TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – It looks like the driver accused of hitting an Arts High School cheerleader and driving away here Feb. 4 will be staying at the Essex County Correctional Facility until either she takes a plea bargain or her trial comes up.
State Superior Court Judge Harold W. Fullilove, from his Newark bench March 13, denied bail to Mia’Jah Burton, 33, of Newark, at her detention hearing. Fullilove said Burton, given her evasion of authorities’ apprehension March 1, is a potential flight risk.
Burton is accused of driving past a school bus that was discharging AHS Jaguars cheerleaders before their school on 550 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. at about 10 p.m. Feb. 4 and striking an 18-year-old senior. ECPO Crime Scene Investigation Bureau detectives said that they had linked Burton to the Kia Forte that fled the area without stopping.
Burton, who was arrested March 1, is being held on third-degree leaving the scene of an accident that caused serious bodily injury, endangering an injured victim and hindering and fourth-degree assault by auto and making a false report to law enforcement.
The Arts community rallied around the stricken cheerleader, whose team had won the Impact Dance and Cheer Challenge at Toms River that Feb. 4. She was admitted to University Hospital for critical injuries.
Toddler “Stable” After Fall
A two-year-old boy was admitted to University Hospital in stable condition after his March 17 fall from a West Side second floor window. Newark Public Safety Director Fritz Frage said that the mother came with the boy to the NPD West Park Station at 7:25 p.m. that Sunday and officers rushed him to hospital. It is not known as of press time whether the address, along the 100 block of 16th Avenue at South Sixth Street, had a city- and state- required window guard.
IRVINGTON – Mayor Anthony “Tony” Vauss, in a March 12 press release, said that the recommendations made by The Ambrose Group, LLC last year on its police and fire divisions have been implemented – and are producing results.
The Ambrose Group, of Cedar Grove, issued what Vauss called “a comprehensive assessment” report on the Irvington Department of Public Safety late last year. The report, after a year’s study, focused on staffing adjustments, facility upgrades, ordinance revisions and introduction of new technology.
IPD, for example, has acquired Mobile Video Recorders, gunshot sound detectors and a neighborhood security camera system to go with additional police cars. The Irvington Public Safety Building at Beasley Civic Square is to get renovated cell block and front lobby.
The Township, in response, created a DPS Deputy Director job title to assist incumbent Tracy Bowers. The Internal Affairs Office is to get revised training to better compliance with New Jersey Attorney General Office policies.
Irvington’s council had awarded The Ambrose Group a contract to place the group’s hearing officer in the Irvington Law Department Oct. 24, 2022. The contract lasted through Oct. 25, 2023 where the township paid the vendor $250 an hour for no more than $100,000. It is not known, as of press time, whether The Ambrose Group exhausted the $100,000 limit.
The Ambrose Group is named after its founder – former Newark Public Safety Director and prior ECPO Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose. The retired policeman has been providing agencies law enforcement and management consultant services since April 2021. The group’s clients include Essex County on its county jail in 2022 and, for 2023, Bloomfield Township.
The council, “pending receipt of resolution from QPA,” had a $200,000 Ambrose Group hearing officer contract resolution on its March 11 agenda.
EAST ORANGE – There is a reason why an ambulance from outside CareWell Medical Health has been parked by its emergency entrance since March 6 – and why hospital administrators had been working to satisfy the state by the March 20 deadline.
The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services gave CareWell a March 20 deadline to correct the unavailable X-ray and/or CT scanning services in its Emergency Ward – or risk making an “emergency divert” of ambulances and/or having the “curtailment of all hospital services.”
The state health department had meanwhile ordered an extra ambulance on standby to take emergency patients who need a radiological exam. It is because the DOH has said that CareWell “has failed to ensure critical care transport for ED patients requiring (a) required diagnostic radiologic exam.”
That order, as received by a statewide media outlet March 12, said that “the medical center has had ongoing staffing issues pertaining to CT services since Dec, 25. Department surveyors have confirmed that, on various dates and times, there were no CT or X-ray services available.”
The hospital was also required to inform DOH of its weekly staffing levels. CareWell, and its 1926-2022 predecessor East Orange General Hospital is the city’s largest private employer.
EOGH Acquisition Group bought the hospital from the for-profit Prospect Medical Holdings, of California Jan. 1, 2022 and changed its name at noon Jan. 12. It remains “Essex County’s only independent community boutique hospital.”
Neither CareWell nor EOGH Acquisition Group have commented on the state’s warning as of March 19.
ORANGE – “Orange’s Bravest” put out a fire at a South Ward apartment building here the night of March 10.
