TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – There are two versions on why Dr. Chris T. Pernell, University Hospital’s only Chief Strategic Integration and Health Equity Officer, had resigned from her position effective Sept. 2.
Pernell – who had more than 100 state and local officials in March urging Gov. Phil Murphy to name her the hospital’s next CEO – had been claiming in selected media interviews that the personal and institutional racism she was hired to combat in 2019 had prompted her resignation instead of letting the institution fire her.
“My experience is no way singular,” said Pernell as recently as to “Chat Box” host David Cruz Sept. 22. “What’s happening to me was happening to other Black women at the hospital. Black individuals in general are not given a fair shot at University Hospital.
Pernell said that the hostile environment began soon after he was hired by then-CEO Dr. Shereef Elnahal to the newly created post in 2019. The Newark native and East, Orange-schooled Princeton graduate said that she was subjected to stricter performance scrutiny and questioning of her decisions than other department heads.
A letter was meanwhile sent in June 2020 by some department heads, who called themselves “Concerned Employees of University Hospital” to Murphy and hospital executives to “remove her from her position or tamp down on her behavior.” There had been two noncompliance investigations, the latter claiming that Pernell had pressured staff to support her CEO candidacy, in November 2020 and July 2021.
Elnahal, before he left the hospital to become the U.S. Under Secretary of Health for the Veterans Administration, warned Pernell to “watch her back.” The university’s board of directors had promoted their chief legal officer, Mary Maples, as interim CEO in March.
Pernell, who had recently moved from Montclair to Millburn, said she may consider legal action against the hospital; she had not signed an exit interview non-disclosure agreement. She remains a clinical assistant professor at Rutgers Medical School. University Hospital’s CEO search continues.
IRVINGTON – One person was injured and some of the dozens of “The Other Five Points” apartment building residents had to be rescued during a Sept. 19 three alarm fire here at 64 Union Ave.
Irvington Fire Chief Anthony Gray said that the first alarm was sounded at 2:40 p.m. that Monday when they had received calls from the Union Square Apartments. Callers, said Gray, had heard their smoke detector alarms sounding off.
The first IFD units arrived to find flames coming out of one of the fourth floor apartment units in the building’s northeast corner and smoke rising through the fifth floor units above it. The incident commander then pulled the second “all hands” alarm and the first for mutual aid.
IFD’s ladder trucks immediately began rescuing people from the fifth floor roof, fire escapes and apartment windows during the next 50 minutes. They were joined by ladder trucks from Montclair, Bloomfield and South Essex FD-Maplewood. Additional mutual aid units from Belleville, Verona and Union Township were either at the scene or covering IFD stations.
Township and mutual aid units also worked around the “lack of water supply on the fire floor” until the blaze was brought under control by 3:50 p.m. There was one report of an adult being treated for smoke inhalation; it was not clear whether it was a firefighter or a civilian.
Irvington blocked Union Avenue between “The Other Five Points,” where Union and Nye Avenues and New Street intersect and NJTransit’s No. 26 Irvington-Elizabeth buses were among the detoured traffic.The local American Red Cross chapter helped those who had been burned out of their apartments with temporary housing.
“Local Talk” noticed that windows to three fourth floor and two fifth floor apartments were boarded up as of 8:30 a.m. The 93-year-old building, owned by Livingston’s Stein Capital Group, was also receiving new bathroom furnishings at that time. Stein also owns three other apartment buildings here and in East Orange.
EAST ORANGE – County and city detectives are investigating how a dispute at a high rise apartment building here Sept. 21 led to one resident being fatally stabbed by another with a machete.
Witnesses and a Sept. 23 ECPO statement said that EOPD officers were called to the ninth floor of 50 So. Munn Ave., also known as the Heritage House Senior Apartments, at 2:49 p.m. that Wednesday.
Officers first encountered “an irate woman who needed to be restrained and arrested for disorderly conduct. She had said she was a friend of the man who was later found “heavily bleeding from stab wounds in a stairwell.”
The man – identified as Joshua Mewborn, 33 – was pronounced dead at 3:20 p.m. Essex County Acting Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II confirmed the victim’s identity on Sept. 23.
Witnesses told a reporter that Mewborn and the suspected neighbor had an argument that ended when the latter “pulled out a machete and repeatedly stabbed” the former.
Mewborn’s funeral arrangement has not been announced as of Sept. 27. His killer remains at large.
ORANGE – County and city law enforcers have been looking for the killer of a former Montclair High School wrestling star since his Sept. 22 shooting by a North Ward intersection here.
Acting County Prosecutor Stephens and Orange Public Safety Director Todd Warren said, on Sept. 23, that the latter’s police officers had responded to shots fired reports from Cleveland and Alden streets 12:54 a.m. that Thursday. The intersection, a block south of Cleveland Street School, is anchored by Orange Garden Supply and Alden Park.
OFD officers found a man – identified Katon Washington, 28, of Montclair – “with multiple gunshot wounds.” Medics rushed Washington to University Hospital, where he was declared dead at 1:43 a.m.
