TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The family of an Arts High School cheerleader and her school community are praying for her recovery from critical injuries here at University Hospital while ECPO and Newark Police Division detectives are looking for the car and driver who hit her in front of AHS Feb. 4.
The 18-year-old senior was getting off a school bus parked in front of 550 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. at about 10:15 p.m. Sunday. She was crossing the street to take a contracted Uber ride when a northbound car struck her while it went around the school bus – and kept going. The school bus driver said that he had the flashing red lights on and its stop sign on at the time.
Three of the local news outlets gave the victim’s name as Chiara Jones as given by her self-identified aunt Renee Simmons. Simmons said that Jones had suffered a critical head injury.
She and her AHS Jaguars squad were coming back from RWJBarnabas Health Arena in Toms River. They had placed first in that day’s Impact Dance and Cheer Challenge there. Their victory secures a place in the upcoming Universal Cheerleading Association High School National Championships at Orlando, Fla.
Authorities said that they are looking for “a dark colored sedan” Feb. 5 and are reviewing street video cameras. Counselors made themselves available to the Arts High community Feb. 5.
IRVINGTON – Two of the men recently listed by the FBI-Newark Field Office on its Most Wanted Fugitives in New Jersey are suspects in separate 2017 and 1983 murders here. Both are considered armed and dangerous.
Dennis M. Cunningham, 44, for example, has had a federal arrest warrant from the U.S. Department of Justice-New Jersey District on him since Sept. 8, 2017. He, if or when he is rearrested, will face a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution to avoid imprisonment.
Cunningham also has a state arrest warrant on him since June 15, 2017 plus being convicted on felony murder and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. An N.J. Superior Court-Newark jury had found him guilty of shooting Dino Bermudez, 33, while the latter sat on his front porch along the 300 block of Myrtle Avenue May 12, 2017. Bermudez died May 14 in University Hospital.
Cunningham had been released while pending sentencing but skipped that hearing. The 200-220-lbs., 6-ft., 2-in. African American has brown eyes, a tattoo on his left arm and a scar on his left forearm. He also goes by Dennis Brown, Muhammad Cunningham, Dennis Muhammad and Dennis M. Thomas and may be bald.
Wilfredo Rodriguez is meanwhile wanted for the June 7, 1983 murder of one of his relatives here, stabbing the latter 17 times after an argument. Rodriguez, who uses either a 1961 or 1963 birthdate, was arrested, stood trial, found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
The Lajas, PR native was released on bail while making a conviction appeal but failed to surrender when his appeal was denied. A state and a federal bench warrant were Oct. 6, 1987 and May 8, 1988. He is to serve a sentence for murder, hindering apprehension, two weapons possession charges and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Rodriguez – who weighs around 130 lbs., and stands 5-ft., 8-in. – also goes by Wilfredo Santana, Chari Wilfredo and Roberto Ortiz. Categorized as a “white Hispanic,” he has dark brown hair and bears a tattoo on his upper right arm.
EAST ORANGE – A city man, any appeal notwithstanding, awaits a March 18 sentencing after a State Superior Court jury found him guilty Jan. 25 on second-degree weapons possession from a 2019 incident.
The jury returned a guilty verdict on Cedric Hickman, 42, of East Orange, to Superior Court Judge Arthur Batista after an hour’s deliberation.
East Orange police detectives said they had encountered Hickman while on a proactive patrol along South Munn Avenue May 23, 2019. They said that Hickman was with a group of men who were trespassing on an avenue property when he dropped a bag before attempting flight.
The detectives had shortly apprehended Hickman, who said that there was a handgun in the bag – which was found. They and ECPO attorneys considered Hickman’s statement as a confession.
Hickman, who has been convicted twice before, is facing up to a maximum 10-year sentence in a state prison on March 18.
ORANGE – To say that Orange Acting Fire Chief Derrick E. Brown had a red letter day Jan. 26 here at Bethel Baptist Church would be an understatement.
Brown – before city officials, community members and firefighters from here and three neighboring departments – was sworn in as Orange Fire Department’s first Fire Chief.
Mayor Dwayne Warren administered the oath of office to Brown, who had been provisional or acting chief since Feb. 24, 2022, with mother Annie Brown holding the Bible. The promotion is the height of Brown’s 25 years on the force.
Trenton Fire Director Kenneth Douglas, who was Orange’s director 2015-2021, came to witness Brown’s promotion. He was fire director when he promoted him and Joseph Trezza to deputy chief rank Aug. 2, 2021.
