TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – Parties involved with the Oct. 31 scheduled sentencing of real estate investor Victor Santos and lawyer Faustos Simones over a $4 million mortgage fraud scheme here, may be crossing their fingers until U.S. Magistrate Michael A. Shipp actually hands down their debt to society.
Judge Shipp was to separately sentence Santos and Simones from his Trenton bench Oct. 17 until an adjournment was called. It was the fifth adjournment since April when the duo had pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit bank fraud going back to September 2007.
Santos and Simones confessed to recruiting straw – or “fake” – buyers, at $5,000 each, to purchase 12 properties in Newark between September 2007 and November 2008. The duo would use the straw buyers’ names to acquire $4 million worth of mortgage loans for those properties.
Santos, of Somerset’s Watchung, was involved with the groundbreaking of what was to have been a new City of Newark DPW garage. Simones, of Millington, was his lawyer through 2008.
The U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are anticipating Judge Shipp to hand down respective sentences of up to 24 months on Santos and up to 18 months on Simones. They also anticipate both of them to pay back at least $3.5 million in restitution.
IRVINGTON – One can still get a prescription filled at the Rite-Aid Pharmacy here at 35 Mill Rd – but not for long. That prescription may be transferred soon to the Rite-Aid still standing at 104 12th Ave., Newark – or outside of the “Local Talk” area.
The Mill Run at Union Shopping Center anchor store is one among 12 in New Jersey and among 156 across 15 states that will be closed in the wake of Rite-Aid Corp.’s Oct. 15-16 filing for Chapter 11 reorganization in a New Jersey U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The Philadelphia-based company is weeding out “underperforming” stores from the 2,000 that they still have across the U.S. It is the latest of several downsizing rounds the country’s third-largest pharmacy chain has had in the last decade.
Rite-Aid Corp., this time around, says it has an almost $6.8 billion deficit this fiscal year through Spring 2024. It has only $7.6 billion in assets, amounting to an $850 million loss. The company did get a $3.45 billion financial boost from Gabelli Funds, of Rye, N.Y. – but the new partner wants low performing stores to close.
One can remember having at least a Rite-Aid in each “Local Talk” town except Montclair alone some 20 years ago. 104 12th Ave., Newark and 20 Main St., West Orange, ironically, are two of the Eckert drug stores that Rite-Aid absorbed in the 2000s.
Several Rite-Aids – including 80 Central Avenue, East Orange, 1200 Clinton Ave., Irvington and 77-105 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield – became Walgreens in a limited 2015 buyout by the latter. Walgreens has closed the East Orange and Irvington stores mentioned but still runs the Bloomfield one.
Rite-Aid, nationally, is a distant third to CVS and Walgreens.
EAST ORANGE – A city man is currently serving a 4.5 to nine-year prison sentence in Lancaster County Pa. state prison, over a 2021 road rage golf club attack.
Lancaster County Judge Jeffrey Conrad sentenced Aiven Rosario, 26, Oct. 12, A jury, after a three-day trial and two hours’ deliberation, had found Rosario guilty July 28 of. simple assault and criminal mischief. He was meanwhile held on $500,000 bail until his sentencing.
West Lampeter Township Police arrested Rosario March 6, 2021 in a parking lot along the 1400 block of Millport Road. He was accused of smashing the windshield of another driver’s car with a golf club, striking her head and causing a concussion in the process.
The woman driver and her boyfriend said that they were followed by Rosario and his car there. Rosario got out and accused her of cutting his car and his mother’s car. He then got a golf club from his own car and said he would break the windshield, “10,000 times.”
The impact broke the golf club head from its shaft. The victim complained of a lump on her head and severe pain. She testified in Oct. 12’s sentencing hearing that she has physical, mental and workplace difficulties.
Rosario was further sentenced to make $34,992 restitution.
ORANGE – Maplewood police had arrested a city woman Oct. 3 who was identified as a person who impersonated a state worker and had pepper sprayed a township resident at the latter’s Newark Heights section house on Sept. 30.
Maplewood Police Chief Albert Sally said that a Brown Street resident called in an aggravated assault charge earlier that Saturday morning. A South Essex Fire Department EMS/Rescue crew also arrived but the victim refused medical attention.
