TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – What started Feb. 1, 2023 with 15 gunshots in Sayreville of a Newark native and church official has, for now, ended with a jury foreman’s “Guilty” finding in a New Brunswick courtroom June 9.
The foreman of the six-man, three-woman jury told Superior Court Judge Paone Monday morning that they found Rashid Ali Bynum, 31, of Smithfield, Va., guilty of murdering Sayreville Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour, 30, and related weapons offenses. The jury had arrived at their verdicts after 6.5 hours of deliberations June 6 and 9 and after a four week trial.
The jury had agreed with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s office attorneys’ contention that Bynum had ambushed Dwumfour in her Nissan SUV before entering her townhouse which she shared with her 11-year-old daughter and a male roommate. The Weequahic High School Class of 2010 graduate, William Paterson University Class of 2017 graduate of women’s and gender studies and Sayreville’s first African American council member was declared dead at the scene.
Dwumfour was also Director of Churches for Champions Royal Assembly NA and regularly worshipped at the Abuja, Nigeria-headquartered church’s Broad Street branch. She also met Bynum “around 2018” while she was recruiting people to join Champions. Bynum moved in with her and other church members – but moved back to Virginia when he was unable to follow church and house rules.
Bynum, said prosecutors, left “a digital trail” between Virginia and Central New Jersey, including receipts and cell phone calls. A 9mm. Glock found in the residence of Bynum’s girlfriend May 30, 2023 was tested by the New Jersey State Police – and found his DNA.
Newark lawyer Michael Ashley said that the DNA match does not prove that his client pulled the trigger. Ashley is “almost certainly” considering an appeal. Bynum is currently scheduled for an Aug. 18, where he may be sentenced to life imprisonment.
IRVINGTON – For all of the real estate presentations made at May 28’s Fifth Annual Tri-Community Commercial and Residential Development Seminar here at The Parkway Office Complex, the one made by an Irvington official who did not have an artist’s rendering was the one which turned heads.
Kayana Woolridge, the host township’s Economic Development and Grants Director, said that she had been talking “with developers and the City of Newark” about redeveloping the two lots where the Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery stood at South Orange Avenue and Grove Street.
The Pabst Brewery – opened as the Hoffman ginger ale bottler in 1930 and demolished in 2008 – covered four acres on six lots flanking Grove Street and shared by Newark’s “South Vailsburg” and “East Irvington.”
Four previous plans have come and gone since 2010, however, and the only development had been Essex County realigning Grove Street and “27 Prince St., Elizabeth” adding concrete blocks along its property line.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka last presented the Crown Village plan, featuring 660 housing units among seven buildings, in June 2020. It went before that city’s zoning board that July.
Baraka, in his 2017 State of the City Address, talked about a “Veterans Village” and “not a jail” there. There was a commercial/residential mixed use complex proposed by Walco in 2010.
Woolridge’s presentation included the just-announced 156 unit building at 734 Springfield Ave. and the Sankofa Enclave nearby 21st Street, which had an October groundbreaking. East Orange Planning Director Alycia Cohen and Orange Mayor Dwayne Warren also updated Irvington Chamber of Commerce, the Camptown Business Improvement District and their guests that Wednesday night.
EAST ORANGE – Authorities in Warren County are investigating the circumstances of an East Orange man who was fatally shot outside of a Phillipsburg house June 2 while his relatives are making his funeral arrangements.
A Phillipsburg police spokesman said that officers had responded to a 911 call of a man trying to force his way into a residence on the 100 block of Summit Avenue at 4:26 a.m. that Monday. That call was originally made to the Warren County Communications Center.
The officers told the New Jersey State Police Crime Scene Unit and Warren County Prosecutor’s Office detectives that they found Kevin Clervil outside the said address with multiple gunshot wounds. Clervil was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital Warren Campus, where he later died.
Acting Warren County Prosecutor Jessica Cardone gave no details of the fatal shooting, other than Clervil and the resident knew each other. That block was taped off and two cars within that area were towed to the PPD impound yard. Squad cars from Washington Township and the Pennsylvania State Police were also at the scene.
Clervil had been arrested by Linden police – along with a Roselle man and a Maplewood woman, on rioting, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct when he was 28 on March 15, 2015. The trio were arrested from among a crowd of 200 at the Dragonfly Restaurant and Nightclub, 661 W. Edgar St.
ORANGE – City elders’ intent to revamp Main Street’s east end continued when they mostly approved a redeveloper, a community benefits agreement and a tax exemption for the now-vacant Champion Furniture store at 85-89 Main St. here at The Orange Public Library June 4.
City Council members, on a 6-1 vote that Wednesday night, designated REMAX Orange Properties Urban Renewal LLC as 85-89 Main’s redeveloper. (Councilman Weldon “Monty” Montague III abstained.) The council also approved a Community Benefits Agreement with REMAX Orange and introduced a financial agreement which includes granting Orange REMAX a 22-year tax exemption.