Washington, a Montclair Class of 2012 graduate, was that year’s NJSIAA Region 4 Wrestling Champion in the 132-lbs. category. The Glenfield Middle School graduate had won a school record 29 matches in his MHS freshman year. The four-year MHS Mounties team captain was ranked eighth statewide in his senior year.
Former MHS wrestling coach and guidance director Scott White told a reporter Sept. 23 that he was Washington’s coach since the latter was seven years old. Washington had started wrestling in a Montclair recreational program. He would regularly visit MHS to advise wrestlers and was a township resident as of Sept. 22.
Washington’s last rites were not announced as of Sept. 27. His killer remains at large as of press time.
WEST ORANGE – The once-incoming Liberty Middle School principal, who was arrested on DWI and related charges here Aug. 30, has resigned.
The West Orange Public Schools Board of Education accepted Aretha Dooley-Malloy’s letter of resignation, effective immediately, at their Sept. 20 meeting. It is not immediately known what Dooley-Malloy, 51, had pleaded in her Sept. 15 West Orange Municipal Court appearance.
The township resident, with educational and administrative experience from Newark and Dover public schools, was on track to succeed 33-year principal Robert Klemt, who retired June 30, at LMS.
Responding WOPD officers said, however, that they found her and her car on a Rock Springs Road front lawn Aug. 30. She was also charged with operating an unregistered car and failing to provide proof of insurance plus refusing to be fingerprinted and refusing to take an alcohol analyzer test and was released Sept. 1.
West Orange Public Schools administrators, by Sept. 6 “First Day of School,” had LMS Assistant Principal Stephen Olshasky and Edison Middle School Sixth Grade Principal Xavier Fitzgerald handle what would have been her duties. Her name and presence were removed from the school and WOPS district websites.
It is not immediately known whether Olshasky or Fitzgerald will be promoted to full-time LMS principal. It is the latest in several WOPS key administrative personnel moves.
The school board has appointed township resident and outgoing West New York Memorial High School Principal Oscar Guerrero as West Orange High School’s next principal as of Nov. 20. Ten-year WOHS principal Hayden Moore has been promoted to Assistant Superintendent to Interim Superintendent Dr. C. Lauren Schoen Nov. 1-June 30, 2023; Moore will succeed Schoen as superintendent in earnest on July 1.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Friends and relatives of the late Moussa Fofana plus officials from South Orange and Maplewood have one more opportunity to influence N.J. Superior Court-Newark Judge Ronald Wigler’s sentencing of Fofana’s killer on Nov. 16.
Wigler, in a Sept. 22 hearing, accepted a plea bargain between the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Yohan Hernandez, 20, of Newark. Hernandez, who has been in custody since August 2021, is accused of fatally shooting Fifana, 17, and injuring a fellow student-athlete during a June 6, 2021 encounter on Underhill Field.
Hernandez, before Wigler, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter plus second-degree aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a handgun. He and ECPO attorneys have agreed that he will be serving up to 15 years’ state imprisonment.
Hernandez is to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence under the No Early Release Act. The non-U.S. citizen will be deported afterwards. His DNA will be kept on file “for possible use in solving any other case.”
Wigler, responding to the at-capacity courtroom gallery audience, granted an unprecedented allowance for Fofana’s relatives to speak at the plea bargain hearing. Victims’ families are normally allowed to speak and file impact statements at sentencing.
Those who spoke Sept. 22 said that the 15 year prison term was insufficient. and urged Wigler to reject the deal and make the sentence 30 years. Mother Hawa and father Yasshe Fofana, who said that they were not informed of the plea deal by ECPO in advance, were among the speakers. A 1,600-signature petition was also presented to the judge.
“A family should never, ever equate a number to the value of a loved one, because that’s not at all what’s going on here,” said Wigler. “What’s entered into the equation is ultimately what the attorneys…believe what the strengths and the weaknesses of a given case (are).”
BLOOMFIELD – A 17-year-old township boy, accused of firing a gun near Hillside High School Sept. 19, remains in Union County juvenile custody – along with a 17-year-old boy from Irvington and a 16-year-old Hillside boy.
Hillside Police Chief Vincent Ricciardi said that his officers had responded to reports of “a large fight and shots fired” by the intersection of Liberty Avenue and Ryan Street at 3 p.m. that Monday. 3 p.m. was just after HHS’ dismissal bell and the intersection is by the school.
Hillside High and its neighboring area went into a lockdown while HPD officers arrived. Township detectives soon found the suspected shooter from Bloomfield and one of the other two teens; the third suspect’s apprehension soon followed. Union County Sheriff’s Office K-9 and crime scene units assisted.
HPD detectives meanwhile found shell casings, a gun and “other evidence” by 5 p.m. The lockdown was then lifted.
Ricciardi added that there were no gunshot injuries or serious injuries from the fight. How and why the Bloomfielder and the Irvingtonian came to the HHS area is part of the continuing investigation.
