TOWN WATCH
NEWARK – It turns out that it is not just the landlord of 799-805 Broad St./Ken Gibson Blvd. who has been left unpaid from the now-closed celebrity-driven Hashtoria cannabis dispensary.
Two contractors, as of Sept. 18, said that they are owed almost $600,000 by the group headed by former Wu Tang Clan member Raekwon.
Builderguru Contracting, of Millersville, Md., said they did $535,264 worth of renovations here but were left unpaid. VIP Construction Services, of Monroe, have filed in New Jersey Superior Court-Newark to recoup $62,255.
Landlord BMHC, LLC may be telling Builderguru, VIP and any other creditor to stand in line and take a number.
BMHC had filed a court claim May 5 that Hashtoria had not paid $540,501.84 in rent going back two years – including the 19 months the premises was renovated for its Nov. 13, 2024 grand opening. Sheriff’s officers executed a June 25 eviction notice on July 1.
Cannabis business observers remain puzzled how Hashtoria went up in smoke here while its Oregon store is puffing right along. Several former employees cited the lack of Newark connections, Newark Central Planning Board hearing delays and mismanagement for the fiasco.
Planet Elevation had opened and closed next door in the same building at about the same time.
IRVINGTON – Drivers along three separate one block streets may have been facing detours during business hours on weekdays since late last month – and may do so until on or before Oct. 31.
New Jersey American Water had issued a “Dig we must” advisory to Irvingtonians since Sept. 18 for the following streets and blocks:
- Hopkins Place, between 21st Street and Ellis Street. (west of Montgomery Park)
- West Avon Avenue, between Brookside and Myrtle avenues (two blocks west of the Garden State Parkway)
- West Stratford Place, between Augusta and Ball streets (west of Irvington Park).
NJAW has targeted replacing 1,490 of 1930s cast iron water mains along those three blocks for they are near the end of their life cycle. They are being replaced by eight-inch diameter ductile iron mains.
The utility’s $1 million work will include replacing fire hydrants and any lead and/or galvanized service lines found along the way.
The replacement is being done by Montana Construction, of Lodi, 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
EAST ORANGE – A Newark man, accused of carjacking without noticing the infant aboard may have been spending his detention in that city’s Essex County Correctional Facility since Aug. 20 ruminating on his train of thought.
The 30-year-old admitted as Dwan Littlejohn is accused of taking a grey Porsche that was left outside Eliza’s restaurant here at 158 Sanford Ave. at about 10:15 p.m. Aug. 19. East Orange police officers caught up with him a short time later by 26 Shepard Ave, Newark.
The big question is whether or how soon did he realize that there was a 15-month-old child with him in the back seat. EOPD reunited the unharmed toddler with the Porsche-owning family.
Littlejohn is being held on unlawful taking of a vehicle, carjacking by inflicting bodily injury or using force on an occupant, facilitating kidnapping through flight, endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest after being instructed to stop and resisting arrest by preventing an officer from making the arrest.
Littlejohn goes by the aliases of Duwan R. Littlejohn, Dwan John and Dwan Little
ORANGE – OPD and ECPO are meanwhile searching for a car who left the scene of a fatal electric bicycle accident along westbound Main Street at 3:15 a.m. Sept. 19. Orange resident and Montclair restaurant cook Edwin David Tuc Patriciao, 23, was entering the westbound lane when he was struck – and died 3:40 a.m. at a local hospital. Patriciao’s body, after a Sept 25 funeral at Newark’s Villa Americas, was returned to Guatemala – where he was born June 25, 2002.
WEST ORANGE – The Nov. 13, 2024 demonstration, counter-demonstration and assaults before Cong. Ohr Torah here, as of Sept. 29, has become a federal case.
The U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on that Monday that her Department of Justice has filed a 21-page complaint in Newark federal court against two organizations and six individuals for civil damages and injunctive relief. The defendants named are Party for Socialism and Liberation New Jersey, American Muslims for Palestine New Jersey, Eric Camins, Matt Dragon, Tova Fry aka Terry Kay, Altaf Sharif and at least one “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” each.
Bondai and her attorneys accuse the eight parties of engaging “in a coordinated effort to intimidate and disrupt Jewish worshipers at a religious event held at the synagogue.” The prosecutors are applying the 1994 Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act, normally used to keep anti-abortion protestors from using “force or threats of force or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate or interfere with any person lawfully exercising their rights to seek or provide services or to worship.”
A real estate seminar on buying residential property in Israel and in parts of the West Bank, one of several across the country that autumn, was at the center. many pro-Palestinian groups have called the seminar an attempt to steal lots from their homeland.