If you guessed that 85-89 Main St., which last housed Champion Furniture 2012-21, could hold a motor vehicle agency or a piano showroom – you would be correct. The single-story, 1914-built commercial property housed Menninger Pianos in the 1930s and an NJDMV agency in the 1940s-50s.
Its tenants also included the Orange Book Store, Glenn’s Hollywood Florist, several insurance agents and. more recently, Diebold Office Supply and Allied Health Care. What REMAX Orange intends to replace with is not immediately known as of press time – but demolition and excavation continues across the way along South Main Street.
Demolition of the last of six unmodified Victorian Era houses along 13-27 Prince St. and 92-112 So. Main St. was done last May, consigning their view by the east end of Military Commons to picture postcards. VA 100 Main LLC is replacing them with a six-story, 307-unit apartment building containing 367 parking spaces as approved by the Orange Planning Board in late 2021.
Orange elders are moving their council meetings around its four wards this summer. June 17’s conference and regular meetings, for example, are to be at the Cross and Crown Christian Church (the former satellite television transfer station), 476 Thomas Blvd. in the North Ward.
June 4 council meeting passes resolution naming redeveloper of 85-89 Main St (former Champion Furniture store)
WEST ORANGE – Longtime Township Attorney Richard Trenk remains head of the municipality’s legal department even though he has announced his retirement, “pending the appointment of a successor,” Jan. 6 – and two years since Mayor Susan McCartney and the Township Council reached an impasse over his status.
McCartney and the five-member council have been waiting for the other party to move towards offering a successor to 25-year attorney Trenk, especially after a Superior Court-Newark judge’s recent split ruling on the matter.
Superior Court Judge Annette Scoca, on March 31, ruled that the mayor has the power to appoint a municipal official. Scoca based her findings on 2005’s James v. Newark Municipal Council, when the now-late-Mayor Sharpe James was looking to hire a corporate council.
A municipal council, further ruled by Scoca, cannot act in an unauthorized manner to hire the said official. To wit, a municipal council could not hire a township attorney outside of those recommended by the mayor. McCartney, in 2024, said she received nine attorneys in her Request for Proposal, put forward three for the council – but added that only two of the five council members had interviewed the candidates.
Scoca, however, ruled that a municipal council can fire a municipal official “for cause.”
McCartney took the council to court after the 2023-council voted not to renew Trenk’s contract. Trenk, on June 6, announced his retirement with the date pending when his successor was chosen. Another Superior Court Judge ruled in March 2024 that Trenk can stay on “for all work necessary” for his job and until a successor is hired.
SOUTH ORANGE – Village officials on June 6, confirmed that ICE agents were present in this sanctuary city some 10 hours after the fact.
Mayor Sheena Collum, Village Administrator Julie Doran and Acting Police Chief Stephen Dolinac, in separate releases, stated at 4:40 p.m. what residents and neighbors here in the Montrose section saw at 8:45 a.m.
An anonymous Facebook poster said that “four men with ICE vests, masked and armed, handcuffed and picked up a man on Park Place by the Marshall School at 8:45 a.m. Kids were still walking to school. My spouse witnessed it and was so stunned and shaken, they didn’t take a photo.”
Park Place is a residential street running north of South Orange Avenue and is lined by Grove Park.
Village authorities said that ICE agents were present and conducted an operation that ended with an arrest. Mayor Collum said that she, the administrator and police chief had been trying to get more information “but have come up short.” They emphasized that village police was not involved with the action ICE took.
Dolinac reminded residents that “local law enforcement agencies, including SOPD, are prohibited from participating in ICE immigrant enforcement procedures or providing access to local resources under the New Jersey Attorney General Immigrant Trust Directive.”
MAPLEWOOD – A Union man, implicated in a May 12 baseball attack on another man here in the Hilton section, had been arrested and detained at Newark’s Essex County Correctional Center May 20.
A May 20 MPD release said that Ellis Earle, 46, had been charged and held on second-degree aggravated assault. Earle had posted bail and was released on or by June 5.
The township police blotter stated that officers were called to a business address along Springfield Avenue May 12 about an assault. They met with a business owner, who described one man using a baseball bat to strike another man – and that both had left the scene.
Officers caught up to the victim, who was heading towards Irvington. The 29-year-old was taken to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.
It is not known whether MPD officers or detectives had arrested Earle at his Vauxhall section address, in Maplewood or elsewhere.
BLOOMFIELD – The family of a seven year old girl who died of glioblastoma May 26 said that they have donated her brain for pediatric cancer research.
Tiffany and Cladio Ciprian, at Maya Margaret Ciprian’s June 1 funeral here at the O’Boyle Funeral Home asked that memorial donations be made to the Tommy Strong Foundation, which also supports children and families affected by pediatric cancer.
