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THANKS GIVEN TO DRIVERS; LAW ABIDERS PULLED OVER

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 28, 1991

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

Cornell Adams of Hillsdale said he did not know what to think when Bergen County Police Sgt. Vincent DeRienzo told him to pull over on Route 17 in East Rutherford Wednesday morning.

“We thought they were just messing with folks,” Adams wife, Dejuanna, said.

Rather than a summons, DeRienzo handed the Adams family a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne and thanked them for wearing their seat belts.

In a twist, John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Highway Safety Office, said police were stopping motorists who were wearing their seat belts on the day before Thanksgiving to thank them for obeying the law.

“We thought the best way to get people to wear their seat belts is to enlist the help of those people who are already wearing their seat belts to help us spread the message through word of mouth,” Pescatore said. “It is a positive reinforcement of a good habit.”

About 7 a.m. Wednesday, five officers from the Bergen County Police Department were out handing bottles of a sparkling apple drink imported from Spain to motorists at the Route 17 intersection with Union Avenue in East Rutherford. At the same time, three Mahwah police officers gave out bottles of a non-alcoholic sparkling wine from California at the Franklin Turnpike-Micik Lane intersection.

The champagne, 240 bottles in all, was donated by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus and Inserra Supermarkets Inc. of Mahwah.

On a frigid morning, as motorists drove through the rush-hour traffic, the officers would pick a driver at a red light. The drivers looked worried as they pulled over to spots designated by the officers.

A few took the offensive even before an officer spoke. One woman, speaking in rather clinical language, cursed at DeRienzo for stopping her. The officer waved her on.

“People go, `What did I do wrong? ” said Bergen County Police Officer Dwane R. Razzetti, a state-certified seat belt training officer. “Today, we are stopping cars that are properly inspected, where people are wearing their seat belts the opposite reasons that we normally stop cars.”

An exception was a 23-year-old Jersey City woman, who was stopped when an officer spotted her 2-year-old son lying in the front seat, not strapped in. The woman was given a child-restraint seat, instead of a summons.

Most drivers, when they opened their windows to hear the officers announce they were being stopped, were frowning.

“You know why we are stopping you ma’am? ” county police Officer Mark Solimando asked Carlstadt High School guidance counselor Marilyn Persico.

“No,” she answered, frowning.

“We stopped you because you are wearing your seat belt,” Solimando said. He handed her the bottle, and enjoined her not to drink and drive. He also gave her pamphlets with information on how to use seat belts and how to drive in winter conditions.

Like a flower blooming, her face lit into a full smile.

“This is nice,” she said, turning the bottle over in her hand. “This is nice.”

“Have a nice holiday, ma’am,” Solimando said, waving her on.

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – BOB BRUSH / THE RECORD – Officer Chris Zovistoski “citing” Patti Jacobson of Wallington.

ID: 17362278 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 28, 1991
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RAID AT RACETRACK; 70 SEIZED AS ILLEGAL WORKERS

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, November 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page B08

Federal immigration officials on Tuesday seized 70 workers in a sweep of The Meadowlands Racetrack for illegal aliens, authorities said.

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents, working on a tip and after surveillance of the stable area, took 64 men and six women into custody during the 90-minute raid, INS Supervisory Special Agent Allen Kampel said.

The workers mostly grooms and walkers were finishing their workday, which started about 5 a.m., when the sweep began in the stalls and dormitories at 11:30 a.m. They were taken to the INS field office in Jersey City for processing.

Most of the 70 had false immigration papers that they had presented to the New Jersey Racing Commission, which then licensed them to work at the track, Kampel said.

Stable hands are employed by horse trainers, not The Meadowlands Racetrack or the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said racetrack spokeswoman Ellen Harvey.

Those taken into custody Tuesday face detention and an administrative hearing to determine whether they will be deported, Kampel said.

“If a person does not have the authorization to live and work in the United States, we are mandated to enforce the law,” he said. “The main point of all of this is that we have the hope that American citizens and other people authorized to work here would be hired to do these jobs.”

Kampel said six of the workers had papers allowing them to be in the country but not to work. Four are juveniles, ages 14 to 16. A majority 64 are from Mexico, with two from Peru, two from Guatemala, and one each from Chile and the Dominican Republic, he said.

Workers who were checked and found to have legal papers milled around the stables Tuesday, watching warily as officers led friends and relatives away in plastic handcuffs. Many either could not speak English or said they couldn’t.

Johnny Ortiz, a 24-year-old groom, said fear of being turned in to the INS is a constant in the lives of the stable hands.

Ortiz, a U.S. citizen, said the workers have little or no education and often work seven days a week for $175 to $325 per week, depending on the trainer who hires them.

Almost all live in dormitories at the track, sometimes three or four to a room, Ortiz said. The rent-free, dormitory-style housing is provided by the sports authority for hundreds of stable hands.

Most of them send the money they earn home to the countries from which they came, Ortiz said.

“It’s a shame for me to see this happen to them, just for the simple reason that these people, they struggle so much,” he said. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a lot of people from other countries here.”

The agents were assisted in the raid by state police, Bergen County Sheriff’s Department officers, and U.S. Labor Department officials.

