TOWN WATCH
NEWARK / IRVINGTON – Although a funeral for Kayla Spivey Tutt, 16, was held at Irvington’s Transcend Worship Center July 14, her life was first celebrated at The HUUB 6 p.m. July 3, in Newark, with a launch of pink, purple and white balloons. Her family also requested mourners wearing the same color clothing at the Transcend viewing and celebration of life.
Spivey Tutt, who was fatally shot June 27, was laid to rest at Newark’s Fairmount Cemetery Monday. Her repast, which was coordinated by the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, was held at Newark’s Temple of Hip Hop, 95 Ludlow St.
Her accused shooter, Amir Sanderson, 18, has been held on a charge of purposeful murder since June 28. It is believed that he and Spivey Tutt had a domestic dispute.
Newark Public Safety Director Eugene Miranda said that his officers responded to a shooting report along the 100 block of Huntington Terrace just before 6 p.m. June 27. They found a girl, later identified as Spivey Tutt, was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital for emergency surgery and where she died June 30.
The ECPO Homicide and Major Crimes Unit has taken the lead in the continuing investigation.
EAST ORANGE – “Local Talk” has learned that a nine-month-old harassment charge against an East Orange councilman made in a Newark park remains active.
NJcourts.com’s municipal court case list has a Sept. 19, 2024 “Harassment-Striking/Offensive Touching/Making Threats to” charge against Second Ward Councilman Christopher Awe, 40, was last heard in Newark Municipal Court June 26. It was brought to that court by two Essex County Sheriff’s Officers on behalf of a cell phone camera owner-operator.
The cell phone owner, 27, said that he was making a background video while at Veteran’s Memorial Park, which is county property. The 38 second clip, as posted on YouTube, shows an unidentified woman being passed by the camera person – and ends with a man dressed in blue clothing standing before him and slapping the camera out of his hand.
The phone owner approached two sheriff’s officers and told them what happened. Neither the victim nor the cell phone were physically injured.
Awe, who was first elected on the East Orange Democratic Committee Green Team in 2018, had won his party nomination for a third term in the June 10 primary. He is the founder of Unlock Africa LLC, which provides resources for small- and mid-level continental businesses.
Awe told a reporter Sept. 26 that the cell phone video recorder had a prior history and that he had filed a counter harassment charge against him.
“I told him to stop several times,” said Awe. “This’ a gentleman who harasses people; he records women while they’re passing by.”
ORANGE – When neighbors and residents walk by the first floor of the new apartment building at 38-60 Berwyn St., at the corner of Oakwood Avenue, is completed, some may look at the six-story, 173 unit structure’s ground floor and may ask themselves, “What if?”
Developer B&O Urban Renewal Entity LLC asked for and received a major amendment to the preliminary and final site plan approval for the project before the Orange Planning Board and their Feb. 26 meeting – and received it.
B&O asked OPB members permission to replace the ground floor plan they had filed on their application with seven more dwelling units to their original 166, 1,013 square feet of commercial space and “associated amenities.”
B&O attorney Elnardo Webster, Jr. said that his client had offered the Orange Public School district its 7,000-sq. ft. ground floor space for five classrooms for preschool and early elementary school grades in exchange for a tax abatement.
Mayor Dwayne D. Warren, who has planning board voting membership, said to a reporter that OPS and its board of education had turned down the five classroom offer. Orange Board of Education Member Tyrone Tarver told the same reporter that the school board declined the offer on two counts – the first being that the floor plan did not include sufficient open space for student recess.
Tarver added that OBOE found the parking spaces B&O offered for teachers and administrators would be open during instructional hours and not for after-school. 38-60 Berwyn’s now-188 parking spaces are for residents-only plus the on-site building superintendent.
All eight OPB members, including Mayor Warren, approved the amended ground floor plan with the preliminary and final application – on several conditions. Some of those board additions allowed the parking and loading space some two square feet smaller than the city code minimum, a walkway to the parking area and police-accessible security cameras. One OPB condition is that Webster meet with Union Baptist Church’s pastor to address that congregation’s concerns. UBC and the Oakwood Avenue School are within two blocks of 38-60 Berwyn in the East Ward.
WEST ORANGE – The Township Council, on a 3-1 vote at their July 9 special meeting, have decided to leave former Councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremicael’s seat vacant until the Nov. 4 General Election.
Councilwoman Joyce Rudion voted on a Zoom call to have the council choose from the 16 West Orangeites who submitted their resumes and letters of interest before June 25. Council President Joe Krakoviak and members Susan Scarpa (via Zoom) and Michelle Casalino voted not to do so.
