TOWN WATCH
MONTCLAIR – About all that is left to the Angela M. Bledsoe murder trial, barring any appeal, is James R. Ray III’s June 22 sentencing before State Superior Court Judge Verna G. Leath.
A petit jury, before Leath’s Newark bench May 12, found Ray guilty of murdering Bledsoe in the first-degree. Ray, 60, of Montclair, was also found guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon and possession thereof for an unlawful purpose.
The jury – after a six-week trial and three hours’ deliberation – found Ray guilty of shooting Bledsoe, 44, of Montclair, three times in the chest, face and back in their North Mountain Avenue house 11:14 a.m. Oct. 22, 2018. Ray, an attorney, had returned from dropping their six-year-old daughter off at school.
Ray picked up their daughter at dismissal and they, instead, met with his brother at a Piscataway restaurant. He told his brother “take care of her” and fled to Cuba. He was extradited back to Newark on Nov. 6 and has remained in custody ever since.
Trial evidence demonstrated that Bledsoe had an 11:30 a.m. appointment with a real estate agent later that day about finding a new place to live. She was planning to leave Ray, after a nine-year relationship, for a former college classmate she was having an affair with for the previous nine months.
Ray, when learning of the affair, had called the other man on Oct. 21, 2018 at the other man’s Orlando, Fla. address. After asking the nature of the relationship, that man testified that Ray had threatened to visit him.
Ray’s attorneys had pleaded self-defense. They said Bledsoe had first picked up one of three guns that Ray had placed on the living room coffee table. Ray is facing a maximum term of life in prison.
NEWARK – Parents and students, in the wake of the Newark Public Schools Board of Education Reorganization meeting here May 11, will not get an extended Memorial Day weekend break this year.
NPS Superintendent of Schools Roger Leon – after being questioned by several BOE members, a public speaker and UFT President John Abeigon that Thursday night – had decided not to add two unused emergency snow days onto May 26 and 30 that he had promised back at the Aug. 30 NPS annual employee convocation.
“The answer to extending it would be, ‘No.’ ” said Leon, who added that it would be “not humanly possible” to add those days off. The superintendent said that the New Jersey Department of Education had scheduled specific days for math, reading and science standardized tests May 1-26 and reserving May 30 – June 2 as makeup days.
Leon, in a May 9 email to NPS employees, also cited declining math and reading test scores and a rise in chronic absenteeism to “maximize instructional time for all of our students.”
Abeigon then provided a motion before the school board to add the unused snow days to the end of the 2022-23 school calendar. No board member moved on the proposal, which would have ended the school year on June 21 instead of June 23.
NPS, like all other public, charter, religious and private secondary school districts, will meet the minimum 180 days of instruction to qualify for state funding. New Jersey’s largest public district, like many statewide, followed a 182-day schedule.
It has been a practice for some districts, like in West Orange and Bloomfield, to turn unused snow days for either an extended Memorial Day break or to end the school year early.
IRVINGTON – The trail of a township man, wanted by Newark and Irvington police for a May 11 murder in North Newark, ended here in the Springfield Avenue Central Business District during May 12’s afternoon rush hour.
Five Irvington and Newark police cars had congregated at Springfield and Orange avenues around 4:30 p.m. Friday for the arrest of Deontee H. Jones.
Newark police, who had spotted a car in their city as one that had left a murder scene along their 200 block of Grafton Avenue, had chased the vehicle to that Irvington intersection.
Irvington police had detoured Springfield Avenue traffic between “The Five Points” and Lincoln Place/Beasley Civic Square during the subsequent arrest of Jones, who tried to flee on foot. The rerouting affected buses on NJTransit’s 25, GO25, 26, 70, 94 and 107 routes.
Jones, 24, is accused of being the driver who sped away from a car parked along Grafton’s 200 block before 10:25 p.m. May 11. Responding Newark officers found Romulo Luzuriaga, 57, of Newark, with gunshot wounds, inside.
Luzuriaga was rushed to University Hospital, where he died at 11:05 p.m. Lyndhurst’s Ippolito-Stellato Funeral Home is arranging his May 19 visitation and May 20 burial at North Arlington’s Holy Cross Cemetery.
Jones is being held in Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility on four counts of eluding, two counts each of robbery and weapons offenses plus counts of murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit thereof, He has another five robbery and three weapons charges against him in connection with other Newark stickups.
The investigation had also put Earl Betterson, 33, of Irvington under arrest. Betterson has been charged with two counts each of robbery and weapons offenses plus a count each of murder, felony murder and conspiracy thereof.
EAST ORANGE – Last rites for city resident and former football player Jayden “Fatboy” Jarvis, 20, was held at Newark’s Alvarez Funeral Home Saturday afternoon.
Jarvis had died from multiple gunshot wounds while he was driving through Newark’s Roseville section May 3.
