DEA RETURNS TO HOUSE; Washington Township Site Was Raided in 1990

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, March 14, 1992

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

Federal drug agents returned Friday to remove materials from a house that was the scene of a similar raid almost two years ago, when they took chemicals from the premises.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration declined to say what was removed from the house at 451 Ridgewood Road.

“The house is under custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, and they are just taking out different materials out of the house,” DEA Special Agent Victor M. Pedalino said. “There is no other comment that I’m going to make at this time.”

About a half-dozen workers in protective gear were observed labeling and removing oil drums and bottles from the house and garage. Three large trucks being used by the workers were parked on the property.

Pedalino declined to say whether Keith Mantell, who operated a chemical company called Isogenics out of the house, was ever charged following the May 1990 raid, or whether Friday’s activity came as a result of that raid. He also declined to say when the Marshal Service took control of the house.

At the time of the raid two years ago, township officials tried to calm residents fears by informing them chemicals stored at the home did not contaminate the neighborhood.
Friday, Township Administrator Agnes Smith referred all questions to Police Chief Justin Georgetti, who referred all questions to the DEA.

Caption: Federal agents removing materials Friday from a Ridgewood Road house in Washington Township. PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD

KILLER’S REQUEST FOR PAROLE IS REJECTED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 10, 1991

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

A request for parole by Christopher Righetti serving a life sentence for the 1976 rape and murder of a 20-year-old New Milford woman was rejected this week, the state Parole Board’s executive director said Friday.
Robert Egles said the panel, weighing the seriousness of Righetti’s crime, also ordered a hearing on whether his next eligibility date in three years should be delayed.
Kim Montelaro, a journalism and English student at the University of Rhode Island, had gone shopping at Paramus Park Mall when she was abducted on Aug. 31, 1976, raped, then stabbed several times in the chest. Her body was found in a ravine near Washington Township’s Pine Lake Beach Club a few days later.
Righetti maintained through most of his trial that the killing had been an act of self-defense or an accident. In a hearing to determine whether he would tried as an adult, Righetti, then 16, claimed Montelaro lured him into her car, had sex with him, then turned on him with his knife.
Righetti’s lawyer abandoned the self-defense claim on the last day of trial, saying his client should be convicted of manslaughter.
In appeals of his murder conviction, the last one in 1982, a public defender contended Righetti’s police lineup appearance was illegal. The evidence was insufficient to compel Righetti to appear in the lineup during the search for Montelaro’s killer, the lawyer said.
But Righetti’s alibi witnesses failed to show up during his trial and prosecutors proved a knife and sheath found at the scene matched items he admitted purchasing shortly before the killing.
At age 15, Righetti was released from the state Training School for Boys and Girls after serving 13 months for raping an 18-year-old woman in a Bergen County park in 1974. In March 1976, he accosted another woman at knifepoint and demanded a ride home, but charges were not pressed after authorities assured the victim Righetti would receive psychiatric help.

Keywords: NEW MILFORD; MURDER; PRISON; WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP; KIDNAPPING; PARAMUS

DAILY NEWS INCIDENT TRIGGERS CAR CHASE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 16, 1990

The labor feud between the Daily News and its workers spilled into North Jersey Thursday morning as a management employee and security guards for the newspaper chased a striker through the streets of Washington Township in their cars, police said.

Georgetti said.

The bundle was in front of the Myel Stationery store at the Washington Shopping Center on Pascack Road. When Loftus, 45, returned to his car after inspecting newspapers delivered to a food store at the end of the mall, he was confronted by the security guards and Hulahan, Georgetti said.

“Loftus told police the four men had approached him “in a threatening manner,” Georgetti said.

Loftus “got into his vehicle and tried to drive away. He said he was pursued by two or more vehicles” containing Hulahan and the security people, Georgetti said.

The chase went north on Pascack Road, then into side streets before two police cruisers put an end to it on Jackson Avenue. Loftus, a member of the Washington Township Volunteer Fire Department, called the police desk on his portable radio to inform them he was being pursued.

Loftus signed simple assault complaints against Hulahan, 51; Lemert Joseph Wright, 41, of Houston, Texas; Thomas Bruce Ellis, 33, of Hampton, Va.; and a fourth person who he said escaped. Loftus also signed a complaint of aggravated assault against Ellis, who he said tried to run him off the road with his car.

Hulahan, a Washington Township resident, signed a complaint of malicious destruction of property against Loftus.

Loftus and Hulahan were issued summonses to appear in municipal court and were released.

Bail was set at $1,500 for Ellis and $500 for Wright. Georgetti said the men were being held because they had no permanent local address.

Jay Thakkar, manager of Myel Stationery, said no copy of the Daily News delivered Thursday was damaged.