SHOCKED EDUCATORS DEAL WITH SEX CASE; POLICE INVESTIGATE ACCUSED PRINCIPAL

By Michael O. Allen and Thomas Moran, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, December 2, 1990

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

As Bergen County law-enforcement officials continued their investigation of an elementary school principal accused of molesting pupils, Elmwood Park educators began scheduling counseling sessions for children and meetings with parents.

“To say that we were shocked would be an understatement,” said Michael Schill, president of the school board. “Our first and foremost concern has been the children, and that will always be our concern.”

Victoria Williams, Elmwood Park’s superintendent of schools, called a Monday meeting with parents to begin answering questions arising from the arrest Friday of Samuel R. Bracigliano, principal of the Gilbert Avenue Elementary school for 10 years.

Authorities say the alleged victims three boys, two age 11 and one age 9 are students at the school.

Bracigliano, who prosecutors said is single and lives with his mother in Elmwood Park, was accused of touching the buttocks of one student and taking photographs of three boys in “provocative poses” in his school office.

Law-enforcement investigators will review with school officials whether photographs and videotapes seized at Bracigliano’s home are those of former and current students at the school.

John J. Fahy, the Bergen County prosecutor, said parents who have questions or suspicions should call the Bergen County Sex Crimes Unit at 646-3600.

Williams said that at Monday’s meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. she will attempt to reassure parents that everything possible is being done to help the children.

Also Monday, counseling services will be made available to students and parents during school days for as long as they are needed, Williams said.

“We have a team of counselors, school psychologists, social workers, learning consultants, crisis-intervention counselors, and school nurses, and Bergen County personnel that will help us with this,” she said.

Except to express their shock and disappointment, several school trustees declined to comment on the situation. Many urged that the investigation be allowed to take its course.

Schill issued a formal statement, saying:

“The board suspended Mr. Bracigliano because that is the proper thing to do. We are not implying in any shape or form his guilt in this matter. He is suspended with pay. We want to get this cleared up as quickly as possible. Whether he’s guilty or innocent, the nature of the charges itself triggers a very strong reply.”

Fahy said his office acted swiftly when a parent of one of the alleged victims called to complain Thursday afternoon. Investigators armed with a search warrant seized boxes containing photographs and videotapes of young boys from Bracigliano’s home.

Bracigliano, an unsuccessful candidate for principal of Memorial High School this year, was arrested at about 7 p.m. Neither he nor his lawyer, Louis Mangano, a member of the school board, could be reached on Saturday.

Saturday, a woman who identified herself as the mother of one of the three boys allegedly photographed said the Prosecutor’s Office called her Thursday night and asked her to bring the boy in for to be interviewed.

She said her son told her he had been summoned to the principal’s office through the school intercom during his regular classes on Thursday, and he described what occurred inside the office.

Elmwood Park Mayor Richard A. Mola said that in the 20 years he has known Bracigliano, as a public official and an educator, “people have always held him in high regard.”

“I’ve never heard anything derogatory about him.”

POLICE REARREST DRUG SUSPECT, ACCUSE HIM OF PACKING COCAINE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, November 24, 1990

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

A man who was freed on bail after his arrest on drug charges in Little Ferry last week has been rearrested on a more serious charge of operating a drug facility.

Agents of the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force said they were afraid that the suspect, a Dominican national, would leave the country.

Leonidas A. Paula, 21, of the North Village apartments was being held in the Bergen County Jail on Friday in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Paula was arrested Nov. 16 on cocaine distribution charges and was freed Monday on $25,000 bail.
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Friday that investigators had determined Paula “was more involved in drug activity than we had originally thought. ” He said they made the discovery while looking into his assets, and rearrested him Wednesday.

“We asked that he give up his passport and we raised the bail because we were afraid he might leave the country,” Fahy said.

Paula could face 20 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 on the new charge, Fahy said.
Paula ran a lucrative and sophisticated drug-production depot out of his apartment, Little Ferry Police Chief Donald Fleming said Friday.

“He was a manufacturer. He got his cocaine pure. He would cut it, add the mixture to it, and package it in 1-gram packets and sell it, like candy bars,” Fleming said. “He worked six days a week, eight to 10 hours a day. At $70 per gram, if he made 10 deals a day, he made $700 to $1,000 a day, easy. That’s a minimum.”

Fleming said Paula had clients from Bergen and Hudson counties and New York City. He handed out calling cards to clients that listed a fictitious store, “Junior’s Apparel for Men and Women,” at the Paramus Park mall, Fleming said. An anonymous tip led borough police and county narcotics agents on a three-month investigation that ended with the Nov. 16 arrests of Paula and three alleged drug buyers.

Police said they found 15 ounces of cocaine, with a street value of about $20,000, in Paula’s apartment.

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.”

FOOTBALL-GAME FIGHT ESCALATES INTO MELEE; POLICE CALLED TO CLIFTON STADIUM

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 18, 1990

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

A dispute between a Bloomfield coach and a Clifton football player boiled over Saturday into a melee between players at a game between the freshman teams from the two communities high schools, according to witnesses.