Rudin and seven members of the public including former Councilman Rev. William “Bill” Rutherford noted that the council would be short-handed until voters have their Nov. 4 say. They added that, since West Orange’s mayor does not cast tie-breaking votes, tied votes translates to the failure of budgets and other measures.
The council had until July 12 to find Ghebremicael’s successor, and he or she would have the option to run for a full three-year term Nov. 4. Ghebremicael, who abruptly resigned June 12 on health grounds, was to have her term expire in 2026.
“I don’t want to give anyone a very possible political decision that would bring advantage to someone who might run in November,” said Krakoviak, “so I’ve been leaning away from appointing anyone.”
West Orange mayoral, council and board of education elections are held in November and are nonpartisan.
SOUTH ORANGE – “One good worship turn deserves another” may sum up the latest interfaith service between Congregation Oheb Shalom here and Newark’s Franklin St. John United Methodist Church June 29.
Franklin St. John Pastor Rev. Dr. William D. Carter III and his membership invited Oheb Shalom Rabbi Abigail Treu and her congregants to their South Ward sanctuary for that Sunday’s interfaith service. This was in response to Rabbi Treu hosting Franklin St. John’s for an interfaith Passover Seder here May 14.
It was during that seder that both faith communities have their roots in Newark.
Franklin St. John first held services in 1869 as St. John Methodist Episcopal Church. It was one of the five Newark African American conference churches, along with St. John’s in Orange in 1879 and St. Mark’s in Montclair in 1881.
Oheb Shalom, a member of the United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism, was founded in Newark in 1860 and moved to the village here in 1958. The spinoff of original synagogue Bani Jeshurun, in between, had moved to Prince Street in 1884 and High Street in 1911.
June 29’s service opened with Treu reading the Sacharit morning prayer and Psalm 100. Treu’s midrash or sermon, focused on worshipping in the South during the 1990s church burnings.
Carter’s “Come On and Get Up” sermon focused on Jesus of Nazarteh’s parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. He broadened the concept of loving your “neighbor “as yourself.
The service, post-worship, ended with a clergy-congregation question and answer session.
MAPLEWOOD – The former Department of Public Works supervisor who was accused of contract bid-rigging has filed a compensatory suit against the township two months after ECPO had dismissed the criminal charges.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Carmen Martin told a reporter July 1 that “New Jersey v. Cesare Riccardi” was administratively dismissed with prejudice Oct. 18, 2024 “after it was determined that the evidence was insufficient to secure a conviction and that the matter was addressed in an administrative hearing.”
Riccardi and his attorney Timothy Smith received ECPO’s Oct. 18 dismissal letter on Nov. 19 and received electronic confirmation Jan. 17. Riccardi and Smith, however, filed their compensatory suit March 8 against Maplewood’s current and former business administrators, current engineer and DPW director Paul Kittner and “John Does, Jane Does and ABC Corporations 1-10.”
Riccardi said that township officials had falsely accused him of accepting filed falsified bids so that preferred contractors could get the lowest bids. The four official misconduct charges and a records tampering charge led to the administrative hearing and his being fired in 2023.
Riccardi further claims that, before his firing, he was subjected to a hostile work environment.
S. Fourth Street Deaths Probed
An ECPO spokesman’s July 14 update on two adults who were found dead on South Fourth Street July 11 had little more to say. The deceased’s “cause and manner of death are pending autopsy and toxicology reports. There is no imminent danger to the community; this is an active investigation.”
BLOOMFIELD – An on-duty police officer from Bloomfield remains in University hospital and a bus driver from Orange has been charged with fourth-degree assault by auto as the result of a collision at a Roseland intersection June 20.
Marc Miller, 29, had been transferred from University Hospital’s ICU ward to the Progressive Care Unit on July 4. The Roseland Police officer had been airlifted there from the accident side at Livingston Avenue and Prudential Drive/Becker Farm Road and was admitted with life-threatening injuries.
Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II said that NJ Transit bus driver Djimmy Evra was charged with other offenses related to the intersection crash at 4:12 p.m. that Friday. The accident became public after Evra had responded to an arrest warrant on July 11.
Witnesses told Roseland and NJTransit police and ECPO crash investigation detectives that Evra was operating the Route 71 bus “at a high rate of speed” on Livingston and ran a red light. He crashed into the marked RPD car’s driver side that the on-duty Miller was on. Evra and three bus passengers were treated for minor injuries “at a local hospital.”
