TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – The city’s “top cop” went public on the status of two of his officers June 8 after a photo of what the duo were accused of was posted on social media June 5.
The two unidentified uniformed officers, as depicted in a photograph posted on Reddit June 5, appeared to be asleep in a marked patrol SUV.
One officer was in the cruiser’s passenger front seat with its side window rolled down. He has his head tilted against the vehicle’s A-pillar with his eyes closed. The other officer, in the driver’s seat, appears with her head on her patrol partner’s shoulder with her eyes closed.
The Reddit posting, entitled “To Protect and Sleep,” drew over 24,000 posted responses. There are no other immediate identifiers except that the SUV came from the 6th Precinct and that was parked before a modern brick building with a black fence on a driveway or parking lot apron.
“An investigation by NPD’s Office of Professional Standards was immediately launched” said Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage, who added that the division had learned of the photo on May 31. “Pending the outcome of the investigation, the two officers have been immediately suspended and without pay. No further information is available.”
Newark Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 12 President Jeffrey Weber, on June 9, said that he is withholding judgement on the officers until the internal investigation concludes. Weber is concerned, however, on the NPD’s swift suspension of the duo once they had learned of the photo.
There are no further details, including on how the Reddit poster acquired the photo, as of press time.
IRVINGTON – A township man has filed a racial discrimination suit against a Belleville fast food company and its store general manager nearly a year after he was fired while handling his daughter’s medical emergency.
Wesley Hammonds, 32, in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark filings in April, said he was first hired to become the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen assistant manager at 50 Washington Ave. in June 2020.
The general manager, said Hammonds, instead, had him preparing orders in the kitchen instead of interacting with customers. Hammonds, who said he was the only African American in the store during his 23 months with Belleville Chicken LLC, added that he was being paid at the lower kitchen staff rate.
Its general manager, said Hammonds, verbally degraded African Americans as “crazy” and “your people.” He said he was denied vacation time that non-Black employees had received.
The last straw came in May 2022 when he called the GM that he was running late due to getting his daughter to a local hospital. His supervisor texted back: “If u don’t show up, u out.”
When he attempted to find someone to look after his daughter so he could return to work, the GM texted: “Don’t bother showing up for me, you’re already out of my store.” His request to be transferred to another Popeyes was denied.
Hammonds is suing Belleville Chicken and the GM for creating a hostile work environment and for violating the state’s anti-discrimination law. Neither Belleville Chicken nor Popeyes have responded to comment requests.
EAST ORANGE – A State Superior Court-Newark jury has ruled, on June 9, that a city constable cannot take on the duties of a law enforcement officer by himself – and found the East Orange City Constable guilty of impersonating a police officer.
The jury’s foreman told Superior Court Judge Siobhan A. Teare Friday that they found Todd Thompson, 55, of East Orange, guilty of impersonating a police officer and the unlawful possession of a weapon.
Thompson, who was appointed East Orange City Constable, was accused by a local cab driver of stopping him by turning on police lights that Thompson had installed on his personal car July 2, 2022. The cabbie added that Thompson identified himself as a police officer, demanded his car’s documents for inspection and “brandished a handgun.”
A relative of the taxi driver told a reporter that the dispute began when Thompson took too long to respond to a traffic light change and the cabbie behind him honked his horn.
Thompson went into “a profanity-laced tirade” at the taxi driver, which the latter tried to break off by passing around him. It was then Thompson put on his lights and stopped the taxi.
The cab driver became suspicious of Thompson and called the Newark Police Division. NPD officers, after an on-scene interview, arrested Thompson on the above counts plus making terroristic threats. He is to be sentenced on July 31.
Constables, who are appointed by a municipal council or a judge, generally serve subpoenas and summonses. Other particular duties vary by jurisdiction.
ORANGE – The selection of Orange native Richard Codey over fellow State Senate incumbent Nia Gill, of Montclair by Democratic Party voters in the new 34th Legislative District here June 8 reminded some longtime observers of when the future governor and senate president defeated another Orange political figure in the 1997 General Election.
Codey, who won the June 1977 Democratic party primary, was seeking his third term in the General Assembly in the then-26th LD. That district comprised Orange, West Orange, East Orange and part of Newark.
Orange Assistant City Attorney Daniel DiBenedetto, 27, was going up against Codey on that November’s ballot. DiBenedetto, who had the support of West Orange and Essex County Republican chairman John P. Renna, Jr., won the June primary over five other candidates.
