OVERFLOWS COURTROOM

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 16, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A11

Although spectators started gathering outside the Bergen County Courthouse about 7 a.m. on Wednesday, several of the 53 seats set aside for the public went begging on the day of opening arguments in Gary S. Spath’s reckless manslaughter trial.

The spectators who lined up before a double-glass door leading to the first-floor courtroom were waved in 10 at a time by Sheriff’s Officer George Kellinger shortly before the 9 a.m. start of the trial.

The initial seating included 39 spectators, plus six representatives of families of Spath and Phillip C. Pannell, as well as members of the press. Only 31 spectators attended in the afternoon.

Everyone entering the courtoom was frisked, sent through a walk-through metal detector, and then reinspected with a hand-held metal detector. Bergen County Undersheriff Jay Alpert attributed the tight security to anticipation of heavy demand for seats and the number of witnesses expected to testify at the trial.

All of the 19 seats set aside for the press were taken, and a special media room was set up on the second floor to handle the overflow. Nearly a score of reporters, cameramen, and technicians crammed into the 12-foot-square room to stare intently at two television monitors tuned to coverage of the trial provided by Court TV, a cable network. Space was so tight many sat cross-legged on the floor.

Several of the spectators including Beverly Lefkowitz, president of the Teaneck Parent-Teacher Association said they were drawn to the trial because they had closely followed the case since Spath shot Pannell in April 1990.

“The case reflects a lot of turmoil in the town that many of us are trying to address,” she said.

Lloyd Riddick, 57, a retired Teaneck resident, said he was attending to show support for the Pannells.

“Something happened to a friend of mine, an African-American, and I see the way the system is leaning. So, if my appearance here evens the scales of justice a little bit, then I’ll do so. Anything I can do to help,” he said.

Caption: PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD – The trial of Teaneck police Officer Gary S. Spath getting under way in a Hackensack courtroom Wednesday morning.

Notes: MAIN STORY FILED SEPARATELY – OPENING ARGUMENTS FOCUS ON ISSUE OF PANNELL’S GUN. DID SPATH KNOW OF WEAPON? THE SPATH TRIAL – Page a01

ID: 17366199 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 16, 1992
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11 CHARGED IN PROBE OF GAMING RING; BETS TOTALED $500,000 A MONTH

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 12, 1992

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

Executing simultaneous warrants in an investigation that began when an informant came to Rutherford police a month ago, authorities have arrested 11 people described as members of a New Jersey-New York sports betting operation.

The crackdown on Friday put an end to more than $500,000 in betting each month, authorities said, in a ring that operated in Bergen, Hudson, and Essex counties and the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island. The office of Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy coordinated the investigation.

All those arrested were charged with gambling conspiracy.

Described as linchpin of the operation was John E. Pflug Jr., 48, of 222 Jay St., Wood-Ridge, who Fahy said was the link between New Jersey and the New York portion of the operation. He was being held Saturday in $35,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

Also being held in the jail in bail of $25,000 apiece were Frank Ingram, 48, of 9 Roosevelt St., North Arlington, and Michael C. Sears, 24, of 188 Teaneck Road, Ridgefield Park.

“Sears and Ingram took bets and contacted Pflug,” Fahy said. “Pflug would then deal with bookmakers in New York.”

Fahy said it is sheer coincidence that the crackdown took place just before football’s Super Bowl, the busiest betting time of the year. The informant who approached Rutherford detectives gave them the opportunity to start the investigation in December, he said.
Authorities mounted surveillances of the suspects homes, and a picture of the operation’s scope began to emerge.

“This was a big operation,” Fahy said. “We did an awful lot of surveillance. We are very grateful to the Rutherford Police Department, because they supplied us with the manpower. Their entire detective unit was involved.”

Authorities found $4,500 and a computer that was used to maintain gambling records at Ingram’s house when he was arrested, Fahy said. That money, plus $22,000 seized in Pflug’s home and $1,300 confiscated from Sears is subject to forfeiture to the county, authorities said.

Pflug’s 1985 Cadillac and Sears 1987 Cadillac also have been seized, and authorities are looking into the possibility of confiscating the homes where the suspects were arrested, Fahy said.

Among those arrested in Manhattan were John Caruso, 49, of 1155 Emerson Ave., Teaneck; Robert Lee, 43, of Jersey City; James Girolamo, 51, of Bloomfield; and John Casullo, 39, and Richard Chirco, 30, both of Woodbridge.

ID: 17365802 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 12, 1992
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