NEWARK – Newark Police Chief Darnell Henry, after 26 years with the police division, is calling time on his career.
A Sept. 3 Newark Public Safety Department release said that Henry will be retiring on or by Sept. 30. He has since told a reporter that he wants to spend more time with his family.
Henry was appointed as Newark’s top uniform cop by Mayor Ras Baraka in 2016. It was under his watch that several divisional reforms were implemented, including the creation of the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Henry has been promoted through the ranks, from patrolman and detective to head of the Executive Security Detail – the latter serving as the mayor’s top bodyguard.
“When I appointed Henry, I was confident I had hired a man of great integrity,” said Baraka, “and a man who understood and loved the City of Newark, to help lead us through the most transformative years the Police Division will ever undergo.”
Public Safety Director and former Newark Police Director Anthony Ambrose will also be interim police chief Sept. 30 while the city conducts an internal search for a full-time successor.
Officers Remanded for
Pursuit Violations
Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose has announced that two police officers have been remanded to administrative duties in connection with a motor vehicle pursuit that the officers failed to report, including shutting off the vehicle dash camera.
“I have zero-tolerance for this type of questionable behavior,” Director Ambrose said. “Every member of the Newark Police Division knows how hard we have worked to build the public’s trust. Policy violations like this erode that trust, and these officers – and any others who think they can bend the rules – will be thoroughly investigated.”
The officers’ actions have been referred to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
The violations to be reviewed were discovered as part of an investigation by the Transparency and Risk Analysis Team, a sub-unit of the Newark Police Division’s Office of Professional Standards. It is alleged that the officers, who both have two years’ tenure, not only attempted to cover up the motor vehicle pursuit by not reporting it but also shut off the police vehicle dash camera, disabling it, to further conceal their policy violations.
An update regarding the outcome of the Prosecutor’s review will be announced. No further information is available.
IRVINGTON – Those who remember Fabiana Pierre-Louis and her five siblings growing up here are basking in the collective glow of her new job as a Supreme Court of New Jersey Justice.
Pierre-Louis, 40, was sworn in by Justice Jaynee LaVecchia Sept. 1 – the day after Justice Walter Timpone, 70, had retired. She becomes the third African American to sit on the state’s high court – and the first African American woman to do so.
Pierre-Louis was born in Brooklyn but moved to Irvington with her family. The second-generation Haitian-American, who speaks fluent French Creole, is also Scotch Plains’ Union Catholic Regional High School Class of 1998 graduate.
The married mother of two studied law at Rutgers University, where she also received her juris doctorate. She was a clerk in the office of the last African-American state justice, John E. Wallace, Jr., and was U.S. Assistant Attorney for 10 years in the federal department of justice- New Jersey district in Newark.
The Mt. Laurel resident was practicing at Montgomery McCracken LLC when Gov. Phil Murphy nominated her June 5 to succeed Tempone. Upon recommendation from the New Jersey Bar Association’s Justice and Prosecutorial Committee, she received unanimous approval from the State Senate Judiciary Committee Aug. 24 and the full senate Aug. 28.
“I could never imagine that I’d be nominated to sit in the very same seat where Justice John Wallace sat,” said Pierre-Louis. “My entire legal career has been in New Jersey. It’s extremely humbling to be nominated and extremely enthusiastic to continue the (State) Supreme Court’s commitment to justice, equality and fairness.”
EAST ORANGE – Details for a celebration of the life of city church music director Tiffani Rae Greene may have been announced when you read this.
Greene, 46, who has been Messiah Baptist Church’s Music Director since 2010, had died from health issues Sept. 6.
Greene was born into a family of ministry service. Her mother, Rev. Robin Greene Webb, took her and the family on the short walk to the neighborhood Calvary Baptist Church. Greene Webb is that church’s associate pastor.
The East Orange Campus High School graduate and sociology student at Bloomfield College began singing at CBC. She was eventually promoted to direct its music ministry.
ORANGE – A city man has been suspended from his N.J. Department of Corrections officer job since Aug. 13 for not disclosing his membership in two “outlaw motorcycle gangs.”
State Attorney General Gubrir S. Grewal said that Ruben Morales, 41 was suspended from his senior corrections officer job at Northern State Prison.
Morales has been charged with third-degree public records or information tampering and fourth-degree records tampering or falsifying. He is accused of not mentioning his memberships while renewing his three-year identification card in 2019.
Morales is allegedly a member of the “Thug Riders” and “Thunderguards.”
WEST ORANGE – Township firefighters, with mutual aid from four neighboring towns, quenched a house fire here in the Watching Heights section Sept. 5.
The first WOFD crew, who responded to a call from a Waddington Avenue house about 7:30 a.m. Saturday, found the split-level single-family house with “heavy smoke coming out the front and a heavy fire from the rear exterior.”