ID: 17361491 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

November 20, 1991
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MEETING TACKLES TEENAGE DRINKING; GAP IN STATE LAW AROUSES CONCERN

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 9, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B01

Who is responsible when Johnny throws a keg party for a few of his teenage friends after Mom and Dad leave for the weekend?
That gap in state law which prohibits teenagers from drinking in most places but does not address who would be responsible when they drink on private property was the major topic of a meeting in Hasbrouck Heights on Tuesday.
“This is an important issue for all of us,” Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber said in his opening address to a breakfast meeting of more than 270 people, including legislators and police officers who deal with juveniles.
“On the issue of host liability and teenage drinking, there cannot be any greater priority for government and our leaders than saving a generation,” Schuber said.
Tuesday’s program at the Sheraton Heights Hotel was organized by the Bergen County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
County Prosecutor John J. Fahy, the keynote speaker, said the program was not arranged to deal with issues raised by the death of Coleen Draney, a Fair Lawn teenager who died of heart failure at a New Year’s Eve party where there had been drinking.
But, he said, her death helped focus people’s attention on the issue of teenage drinking.
“The consequences are so serious, because young people can die, if the problem is not addressed,” Fahy said.
He raised the point of the ambiguities in the law concerning private property, saying it sends mixed messages to youths and their parents.
Also, he said, youths are constantly bombarded with messages in advertisements that they can enjoy themselves only if they drink.
“The message is not subtle: To be a better lover, you have to drink scotch; to be a better skier, you have to drink beer; to sit at a table with a beautiful woman, you have to drink wine,” Fahy said.
The law states clearly that no one under the age of 21 is allowed to consume alcohol except in a religious ceremony or with the permission of a parent or guardian.
So some parents allow alcohol to be used as a rite of passage, or allow prom-bound teens to drink at home as a way to prevent them from drinking in public, Fahy said.
“I find that to be complete insanity,” Fahy said.
“Those parents, perhaps, are well-intentioned, but . . . the message that we have to send out is that teenage drinking is not going to be tolerated.”
The Bergen County Juvenile Officers Association has developed a model amendment to the state law that would specifically include private property among the places where youths cannot drink.
Cresskill police Detective Sgt. William Macchio, a member of the association, said tougher and clearer laws are needed all over Bergen County.
Cresskill, for instance, has an ordinance that closes the loophole in the state law, and has effectively cut down on teenage parties, he said. But it is unclear whether youths move their parties to surrounding towns.

Keywords: HASBROUCK HEIGHTS; MEETING; YOUTH; ALCOHOL; VIOLATION

ID: 17357557 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 9, 1991
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BIKER LEADS COPS ON TWO-COUNTY, THREE-HOUR CHASE

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By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Wednesday, October 2, 1991

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

A 24-year-old man stole a motorcycle in South Nyack, N.Y., on Tuesday, then led police on a chase across Bergen County before being arrested three hours later in Paterson, authorities said.
Christopher Rea, who faces numerous charges in Passaic County and New York, was being held in the Passaic County Jail in lieu of $35,000 bail on the New Jersey charges and on a detainer on the New York charges.
Bergen County Police Sgt. Paul Hamel said Rea was a blur through Bergen County as he darted on and off highways onto local roads on the powerful 1991 motorcycle. Although officers from several departments allegedly saw Rea, none came close enough to catch him.
Among the highways he was spotted on in Bergen were the Palisades Interstate Parkway, Route 4, Route 17, and Route 46, police said.
He was captured just past 2 p.m. after he rode onto Union Avenue in Totowa and was spotted by a Passaic County sheriff’s officer who had just heard a broadcast of the suspect’s description.
Sgt. Dennis Schlosser chased Rea, who fled at high speed, according to Sgt. Kathy Kryszko, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman.
Kryszko did not elaborate on the speeds reached during the chase. But she said Rea drove quickly through red lights and stop signs as he led Schlosser on a three-mile slalom down Union Avenue, onto Preakness Avenue in Paterson, over to Front Street, and finally to Spruce Street by the Great Falls.
There, Kryszko said, Rea abandoned the motorcycle and plunged into the Passaic River. Schlosser had alerted other authorities, however, and officers from the Sheriff’s Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office persuaded Rea to swim to the riverbank and surrender.
No one was injured in the chase, Kryszko said. She said Rea gave addresses in North Bergen and Weehawken, but said his home base was in Daytona Beach, Fla.
South Nyack Police Chief Alan Colsey said when Rea returns to his town, the charges will include burglary, criminal mischief, grand larceny, resisting arrest, criminal possession of stolen property, and about 10 motor vehicle violations.
He was charged in Totowa with one criminal count of reckless eluding. He faces a similar charge in Paterson, as well as charges of possession of stolen property, possession of burglary tools the screwdriver used to steal the motorbike and resisting arrest by fleeing.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; VIOLATION; NEW YORK STATE; BC; PC; POLICE

Caption: PHOTO – KLAUS-PETER STEITZ / THE RECORD – Officer Bryan Dalton radioing information on a stolen motorcycle that police chased from New York to Paterson.

ID: 17356955 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)

October 2, 1991
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