Born here Oct. 23, 2017, Maya was a Brookdale Elementary School Kindergarten student who enjoyed playdates, dancing, arts and crafts, Barbie and Pokémon when she was sent home Fe. 21, 2024 with vomiting and dizzy spells. Tiffany said that Maya had a seizure and was rushed to a local hospital. A biopsy detected a “high grade aggressive” brain tumor, starting a 15-month struggle.
Although her cancer treatment included surgery and chemotherapy. Maya managed to regularly attend Brookdale, attaining the First Grade, until last month. The family said that their daughter faced the battle with “courage, grace, laughter and play.” She had said after her first hospitalization, “Not everything can be fixed, so you have to enjoy it.”
The mother, on May 29, added that she and her late daughter shared a rare TP53 genetic mutation, making them more susceptible to cancer. Her having that gene was discovered after Tiffany was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer, in her left pelvis.
Younger brother Tony and grandmother Abu are also among Maya’s survivors. A gofundme.com page continues for the family’s expenses. Donations may also go to tommystrong.org.
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council put the Clary Anderson Arena towards a new era with a pair of bills they had approved at their June 3 meeting.
Montclair’s elders, with Resolution 12-25-172’s passage, awarded Sports Facilities Management, LLC, of Clearwater, Fla., to operate the municipal ice rink for a year. They also introduced Ordinance 12-25-24, which would create a Clary Anderson Arena Utility.
Awarding SFM the one-year contract and, pending a public hearing, creating the CAAU are seen as the means to redress the immediate repairs and longer-term self-funding of the 64-year-old ice hockey and skating rink.
Township construction, fire and plumbing code inspectors told current and 14-year operator Joe Gauweiler April 23 that they had found more than 12 violations, including a leaking roof, that needed immediate and longer-term correction. The correction costs, which would not require the arena’s closing, would range from an immediate $1 million and another $4.7 million.
The township will pay SFM $12,000 monthly to run the arena in exchange for performance incentives. The operator will get a three percent bonus if it generates between $800,000 and $1 million in monthly revenue or seven percent if it generates over $1 million. The Florida company, one of three respondents to Montclair’s Jan. 8 requests for proposals, also operates the Montclair State University Ice Arena among other public and private rinks.
The ordinance creating the arena as a utility will make it self-funding, its rates and fees going to operation and repairs. Newly hired Town Manager Stephen Marks said that the township has reserved $1 million to loan the utility to make immediate repairs. The ordinance will also need to pass local finance board muster.
Passing the second measure would end Gauweiler and his Clary Anderson LLC’s operation.
GLEN RIDGE – An attorney for a Bronx golf caddie seeks to get an answer from country clubs here and in West Caldwell on whether he and his colleagues were hired as employees or as independent contractors. Answers to that question may cost the Glen Ridge and Mountain Ridge back pay and benefits.
New York City lawyer Douglas Lipsky said, on May 21, that he had filed two class action lawsuits for his client, Jeffrey Woolridge, and 30 of his co-workers at the respective clubs in State Superior Court-Newark. GRCC and Mountain Ridge are being accused of violating the state’s Wage and Hour law by not paying minimum wages and overtime.
Woolridge and most other caddies are hired by golf clubs for seasonal work May through November. Their hours run from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., or 50-hour weeks, sunlight and weather allowing.
They must be present to be assigned a golfer either by the caddie master or an actual golfer. They are then paid a “bag fee” for carrying the golfer’s club bag during a round of golf. They are not paid for their waiting times.
Caddie masters are also responsible for setting caddies’ schedules and their supervision, hiring, disciplining and firing. Caddies, besides carrying golf bags, are responsible for cleaning clubs and balls, retrieving balls, replacing golf hole flags and raking sand traps and advise golfers. Golfers pay caddies around $100 in bag fees, plus, at their discretion, tips.
Woolridge and Lipsky said that at no time was he paid an hourly wage nor paid overtime for over 40 hours. They contend that neither caddie masters nor club management said that they were employees “verbally or in writing.”
Woolridge himself had worked at GRCC 1986-91, 1993, 2017-19 and 2024, working at other clubs in the intervening years. He, Lipsky and the 30 caddies are asking for unpaid minimum wages, overtime and attorney’s fees.
BELLEVILLE – A township man’s May 23 return to a Newark Police precinct house on a robbery report he had filed May 8 resulted in his own May 27 arrest.
The Newark Police Division Robbery Unit asked Marco Minchala A. Naranjo to meet them back at a local police station that Friday. They had some questions about the armed robbery he said he had suffered in that city’s Lower Broadway section May 8.
Naranjo had filed a report saying that he was waiting for the No. 13 bus along the 90 block of Broadway at 4:30 a.m. May 8. He added that two men approached him and relieved him of his cell phone and $1,000.
The robbery unit, however, showed him video surveillance tape of him walking in the area – but no evidence of the robbery happening. Naranjo stood by his report and left.
NPD issued an arrest warrant on Naranjo for filing a false report May 25. He was arrested on May 27.
