DECEMBER 23, 2015, 7:24 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015, 7:53 AM
BY MARY DIDUCH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
GLEN ROCK — The borough’s police chief will leave his post early next month, an official confirmed Wednesday, clearing the way for new leadership in a department that has weathered a tumultuous year, including the suspension of two officers and the arrest of a third.
The borough learned of Chief Fred Stahman’s retirement on Wednesday, Borough Administrator Lenora Benjamin said. It is effective March 1, but because Stahman is using his accumulated time off, his last day on the job will be Jan. 6, Benjamin said.
“We had communications with the chief,” Benjamin said.
Stahman was appointed to the department’s top post in 2009, and his salary is $159,934, she said.
Stahman did not return a message seeking comment.
The department’s leaders drew criticism following the suspension of two officers and the arrest of a senior detective on charges that he sent sexually explicit text messages to underage girls whom he was supervising in his role as the department’s juvenile officer. The controversies eventually turned into a campaign issue this November.
New Jersey’s Predatory Towing Act makes it against the law to tow off private property unless signs are posted. Westfield had NO signs warning employees they could be towed, and the new signs it put up after 7 On Your Side got involved are too small. 3 feet by 3 feet is the law. These are only 12″ by 18″
Bergen County Consumer Affairs stepped up, after investigators found Westfield Corp. racked up four violations of the Consumer Fraud Act. Just hours later, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco brokered restitution. Westfield will pay back all 48 mall employees who got towed and will install new signs by Christmas that are compliant with New Jersey consumer law.
LARGEST MALL IN NJ TOWS DOZENS OF EMPLOYEES CAR
By Nina Pineda
Tuesday, December 22, 2015 06:04PM
PARAMUS, New Jersey (WABC) –7 On Your Side got an earful from employees who claim they had no idea why they got towed while working their shifts. After hitting roadblocks with mall management we made a big discovery. One that lead to Bergen County Consumer Affairs taking action against the largest mall in New Jersey.
“I thought it was stolen,” said Stefanie Mastbeth, a mall employee said.
That was Mastbeth’s reaction when, after her shift at Michael Kors, her car vanished from the Garden State Plaza parking lot in Paramus.
“I actually have the Onstar app. So we tracked the car and it wasn’t in Garden State Plaza,” Mastbeth said.
She tracked the car to Hackensack and learned it was towed. She had to pay $150 to get it back.
“$150 is nothing to them, but for employees it’s a big deal,” Mastbeth said.
She was one of 48 mall workers targeted and towed by global retail management giant, Westfield Corp., because the lot she says she’s parked in for seven years as a part-time employee is for customers only.
“I didn’t know about it until my car was towed,” Mastbeth said.
DECEMBER 23, 2015, 3:15 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015, 5:44 PM
BY WAYNE PARRY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTIC CITY — Pressure is building on state lawmakers to agree on a ballot question to put before voters asking whether to approve two new casinos in northern New Jersey.
Sens. Raymond Lesniak, a Democrat, and Joseph Kyrillos, a Republican, called on lawmakers Wednesday to agree on a single plan for the November referendum.
Competing versions of the proposal in the Senate and Assembly differ mainly on which companies would be allowed to own the new casinos.
“Casino expansion will create jobs and generate economic growth for the entire state,” said Lesniak, a potential candidate for governor in 2017. “This is an opportunity we have to capitalize on. Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature should work together on a plan that can go to the voters for approval on the next ballot in November of 2016.”
Kyrillos said the referendum is too important to be scuttled by partisan politics.
“The entire Assembly, including Republicans and Monmouth County’s two new Assembly Democrats, need to wake up and join the Senate’s initiative to help save this effort,” he said.
Republican Sen. Jennifer Beck said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop — a likely gubernatorial candidate — “have repeatedly constructed roadblocks” to a Senate measure backed by Senate President Steve Sweeney, another likely candidate for governor. Fulop says he strongly supports casinos in northern New Jersey.