Firefighters were called to South Orange Towers at 749 Scotland Rd. at 9:53 p.m. that Sunday. They found one second floor apartment “engulfed in flames.” Other parts of the eight-story, 108-unit condominium were enveloped in smoke. Residents were promptly and safely evacuated.
OFD personnel got the fire under control and out within an hour. Orange police assisted by detouring traffic, including NJTransit’s No. 92 route buses, between Heywood Avenue and South Orange’s Montrose Avenue. Injuries were contained to smoke inhalation, which were treated by medics at the scene.
749 Scotland was last in the news when the president of the tenants association came to the Aug. 4, 2021 City Council meeting. The tenants’ head complained that Rushmore Management here had not been responding to their and city code enforcement inspectors complaints since 2019. The 1960-build property has since been owned by Goldcrest Properties, of Lakewood.
OFD and ECPO Arson Unit inspectors, as a standard operating procedure, are investigating the fire’s cause. Fire damage, as of March 16, appears to be limited to a second floor corner apartment unit.
WEST ORANGE – “Local Talk” has learned that the remains of aspiring rapper Damian Osborne, who died in a Jan. 10 highway crash in Kansas, had returned home for his last rites.
A visitation and memorial service for Damian Garcia Osborne, 24, were held here at the Dangler Funeral Home Jan. 19-20, followed by cremation at Roseville Cemetery. A Celebration of Life service was subsequently held at the West Luxury Apartments, 555 Northfield Ave., Suite 211.
Osborne, who was born Dec. 11, 1999 in Hackensack University Hospital, was a West Orange High School Class of 2018 graduate. The lettered scholar-athlete was in the school’s math and Science Institute program and was a member of its football and lacrosse teams.
“Damo” went to Seton Hall University on a scholarship but decided to pursue a career in the music industry. “They Know Dame’ had released a music video, featuring local neighborhoods with producer Augy. He meanwhile worked in the Jersey Mike’s sub shops here and in Bloomfield for three years.
Osborne was driving towards Garden of the Gods in Colorado when the Kansas Highway Department said his car went off Interstate 80 and struck a highway sign in Leavenworth Jan. 10. He was planning to move to Los Angeles for his career’s next stage.
Parents Rose Garcia and Stephen and sister Belen Aurora Osborne and aunt Karen Osborne are among his survivors. A GoFundMe.com page had been set up for his funeral expenses. Augy is working on a memorial CD.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Principal Frank Sanchez – who pleaded not guilty to ECPO charges of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly persons simple assault March 12 – finds himself at the center of controversy.
Sanchez, who surrendered himself at ECPO’s Newark office, was unofficially represented by “Free Frank” supporters who partially occupied the South Orange-Maplewood School District Board of Education Administration Building audience gallery March 14. A GoGetFunding.com page, as of March 15, received $38,000 in donations for his “legal fees, living expenses or whatever else is needed.”
The supporters, many of whom wore red in solidarity, had marched from the Maplewood Municipal Building to the SOMSD Administration Building on Academy Street before the school board’s meeting started. Five parents, students and community members spoke in Sanchez’s support at the meeting’s public comment segment.
SOMA Black Parents Workshop President Walter Fields and attorneys Robert Tarver and James H. Davis III, in contrast, said March 16 that they stand ” with the student-victim.” While they added “Sanchez will have his day in court,” they considered the incident that put the principal on administrative leave and under arrest, “another example of, when Black students or parents speak, their concerns are disregarded.”
Sanchez, who was put on paid leave by Interim Superintendent Dr. Kevin Gilbert Jan. 2 (the first time since November), was involved with breaking up a fight among students sometime in the Spring of 2023. While intervening, Sanchez is accused of restraining a 10th Grade African American girl.
Former SOMSD board member Courtney Winkfield posted on a community message board March 12 that the then-board first learned of the incident from a draft investigation from the board attorney at their December 2023 conference meeting. The attorney said that the report should not be considered since the investigator had not submitted the draft to his supervisors for review and signing. Although the attorney said that no action be taken pending a final report, Winkfield said that “two BOE members said that they would be forced ‘to take matters into their own hands.”
The draft report was taken to the N.J. Division of Child Protection and Permanency Jan. 2 for their review. NJ DCPC, after what Winkfield said was “an external investigation,” “found no substantive cause for complaint” or “to take action against Sanchez.” Winkfield claimed that another board member brought the draft report to Maplewood Police, who turned it over to ECPO.
BLOOMFIELD – Pastor Nelson Oyola gave a final blessing to the remains of Michael Zurlo – surrounded relatives, friends and Bloomfield Fire Department members – on the front steps of Sacred Heart Church at 11:01 a.m. March 9 before its final journey by the O’Boyle Funeral Home.