GLEN RIDGE – Borough elders have chosen Montclair to more than renew its fire suppression services contract here Sept 12 – should Montclair’s Township Council accept the new 10-to-15-year contract.
Borough Council members, except for the absent Peter Hughes, unanimously approved its Resolution 133-22 that Monday night, ending a month of reviewing bids from both the Montclair and Bloomfield fire departments. They had chosen Montclair as “the lowest responsible bidder.”
Montclair, which has been providing fire suppression plus alarm and extinguisher inspection since 1990, is more than continuing the interlocal service.
Glen Ridge is to pay an increasing annual 2023-32 payment, which increases from $850,000 next year to $1.4 million in 2032. There is also a five year, 2033-37 renewal option, which is to top out at $1.705,556.
The borough has had an interlocal service agreement with MFD since disbanding its own fire department in 1990. The service contract appears to have separated itself from the George Washington Field agreement with Montclair, which is also due for a Dec. 31 renewal.
Montclair’s elders are to decide on the agreement, as its own Resolution R-22-201, on its Sept. 28 agenda. Glen Ridge Council members were scheduled to approve Sept. 12’s meeting minutes, including their agreement approval, Sept. 27.
MONTCLAIR – The township’s Fire Investigation Unit, as of press time, has been looking for the cause of a Sept. 25 Upper Montclair house fire that routed four occupants and mustered first responders from nine other towns.
The first Montclair Fire Department units, who came to 192 Inwood Ave. at about 1 p.m. Sunday, found flames coming out of the 2.5-story wood frame house’s first floor windows. They have also found three adult residents who had fled from the 1920-build structure.
The MFD on-scene incident commander called for a second alarm and for mutual aid by 1:21 p.m. Fire engine, ladder and/or rescue units from Belleville, Bloomfield, East Orange, Orange, West Orange, Verona, Cedar Grove and Clifton were called to the southwest corner of Inwood and Norwood avenues and/or the township’s three stations.
West Orange, for example, was called for its ladder truck to help MFD’s own ladder truck to vent 192 Inwood’s roof and combat smoke. Belleville and Cedar Grove were rotated between the scene and the stations.
“Local Talk,” at 2:45 p.m., noticed an EOFD ladder truck leaving Montclair Fire Headquarters east on Bloomfield Avenue. A unit each from Orange, Belleville and Verona remained on the headquarters’ apron.
Montclair Ambulance EMS and the Glen Ridge Volunteer Ambulance crew gave oxygen to a cat who had suffered smoke inhalation. The feline, who recovered and was reunited with its human, was the only reported injury. Montclair Police provided local traffic control.
BELLEVILLE – A township man has begun serving his seven-year state prison sentence for his part in a 2021 Newark gas station armed robbery since Sept. 21.
State Superior Court-Newark Judge Patrick J. Arre handed down his sentence that Wednesday onto Jose Rivera. A criminal court jury, on July 8, had found Rivera, 58, guilty of second-degree robbery.
Rivera was found guilty and was sentenced for using force on an attendant of a Pennsylvania Avenue service station Sept. 18, 2021. The victim turned over his entire proceeds – $850 cash – to Rivera before the latter fled on foot.
Arre, on Sept. 21, did not let Rivera’s 17 prior convictions factor into his sentencing ECPO attorneys, citing Rivera’s past record, had wanted an extended prison sentence. Rivera, under the No Early Release Act, must serve at least 85 percent of his prison term.
Rivera was one of two people perpetrating the strong arm robbery. The other suspect was never identified and remains at large.
NUTLEY / CLIFTON – What was called “the 300-day” project to replace the Kingsland Street or Road bridge July 21, 2021 over the Third River between Nutley and Clifton has gone into “overtime” due to the bankruptcy of its general contractor.
Essex County Commissioners, who call the thoroughfare “Kingsland Street,” and their Passaic County colleagues, who call it “Kingsland Road,” have put out new joint bids for a new contractor since Assuncao Brothers, of Edison, had filed a petition in U.S. Federal Court-Newark Aug. 3 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Work on the 101-year-old span halted the same day and Assunaco has since withdrawn its work equipment. The bankruptcy court has issued a consent order on Sept. 26. The court, in between, had been mediating between the constructor and its creditors.
There is supposedly a performance bonding company, whom Assunaco had bonded funds to, that was to also find a new contractor. The general contractor replacement is the latest of a train of delays that has beset the project by River Road and the Clifton Commons shopping center for several years.
Hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Ida, which had flooded the area Sept. 1-2, 2021, was the previous latest delay. The COVID-19 pandemic had put off the project’s start in 2020.
Passaic County first delayed initial work on the Kingsland bridge in 2019 so that Essex County can complete its work on Nutley’s nearby Centre Street Bridge – which also spans the Third River.
NJDOT had awarded the bicounty project $2,245,960 in 2018 under its Local Bridges Future Needs grant program.