Members of the Orange, East Orange and West Orange departments – current and recently retired – also filled the church pews. The certified and award-winning firefighter became one of Orange’s bravest March 6, 2000 and had since been promoted up to Captain by May 4, 2017.
“This moment is not just about me; it’s about opening doors for future leaders,” said Brown as a full-fledged chief. “I’m committed to serving this community with dedication, integrity and a focus on the safety and well-being of our residents.
Brown had been Orange’s fire chief for a moment when he dropped to one knee. He presented an engagement ring to fiancé Venus Watkins and proposed marriage to her.
WEST ORANGE – ECPO and West Orange Police detectives are looking for the Nissan driver who pulled out of TIRS Recovery Services’ impound lot at 28 Lakeside Ave – and leaving the driver of a Subaru SUV parked curbside fatally shot – at 12:22 p.m. Sunday.
Neighbors told arriving WOPD officers and, later ECPO Homicide/Major task Force detectives that they heard five or six gunshots at that time. The first officers arrived five minutes later.
The officers found the Subaru’s driver’s side window shattered, a bullet hole in the passenger side door and its driver with multiple gunshot wounds. The victim, who remains unidentified, was declared dead at the scene at 12:42 p.m.
The victim’s vehicle was parked in front of a vehicle yard to the west of 28 Lakeside. The yard and two-story 1928 building is used by TIRS Recovery & Towing, of Flemington, who acts as a repossession tower, and AAA Fencing to its east. The building was constructed between the Erie Railroad Orange Branch to its east and a siding yard to its west for Thomas A. Edison Industries/McGraw-Edison until the 1970s.
Several witnesses said that there was a man arguing with the Subaru driver minutes before he got his Nissan out – and before shots were fired.
Neither the victim’s identity nor a description of the wanted Nissan driver, were given out as of press time.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The NJSIAA issued its Jan. 26 ruling on the Columbia High School basketball player’s Jan. 12 beaded hair disqualification – and the South Orange-Maplewood School District superintendent issued his response that same Friday.
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, after listening to SOMSD and CHS Athletic Director Richard Porfidio’s complaint, ruled that the Lady Cougar player’s first quarter disqualification by one of its referees was made with “No bias intended” NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen McGuire said that game video of that day’s varsity practice and the junior varsity game while wearing the beads.
The referee disqualified the player during the Columbia-Caldwell game for the first quarter on grounds that the beads were not securely fastened. The ref reversed the ruling at AD Porfidio’s request. The Cougars lost to the Caldwell Chiefs 46-37.
SOMSD had complained that the first quarter disqualification was a violation of the state’s 2022 Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair Act. It had also called for the state Attorney General’s Office Division of Civil Rights to investigate.
NJSIAA had sent copies of its Jan. 26 ruling to Caldwell Public Schools, the respective athletic directors and the Division of Civil Rights.
“We’re very disappointed with the NJSIAA’s conclusion and disagree with the organization’s findings,” said Acting Superintendent Dr, Kevin Gilbert. “We stand behind our student-athlete and her right to compete as her best self as well as her family. We also stand behind our Columbia Girls basketball Team coaches who brought this matter to the District and worked to promote the understanding of the intentions of the CROWN Act and the importance of protecting our young people from discrimination.”
The Division of Civil Rights, as of press time, are continuing its investigation.
BLOOMFIELD – Six former Bloomfield College NCAA Division II interscholastic teams will be suspended for at least the 2024-25 school year and their six part-time coaches’ contracts not renewed as of July 1, 2024.
Men’s and Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field teams and Women’s Bowling and Soccer squads – some going back to when they were “The Demon Deacons” in the 1990s – are facing economic re-evaluation by the Bloomfield College of Montclair State University administration.
Administrators have not given a decision date on whether the said teams will resume as “Bloomfield Bears” or “MSU Red Hawks” or become history. They had stressed that those student-athletes on scholarships will have their full scholarships honored. BC athletes have the option of trying out for MSU’s NCAA Division III teams for 2024-25.
Bloomfield College’s track and field and bowling teams were in the NCAA Central Atlantic Conference in 2016 and 2018. Cross country teams were formed in 2001 and women’s soccer in 1996.
The six BC teams’ suspension and evaluation is part of MSU looking to make their newly acquired campus more cost effective. MSU, a state public college, absorbed the private-turned-public BC July 1, 2023. The latter school was facing an existential financial crisis at the time.