Responding Newark Police Division officers, who first went to Fourth Avenue on reported gunfire, found Jarvis and his crashed car at Sussex Avenue and First Street at 9:45 p.m. that Wednesday. Although Jarvis was rushed to University Hospital, he died there at 11:16 p.m.
Jarvis, who was born May 18, 2002, was more than a Barringer High School Class of 2020 graduate. He wore the No. 60 as a defensive back for the Blue Bears in his junior and senior years.
Parents Julio Jarvis and Mary L. Garcia, grandparents Aida Acevedo and Alberto Garcia, Sr., and siblings Casper Christian, Jordyn J., Justiz J. and Josiah L Jarvis are among his survivors.
ECPO detectives are still investigating Jarvis’ case.
ORANGE – Residents and neighbors of 595 Lincoln Ave. – the former Tremont Avenue Schools and Orange Police Headquarters – are wondering whether the 122-year-old building will really be replaced with a market-rate apartment building this time.
The Orange Planning Board had approved on April 19 Corsair Construction/Lincoln Orange Urban Renewal LLC application to build a six-story, 70-unit apartment building facing Lincoln Avenue’s west side. Conrad Roncati, architect and CEO of the Ft. Lee-based developer, said in his March 20 and April 19 testimony that the property’s westward downslope will be used to build a two-story inset 79 space parking garage.
Both Roncati and Gerard Haizel, of Orange’s designated planner Nishaune Group, said that Lincoln Orange’s application conforms to the Lincoln Avenue Redevelopment Red Plan amendment for apartment buildings.
Neighbors and residents may recall the Chadwick Capital/595 Lincoln Avenue Urban Renewal Entity LLC proposal of 2019-2020.
Chadwick, whose partnership included former Newark South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, had proposed a four-story building to house 60 market rate condominium units in 2019. The Orange City Council had designated Chadwick as the property’s redeveloper that year – but rescinded a contract to sell the property for $1.7 million Dec. 1, 2020.
The Orange Public Schools and Board of Education had sold the Tremont school building to the City of Orange for $1 in 1973. The then-Tremont and Central middle schools were consolidated into the now-Orange Preparatory Academy after the latest Orange High School had opened on Labor Day 1973.
The city then moved its police headquarters from City Hall’s basement to 595 Tremont Ave. It closed after the Freddie Polhill Law & Justice Complex had opened in 2000. It was considered as a site for the STEM Academy of the Oranges before South Orange’s closed Marylawn of the Oranges high school building was selected.
WEST ORANGE – One could almost hear an audible sigh of relief from the West Orange Rainbow Coalition when the township announced on May 10 its annual Pride Day festivities for June 11.
West Orange’s annual event will start with a rainbow flag raising outside of the Municipal Building 11 a.m. that Sunday. The program includes the annual parade on Main Street – which is where WORC members and West Orange Pride Organization Chairwoman Gianna Akiko Garcia started to inhale again.
Garcia, in a May 7 WORC Facebook posting, said that she had not heard from Mayor Susan McCartney or her office on when to schedule the annual parade. The township’s Pride festival tends to be held in early June away from the annual Main Street Fair (which is June 3 this year) and in sync with similar LGBTQ+ celebrations in and beyond the “Local Talk” area.
“Once we get this confirmation, we would start planning, fundraising, promoting, etc.,” said Garcia May 7. “This being a new (mayoral) administration, there are now new systems in place and that an application was to be filled out which then needed to be approved.”
Garcia said that no one got back to her even though she was told May 2 that someone would “later that week.”
Pride Day organizers, without a confirmation, were getting nervous. Other towns have secured their dates, dignitaries, entertainers and vendors. Some time-sensitive windows had already closed.
Garcia, who went public about the delay on May 7, returned to Facebook with a “We Have a Date!” posting May 10. It is not clear whether posting readers began sending messages to Mayor McCartney’s office, or Garcia made a personal visit or someone in town hall finally got back to her. Volunteers are welcome at worcpride.org/volunteer-now.
The WOPO leader said that she had first asked the mayor’s office in March.
SOUTH ORANGE – The unchallenged and uncontested SO2023 team for Village President and three Village Trustees were ratified by the lowest four-year cycle turnout of South Orangites in eight years as of late May 9.
Now-third term Village President and ticket leader Sheena Collum was literally “one woman, one vote” as of 10:30 p.m. that Tuesday night. All 1,181 votes for the equivalent of mayor were cast for her.
Incumbent Summer Jones was the top vote-getter among the three SO2023 candidates for as many Village Trustee seats. Jones received 1,147 votes or 33.72 percent of that category’s votes to attain her second four-year term.
Olivia Lewis-Chang – at 1,137 or 33.42 percent – finished second. Fellow first-time runner Jennifer Greenburg completed the uncontested ticket sweep with 1,118 or 32.86.
The vote count came from all 12 village polling districts reporting plus any Vote By Mail Ballots received by 4 p.m. May 12. There were no provisional or write-in votes reported.