Firefighters evacuated the house’s occupants, including a pet, while the incident commander pulled a second and third alarm. Hose lines were run to the back of the house and Ladder One’s crew ventilated the roof.
The Orange Fire Department brought its intervention unit to the scene. East Orange, Maplewood and Bloomfield units provided station coverage.
Although there were no injuries reported, the American Red Cross chapter was called to help with the displaced residents’ temporary lodging. WOFD and county arson investigators are conducting a standard operating procedure search for the blaze’s cause, which extensively damaged the building.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Both towns are mourning the loss of Danny Ives, whose Maplewood Bike Shed had developed a following in the last six months.
Ives, 27, who held a grand opening with Maplewood Mayor McGehee March 7, was found by responding South Orange police officers “unresponsive” on South Orange Avenue’s eastbound lanes near Elm Court, near Seton Hall University’s former main entrance, at about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 4. His 2005 Ducati motorcycle was nearby.
Ives, whose passion for two-wheelers started while salvaging bicycles from Maplewood’s bulk trash days as a 10-year-old, was rushed to University Hospital – where he was declared dead at 12:15 a.m. Sept. 5.
Ives kept 1673 Springfield Ave. opened throughout the pandemic, opening it for sales and service appointments for casual and avid customers alike. He had stressed bicycling as a means of essential commuting and socially distant recreation.
“Danny channeled his energy,” observed McGehee, “to create a community within a community.”
Ives’ wake has been set at South Orange’s Preston Funeral Home Sept. 11 4-8 p.m. His Funeral Mass will be held at the nearby Our Lady of Sorrows Church, Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. A GoFundMe page has been established to raise funds towards a memorial foundation featuring bicycle riding and safety.
MONTCLAIR – A video shown during a middle school staff and teacher convocation here Sept 2 has since caused its principal to get suspended – and the comedian in the video speaking out.
Montclair Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jonathan Ponds announced at that Wednesday night’s board of education meeting that he had relieved Renaissance at Rand Middle School Principal Joseph Putrino, who will be subject to an internal discipline process.
Buzz Aldrin Middle School Vice Principal Major Jennings is acting Renaissance principal. Hillside School Principal Samantha Anglin is acting president of the Montclair Principals Association.
Dr. Ponds apologized for Putrino showing on Zoom “a completely unacceptable video (that was) against the district’s values of diversity and equity.”
Witnesses said that the three minute, 20 second “Appreciate Educators a Father’s Apology,” is of Naples, Fla. comedian Josh Pray loudly expressing his thankfulness for what teachers do since the Coronavirus pandemic’s onset.
The NAACP-Montclair Branch then supported Dr. Ponds’ move, saying that Putrino was the subject of a lawsuit by six African American teachers who said they were denied promotions while all were at the Glenfield Middle School.
Pray, in a Sept. 5 video, said that while Putrino’s lawyers told him of what happened but has not yet been approached by anyone from Montclair Public Schools. He instead found Ponds, Jennings and the BOE “have made assertions that cover a wide range of uninformed and reproachful personal opinions.”
BLOOMFIELD – Relatives and friends of a 34-year-old township man, whose body was found at the base of the Palisades Aug. 13, may well have held a memorial service for him by now.
Palisades Interstate Parkway Police, said Sgt. Raymond E. Walter, rushed to the State Line Lookout in Alpine that Thursday morning by a 911 call of the deceased’s friend. The caller pointed to the person’s Facebook page where he said that he had alluded to committing suicide there.
A witness told arriving police that a man had just put down his cigarette and climbed over the safety fence. They looked down the 450-foot drop – and found the body by the Hudson River shoreline.
The PIPPD Marine Services Unit, Ft. Lee Police Drone Unit, Englewood Hospital paramedics and the East Bergen Rappel Team helped recover the body for the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s autopsy.
BELLEVILLE / NUTLEY – The Nutley-Belleville Columbus Day and Italian Heritage Month Parade Committee described, on Sept. 2, how different their Oct. 11, 2020 edition will be.
The Sunday before the federal Columbus Day holiday will start with a 10 a.m. raising of the Italian national flag before the Belleville Township Hall. There will also be the annual ceremony at the Christopher Columbus monument by the Nutley Municipal Building at Noon.
The two-town committee is replacing what would have been its 38th annual parade with what it calls “a caravan of cars decorated to celebrate Italian heritage.” The caravan is to roll off from Belleville High School at 1:30 p.m. and onto Nutley’s stretch of Franklin Avenue.
Making the parade more about Italian heritage than Columbus’ arrival on San Salvador Island Oct. 12, 1492 is the nearest indication of the committee lowering the profile of “The Discoverer of the Americas.”
Nutley’s Columbus monument had been the site of a June 24 confrontation between rival demonstrators and of dueling petitions to remove or retain it. The removal petition had also called the committee to change its name.
