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TWINS MAKE DEBUT ON ROAD; Mom Has Special Delivery

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, April 23, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | B01

“Honey, I’m probably still going to be pregnant when you get home tonight,” Blanche Sabatini assured her husband Wednesday morning when he hesitated before going to work.

An hour after Alex Sabatini left, his wife began a ride she’ll never forget.

Twins Dana Marie and Alexander Jr. were born to Sabatini in an ambulance on the way to the Hackensack Medical Center.

“It was very exciting,” the 37-year-old Rutherford woman said several hours later. “It just feels great to hold them.”

It was quite a day for the ambulance crew, too. “Honestly, I can’t explain it. It’s just a very different and heartwarming experience,” said Ellie Cosley, captain of the Rutherford Ambulance Squad.

Sabatini said she had been worried because she had heard twins are often born early, and hers were four days overdue.

But mother and infants were in excellent condition after the unusual deliveries, said Dr. Shaul Yarkoni, director of the medical center’s obstetrics and gynecology unit.

Cosley said the ambulance squad responded to Sabatini’s call at about 8:30 a.m.

Dana Marie at 5 pounds, 5 ounces was born on Route 17 at 9:02 a.m., and Alexander Jr. at 7 pounds, 3 ounces arrived at 9:07 a.m. in the ambulance after it pulled into the emergency room parking lot.

Zach Weissman, a Hackensack Medical Center paramedic, delivered Dana Marie with help from Cosley and squad members Mary Melfa and Roseanne Mesisco.

Yarkoni met the ambulance at the hospital, where he delivered Alex with the aid of paramedic Eric Kudlack.

The Sabatinis, who have been married for 17 years, have two other children: Nicole, 10, and Vincent, 2.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – Blanche Sabatini of Rutherford resting Wednesday at Hackensack Medical Center with her new twins Alexander Jr., left, and Dana Marie. Sabatini is flanked by paramedics Eric Kudlack, left, and Zach Weissman. In the back row, from left, were Ellie Cosley, Rutherford Ambulance Squad captain, and squad members Roseanne Mesisco and Mary Melfa. – LINDA CATAFFO / THE RECORD

ID: 17375195 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey).

April 23, 1992
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FIREFIGHTER ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, February 21, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | D03

A former borough fire chief has been charged with sexual assault on a 5-year-old boy, officials said Thursday.

Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said Joseph D. Schneider of 370 Feronia Way was charged Feb. 13. Schneider, 46, was released after he paid 10 percent of his $2,500 bail.

Mayor Andrew E. Bertone said Schneider was chief of the volunteer Fire Department a few years ago, and that he’s still active in the department. He declined to discuss the arrest.

The complaint, signed by police Sgt. Thomas Farrell, said Schneider touched “intimate parts” of the child. Fahy said the incident occurred between Jan. 25 and Feb. 9, when Schneider took the boy to his basement to show him a military book.

A relative of the boy’s reported the alleged incident to police, and Schneider was arrested about 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, Fahy said.

Schneider referred all questions to Brian J. Neary, his attorney. Neary said Schneider pleaded not guilty to the charge Monday.

“We are looking into the situation and hope to act appropriately when all the facts come to light,” Neary said. “He’s a decent man who’s never been in trouble before. And he’s been a community leader. We’ll wait to see the complete scope of the allegation, and we hope to act appropriately.”

Schneider has been a volunteer firefighter for about 12 years, Neary said.

ID: 17369407 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

February 21, 1992
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ESCAPED KILLER CHARGED IN HOLDUPS; Pair of Businesses were Robbed

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Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 24, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A convicted killer who escaped from a Connecticut prison and was recaptured in Paramus over the weekend was charged Thursday with two armed robberies in Rutherford and Montvale, authorities said.

Police linked Frank Vandever to the Jan. 7 robberies of a Rutherford jewelry store and a Montvale 7 Eleven after Vandever was captured at Garden State Plaza on Saturday, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.

Ronald Rutan, who also escaped from the Connecticut prison and was recaptured last week, was also charged Thursday in the holdups, Fahy said.

Vandever and Rutan are also suspects in the robbery of a 7 Eleven in Waldwick on Jan. 9, the prosecutor said.

Connecticut authorities on Thursday charged Vandever, 37, and Rutan, 34, with breaking out of the Somers Correctional Center on New Year’s Eve, and with kidnapping a couple and stealing their truck at knifepoint the day after the escape.

The two inmates broke out of prison by cutting through the bars of a window near the kitchen and then through two perimeter fences, authorities said. A fence alarm failed to sound.

Vandever, a former stockbroker serving a 40-year term for murdering a client, and Rutan, a convicted burglar, then led authorities in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey on a manhunt. Rutan was captured in Spring Valley, N.Y., on Jan. 15.