BFD Engine 1 and Engine 5, respectively from Headquarters and Station 4, and a battalion chief’s car were parked across Broad Street from the church. Michael Francis Zurlo, Sr., 83, who died March 3, was a 30-year officer, retiring as Captain.
Zurlo, who was born in Montclair May 1, 1940, was also a 40-member of Scouting Troop 28. The avid gardener, when off duty or retired, was known to drive his red Jeep about town as a “Mr. Fix It.”
Wife Joanna V. Zurlo, sons Mike, Jr. Jeffrey, Dominick and Steven and daughters Ann Willey, Christina Zurlo-Harvey and Joanna L, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren are among his survivors. Daughter Mary Rafanelli predeceased him.
Zurlo’s visitation was held at O’Boyle’s March 8. Memorial donations may be made to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and/or the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
MONTCLAIR – Federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights have been on Montclair Public Schools property, including the Charles H. Bullock and Edgemont Montessori elementary schools, since March 4.
The OCR probe is in response of discrimination allegations, filed on Feb. 25, 2022, regarding class placement in the Bullock School and restraint in the Edgemont School. The office had recently confirmed their investigation to Susan Magaziner, of Essex, Conn., who had filed the complaint.
Magaziner, a civil rights education consultant and “board-certified education advocate” on Montclair State University Child Advocacy staff, had complained that MPS had conducted “restraint, seclusion and racial bias of Black male students of disability.”
Magaziner claims that Bullock administrators had discriminated against disabled African American boys while determining who would be included in the school’s Montclair Achievement Program. MAP is a behavioral and therapeutic service at Bullock.
She further asserted that those in the Edgemont School had been using “seclusion and restraint” against disabled boys. The controversial use of seclusion, as defined by US DOE, involuntarily confines a student in a room. Restraint is defined as a “physical restriction that reduces a student’s ability to move his or her torso, arms, legs and/or head freely.”
“The Board and Administration complies with federal and state laws and Board policy to treat all people fairly, suitably and with respect,” said MPS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jonathan Ponds March 11. “The District does not/can not comment on pending litigation and legal matters.”
BELLEVILLE – Belleville Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Richard J. Tomko, after 10 years here, will be graduating with the Belleville High School Class of 2024.
A March 13 press release from Garfield Board of Education President Jorge Ramos announced that Tomko will take over that district’s reins July 1 from Interim Superintendent Nicholas Perrapato. Tomko, whose resume was unanimously approved by that city’s school board at their March 12 special meeting, will be periodically visiting some 4,713 Kindergarten-12th Grade students and 12 buildings through June 30.
Tomko is returning to Bergen County after a decade’s absence. He was Elmwood Park’s super 2010-15 before he made an unsuccessful bid for state senate.
The Seton Hall University Master of Educational Administration and Supervision and Doctor of Philosophy in Education Leadership, Management and Police came to Belleville Feb. 1, 2015 when the district was $4.2 million in debt. The state had assigned a monitor, who is still in place, and loaned it money to plug that deficit.
Tomko had sought getting full potential and efficiency from the staff, starting with developing an avenue for employees who had the experience but not the certifications for advanced jobs.
He bought two single family houses for conversion into skill centers for 18-21-year olds with disabilities. The centers help reduce sending 130 students out of the district at $100,000 to 50.
Tomko had shepherded two out of three bond issues in his time here, starting with a $48.5 million bond issue in 2017 to revamp Belleville’s 12 school buildings. He and Mayor Michael Melham put through an $11.9 million “shared services” issue that bought the former VFW Hall/Eastern International College and King Windows/Doors south of Belleville Middle School for more space and for a to-be-built parking garage. Tomko may have sent his resume to Garfield before Melham and the Township Council denied a $3.75 million bond issue request Jan. 23.
NUTLEY – A township man, who was arrested for attempted burglary and flight in Haledon March 9, may not be coming home for some time.
Haledon Deputy Police Chief George Guzman, Jr. said that Off. Nasir Mora spotted “a bicyclist in dark clothing yanking on a car handle” while it was parked along Roe Street by East Barbour Street that Saturday.
The suspect tried to flee but was apprehended by Mora and Corp. Andrea Boos. The man, said Guzman, was found with burglary tools, drug paraphernalia, loose change, a credit card in another person’s name, 20 Clonazepam pills and a large dagger on him.
The man in question was identified as Michael Scalici, 35. He was arrested and charged at Haledon Police Headquarters for three car burglary attempts plus possession of burglary tools, controlled dangerous substances and a weapon.
Although Scalici was arrested in a Passaic County suburb of Paterson, he was remanded to Hackensack’s Bergen County jail.
