School Election Voting Fraud?

TOWN WATCH

NEWARK – About the only substantial change from the votes counted from 30 impounded machines from 17 election districts here April 25 is the percentage of participating April 19 school election voters.

The vote count, which was completed by N.J Superior Court order Monday afternoon, boosted the 2.35 percent turnout to 2.6 percent. None of the seven Newark Board of Education candidates’ standing has changed, nor has the outcome of the Newark Public Schools’ 2022-23 budget question.

The revised BOE count is Crystal Williams, 2,945 votes; A’Dorian Murray-Thomas, 2,881; Daniel Gonzalez, 2,780; Thomas Luna, 1,215; Maggie Freeman, 1,159; Phillip Wilson, 907; and Allison James-Frison, 780.

Williams, Murray-Thomas and Gonzalez are poised for a May 5 swearing in to their first (Williams) or second (Murray-Thomas, Gonzalez) term in that night’s reorganization meeting.

The 2022-23 budget remains approved at now 3,126 “Yes” to 457 “No.”

Both County Clerk Chris Durkin’s office and Linda von Nessi’s County Board of Elections are meanwhile figuring out how the paper ballots and electronic counting modules remained behind in the 30 machines after the polls closed 8 p.m. April 19.

County Board of Elections workers were to deliver the paper and electronic ballots to Durkin’s Election Division office that night. That did not happen with those 30 machines in 17 polling stations, prompting Durkin to ask Superior Court Judge Joseph Vena April 21 to have them unsealed and opened.

IRVINGTON – A makeshift shrine was set up on 51 Kuna Terrace’s curbside by April 25, where a fatal shooting victim had been found on April 22.

There were 56 votive candles arranged on part of a sidewalk to spell out “4G4L” – or For G For Life.  It is a cryptic clue to the identity of the Friday afternoon shooting victim who Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens and Irvington Public Safety Director Tracy Bowers have not yet publicly named.

ECPO Homicide Major Crimes Task Force and Irvington police detectives descended on Kuna 3 p.m. Friday south of its intersection with Chancellor Avenue. The parked vehicles closed Kuna and restricted vehicular traffic, including buses on New Jersey Transit’s 39 and 99 routes.

Stephens and Bowers said their detectives and officers found an unidentified man there with fatal gunshot wounds. There are no further details as of April 26.

EAST ORANGE – Those wanting to attend the late Mayor Robert L. Bowser’s May 7 Memorial Service here at the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Fine and Performing Arts Auditorium are to register in advance.

Although the Tyson auditorium’s capacity is around 700 people, seating is expected to fill up fast. Those seeking a seat are to go to www.HonorableRLBowser.eventbrite.com. Registered mourners are to practice masking and social distancing.

Those who are unable to register may watch the 11 a.m. service live at https://cleanurl.com/n7n8e5. Details are found at (973) 339-3374.

Help Wanted in April 23 Murder

Stephens and EOPD Chief Phyllis Bindi are asking for the public’s help on April 25 in the April 23 fatal shooting of Gregory Evens.

Responding officers found Evens, 46, of Irvington, lying along Sunnyside Terrace, near Hudson Avenue, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Evens, who was found with “apparent gunshot wounds,” died by that Third Ward corner at 7:52 p.m.

ORANGE – The owners of a 166-year-old South Ward house that had burned here April 19 have not said of the building’s future or the .31 acre lot it sits on.

The first Orange Fire Department arrived at 551 Lincoln Ave. 6:12 a.m. that Tuesday to find flames coming out of the 2.5-story wood frame house’s first floor. Two more alarms would be called before the blaze was brought under control by Noon.

Flames had reached the wood-stucco house’s second floor before all OFD hands plus mutual aid units from Maplewood and West Orange arrived by 9:30 a.m. Lincoln Avenue was closed between Tremont Avenue and Lincoln Place.

The house, noticeable for being set well back from the street, had been owned by a family until 2015 551 Lincoln Ave LLC, of 888 tulip Lane, Teaneck, bought the property from a mortgage company in 2017.

A real estate website stated on April 19 that the 15,000-square-foot lot is in a B3 Zone for “low rise multiple-family dwellings and a house of worship.”

WEST ORANGE – Four people were injured and at least 10 residents were displaced after an April 24 condominium townhouse fire here near the Livingston border.

The first West Orange Fire Department units who had responded to a 10 a.m. Sunday fire at 58-62 Hart Dr. found fire ripping through the roof of one of the two-story dwellings and spreading to adjacent units.

The on-scene WOFD incident commander promptly called a second alarm and started a defensive exterior attack on the blaze. Gas and electric feeds to the 16-unit development was shut off.

Four or five of the units would be damaged, with at least one second-story floor collapse, before the blaze was brought under control. Mutual aid from at least Livingston was called.

One mutual aid firefighter reported a small laceration, and another firefighter suffered a minor injury.

One resident had experienced smoke inhalation but refused on-scene or nearby RWJBarnabas Health Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center treatment. A second resident was taken to Barnabas by a friend with no further details.

The American Red Cross Essex Chapter found temporary lodging for the displaced residents. The complex was built in 1992.

SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education will be revisiting and reconsidering whether to renovate or replace Columbia High School’s indoor pool before the 2021-22 school year ends.