There were 3,402 votes cast for the three unchallenged trustee seats. There were, on one hand, 10,785 votes cast May 14, 2019 to choose three trustees from a field of nine. There were only 96.83 percent 4,470 votes cast May 12, 2015 for all three unchallenged trustee candidates – except for 10 write-in votes.
South Orange was the only nonpartisan municipal election held in “Local Talk Land” May 9. The village, of the 13 such elections held statewide that Tuesday, was one of six towns that had held uncontested races.
MAPLEWOOD – Striking Writers Guild Association picketers showed up at film, television and stage production sites in Hollywood, Broadway – and Columbia High School – May 11.
WGA members, striving for better working conditions and payments including new transmission media, walked a circle on CHS’s Parker Road sidewalk that Tuesday morning. They came to the school because it is the scene for a Ryan Murphy Production film shoot.
Murphy Production, perhaps best known for the “American Horror Story” series, was shooting with permission of the South Orange-Maplewood School District administration.
The district is receiving a per diem payment. May 11’s supposed shooting day coincided with a long-scheduled College Board Advanced Placement exam day.
WGA members persuaded other unionized production members – including the Screen Actors Guild – to stop work that day. They also sent representatives to the CHS Main Office to explain their situation to students, faculty and staff.
Montrose Teacher Quits
“Local Talk” has learned that the Montrose Early Childhood Center teacher accused of holding and shaking an autistic 4-year-old boy by his legs, has resigned. SOMSD Schools Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor announced on May 15 that the staff member “alleged to have engaged in improper behavior at Montrose” had her resignation accepted by the school board May 11. The teacher had been on administrative leave since March 27.
BLOOMFIELD – A township man who came home from a Paramus gym May 11 with a facial laceration and the Fort Lee teenager who has been wearing an electronic ankle bracelet since May 12, say Paramus police, are linked.
Responding PPD officers said they found the Bloomfield man while responding to an 8:26 p.m. report of “a fight with a knife” in the 24 Hour Fitness gym at 260 Route 4 East.
The Bloomfielder said he was having a pick-up basketball game with the suspect when the 16-year-old pulled out “a multi-tool device” and slashed him with its knife blade. The boy and his friends then fled in a black Mercedes-Benz G-wagon.
A description of the victim’s Mercedes led a Paramus detective to stop an SUV that matched it and the driver’s description later along Route 4. A vehicle search uncovered the multi-tool.
The boy was taken to Paramus Police Headquarters, where he was booked as a juvenile offender. He was processed and fitted with the bracelet at Hackensack’s Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center before his release to a parent. He has been charged with aggravated assault as a juvenile and possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
The victim refused on-site medical attention.
BELLEVILLE – A 62-year-old man has already been serving time in the Passaic County Jail for his May 4 conviction by a Superior Court-Paterson jury on six counts of child sexual assault and related charges.
Exactly how much time Raeilto Palao will serve in a state prison will likely be determined by Superior Court Judge Marilyn C. Clark in a scheduled Sept. 5 sentencing hearing.
The jury found Palao guilty on three counts of third-degree child welfare endangerment, two counts each of fourth-degree sexual criminal contact and a single count of first-degree sexual assault.
Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said that Palao has exposed himself to between at least 8.5 years and a maximum 25 years depending if he is sentenced consecutively or concurrently.
Valdes said that the county’s Special Victims Unit came to the Clifton Police Headquarters at the latter’s request June 12, 2013 regarding a report of the sexual assault of an 11-year-old child.
Interviews with that victim and witnesses revealed two more child victims. The three were victimized in various locations in Clifton on different occasions September 2005-August 2007 and June 2012-June 2013.
NUTLEY – The longtime family owners and operators of the Nutley Park Shop-Rite supermarket will be tripling their holdings in June.
Nutley Park S-R President Carol LoCurcio, on May 12, announced that they will be purchasing the Kearny Shop-Rite Supermarket and Liquors upon the June retirement of the latter’s president, Richard Tully.
The LoCurcios, who started their supermarket here at 437 Franklin Ave. in 1953, bought the former Belleville Pathmark at 726 Washington Ave in 2013. Their purchase of Kearny Shop-Rite at 100 Passaic Ave. is under the umbrella of Shop-Rite parent Wakefern Food Cooperative, of Elizabeth.
“Shop-Rite of Kearny and the Tully family have been dedicated to consumer and community service for decades and we’re proud to continue those traditions,” said LoCurcio. “We wish Richard the best in his well-deserved retirement. We look forward to building on the legacy of service that the Tully family have established in Kearny.”
Patriarch John Tully opened his first market in Kearny in 1938 and is credited with being the first supermarket to wear the Shop-Rite brand in 1948. Son Richard, who succeeded father John in 1971, had also served a term as a Kearny councilman.
“We know that the store is in good hands with Nutley Park Shop-Rite and with the LoCurcios at the helm,” said R. Tully.
