TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office June 25 announcement that they had arrested a Municipal Council aide June 19 in what they said was a drug distribution transaction has cost him at least his City Hall job as of press time.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll said that Bryan A. Atahualpa was nabbed in Morristown that Thursday by the MCPO Special Enforcement Unit after seeing him “enter a vehicle with a bag.” They said that the bag held 50 grams of cocaine worth $3,000.
Carroll did not say exactly when and where in Morristown that the purported transaction took place. They said that the person in the car was “a cooperating witness” without indicating whether that one is an undercover officer or not.
Atahualpa has been charged with a count each of controlled dangerous substance-cocaine possession, possession thereof with intent to distribute, distributing CDS and conspiring with a cooperating witness to distribute CDS.
Atahualpa, on June 19, was a part-time aide to Councilwoman Rev Louise Scott Rountree and an Essex County Social Services clerk. Councilwoman Rountree, on June 25, said that his City Hall employment has been “severed.”
It is not clear whether that severance included his six-year appointment to the city’s LGBTQ Commission. His county employment is also unclear as of press time
Atahualpa has been an Essex County Young Democrats sergeant-at-arms. His Linkedin page self-description includes experience with community oriented policing and having attended police precinct community meetings.
IRVINGTON / MAPLEWOOD – New Jersey American Water’s Springfield Avenue Lead Service Line Replacement Program, which has been progressing eastward the last month, has entered Irvington as of June 26.
Motorists, including NJTransit buses on the Nos. 25, 70 and 375 routes, found an Irvington Police car and rubber cones blocking the avenue between Chancellor Avenue and 43rd Street that Thursday. While some cones directed buses into or leaving the Hilton Garage, traffic resumed Springfield travel – briefly – between Chancellor and Boyden Street.
Westbound traffic was diverted onto northbound Boyden, west on Elmwood Avenue and onto western Prospect Street before finally resuming onto Springfield. It took the 70 “Local Talk” was on at 8:30 a.m. that Thursday 22 minutes to traverse both detours.
Newark LSLRP veteran Montana, of Lodi, is making holes in the street and sidewalk pavement and patching after installing copper water lines, and they have company in Maplewood. Another designated contractor is installing corner cub cuts, replacing curbing and refitting the decorative sidewalk bricks.
This is all part of a 10-year statewide program to have utilities and their contractors replace found lead lines with copper. Motorists and bus riders should add 30 minutes to their commute for the detours.
Irvington High School Player Shot in Newark
ECPO detectives are looking for the gunman who shot Zaid Cook, 16, and a 17-year-old male at that city’s 227 Brookdale Ave. 6 p.m. June 26. Cook – an Irvington High School football player and wrestler – was declared dead at 9:19 p.m. at Newark’s University Hospital. This is a developing story.
EAST ORANGE – A city man and the two Newarkers he was with at an early June 18 traffic stop in Clifton have since been detained in the Passaic County Jail.
Jason Ballard, 42, was the front seat passenger in a 2016 BMW that a CPD officer had stopped at 3:09 a.m. that Wednesday at Highland and Van Winkle avenues for “committing traffic violations.” The officer found Malcolm Pierce, 34, of Newark in the rear seat. The driver, Joshua Rodriguez, 39, of Newark, was “observed as having signs of intoxication.”
A probable cause car search found two open containers of alcohol, a loaded 9 mm. Walther handgun previously reported as being stolen from East Orange and an expandable baton. Also found were six pills “suspected to be MDMA,” 20 glassine bags of “suspected heroin” and 34 vials of “suspected crack cocaine.”
Ballard, Pierce and Rodriguez were each charged with possession of a handgun, possession thereof for an unlawful purpose and possession thereof during a controlled dangerous substance offence. Ballard and Pierce were further charged with respectively three and two counts of CDS possession, possession thereof with intent to distribute and certain persons not to have a handgun.
Rodriguez was further charged with weapons possession (the baton), DWI and multiple motor vehicle offenses. All three, as individuals, may not have claimed possession of the said handgun.
Ballard, as of June 26, remains held although he has no outstanding detainers or warrants. A State Superior Court-Paterson judge meanwhile released Pierce and Rodriguez. The detention and release reasoning were not immediately disclosed.
ORANGE – A city man, accused of shooting dead a woman in East Orange June 29, may have been extradited from either a Burlington or Camden County jail to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility when you read this.