26th District voters favored Codey over DiBenedetto by more than 14,000 votes in the 1977 General Election. Orange Mayor Carmine Capone, a republican, promoted DiBenedetto as City Attorney in 1978.
DiBenedetto became Orange’s Business Administrator in Mayor Paul Monicelli’s administration in 1984. He was appointed as an Orange municipal judge in 1986. DeBenedetto left in 1980 for Asbury Park, via New York City, where he became the shore city’s municipal judge in 2011-21.
DiBenedetto, 73, was born in Newark Oct. 15, 1949, and had graduated with the Orange High School Class of 1967 – and died in Asbury Park April 9. A celebration of his life is being planned. Memorial donations may be made to www.aspca.org.
WEST ORANGE – West Orange High School Class of 2019 graduate Colin Joshua Len Morgan’s own May 27 graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point was not complete until his cousin bestowed that Thursday’s last honor in a special way.
Col. Clifton Kyle, USMA Class of 2001, commissioned Colin Morgan as an U.S. Army Second Lieutenant at the academy graveside of older brother Chris (CJ) Morgan, Jr.
CJ Morgan, WOHS Class of 2016, continued his star wrestling record while studying to graduate with West Point’s Class of 2020. A June 6, 2019 on-site training accident, where a troop carrier overturned, killed him.
The family, while the academy granted Colin’s other brother full posthumous graduating honors in 2020, started the CJ Morgan Foundation in West Orange. The foundation provides college scholarship to graduating WOHS seniors who have demonstrated “exceptional leadership, community service and involvement in extracurricular activities.”
“I’m proud to finish what you started, CJ,” said 2nd Lt Morgan before reporting to Rutgers University to pursue a Masters in Science in cell and developmental biology. The GEM fellow will then report at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill for officer training.
There will be a third Morgan attending the USMA. Sister Chase, after graduating with the WOHS Class of 2023 June 22, will take the 2023-24 school year at Georgia Military College before reporting to West Point.
SOUTH ORANGE – Authorities may offer more information on the man and woman found dead here on Cameron Field May 27 when the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Newark releases its toxicology report.
The saga, according to the South Orange Police Department blotter, started with an anonymous phone call to police headquarters at 8:45 a.m. that Saturday. The caller, self-identified as a motorist, told of seeing “two people sleeping” on the field while driving along Meade Street.
A dispatched patrol officer soon found the man and woman on that field dead. The officer, who also notified the ECPO, stayed until the medical examiner recovered the bodies.
The SOPD report, on May 27, listed the cause of death as “apparent overdoses.” It is presumed that the decedents’ families have been notified.
Cameron Field, a five-acre tract alongside South Orange Avenue West and the Rahway River East Branch, was opened by the village in 1912. It was dedicated after the nearby Church of the Holy Communion Rector, the late Rev. Louis Cameron, May 30, 1914.
Legendary MLB New York Yankees Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig once played on the field’s baseball diamond in a semi-professional game Oct. 27, 1929.The nonprofit Cameron Field Corp. successfully kept the field as “a free public playground with no other purpose” after the village attempted to build its municipal pool there 1969-72.
MAPLEWOOD – Claire Gianni Sinclair threw out the first two of 3,500 rubber ducks into the Rahway River East Branch to start the annual Memorial Day Duck Race here at 11 a.m. May 29.
The first two ducks were for her late parents and duck race co-founders Charles and Eleanor Gianni. Charlie, 77, died here April 28, and Ellie, 67, who died here March 15, 2013, started the duck race as a fundraiser for the YMCA of the Oranges, MEND and other local charities.
Charles Moore Gianni, who was born in New York City Sept. 14, 1945, moved here in 1950 and remained a lifelong Maplewoodian. He had commuted to work in the New York Stock Exchange for 30 years before retiring to own and operate Maplewood Stationers, 171 Maplewood Ave., until 2014.
Gianni, Columbia High School Class of 1963, married his high school sweetheart Eleanor Youngs. Both became Maplewood Stationers co-owners, members of the “South Mountain YMCA” and the Maplewood Kiwanis Club and parishioners at South Orange’s Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
They raised Claire, Kathryn Harris, Timothy and Charlie Gianni, Jr. here. Five grandchildren are also among their survivors.
Charlie was laid to rest beside Ellie at Union’s Hollywood Memorial Park, after a Funeral Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows, May 4. Memorial donations may be made to the South Mountain YMCA Duck Race, 13 Jefferson Ave., Maplewood, 07040.
