by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – Members of Shiloh Baptist Church, whose sanctuary here at 99-103 Davenport. Ave. was levelled after its Feb. 2 roof collapse, are out to prove that a house of worship is made up of its members more than its building.
SBC Senior Pastor Malachai Brantley, Jr. and Trustees Chairman Wilburt Austin have their R.D. Spain Youth Center at 107-09 Davenport available for worship and Bible study for its 300 members. Its Shiloh Rainbow Academy child care center, at 110 Davenport, continues unaffected.
The church has started a GoFundMe.Com church replacement fundraiser while Brantley and Austin check with SBC’s insurance carrier. That prospective third house of worship would be the third specially-built sanctuary, after an 1887 edifice at 723-25 North Sixth St. (now a home) and the 1926-Feb. 2 structure.
A demolition crew was called in by Newark’s Engineering Services Feb. 3 to finish what a 16.2-inch snowfall had started Noon Feb. 2. Most of the sanctuary’s roof had cratered under the snow’s weight.
Responding Newark Fire Department crews evacuated residents from adjacent 97 and 105 Davenport until demolishers had completed their levelling. There was no one within 99-103 Davenport since the mid-March pandemic lockdown, although there had been plans to make some interior repairs.
IRVINGTON – Township police detectives have been looking for a vehicle – and its carjacker – that was taken from its owners on a North Ward street here since Feb. 2.
IPD first responded to 5:22 p.m. calls of a carjacking in progress in front of 833 18th Ave. that Tuesday. One cruiser’s officers found two people in front of Lucky Star #1 Chinese Restaurant.
While the first vehicle occupant got out into the restaurant, the second occupant “was physically removed” by a suspect “who was armed with a weapon” and sped away.
One of the calls came from another motorist who saw the carjacking and, while pursuing the vehicle, gave its description.
None of the victims or the “good Samaritan” driver gave the carjacker’s clothing description. Authorities have not released details of the hijacked car, nor its last whereabouts.
EAST ORANGE – An apparent domestic dispute here in the First Ward., over a car that was scratched during Feb. 8 snow shoveling, left one man dead plus a second man and a woman hospitalized.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi said that Calvin Scott, 43, was found on Brighton Avenue’s 200 block Monday morning by responding EOPD officers “with apparent stab wounds.” Although he and the other two injured people were taken to Newark’s University Hospital, Scott died at 11:33 a.m.
That block, over time, was filled with investigators from EOPD, the ECPO Homicide Task Force, a Newark Police Department Crime Scene Unit and police from Glen Ridge and Bloomfield. Several news crews, including one with a traffic helicopter, had also arrived.
Neighbors told reporters that Scott became upset that his car had been scratched while he and other house residents were clearing snow and accused one of his fellow diggers. A fist fight, ensued, which ended with his stabbing.
One resident told a reporter that Scott was the fiancée of her aunt – and that the stabber was her uncle. She said that she, Scott and the uncle are among seven family or domestic members living in the same house. They are three generations who are taking care of their patriarch – an 82-year-old man.
The 200 block of Brighton, where the Doddtown and Franklin neighborhoods meet, is mostly residential. It is within walking distance of the Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, Orange and Montclair borders.
Stephens and Bindi have not identified the other injured man or woman – nor a suspect. They said that the investigation remains active. Scott’s official cause of death is pending autopsy results.
ORANGE – When – or if – one sees a SUEZ-N.A. snowplow truck here, it will be either at the Chestnut Street Pumping Station or in response to a water emergency call.
That is the word from Orange Business Administrator Christopher Hartwyck Feb. 10, who clarified who is plowing and/or removing snow.
“The snow removal is going very well,” said Hartwyck Wednesday morning. “In addition to our own Department of Public Works trucks, we’ve contracted the Shauger Group to remove the piles of snow from corners.”
The ODPW-Shauger combine is part of a coordinated snow clearing effort. The DPW, for example, had posted on Facebook Feb. 7-8 which of five sections’ residents are to remove their curbside parked cars ahead of curb-to-curb clearing. That posting included a list of lots where drivers can park in the interim.
Orange residents and visitors may have also seen Essex County Roads and Bridges and NJTransit vehicles, or their contractors, plowing and/or clearing their streets or stations here. But not or not yet SUEZ.