The resident said she got a telephone call from someone who said she was from the New Jersey Department of Child Protection and Permanency (formerly known as DYFS) – and a woman had appeared as the said representative at her door minutes later.
The woman at the front door wanted to come inside – but the resident refused since the visitor had not presented any identification nor was accompanied by a police officer. The visitor turned suspect when she sprayed pepper spray through the front screen door and left in a white SUV.
MPD’s Youth Aid Bureau detectives identified the suspect as Widda Deneus and arrested her at 10:28 a.m. Oct. 3. The circumstances of her arrest were not available. Deneus, 24, was charged with impersonating a government official, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and was released.
WEST ORANGE – Township Council voted down its own seasonal gas leaf blower ban here at its Oct. 17 meeting.
The council introduced the measure at its Sept. 20 meeting — and would have taken effect in the middle of this year’s falling leaf season. The ordinance would have allowed gasoline fueled, internal combustion engined leaf blowers used by residents and landscapers Oct. 1-Dec. 31 and March 1-April 30. Operating hours during those times would have been limited to between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays and between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends.
Township elders took the vote after listening to several speakers say their peace on the subject. They ranged from a member of Our Green West Orange and a local small engine builder.
Councilwoman Asmeret Ghebremicael announced that the measure did not have majority support as it was written. She added that there was concern that West Orange would find themselves being challenged in court as what happened to Montclair and Maplewood.
A State Superior Court Judge dismissed a challenge to Montclair’s year-round ban from landscapers and residents Oct. 12; that ban, allowing only electric powered blowers, took effect Oct. 15. Maplewood has a comparable perpetual ban since 2018.
Ghebremicael said that the council may revisit the matter before 2026.
SOUTH ORANGE – Seton Hall University administrators worked with South Orange police, state and federal officials Oct. 9 to trace the source of threatening e-mail sent to parts of the campus community.
The SHU Office of Public Safety sent along to other authorities a message that someone had sent emails to various administrators and faculty that Monday morning that violence would happen on campus.
There was an increased presence of law enforcement and of safety protocols for later that day.
Classes and other scheduled activities continued.
MAPLEWOOD – Township police officers, with the assistance of their Irvington colleagues, have been investigating the shooting of a woman found here along Evelyn Court Oct. 9.
The first MIPD units, said Chief Sally, had responded to a call of a woman lying along the residential dead end street at 2:11 p.m. that Monday. They found the victim with a gunshot wound there, administered first aid and called for emergency service.
A unit each from the South Essex Fire Department and RWJ Barnabas Health paramedics arrived and took the victim to a local hospital. The Irvington Police detectives were called in when the victim said she was shot in that township.
Evelyn Court is a north-south street on the west side of Lightning Brook, just away from Boyden and Stuyvesant avenues. The brook forms the Maplewood-Irvington border.
The ECPO Major Crimes Unit has been advised in case the victim’s condition worsens. Her present condition is not known as of press time.
BLOOMFIELD – ECPO and township police are still investigating – but have not disclosed more details as of press time – a fatal pedestrian accident of a township woman on Grove Street, just south of Bloomfield Avenue here, Oct. 20.
Township police officers swiftly arrived at the intersection at 6:40 p.m. Friday and found Nelly Fernandez, 60, in front or by 136 Grove St. in the southbound lane.
They promptly called for local EMS and closed Grove Street between the avenue and Elmwood Avenue/Royalton Place. Buses on NJTransit’s No. 90 route were among the detoured traffic.
EMS technicians rushed her to Newark’s University Hospital – where she was declared dead at 7:52 p.m. They also called in the ECPO Crash Scene Investigation team for a field inquest. Both Grove Street and Bloomfield Avenue are county roads.
The motorist who had allegedly struck Fernandez stayed at the scene. There are no other details except that the driver has not been charged as of press time.
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council, in a 4-2 split vote in a special 11 a.m. Sept. 18 meeting, appointed Roger Terry to succeed the resigned Peter Yacobellis as at-large councilman.
Terry, who was absent from the meeting, was present by his record and reputation. The former Montclair Deputy Chief of Police was on the council as an at-large member 2008-12, He is also the NAACP Montclair Branch’s President.