Details of what occurred at the Clifton High School stadium were sketchy, but witnesses said the players scuffled after the traditional postgame handshake.

Pete Colesano, a Clifton Board of Education member who attended the game, said the melee lasted about 15 minutes and that police were called to help restore order. Colesano said a coach for the Bloomfield team attempted to assault a Clifton player and the scuffle followed.

Chet Parlavecchio, varsity coach at Bloomfield High, said there had been an “incident,” but denied that the Bloomfield coach tried to assault a Clifton player.

Parlavecchio, who was not at the game, refused to identify the coach allegedly involved, but said the coach was consulting a referee, not intending to assault a player, when he left his bench.

“If a coach of mine went after their player, there is no excuse for that and he would be dismissed right away,” Parlavecchio said. “We were on their 10-yard line, ready to score. It was a good football game. They are undefeated and we were ready to pull an upset and all this happened.”

Gerald Robinson, 16, the Clifton player who reportedly was the target of the Bloomfield coach’s anger, traced the dispute to a play late in the fourth quarter.

Robinson said that after the game, players were beginning to shake hands when the Bloomfield coach started running after him. “One of my teammates said, `Gerald, look out. I turned around,” Robinson said. “There was a big riot on the field. Everybody was fighting.”

Robinson was uninjured, but Bobby Capo, 14, a teammate who intervened, was struck on the helmet by the Bloomfield coach, according to Capo’s father, Kenneth.

Clifton High School Principal Robert Mooney and police Sgt. John Zipf both described the incident as minor. There were no serious injuries and no one was arrested.

Clifton won the game, 26-14. The varsities of the two schools are scheduled to play in Clifton on Thanksgiving Day.

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.

POLICEMAN’S ELBOW SLAMMED IN CHASE

Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 14, 1990

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

A borough police officer was injured Monday evening when a suspect he was chasing allegedly slammed the door of a house on his elbow, police said.

Anthony Masucci of San Francisco was charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct, and was released on $6,000 bail, said Cliffside Park Detective Sgt. Donald Umland.

Umland said the injury is expected to keep Officer Frank Biasco out of work for three weeks.

The incident occurred about 5:45 p.m., when Biasco came upon a 1972 Chevrolet pickup that he thought was abandoned on Lafayette Avenue, Umland said. He said Biasco found that its registration had expired.

Masucci, who walked up and identified himself as the owner of the truck, became angry when Biasco asked him about the registration, Umland said.

Biasco requested assistance, and was joined by a Fort Lee patrolman and a Fairview police officer.
Umland said Masucci, 34, fled on foot, running up the driveway of a residence at 42 Lafayette Ave., and slammed the side door on Biasco as the officer chased him.

The other officers then wrestled with Masucci as he came out of the front door of the house, and arrested him, Umland said.

SOVIET EMIGRES HELD IN GLASSES THEFT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 28, 1990

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

Englewood Cliffs police have arrested a Queens, N.Y., couple they suspect of belonging to a group of Soviet emigres who steal designer sunglasses in the United States to sell on Russian black markets.

Eduard Fridman and Victoria Feldmus were being held in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday, each on $6,500 bail. They were charged with shoplifting and possession of four pairs of sunglasses, valued at $996, taken from a store in Fort Lee, said Englewood Cliffs Police Capt. George Kirschbaum.

Kirschbaum said authorities in Union City have an outstanding warrant forFeldmus, 30, on a shoplifting charge.

Police seized from the couple two key rings with about 60 keys for display cases and a notebook containing addresses of optical stores in New York City, eastern Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

Kirschbaum said Fridman, 32, and Feldmus are part of a large, well-organized group that ships stolen designer sunglasses to black markets in Russia for sale at more than three times their U.S. retail value.

“I’m sure there are a lot of victims in Bergen County, people who sell designer glasses,” Kirschbaum said, appealing for people to come forward with information. “Right now, if they make bail, they are going to hit the street and disappear. But, if we have more charges, they might panic and rat out their friends. “

Vahe Casparian, the owner of Crystal Optics in Englewood Cliffs, said he called the police when the couple hurriedly left his store Friday after he had become dissatisfied with their answers to his questions. Casparian said he has been wary of walk-in customers since two gunmen came into his store in April, handcuffed him, and stole about $30,000 in merchandise.

Kirschbaum, Patrolman James Rice, and Sgt. Thomas Bauernschmidt arrested the couple as they boarded a New York City taxicab parked across the street from Casparian’s store. Police traced the sunglasses to Sunny Vision at 2500 Lemoine Ave. in Fort Lee.

Sun J. Yoon, who owns the Fort Lee shop, said that when the couple came to his store on Friday, the woman obscured his view while the man, who was eating doughnuts out of a paper bag, roamed the store. The couple then left, he said.

“I turned around and saw the display case was empty,” Yoon said. “Then the Police Department called me and said, `You lost some glasses? “

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.