SUEZ-N.A. issued similar snow preparedness press releases from its Paramus headquarters to municipal customers Jan. 31-Feb. 2. One news outlet, however, interpreted SUEZ as “Orange’s snow servicer” – which prompted “Local Talk” to call Orange City Hall.
The Shauger Group has performed contracted snow clearing, street cleaning, utility work and landscaping for area public and private clients since moving into the old Doddtown Shop-Rite here in the late 1980s. SUEZ and its predecessor have been managing the Orange Water Department under renewable contracts since the 1990s.
WEST ORANGE – Neither township police chief James Abbott, nor his detective bureau, have said whether two license plate thefts reported here Feb. 2 have any connections.
A Sunnyside Road resident reported that someone had removed the front license plate from his 2017 Nissan Pathfinder sometime between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. He said he had backed his SUV onto his driveway that Sunday – only to find its front plate missing while clearing snow that Tuesday morning.
New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission law requires at least a front license plate be worn by Garden State-registered vehicles. MVC prefers having both front and rear plates affixed.
The owner of a Harrison Avenue garage reported that a pedestrian had removed both plates and a bumper off a car parked on its lot sometime overnight Feb. 1-2. The garage owner showed police footprints in the snow going to and away from the victimized 2008 Infiniti G37 in the same direction.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Current township resident Ken Kurson was among the last 56 people who President Donald J. Trump granted executive clemency to Jan. 19-20 before his leaving The White House.
Trump’s pardoning of Kurson, 52, of interstate harassment and stalking charges thwarts the U.S. Department of Justice-Eastern District of New York’s prosecution. He was to have stood trial in a Brooklyn federal courtroom before Trump’s pardon.
Kurson, who once lived in South Orange, had been in his Maplewood home, after posting $10,000 bail and agreeing not to contact the five complainants, since Oct. 22. He was accused of cyberstalking three people and harassing two others Nov. 1 – Dec. 31, 2017. The complainants included his ex-wife and a Mount Sinai Hospital doctor.
A 17-page U.S. Department of Justice complaint has him filing false Yelp reviews and malpractice complaints against the doctor. He allegedly placed keystroke spyware on his wife’s computer and repeatedly called and hung up on her. Kurson was to have done this as “Eddie Train” and “Jayden Wagner.”
The allegations first appeared in a 2018 background check after Trump had recommended Kurson for a seat on the National Endowment of the Humanities board – an application he withdrew.
Kurson – who first moved to Montclair to run in the State 34th Legislative District General Assembly Republican primary in 2008 – was a “New York Observer” editor 2013-17 while Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner owned that paper. The one-time Trump 2016 campaign speechwriter is also an associate to the President’s personal attorney – Rudolph Giuliani.
“This investigation only began because Mr. Kurson was nominated to a role within the Trump Administration,” said White House Acting Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.” He’s been a community leader in New York and New Jersey for decades. In addition, he’s a certified foster parent, a successful business owner, is passionate about various charitable causes, is an upstanding citizen and father to five beautiful children.”
MONTCLAIR – Lackawanna Plaza’s new owner, David Placek, has been talking with various fellow residents and community before he files his plans for the railroad terminal-turned-shopping mall to the Montclair Planning Board.
Placek, whose DBP Holdings bought the 7.6-acre property from Hampshire/Pinnacle Companies for an undisclosed amount Feb. 2, said he will pursue getting a supermarket back into the Fourth Ward mall. The six-year resident and married father of three added that he wants to talk about the access, preservation and open space issues that help send H/P’s 2019 site plan application into State Superior Court.
DBP is a $6.5 billion real estate company with holdings across the U.S. and in Montclair. Placek, through DBP, owns the E.E. Leach Storage Warehouse and the former Office Bar & Grill at 641 and 619 Bloomfield Ave. Gov. Phil Murphy, in one of his Coronavirus Briefings, praised Placek for his forgiving his tenants up to two months rent. at the pandemic’s start.
The Leach and Office buildings are a block northeast of the MC Hotel, which is one of the Pinnacle Companies’ recent developments. Pinnacle Companies CEO Brian Stolar declined comment on selling Lackawanna Plaza.
The plaza’s sale comes while the then-developer, Montclair Township, neighboring One Greenwood Plaza LLC and A Better Lackawanna preservation group had been anticipating a Superior Court Judge’s ruling on whether the township’s planning board had failed to follow its own master plan.