Physician Dr. Moshe Glick had intended to hold one in his home here – until, said the feds, Fry/Kay had delivered a letter signed by AMP threatening legal action should the seminar take place. Fry/Kay is said to have taken photos of Glick’s address – which was disseminated by AMP and PSL on their media for an intended demonstration.
Glick, on advice of his private security, West Orange Police and the ADL, had the seminar moved to Ohr Torah – the same night that they were including nightly prayer, a memorial service for the late Rabbi Avi Goldberg, “prayerful dancing and a barbeque in the parking lot all part of the religious service.” The seminar was folded into the night’s religious observance by the complaint as “the Jewish obligation to live in the Land of Israel, a tenant of Jewish faith.”
The named individuals were accused of breaking through the police line, entered onto the property and blew deafening horns to dissuade entry – and into the ears of Dr. Glick and David Silberberg. The defendants were also accused of assaulting Glick and Silberberg.
The complaint is asking that the said persons and groups be barred from coming within 500 feet of the synagogue or Glick’s residence and that they pay at least $84,456 for two FACE Act violations. They are asking for a trial by jury.
SOUTH ORANGE – A village native comedian who said she had good intentions in taking the Riyadh Comedy Festival stage Sept. 29 expressed her “sincere regret” in doing so Oct. 3 – and will be donating her Saudi Arabian government-drawn paycheck “to a human rights organization.”
Jessica Kirson, Columbia High School Class of 1987, said she was approached by the RCF to join 49 other comics in “The World’s Largest Comedy Festival” Sept. 26-Oct. 9. The openly gay comedian asked the hosts if she can do her LBGTQ+ material and was told yes.
“I hoped that this could help LBGTQ+ people in Saudi Arabia feel seen and valued; I was grateful that I was able to precisely do that. I’m the first openly gay comic to talk about it on stage in Saudi Arabia,” said Kirson in a “The Hollywood Reporter” statement. “At the same time, I deeply regret participating under the auspices of the Saudi government.”
Newark native Jeff “The Roastmaster General” Ross was also among those who did a Riyadh set -but there were others who said. “No way” on the Saudi kingdom’s human rights record – including regarding women and the gay community.
The festival is operated by the General Entertainment Authority and is funded by the kingdom’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund. The PIF sovereign wealth fund is part of the government’s Vision 2030 plan to invest into entertainment and tourism – and thereby diversifying its mainly petroleum-based economy.
PIF has invested at least $4.9 billion in the LIV Golf tour, including signing bonuses for professional golfers, since mid-2022. It is also a business partner in the FIA’s Formula Electric, Extreme E/Extreme H tours and the E1 powerboat series. The fund’s bankrolling the above plus the Saudi Arabia F1 GP and the 105-mile long NEOM linear city has prompted critics to cry “Whitewashing,” “Greenwashing,” “Sportswashing,” or a combination thereof.
Kirson’s open letter concluded with: “To my fans; I see you, I hear you, your voice matters to me. I love you all and am genuinely sorry for making a poor decision that had repercussions I didn’t fully consider.”
MAPLEWOOD – The now two-year-old Tamar Herman v. Ibtihaj Muhammad and the Council of American Islamic Relations-NJ case is now in the discovery phase before State Superior Court-Elizabeth. The last ruling on the defamation and false light invasion of privacy lawsuit came from the Supreme Court of New Jersey, who denied Muhammad’s motion for leave to appeal on Feb. 18.
Muhammad asked for a motion for leave to appeal based on her claim that the previous superior and appellate courts were in error by supporting Herman’s defamation claims. The township native and Olympic medal-winning fencer said that the Boyden Elementary School Second Grade teacher’s suit was not sufficient for a damages claim.
Herman filed her suit in Superior Court-Elizabeth, Law Division Sept. 10, 2024, asserting that Muhammad’s online statements in the wake of the Oct. 6, 2021 Boyden Hajib Incident were knowingly false. The teacher said that she was subjected to online harassment, a three-month ECPO investigation and suspension from teaching. She said that she suffered “severe emotional distress and “condemnation by the rabbi of her childhood congregation.”
The chain of legal events began when a seven-year-old girl in Herman’s class told her mother that the teacher had pulled off her hajib in class. The mother, according to court complaint records, told Muhammad’s mother who told Muhammad.
Herman said that she had accidentally moved the student’s head covering while lifting the hood part of her hooded sweatshirt – and moved both back when she realized her error.
Court records stated that Herman and Muhammad were previously acquainted with each other by sharing the same trainer. The documents also stated that the two exchanged contact numbers for a proposed talk about the matter at Boyden prior to the 2024 lawsuit.
BLOOMFIELD – A township man who spent a fatal night with a Jersey City friend in a Lyndhurst motel room Nov. 11, 2023 will now be spending up to eight years in a state prison cell since Sept. 25.