The board, on April 18, hired a consultant who will present a pool restoration feasibility study for the four-lane pool, which had not been used since 2016. The two-town panel had received, but stayed, a plan that would replace the 1920s-era pool, showers, locker rooms and machinery with a student networking space with rooms for social workers.

An earlier SOMSD board had voted down a 2013 proposal to replace the pool with one in a new wing for $81. million. Estimates for respective repairs or repurposing the facility were $4.9 million and $5.9 million – but that was in 2013 dollars.

The 2013-14 school board’s denial of a new pool helped wind down the existing natatorium’s use until its 2016 closure. It was closed for plumbing leaks, including the fear that the second floor’s pool water would flood onto classrooms below.

The CHS Cougars swimming teams have gone to Maplewood and South Orange community pools to practice and other NJSIAA-sanctioned eight-lane pools for state tournaments. Those community pools, however, are members only. The repurposing plan and SaveOurKidsPool.org’s presentation were held at the board’s March 21 meeting.

There is no provision in the 2019 Long Range Facilities plan and $160 million bond issue for the pool’s repairing, repurposing or replacing.

BLOOMFIELD – Investigators here and in Newark are figuring out the 10-day trail of a man, last seen here on Lakewood Terrace 7:55 p.m. April 9, whose body was found at a North Newark street corner on April 19.

Newark police officers, responding to an odor at Broadway and Nursery Street, found a man’s body inside a parked Jeep that Monday. The body was later identified as that of Melvin Cortes, 55, of Bloomfield.

Relatives and friends listed ores as missing on April 11. BPD officers had posted his description online and in print. Newark officers had inquired with Broadway and Nursery business owners of Cortes before the odor complaint was made.

Cortes’ funeral arrangements have not been posted as of April 25. “Local Talk” extends condolences to cousin Jayson Cortes, girlfriend Michelle Ann and the rest of Melvin’s family and friends.

Ampere Murder Victim ID’d

Stephens and Bloomfield Public Safety Director Samuel De Maio have identified the man fatally shot along First Street April 10 as Christian Lisaldes Perez, 23, of Newark. The two men who were shot with him were taken to the Morristown Medical Center for treatment.

Perez’s private cremation followed an April 17 visitation at Flyn and Son’s Fords funeral home. Perez, who was born June 30, 1998, was survived by mother Lissette Perez, father Dario Rodriguez, grandfather Eulogio Rodriguez, daughter Avery Elizabeth, brother Carlos Fontanez and sister Tiffany Vincenti, among others.

MONTCLAIR – NJTransit Montclair-Boonton Line service was suspended for two hours, affecting four train runs, due to a “pedestrian strike’ and “police activity” just north of Mountain Avenue Station on April 21.

“Local Talk,” based on MBL train numbers and schedule, has deduced that the pedestrian strike happened around Laurel Place between Train No. 6234 and a deer just before 12:53 p.m. that Thursday. 6234, which had left Montclair State University Station at 12:47, was scheduled to make all local stops until its intended 1:42 p.m. arrival at New York Penn Station.

Upper Montclair neighbors said that they saw several MPD and NJTPD cars converge on Laurel Place and Upper Mountain Avenue by 1 p.m. Although no one on board 6234 was physically harmed, all MBL service between MSU and Montclair’s Bay Street was suspended until 2:17 p.m.

6234 was 95 minutes late when it was released to continue its run. No. 6238, the 1:47 p.m. MSU departure to NYPS, started 50 minutes late.

Two westbound NYPS-MSU locals also ran late  No. 6241, which was to depart at 12:29 p.m., and 6245, which was to leave at 1:29 p.m., both left 75 minutes late.

BELLEVILLE – The New York City man accused of murdering his girlfriend here on March 12 may have been extradited to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Center by when you read this.

Stephens and Belleville Police Chief Mark Minicini announced on April 22 that Johnny Rivera, 52, was arrested that morning in his Bronx Longwood section apartment in the murder of Candy Torres, 50.

One of Torres’ family members went to her apartment here at Hero Way March 12 after she had not responded to other relatives and friends’ calls. Torres, said the relative to Belleville police officers, was found unresponsive.

Torres was declared dead in her SoHo townhouse at 10:16 p.m. A Regional Medical Examiner autopsy had determined that she had died from blunt force trauma.

Torres’ funeral arrangements were not posted. Stephens and Minichini said that their investigation is continuing.

Neither Stephens nor Minichini said how they had linked Rivera to Torres’ murder. 

NUTLEY – Township law enforcers are advising those who take part in Tik Tok’s “Orbeez Challenge” that “throwing or shooting anything at a person is a chargeable offense.”

Township Commissioner/Police Director Alphonse Petracco and Police Chief Strumolo, responding to an April 3 incident, are asking parents to explain the dangers of shooting gel pellets from “Gel Blaster Surge” guns.

They said the battery-operated guns shoot the water gel pellets up to 100 feet at a velocity of 90 feet per second. Its victims have received bruises, welts and broken skin. Eye injuries are possible.

The Orbeez Challenge involves shooting unsuspecting pedestrians or motorists with these pellets.

NPD officers had responded to motorists’ complaints of youths shooting at their cars with the said guns along Ackerman Street on April 3. The matter is now being handled by the police’s Juvenile Aid Bureau.

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