Lackawanna Plaza was the DL&W’s Montclair Branch terminus 1913-1981, when NJTransit replaced it with Bay Street Station. The terminal had meanwhile been placed on national and state historical place registers.
The site became an award-winning shopping mall with a PathMark Super Center as its anchor. PathMark closed in November 2015, after its A&P supermarket parent liquidated, accelerating the plaza’s decline. Popeye’s Chicken and an Italian restaurant are its remaining tenants.
BLOOMFIELD – Retired township police officer Ben Christiano’s battle against COVID-19 has shifted to a Mountainside Hospital Intensive Care Unit room.
Christiano, who retired from the police department after 25 years’ service Dec. 2, remains in the ICU as of Feb. 7. “Off. Benny, ” who was a member of the BPD motorcycle patrol, has been there since Jan. 21.
Get well cards and wishes may go to: Ben Christiano, Mountainside Hospital, ICU, 2 West, Montclair, NJ 07042.
Man Shot in Doorway
Township detectives have been looking for the five people who approached a man at 547 Bloomfield Ave., and left him with a shot right hand here just before 3:32 a.m. Feb. 7.
The 47-year-old man, who met the responding BPD officers, told them that he had refused entry of four males and a female to a second floor recording studio for it had reached its COVID capacity. One of the denied visitors then pulled out a handgun and fired a shot that shattered the front door window and struck his right hand. Police Director Sam DeMaio, before the Township Council Feb. 8, said his detectives have a lead on the driver who dropped the fivesome off.
BPD detectives sealed off Bloomfield Avenue between Washington and Conger streets in the predawn hours, detouring early morning NJTransit buses. The victim was taken to University Hospital for treatment.
BELLEVILLE – A Memorial Mass was held in St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church Feb. 6 for the township woman who was killed in a Jan. 27 accident here with a garbage truck.
Ximena Aguilar, 44, said Acting County Prosecutor Stephens and Belleville Police Chief Mark Minichini, was pronounced dead at Washington Avenue south of Little Street 1 p.m. that Wednesday.
Aguilar, according to a preliminary investigation, was in the avenue’s crosswalk when she was struck by a southbound Interstate Waste Services Mack truck before the Jiffy Lube at 491 Washington at 12:55 p.m.
The IWS-Jersey City-based driver, who stayed at the scene, has not been charged. Southbound Washington Avenue traffic, including NJTransit No. 13 buses, were detoured during that early afternoon.
Aguilar, who was born Sept. 4, 1976, was on her way back to the nearby Signature Fitness. She was the gym’s head of maintenance for three years. Signature Fitness has launched a GoFundMe.com page for her burial costs.
Husband Dawin, parents Teresa and Jorge, children David, Maria and Andres and siblings Tania and David are among her survivors. Funeral arrangements were made here by the Megaro Funeral Home.
NUTLEY – A township man was among the three state correctional officers charged Feb. 4 with abusing a women’s correctional center inmate Jan. 11-12 and/or covering up the abuse.
Luis Garcia, 23, said Attorney General Gubir Grewal that Wednesday, has been charged with aggravated assault, official misconduct and tampering with public records while at the Edna Mahan Correctional Center for Women in Hunterdon County’s Union Township.
Garcia is accused of pepper-spraying an inmate before entering her cell and punching her in the face 28 times. He then filed a report saying that he had defended himself after she attacked him.
What Garcia said in his report, countered Grewal, does not square with video recording footage. That recording shows the inmate raising her arms to shield her face while up against her cell wall. She was left with a concussion and facial injuries.
Grewal also announced records tampering and official misconduct charges against NJ Department of Corrections Sgts. Amir Bethea and Anthony Valvano.
Bethea, 35, of Springfield-Union County, did not give the inmate time to comply with Garcia’s orders after she was pepper-sprayed and did not disclose her injuries in his report.
Bethea and Valvano, 38, of Bound Brook, in a separate inmate removal incident, failed to intervene while one or more DOC officers beat the other inmate. That inmate was left with an orbital skull fracture.
Grewal said that they are among the “dozens” of Edna Mahan correctional officers and supervisors who have been suspended over other abuse allegations that have become public in the last month.