The proposal calls for casinos at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford and in Jersey City. The vote to allow the new casinos would amend the state Constitution, which restricts casino gambling to Atlantic City.
DECEMBER 22, 2015, 5:26 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2015, 5:27 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Bergen County officials have declared a hiring freeze while they pursue a disputed wave of layoffs scheduled to take effect by Jan. 1.
County Administrator Dominic Novelli disclosed the freeze in Monday night’s Freeholder meeting while answering a question from a woman in the audience who had asked why there are no jobs currently listed on the county’s website.
“We currently are in a job freeze,” he replied. “We’re not filling positions. We’re actually in the midst of a layoff.”
Related: Judge won’t block layoffs of 8 Bergen County employees claiming dismissals are political payback
Novelli said after the meeting that the freeze has been in effect since September when the administration made the decision to issue layoff notices to 21 employees on Nov. 1. The notices state that the layoffs were for reasons of “economy and efficiency.”
He said the job freeze did not apply to certain positions, like juvenile detention officers or nurses working in county facilities where there are state-mandated staffing levels.
Novelli’s comments were the first public disclosure of the hiring freeze. It did not come up last week in a hearing in federal court on a lawsuit filed by eight county employee who alleged that they were targeted for layoffs because of their past support of former Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan.
DECEMBER 21, 2015, 11:50 AM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2015, 12:04 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
PARAMUS — A 48-year-old Teaneck woman hit a Paterson teenager in the head with a 15-inch metal pipe during a fight over a parking spot at the Garden State Plaza mall over the weekend, authorities said Monday.
Kenia E. Nicolas-King was charged with aggravated assault and was released, said Deputy Chief Robert Guidetti of the Paramus police. The victim, an 18-year-old Paterson woman, refused medical attention, Guidetti said.
The Paterson woman, whose name was not released, was waiting for a parking spot in an underground garage beneath the movie theater around 5:30 p.m. Saturday when Nicolas-King cut her off and pulled into the spot, Guidetti said. They began arguing and Nicolas-King allegedly went back to her car and grabbed the pipe and hit the woman in the back of the head.
The younger woman fell to the ground and they began wrestling, the deputy chief said. The woman punched Nicolas-King, who jumped back into her car and fled.
But Nicolas-King couldn’t escape the mall’s traffic and Officer Nicholas Luciano stopped her car, Guidetti said. She told Luciano that she had thrown the pipe out of the window, said Guidetti, who added that it was later found.
DECEMBER 19, 2015, 10:32 AM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015, 3:16 PM
BY TODD SOUTH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Authorities arrested a 33-year-old Bronx man Friday afternoon at the Garden State Plaza who they allege had 13 pounds of raw heroin in his car, according to a media release.
In the release, Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik said that at about 1:45 p.m. Friday Passaic sheriff’s detectives along with the investigators from the state Attorney General’s Office Gang/Organized Crime Bureau pulled over Daniel A. Cespedes in a white Honda Accord as part of a joint undercover operation at the mall, in Paramus.
“After the stop, detectives observed the driver acting in a suspicious manner,” Berdnik said.
Officers allege that they saw Cespedes trying to hide an orange tool bag behind the front passenger seat. Police then searched the vehicle and found 13 pounds of raw heroin, with a wholesale value of more than $500,000, according to the release.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — In Alabama, a Presbyterian church wanted to be able to hire its own police for protection. Mosque leaders around the country are meeting with law enforcement officials as an anti-Muslim furor fuels arson attacks and vandalism. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been holding specialized training for congregations for “all hazards, including active shooter incidents.”