East Orange Police and the ECPO Homicide Unit put out an all points bulletin on Darian Ficklin, 29, while Shalaman Brown, 44, was fighting for her life in Newark’s University Hospital that Sunday night. EOPD officers told county detectives that they had responded to a gunfire call at 15 North 16th St., 8:27 p.m. and found Brown shot in her upper chest, abdomen and an upper thigh.
Witnesses said Ficklin was Brown’s boyfriend. Brown died in surgery at 10:10 p.m.
Delaware State Police officers said that they had pursued a car being driven by a man matching Ficklin’s description for an hour before he drove back into New Jersey. The New Jersey State Police-Camden Barracks troopers said that they had apprehended Ficklin while they were by New Jersey Turnpike Milepost 29. The location places the arrest near an exit for Interstate 295 at Burlington’s Mount Laurel Township.
While it is not clear whether Ficklin was remanded to which county jail, he does face charges of murder and weapons possession
WEST ORANGE – Township Assistant Administrator Peter Smeraldo assured the several Tory Corner/Watchung Heights residents who complained on parking woes around the Washington Elementary School June 24 that some of their qualms may be addressed in a township-wide parking plan that may be unveiled as early as the Township Council’s July meeting.
Two residents from Franklin Avenue to the school’s west and William Street to its north said that parking has become a day-and-night burden. The streets are narrow two lane thoroughfares whose curbside space is strained by limited parking at the 1895 Kindergarten-Fifth Grade school and a century-old apartment building that was constructed without parking space.
They said other contributions to the stress include residents who own two or more cars or who do not use their driveways. One resident told of family tag teams, where one relative parks in a curbside space until the other relative arrives; the second driver takes the curb space and the first driver parks in the driveway.
One public speaker said that annual parking permit sales for Municipal Lot 12 on Park Terrace are practically snapped up overnight. Residents have been seen camping overnight before the Municipal Building. The last permit went to one who arrived at 6:20 a.m.
Smeraldo replied that a township capital plan “including Southern Parking” will be unveiled as early as the July meeting. That plan intends to change overnight parking and related ordinances and electronic permitting. Passing the township’s 2025 Calendar Year Municipal Budget, however, took priority.
Washington Elementary stands on the northeast corner of Washington, Main and Franklin streets. It once housed the Orange Public Library’s “West Orange Branch” in pre-WOPL days.
SOUTH ORANGE – It will not be long for the South Orange Public Library posts “Dig and Build, We Must” before their older and younger buildings now that ground has broken on its $17.5 million Connections project.
Village officials, SOPL staff and donors planted shovels into the land separating the library’s 1967 and 1895-96 Connett buildings in a June 16 ceremony. The actual digging will soon start by Grove Contracting LLC, whom the Village Council approved a $14.1 million contract on April 14.
Grove had recently placed $1 million in escrow as cost overrun insurance that all parties hope will not be needed. The Foundation for SOPL has meanwhile kicked in over $1 million in donations to equip the to-be-renovated north and south buildings.
SOPL was awarded a $6.5 million grant from the New Jersey State Library Construction Bond Fund. The 2020-22 fund had partially funded the transfer and conversion of 10 Rooney Circle for a new West Orange Public Library and the renovation of the Maplewood Mail Library – whose ribbon cutting is set for 11 a.m. July 5.
The connection, when completed in 2027, will be a two-story atrium and new main entrance.
BLOOMFIELD – A visitation for Dani DeFalco, 19 months, was held here at the O’Boyle Funeral Home, followed by a Funeral Mass at Fairfield’s St. Thomas Moore Church, June 26.
DeFalco, who was born Nov. 22, 2023, had suddenly died in Fairfield June 21. She was a granddaughter of Bloomfield Police Lt. Joseph Corio. Corio is also an Italian American Police Society of New Jersey Executive Board member.
Members of Bloomfield PBA and Superior Officers Association Local Nos. 32 and the IAPSNJ attended the funeral and or the Mass. Interment at North Arlington’s Holy Cross Cemetery followed.
Sister Demi DeFalco, brother Devin DeFalco, mother Samatha (Corio) DeFalco and father Christian DeFalco and grandmother Heather Corio are among her survivors.