Mayor Sean Spiller, Deputy Mayor/First Ward Councilman William “Bill” Hurlock, Second Ward Councilwoman Robim Schlager and Third Ward Councilwoman Lori Price Abrams approved Terry’s appointment. Fourth Ward Councilman Davis Cummings and At-Large Councilman Robert “Bob” Russo dissented.
Public comment speakers Eileen Birmingham, Nicole Farjani, William Scott and Christine Thomas supported Dr. Renee Baskerville to succeed Yacobellis. The commentator cited the former Fourth Ward Councilwoman’s May 2020 township wide vote total as grounds for her being considered.
Baskerville forfeited her ward re-election for an unsuccessful campaign for mayor. A majority of registered Montclair voters picked Spiller. The doctor, at the public comment segment, asked “What is it that keeps you from selecting me?”
Spiller and Hurlock moved and seconded the motion to appoint Terry. Russo wanted to move for Baskerville but sensed that the process “is one of those railroad jobs.”
BELLEVILLE – Take a good look at 211 Washington Ave., for the two-story 77-year-old building will become a parking lot soon. How large the municipal parking lot will be is an open question.
“Local Talk” noticed that Belleville authorities had brought in poles in cement buckets linked by a chain about two weeks ago. “No Parking” signs were posted, deterring the up to six motorists who used to park in the former Amity Animal Hospital front lot since the veterinarian office and second floor apartment were closed earlier this year.
The chains were disturbed Aug. 18-19 for a 30 cubic foot dumpster were placed, and adjusted by a Belleville DPW bulldozer. That JSI container was nearly filled by 5 p.m. Aug. 20.
The Township Council, at their June 27 meeting, authorized Belleville’s administrators to negotiate a purchase price from Dr. Delfin O. Tumbay, DVS for 211 Washington “for the purposes of a parking lot.” Tumbay, of Old Bridge, had ended his 49-year practice there in early 2023.
211 Washington, built in 1946 was among a series of houses along the western hillside of Washington whose houses were set back, creating front lawns to the sidewalk/apron or curb. Some of those lawns became private parking lots and some others space for commercial storefronts.
The macadam space out front appears to be good for up to 12 vehicles. That space may double should the township level the house and the hill it stands on.
NUTLEY – “Local Talk” has learned that Newark native, Nutley resident and Essex County’s third County Executive, Thomas J. D’Alessio, had died in Jupiter, Fla., Aug. 14 – 10 days short of what would have been his 89th birthday.
Tom D’Alessio was born in Newark Aug. 24, 1934 to James and Antoniette (Martino) D’Alessio. Tom was raised for a time before he and his family moved here to Nutley. He found a liking to law enforcement, joining the Essex County Sheriff’s Office in 1970 and rose from the Transportation to become Sheriff in 1982.
Along that rise, D’Alessio had several promotions up to lieutenant, and was elected Essex County Sheriff’s Office Superior Officers Association President in 1978. He also attained an associate’s degree in police administration from Essex County College in 1975.
Lt. D’Alessio ran as County Sheriff with Essex County Democratic Committee endorsement in 1979. He defeated Newark Chief of Police Zizza, in the June primary and, with a 28,000 vote plurality, defeated Charles Cummings in the General Election. He was in the midst of modernizing the office when he resigned to run as County Executive in 1990.
Sheriff D’Alessio resigned from his office in 1990 to run to succeed Nicholas Amato, who decided not to run again. D’Alessio ran unopposed in the primary and defeated Millburn Committeeman Michael Vernotico in the General Election.
D’Alessio resigned Feb. 22 1994 in the wake of being convicted of federal extortion charges the year before. He was accused of asking for $58,000 from a solid waste hauler in exchange for getting a state environmental permit. He retired to Manahawkin after serving a five-year sentence.
Former wife Suzanne, daughters Jennifer D’Alessio-Luongo and Deborah Perillo, sister Annette Festa, grandchildren Jude Luongo, Jr. Jianna Luongo and John Straccamore, are among his survivors. A visitation was held at Megaro’s Funeral Home in Belleville, Aug. 22, followed by a private inurnment. Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