Religious congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter unleashed in June by a white shooter at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, to the killings this month in San Bernardino, California.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said 2015 is shaping up as the worst year ever for U.S. mosques, amid the backlash to the Islamic-extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and the intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric from Donald Trump and others seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Preliminary 2015 data collected by the civil rights organization found 71 reported cases of vandalism, harassment and threats, with 29 of those incidents occurring since the Nov. 13 assaults in France.
photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook
Pedistrian Struck in Fair lawn , a reminder to wear bright colors while walking at night
December 17,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Fair lawn NJ, A pedestrian was struck by a passenger car at the intersection of Saddle River Road and Van Duren Avenue in Fair Lawn shortly after 8 PM on Thursday, 12/17. The adult male victim was transported by ambulance to Hackensack University Medical Center with a non-life threatening head injury.
bright colors easier to see
The driver of the vehicle involved stayed at the scene and was cooperating with police investigators. It appeared as though the pedestrian was in a marked crosswalk at the time of the incident; a light rain was falling at the time. Fair Lawn PD and EMS responded, along with a paramedic unit from The Valley Hospital.
Eight Bergen County employees have filed a federal lawsuit claiming they have been targeted for layoffs because of their previous support of former Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan. John C. Ensslin, The Record Read more
Sheriff says he will run on platform of fiscal responsibility
By Alyana Alfaro | 12/15/15 4:13pm
Bergen County Sheriff Saudino is up for reelection next year.
With the year winding down, eyes around the state are starting to turn to the 2016 election. In Bergen County, November will see Republican Sheriff Michael Saudino working to keep his seat.
This year, the Bergen County Democratic Party won big in the assembly and county races. They retained their majority on the freeholder board and decisively won LD38, a district initially perceived to be one of the most competitive in the state. Now, as Democrats prepare for next year, it is only logical that they will try to maintain that flood of victories and secure Saudino’s seat for the Democratic Party.
However, Saudino, seems to be in the good graces of many of his Democratic colleagues. Last week, he was the only Republican at an event in Paterson where elected officials spoke out against anti-Muslim sentiment. Last year, he made waves when he endorsed Democratic challenger Jim Tedesco for County Executive over incumbent Republican Kathleen Donovan. He later rescinded that endorsement but Donovan eventually lost to Tedesco.
“I think I have shown that I am not a political guy,” Saudino told PolitickerNJ. “I don’t intend to change. I don’t want to be a political guy. I understand that I am in an elected position but I want to keep politics as much as I can out of it. There is no place for politics in law enforcement. I try to maintain that attitude. To me, it is not about the party. It is about who the best people are, who has the best ideas.”
Saudino said he hopes he can win in 2016 despite the number of Democratic wins in the county this year
DECEMBER 15, 2015, 9:11 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 10:18 PM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
ORADELL — Supporters of the historic Blauvelt Mansion breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday night after Mayor Joseph Murray, Jr. announced that the property’s owner, CareOne, would not apply for a demolition permit before the end of the year.
“Mayor-elect [Dianne] Didio and I met with people from CareOne yesterday and they have agreed to continue dialogue with Mayor Didio to find a mutually satisfactory resolution and hopefully to preserve the mansion,” he said. “That conversation will probably commence in January.”
Murray’s statement at least temporarily quelled widespread fears that CareOne, one of the state’s largest nursing home operators, was planning to demolish the 1890s-era structure. Built in the Shingle Style by the architect Fred Wesley Wentworth, who would become most famous for his role in reconstructing Paterson after fire destroyed large portions of the city in 1902, the great house sits like a castle at the top of a sprawling lawn bordering Kinderkamack Road and has become a beloved landmark for many Bergen County residents.
184,038 Number of patients admitted to New Jersey substance abuse treatment facilities for heroin or opioid abuse since 2010.
781 Number of heroin-related deaths in New Jersey in 2014, the fourth straight year the state saw an increase
By Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 15, 2015 at 6:38 AM, updated December 15, 2015 at 7:59 AM
The statistics on New Jersey’s heroin crisis are staggering, and paint a picture of a crisis that spreads far beyond overdoses and deaths.
Below are bullet points on just how far and wide heroin and opioid addiction reaches in the Garden State.