DeFalco’s relatives may donate to plant a tree in Dani’s memory through Oboylefuneralhome.com.
MONTCLAIR – ECPO detectives have taken over the investigation of a June 8 car crash here since a Ridgewood woman, who was airlifted by the New Jersey State Police, died of her injuries at Newark’s University Hospital June 20.
Eugenia Antipas, 50, said investigators, was her husband’s front seat passenger when their late model car struck an object at Erie Place and Sylvan Avenue at about 6:13 p.m. June 8. The intersection, just west of NJTransit’s Montclair-Boonton Line, is three blocks north of Walnut Street Station.
Montclair Fire Chief Robert Duncan said his firefighters used hydraulic cutting tools to extricate both occupants by removing the car’s doors and roof. The incident commander immediately called for the Montclair Ambulance Unit and NJSP helicopter.
The MAU drove the driver to Paterson’s St. Joseph’s University Medical Center; his condition remains unknown as of press time. State Troopers landed and took off from the nearby Kaveney Field, next to the Deron School. The crime scene investigation taped off the intersection until at least 7:30 p.m.
Witnesses told reporters that an Audi Q5 Sportster was traveling at high Speed along Clermont Avenue. Her last rites have not been posted as of June 30.
GLEN RIDGE – “Local Talk” has learned of a second car collision at the same major T-intersection in 63 days that happened here June 2.
Glen Ridge Police Department and Public Works plus the Montclair Fire Department responded to a three car collision report at Ridgewood and Watchung Avenues. Part of the intersection was being sprayed by water spouting from where a fire hydrant had stood. The preliminary police accident investigation has one of the vehicles toppling the hydrant.
First responders closed the intersection and determined that none of the three cars’ occupants had suffered major injury. (Glen Ridge is contractually covered by the Montclair Fire Department.) GRDPW, once MFD capped the water line, replaced the hydrant.
April 10 – the last time police, fire and ambulance came here – responded to a Glen Ridge driver striking a Montclair pedestrian. The pedestrian was driven to St. Josephs; the driver ticketed for failing to yield.
Ridgewood and Watchung Avenues, in the borough’s north end, are Essex County roads. The county’s roads and bridges department, who presented a Safety Improvement Concept Plan here Feb. 26, 2024, while projecting a 2025 construction start, was last said to be “working with local and county engineers: before breaking ground.
BELLEVILLE – The school crossing guard and the motorist who were involved in a collision outside of Elementary School 3 June 13 will be using part of his summer vacation to heal from wounds – and answer to several motor vehicles summonses.
Mayor Michael Melham, who owns a nearby office, said that the crossing guard was helping school students across the street when she was struck in the intersection of Joralemon Street and Union Avenue.
“I’m relieved to share that she (the crossing guard) is expected to make a full recovery,” said the mayor. “She has our full support while she heals.”
Melham said that the driver had stayed at the scene and “fully cooperated” with Belleville Police. The motorist, however, was issued summonses for failing to yield to a pedestrian, careless driving, reckless driving and failing to provide proof of insurance.
This incident happened two days after June 11’s “Walk to School with Belleville PD,” highlighting pedestrian safety, was held. “Belleville’s Finest” hires the crossing guards.
NUTLEY – A township resident was visited by multi-level law enforcers here June 20 – and has the summonses to show for it.
“Heavily armed” officers from Nutley Police, ECPO and the Essex County Sheriff’s Office Tactical Response Team descended on an Edgar Place address where Richard A. Klim resides at 7:30 p.m. that Friday. They had executed a search warrant signed by a State Superior Court-Newark judge.
Kilm was charged with controlled dangerous substance possession, conspiracy to distribute CDS, possession of drug paraphernalia and CDS possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school. The last charge comes from his place being within said radius of the Yantacaw Elementary School.
It is presumed that Klim had posted bail after being released from the Essex County Correctional Facility. Real estate records have Klim living here and in Hollywood, Fla. He was among the Nutley High School Graduating Class of 1987.
Third Car Vs. Pedestrian Hit
The Nutley Police Department reported its third pedestrian and car collision of the year here – this time at Franklin Avenue and Kingsland Street – June 25.
The driver involved told NPD officers that he believed that the car ahead of him was allowing him by – and did not see the pedestrian in the crosswalk. Nutley EMS took the pedestrian to a local hospital for evaluation.