BC was originally established as the German Theological Seminary in Newark by the Presbyterian Church in 1868. It moved to the Bloomfield Green/Town Centre area in 1872 and became a four-year college in 1923. It had meanwhile absorbed the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing in 1912.
MONTCLAIR – It has been disclosed Jan. 29 that Mayor Sean Spillar, on advice of his personal attorney, invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination during his witness deposition Jan. 4 over the Township CFO’s whistleblower and harassment suit.
Montclair CFO Padmaja Rao had filed her whistleblower and harassment suit against the Township government last year. Rao claims that then-Town Manager Timothy Stafford had created a hostile work environment and had retaliated against her after she had questioned the Mayor and the Township Council’s qualifications for the New Jersey State Health Benefits Program.
Stafford, who the council fired last summer, remains a respondent in Rao’s suit.
Spiller and his attorney, Frank Arelo, said that his harassment suit testimony may be self-incriminating in light of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office’s investigating her whistleblower suit.
In the whistleblower suit, Rao said that she found that Mayor Spiller and four of the seven the Township Council members did not log in or work at least 35 hours a week to qualify for NJ SHBP. She also found what she said was time records fraud in the Montclair Fire Department and the no-bid law contract for O’Toole Scrivo LLC.
GLEN RIDGE – The Borough Council is asking for the public’s input at their Feb. 12 meeting regarding their proposals to install 3- and 4- way stop sign intersections at two locations.
The Hillside Avenue and Clark Street intersection, they propose, would stop signs on all four corners. Also, Highland Avenue and Baldwin Street intersection would be reconfigured for three stop signs.
Drivers at the intersection, by state law, must yield to the motorist to his or her right hand side.
The ordinance amendment will be introduced Feb 12. A second reading and public hearing may be scheduled for as early as Feb. 26.
BELLEVILLE – The Belleville Public Schools may have to seek other financing means of its own or return to the drawing board after the Township Council’s Jan. 29’s denial of authorizing its $3.75 million bond issue.
BPS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Richard Tomko presented the proposed bond issue’s features, including: $1.5 million for a sports turf field; $1.0 million for furniture upgrades; $500,000 for an “E-Theater” for student E-sports; $500,000 for maintenance vehicles and “other equipment.”; $250,000 for contingencies.
Tomko noted that the district anticipates 625 more students entering the public school system in the next decade. An estimated 258 are anticipated to come from the new housing development that are being built around the township.
By passing Ordinance 02-24, noted Tomko, the township would be co-signing the bond issue – which would be comparable to cosigning a car loan. Belleville Township would be liable only if BPS defaulted.
The council, on a 4-3 vote, turned down the ordinance on its introduction. Deputy Mayor Naomy DePena and councilman Vincent Cozzarelli and Thomas Graziano favored the authorization. First Ward Councilwoman Marie Strumolo-Burke, councilmen Steve Rovell and John Notari and Mayor Michael Melham voted against the bill.
First, unlike the municipality, school districts cannot bond,” explained Melham. “They receive their annual apportionment of tax revenue and that’s all they get. If they need more, they need to go to the voters and get a referendum passed.”
Melham said that the proposal included a “3.7-percent interest rate subject to change.” BPS has the referendum avenue or can go to the Essex County Improvement Authority to issue bond notes for the equipment.
NUTLEY – Maria Hamlin became the first candidate to toss her hat into this year’s 1st November Nutley Board of Commissioners May 14 Election campaign ring here Jan. 30.
The question becomes, “Which one of Hamlin’s hats?” Was it her USAF full dress hat or her Nutley VFW Post hat? The retired 26-year Chief Master Sergeant is VFW Post No. 493’s webmaster and, for three years, post commander.
Did Hamlin toss in her Nutley Police Department badge instead? She is a retired NPD detective who started the Nutley Junior Police Academy and its annual Trunk or Treat event.
All five Commissioners’ seats are up for voters’ choices in the May 14 nonpartisan municipal election. Those seats are held by Joseph Scarpelli, Mauro Tucci, Alphonse “Al” Petracco, Thomas Evans and John V. Kelly IV.
Hamlin had placed sixth among a 12-candidate field in the May 12, 2020 special election. (The election, due to COVID-19 social restrictions, combined what would have been the Newark and Irvington April school, board and budget elections with Orange, Montclair and Belleville’s mayor and/or council elections.)