DECEMBER 15, 2015, 11:55 AM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 12:07 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK — Three men were charged Tuesday in a computer hacking and spamming scheme that federal prosecutors in New Jersey said compromised the personal information of 60 million people and netted more than $2 million in profits.
Timothy Livingston, 30, of Boca Raton, Florida, operated a business known as A Whole Lot of Nothing that sent spam emails on behalf of clients including insurance companies and online pharmacies, charging $5 to $9 for each spam email that resulted in a completed transaction, according to authorities.
In addition to Livingston, the indictment charged Tomasz Chmielarz, 32, of Rutherford, New Jersey; and Devin McArthur, 27, of Ellicott City, Maryland, with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Livingston and Chmielarz also were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail.
Another reminder this morning of the dangers and the quick decisions NJ police sometimes have to make. This gun was being held by a man on Route 17 in Rochelle Park. It’s a BB gun, but the Bergen County prosecutor says the orange tip had been painted over. Is there any realistic way for the officers involved not to have believed that was a real gun? The man was shot and is at the hospital
DECEMBER 14, 2015, 7:46 AM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 6:43 AM
BY RICHARD COWEN AND JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Why a Maywood man had a BB gun whose orange tip had been painted black is one of the questions detectives were investigating Monday after the man crashed a car outside the Bergen County Board of Social Services office and was shot by two Rochelle Park police officers.
The shooting occurred at 3:27 a.m. after police were called to the building at 218 Route 17 north by security officers, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said via his Twitter account.
The driver remained inside the Toyota sedan after he crashed it in a driveway, the prosecutor said. The officers’ shots struck him in the lower body.
Molinelli identified the driver as Matthew S. Chaseman, 46, of 14 Marlboro Court in Maywood, and said his injuries did not appear to require surgery.
Chaseman was being treated Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center. The officers were not injured in the incident, which delayed operations at the Social Services office for several hours.
As of late Monday afternoon, authorities had not provided a detailed explanation of what had prompted the shots, which also shattered the rear window on the driver’s side of the car.
A Teaneck couple who identified themselves as Chaseman’s parents pulled into the driveway of their home shortly before 3:30 p.m.
The woman said she had called the hospital. “He’s going to be fine,” she said. “We’re not at all concerned.”
DECEMBER 14, 2015, 11:29 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 6:33 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
One of North Jersey’s oldest shopping centers, formerly known as Bergen Mall and reborn as The Outlets at Bergen Town Center, is preparing for another major makeover.
The Paramus shopping center’s owner is planning an expansion — reportedly to add a level above the existing center — to meet demand for space at the mall, which has benefited in recent years from the success of its off-price and outlet tenants, the fastest-growing category in apparel retailing.
Urban Edge Properties, the public company that owns the mall, expects to invest as much as $130 million in a 200,000-square-foot addition to The Outlets at Bergen Town Center, according to a recent financial filing by the company. That would make the project similar in size to the last renovation and expansion of the mall in 2006, and would increase its size by about 20 percent.
The proposal is a sign of the strength of the North Jersey retail market, and particularly Paramus. The planned revamp would be the latest example of malls responding to pressure to constantly evolve as they face the challenge of online commerce and changing shopping patterns.
Urban Edge has revealed some details about the project in public financial documents, and in meetings with analysts, but has not yet submitted plans to Paramus. Those familiar with the project said Urban Edge plans to add a third retail level over part of the existing shopping center, the section of the mall that houses the majority of its stores and the parking deck. One source said the expansion could be larger than 200,000 square feet, and possibly as big as 500,000 square feet.
Bergen Town Center is 1.2 million square feet. It is divided into two separate sections — the parcel west of Forest Avenue, which is a traditional enclosed mall with a parking deck and a parking lot bordered by a strip of additional stores, and the area east of Forest Avenue, which includes freestanding stores, including a Lowe’s and an REI store that provides gear for camping and hiking.
The enclosed mall portion was 99.9 percent occupied as of the end of September, according to Urban Edge’s third-quarter earnings report.