The state and West Essex Local 81 PBA plus RPD have set up a GoFundMe.com page for Miller and his family’s medical expenses.
MONTCLAIR – Some of the mourners who entered NJPAC for Kabir Moss’ memorial service July 14 were Montclairions who remembered when he was more than a resident.
Moss, 37, who last was Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s gubernatorial primary communications director, died suddenly at his Newark residence July 8. The former deputy communications director for Steve Sweeney’s State Senate Majority Office had recently gained a reputation as a savvy political campaign organizer and coordinator.
While Kabir’s formal obituary has not been released as of press time, there are those who remembered the Moss Media founder taking out petitions to run for Montclair mayor and First Ward Council in 2024.
“Kabir was a dynamic and thoughtful statewide strategist who believed deeply in the power of local government to uplift communities, ” said Essex County Commissioner and Montclair Democratic Committee Chairman Brendan Gill. “His decision to pick up petitions to run for First Ward Councilman showed his commitment to Montclair and public service.”
Moss’s stay was a brief part of his life arc. He was a scholar-athlete in Emerson College who spent three-and-a-half years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. The Africa University-Zimbabwe basketball player-student first conducted a 2018 campaign for a Monmouth County Commissioner Democratic candidate.
“Kabir brought joy to everyone who knew him and hope for the future,” said Montclair lawyer and mother-in-law Nancy Erica Smith. “Someone with his integrity, heart and intelligence was willing to make the world a better place.”
GLEN RIDGE – Five New Jersey Transit Police officers came to the Montclair-Boonton Line station’s eastbound platform here July 8 to end an 80-minute dispute between a rider and a train crew over his two claimed service dogs.
An NJTransit spokesman and two local reports said that the rider – identified as Kareem Copney, 46 – and the crew of Montclair State University-New York Penn Station No. 6226 were disagreeing on the status of the former’s two leashed pit bull breeds he had boarded with. The dispute reached a head when the crew stopped at Glen Ridge at 11:10 a.m. and called police.
The responding NJTPD officers eventually escorted Copney and his two dogs off the train and onto the station’s street level. Four of the officers stood six feet away while a fifth asked for Copney’s identification and issued two tickets at arm’s reach.
MBL Train No. 6226 resumed its eastern run at 12:30 p.m. The incident had delayed the similar Train No. 6230, which was scheduled to stop here at 12:07. It is not known whether that train was forced to use the westbound tracks. Midday line trains run hourly.
Several of 6226’s riders had also disembarked but it is not known whether they waited for a later train or boarded NJTransit’s local 11, 28 and 29 buses.
Copney said that the NJTransit train crew is “not properly informed of the regulations of when to have a service dog and when not to have a service dog” aboard and that he has “the documentation, the ID – everything.” Pictures taken at that time showed that both dogs were on harness leashes but not wearing service dog signage.
NJTransit’s FAQ list includes: Only service animals accompanying customers with disabilities or their trainers, police dogs and small pets in carry-on travel cages are allowed on NJTransit trains, buses and light rail vehicles.”
BELLEVILLE / NUTLEY – It can be said since June 30 that State Monitor Thomas Egan left Belleville Public Schools along with the Belleville High School Class of 2025.
Egan, after overseeing and casting the occasional veto on BPS budget and finances the last 12 years, was given a “That will be all now, thank you for your service, we’ll call you when we need you again” letter from NJDOE Assistant Education Commissioner, Division of Finance and Business Services June 18.
“The Commissioner (Kevin Dehmer) has determined that all remedial actions required have been implemented and that the necessary local capacity and fiscal controls have been restored to BPS,” said Corso to Egan. “Your contributions have been instrumental in helping the district regain fiscal stability and improve operational oversight.”
Egan was appointed to the Belleville Board of Education Trustees in 2014 in the wake of the latter finding a $3.8 million gap in its 2013-14 school year budget. He came with a $4 million loan from NJDOE, which is repayable over the following 30 years.
There had been periods the last three years where Egan was present on line. He overrode, on a May 6 emergency meeting, BOET’s downing of the $140.228 million 2025-26 budget. That increase translated to a $127 increase in school property taxes on the owner of the average assessed value of a Belleville house.
Egan is leaving when Jeanette Makus is starting her monitoring of Nutley Public Schools. Makus was appointed in the aftermath of a $7 million gap found in the 2023-24 school budget. NJDOE also made a no-interest loan, repayable over 30 years.