Rutherford Police Chief Edward P. Caughey said that at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 6 Rutan went alone into Crosby Jewelers at 50 Park Ave. and asked a clerk if he could look at diamonds because he was shopping for an engagement ring.

Rutan returned with Vandever about the same time the next day. Vandever held a knife on the store clerk and Rutan brandished a gun that was later determined to be a toy, Caughey said.

Despite a warning from Rutan when he announced the robbery, however, the store manager pressed a silent alarm.

“When he pulled the alarm, they both turned around and fled,” Caughey said.

Neither victim was injured, and nothing was taken from the store.

About 11:46 p.m. the same night, Rutan held a 10-inch knife to the abdomen of a 7 Eleven clerk in Montvale, said borough Police Chief Joseph Marigliani. After Rutan left with about $300, Vandever, who allegedly was in the store pretending to be a customer, paid for a newspaper and also left.

The clerk then called police.

Fahy said he intended to prosecute the case after the two men are dealt with by Connecticut authorities.

ID: 17366857 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)

January 24, 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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FOR BLACK YOUTHS, AN UNEASY START

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by Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, October 27, 1991

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

Toward the end of his workshop Saturday, the Rev. Clarence L. James Sr. asked boys in the front pew at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Hackensack what it takes to be a man on the street.

Sell drugs, someone said. Kill somebody, another said. Beat your woman, replied another boy. And on and on: Fight to get respect, have many women, rape someone, gamble, have a gun, pimp.

The street is one of the primary institutions where black males are initiated into manhood, said James, a Baptist minister and evangelist from Atlanta who has been conducting a weeklong revival at Mount Olive Baptist Church that addresses the issues facing the black family. The other institutions he named were prison, military service, and college.

He scrunched his face in mock disgust and winced with each reply.

“That is not the kind of man we need,” James said. “We need husbands for our daughters, fathers for our children, a provider.”

The audience consisted of 100 males, including 50 boys from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck, Westwood, Rutherford, and Paterson. James discussed the role of black men during slavery, black men and education, black men and the military, and black men in the family.

The Rev. Gregory J. Jackson, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, said the workshop was an important part of the church’s yearlong celebration of the black family.

“The idea is that we are losing too many of our boys and men to jail, drugs, alcoholism, crime, et cetera,” he said. “We need to develop ways for saving our boys . . . find ways that we can help lost boys make a transition from adolescence to manhood.

“Many of these boys have fathers who are dead or in jail. They are our kids. We’ve got to help the kids grow up as men. You can’t just leave them out there for the world to raise. ”

James said part of their rites of passage into manhood must include educating them about their African heritage and instilling pride in that heritage.

The street, prisons, the service, and colleges have failed the black man because they have failed the black man and his family, James said. He cited the church as an institution where God-fearing Christians can help turn black boys into moral, upstanding men.

Samuel E. Adams, 35, of Englewood said the workshop is a godsend to the black community and that it should be done weekly.

“We first must be taught who we are to love ourselves,” he said. “With this knowledge we are gaining, we must take care of our own. We will never gain respect as a people until we start owning and controlling our community and our resources. ”

Caption: PHOTO – ROBERT S. TOWNSEND / THE RECORD – Youths and their elders joining in prayer at Hackensack’s Mount Olive Baptist Church.

ID: 17359261 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 27, 1991
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HUSBAND CHARGED IN BAT ATTACK ON WIFE

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By Michael O. Allen and Caroline Herzfeld, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, July 25, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B02

A 41-year-old borough man was charged with attempted murder Wednesday for allegedly assaulting his wife with a baseball bat earlier this month, police said.
Henry Quagliani, 41, of 90 Chestnut St. was arrested at 12:15 a.m. at the Harmon Meadow Shopping Mall in Secaucus after he returned from Canada to find out his hospitalized wife’s condition, said police Sgt. Thomas Farrell.
Quagliani had left the country shortly after the July 17 assault in the home they shared, Farrell said. Police said he was allowed to live there but was under a restraining order against domestic violence.
Quagliani’s wife, whom police declined to name, was listed in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The couple, who have been married for 18 years, were arguing about 9:50 p.m. when the assault occurred. The two had a history of domestic problems, Farrell said.
After Quagliani used a mall telephone booth to call family and friends to inquire about his 43-year-old wife, police found him in the mall parking lot.
He was also charged with aggravated assault, possession of a knife and another weapon the baseball bat and contempt of court for violating the restraining order.
He was being held in the Bergen County Jail Wednesday on $175,000 bail.

Keywords: RUTHERFORD; MARRIAGE; ASSAULT

ID: 17350585 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

July 25, 1991
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