BLOOMFIELD – A Second Ward resident will not be coming home until he satisfies a 15-month federal prison sentence for embezzlement which he began on June 8.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, from her Newark bench that Thursday, sentenced Marco Alvarez, 47, to 15 months’ time plus three years’ supervised release. He is also to make $317,582 in restitution to the national hotel chain that he had worked for.
Salas’ sentencing was in exchange for Alvarez pleading guilty on April 14, 2022 to one count of wire fraud. He was accused of diverting over $300,000 in company funds while senior analyst for strategic sourcing for 68 months.
“Alverez was responsible for administering the company’s corporate credit card program, authorized to approve credit card applications and access account information,” said US Attorney-New Jersey District Philip Sellinger. “From April 2014 through January 2020, Alvarez embezzled funds from the hotel through unauthorized use of the hotel’s corporate credit cards to purchase goods and services.”
Alvarez admitted to making $317,582 worth of unauthorized purchases and had attempted to conceal them by transferring credits owed to the hotel credit cards.
Sellinger thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, among other investigators, for their assistance.
MONTCLAIR – If Montclair citizens here and nearby have been having problems electronically accessing individuals and departments since June 5, at least three municipal officials have said that it is due a “criminal group” perpetrating “a cyber incident.”
“We’re reaching out today (June 6) because our township IT department recently experienced a cyber incident,” said Mayor Sean Spiller. “It appears that a criminal group that has attacked multiple municipalities in similar fashion is responsible.”
Spiller said that state and federal law enforcers – including the FBI and both Homeland Security offices – were immediately called to trace and locate the perpetrating attackers. Third party cyber companies were also called in to contain any electronic or software damage and restore service.
At Large Councilman Peter Yacobelis confirmed the attack and that the federal government will likely reimburse Montclair for restoration costs since the municipal government was targeted.
Montclair Communication Director Katya Kwok said that the incident is not related to the MOVEit cyber-attack that has hit other governments here and abroad in recent weeks. No one, as of June 14, has identified the other New Jersey municipal agencies struck with Montclair. Neither has anyone said whether there is any ransomware involved.
Newark’s police division and its other city departments were hit by similar attacks in 2016 and 17. The latter incident included encryptors’ demand to pay $30,000 in Bitcoin to unlock the files.
Cyber security and insurance companies have seen a 540 percent increase of cyber-attack reports from 2016 to 2018. New Jersey governments, businesses and individuals had lost $79,711,756 to the ransomware installers and/or cyber attackers in 2019.
BELLEVILLE – Although how long a Belleville man’s state imprisonment for confessing June 2 to a 2022 burglary of a Clifton residence and sexual assault of a minor resident will not be known until Oct. 2, it will most likely be a long time.
The Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdez, that Friday, said that Andres Vasquez, 25, had pleaded guilty to third-degree endangering the welfare of a child and first-degree aggravated sexual assault.
Vasquez had confessed before a State Superior Court-Paterson judge that he had entered the child victim Clifton resident’s bedroom window late on May 31, 2022. He said that he did not know the victim and had no permission to enter the house. He went on to strangle and have intercourse with the child.
State prosecutors, in exchange, recommended that Vasquez serve at least 85 percent of a 10-year state prison sentence before being considered for parole. He would be first taken to the state Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel.
Vasquez, when he is released, is subject to Megan’s Law registration and lifetime parole supervision. He remains held in Hackensack’s Bergen County Jail since his June 3 arrest by Clifton police and PCPO detectives.
NUTLEY – The Township Board of Commissioners have barred Nutley’s door to any future smoke and/or vape shops here as of June 1.
The commissioners passed Ordinance 3514 here at their May 16 meeting. The two page measure is an amendment to the township code on tobacco, Cannabis-Based Businesses, and now, electronic smoking devices.
That amendment particularly prohibits the sale or distribution of electronic smoking devices and/or their parts. The legislation covers vape pens, e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-hookahs.
The law will take full effect when the two existing smoke shops close or go out of business. Both stores are otherwise grandfathered-in.
Nutley’s elders cite a 2016 U.S. Surgeon General’s report summation that electronic smoking devices “pose a significant health risk, especially to youth and young adults.” They also cite a 2018 FDA report that uses of the said devices had increased 78 percent among high schoolers and 48 percent among middle schoolers since 2017.
The banning is in keeping with Nutley’s 2021 ban on CBBs. Nutley and Orange are among the towns across the state that had decided against any sales, distribution, farming, warehousing, transportation and use venues within their municipal limits.