A Superior Court-Hackensack judge handed the eight-year term to Alberto Delgado, 45, in the drug overdose death of Luke Revell, 54, at the Winslow Motor Hotel. Delgado, who had pleaded guilty to second-degree strict liability drug induced death in June, will have to spend at least 85 percent of his sentence before being considered for parole under the state’s No Early Release Act.
Lyndhurst police, who responded to 204 Rutherford Ave. 11:52 a.m. that Veterans Day, found Revell face down in a motel room’s carpet. There was drug paraphernalia strewn across the floor. Revell, who was unresponsive, was declared dead at the scene.
LPD and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office’s joint investigation found that Revell had been given fentanyl and cocaine, which led to his overdose. Delgado, who was found to have distributed the narcotics, was arrested in Bloomfield Feb. 23, 2024.
Revell’s last rites were a service at Lyndhurst’s Ippolito- Stellato Funeral Home Nov. 16 plus a Funeral Mass at Queen of Peace Church and burial at Holy Cross Cemetery Nov. 17 in North Arlington.
MONTCLAIR – The Township Council has partially replaced the resigned At-Large Councilwoman Carmel Loughmann at their special meeting here Sept. 30.
The council appointed First Ward Councilman Erik D’Amato to her place on the Planning Board that Tuesday night. Mayor Dr. Renee Baskervile said that Loughmann’s successor on the council will likely be appointed at their Oct. 7 meeting.
The council selected D’Amato over Fourth Ward Councilwoman Aminah Toler, 5-1, with Toler being the other nominee.
Montclair’s elders meanwhile appointed Ruby Kumar-Thompson as their latest interim Township Attorney on a second 5-1 vote. Toler, who did not state her reasoning, was again the panel’s sole dissenting vote.
Kumar-Thompson comes from Cleary Giacobbe Alfieri Jacobs, LLC – the same firm where Montclair’s last two interim attorney’s, Joseph Garcia and John M. Tuntevski, came from. She had worked as the council’s labor and special litigation attorney the last three years.
The council also appointed Deyanira Bartlett, on the same 5-1 vote, to succeed Padmaja Rao as CFO and Finance Director. Toler, before casting her dissenting vote, asked Town Manager Stephen Marks if the council would get to interview her; Marks said that the matter was discussed in the executive session and “was not requested.”
Bartlett, who most recently was Livingston’s assistant CFO since 2023, had also been Clifton’s treasurer. The Montclair State University graduate also has seven years as an auditor for Nisovaccia, LLP.
GLEN RIDGE – What started out as an “unwanted party” at a borough address here Oct. 8, 2023 has resulted in the conviction of a Newark man Sept. 18 in State Superior Court-Newark on domestic violence-related charges.
A Sept. 30 ECPO release stated that a jury told Superior Court Judge Kevin P. Barry that they found Jason Blount, 25, of Newark, guilty of criminal restraint, assault, making threats and weapons possession. The jury arrived at their verdict after a three-day trial.
Blount was found guilty of disorderly conduct-simple assault, fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and third-degree counts of criminal restraint, making a terroristic threat and possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Det. Sgt. Daniel Manley and Officers Joseph Uliano and Carl Abrahamsen said that they had responded to a borough address on the report of an unwanted man there Oct. 8, 2023. They said they had found a man grabbing the resident by her throat and verbally threatening her in the presence of her children.
Manley, Uliano and Abrahamsen said, in that day’s blotter and in the GRPD 2023 Annual Report, that they used constructive de-escalation to have the man drop the knife in his possession and surrender to them. The man, later identified as Blount, was charged at GRPD Headquarters and remanded to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility.
The officers had found that Blount was the resident’s ex-boyfriend who had entered the premises; an argument and knife-drawing ensued. Blount’s sentencing before Barry is set for Oct. 31.
BELLEVILLE – Township police officers were asked by their Newark colleagues “to secure their side of the municipal border” while they and the ECPO Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force conducted a field investigation in that city’s Stephen Crane Village housing complex Oct. 2.
NPD, Newark fire and University Hospital EMS Mass Care Response units rushed to the 60s block of their Spruce Street on reports of gunfire from there at 12:45 p.m. that Tuesday. They arrived to find Raheem Colwell, 34, in one of the WPA-era apartments with gunshot wounds to the head and shoulder.
Newark police called BPD to secure the streets that run from the North Ward’s Forest Hill section into Belleville’s Silver Lake and SoHo sections. They also called in the county while EMS rushed Colwell to University Hospital.
Colwell was declared dead at the hospital at 1:35 p.m. His last rites were unavailable as of press time. His homicide investigation is ongoing.
There are 19 streets, Essex County roads and State Routes 7 and 21 who cross into Belleville from Newark – including 15 shared by Belleville Ward 1/Silver Lake.
