Former Tick Tock Diner manager sentenced to 8 years in murder plot
September 19, 2014, 3:55 PM Last updated: Friday, September 19, 2014, 11:46 PM
By ABBOTT KOLOFF and KIBRET MARKOS
staff writers
The Record
Before a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison Friday, Georgios Spyropoulos remained silent while being portrayed as a cold-blooded and remorseless would-be killer who caused his uncle and former boss at the Tick Tock Diner to live in fear, irreparably damaging an iconic Clifton business and splitting apart a once close-knit family.
His sentencing in Superior Court in Paterson ended a public family drama that centered on one of the most famous diners in North Jersey and the plot by its former manager to torture and kill his uncle because of a grudge over money. Spyropoulos declined to make a statement.
He pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to murder Alexandros Sgourdos by trying to hire a hit man who turned out to be a state police officer.
Ridgewood High School Football delivers head coach his 200th Maroon win
SEPTEMBER 19, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2014, 12:31 AM BY JIM MCCONVILLE CORRESPONDENT THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Taking the football field before the season-opening game against Passaic last Friday, Ridgewood High School head coach Chuck Johnson had no idea what to expect. With a team that had little varsity experience, there was a sense of the unknown.
Four quarters later, there was a different sense — one of joy. Not only did the Maroons take care of business, but they accomplished a piece of history in the process.
Their 53-6 trouncing of the Indians was surprising in the margin of victory, but it also marked the 200th win of Johnson’s Ridgewood tenure. In his 31st season at the helm, the coach is now 200-105-1 at RHS and 235-124-2 overall, including his six seasons as head coach at Bogota (1978-83).
“I would have been happy with a 28-0 or 35-7 win,” he said. “To do this was more than I expected. We came out without any injuries, too, which is wonderful.”
That means the Maroons (1-0) will be real close to full strength Saturday when they travel to Fair Lawn for a 1 p.m. kickoff. The Cutters (1-0) had a surprising win of their own last week, 22-0 over Clifton.
Ridgewood senior Mitch Campbell, who sat out last game with an injury, will be back at cornerback and running back. Sophomore Jack Kiernan is likely still a week away, and sophomore Alec Jacobson could also be back in a week.
Boy, 4, makes miraculous recovery at New York hospital after complications from E. Coli
The LaRose family might never know what infected their son, Jake, with the condition that nearly killed him. In an exclusive to the Daily News, Jake’s mom Kimberly discusses her family’s terrifying ordeal.
BY Meredith Engel
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, September 10, 2014, 4:56 PM
Jacob LaRose almost didn’t make it to pre-K.
The little boy, 4, was sidelined for much of the summer after contracting a rare complication from E. Coli.
E. Coli, a bacterium, is naturally present in our large intestines, according to Dr. Bruce Greenwald, one of Jake’s doctors and the chief of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Komansky Center for Children’s Health at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
But Jake must have eaten something that introduced a harmful strain of the bug, E. Coli O157:H7, into his body. A common source is undercooked hamburger meat, Greenwald said. Symptoms caused by this alternative strain of E. Coli include fever and bloody diarrhea.
And to make matters much worse, Jake developed a scary complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome, that nearly killed him.
HUS happens when E. Coli O157:H7 enters the digestive tract and releases toxins, which then get into the bloodstream and destroy red blood cells. Affected patients can go on to develop anemia, low platelets and kidney complications. It affects about 1 to 3 out of every 100,000 patients.
Jake’s mother, Kimberly LaRose, is still unsure just how her son, as well as 2-year-old daughter Hayden, came into contact with the bug. Both Hayden and Jake fell ill with diarrhea in March, but when their pediatrician noted how sick Jake looked, the family took him straight to the ER.
They didn’t leave until Memorial Day weekend.
Jake initially was treated at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey, near his home in Clifton. Three days after entering the hospital, he was transferred to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center because doctors realized he not only had E. Coli, but HUS, which caused his kidneys to fail. Jake was put on continuous dialysis.
Foreclosures prompt lawsuits against debt collectors
AUGUST 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2014, 1:21 AM BY RICHARD NEWMAN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
* Homeowners challenging lenders’ right to collect
Seven years after the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market, New Jersey continues to be a hotbed of home repossessions by lenders, resulting in reams of foreclosure-fraud and improper-debt-collection complaints that mainly target intermediaries known as mortgage servicers.
Fort Lee homeowner Eun Ju Song, who was notified last year that he was in default on his loan and is facing foreclosure, claims mortgage companies botched transfers of ownership rights to the mortgage he signed in 2006 and forged documents to try to fix the problem. In a federal lawsuit filed in Newark in May against Bank of America and the mortgage servicer Green Tree Servicing, he claimed that they haven’t shown they have any legal right to collect.
“With no properly recorded owner of the plaintiff’s mortgage, there is no one or entity entitled to enforce the conditions of the mortgage obligation,” the complaint says.
Jerry K. Wong of Clifton filed a lawsuit in May against Green Tree, which for the past couple of years has been one the most prolific foreclosure filers in the state. Wong accuses Green Tree, based in St. Paul, Minn., and one of its subcontractors of misrepresenting themselves as creditors when trying to collect on his loan, which went into default in late 2012. Such practices are a violation of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, according to the lawsuit, which seeks $500,000 in statutory and other damages.
Green Tree did not respond to requests for comment.
In West Milford, homeowner Paul Onder has been in a stand-off with the Utah-based debt collector Select Portfolio Services for four years over the same question: Who owns the mortgage? He said he hasn’t made a payment on his $450,000 debt consolidation loan since 2010.
“They want me to pay money? Where is that money going?” he said Wednesday in an interview.
SPS could not be reached for comment.
Disputes like these could multiply in the months ahead as the numbers of new residential foreclosure filings continue to rise. New filings in New Jersey in the 12 months ended June 30 climbed 38 percent, to 47,534 filings from 34,347 the previous 12 months, according to the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts in Trenton.
In the year ended June 30, 2012, there were 12,341 foreclosures filed.
Foreclosure filings have implications for borrowers’ credit history. Realtor.com says a foreclosure will reduce a credit score 100 to 300 points and will remain on the borrower’s record for seven years.
Statistics from the state Department of Banking and Insurance show that loan servicers Wells Fargo, Green Tree, Seterus and Nationstar Mortgage have racked up the biggest numbers of foreclosure filings. Wells Fargo and its affiliates made the most filings by far, with a combined 1,770 new foreclosure filings in the second quarter.
“The trend we are seeing with regard to foreclosure filings in New Jersey is consistent with what the Mortgage Bankers Association reported in their latest National Delinquency Survey,” Kevin Friedlander, a Wells Fargo spokesman, said in an email.
AUGUST 30, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2014, 1:21 AM BY JAMES M. O’NEILL STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
After more than a year of study, United Water has decided to develop a small hydroelectric power plant at the Dundee Dam to produce enough power to supply 1,000 homes.
The company will seek bids from hydropower developers to build turbines and run the facility at the dam, which stretches across the Passaic River from Garfield to Clifton.
United Water, a co-owner of the dam, would sign a multiyear lease with the winning hydropower company. The hydropower company would then collect the revenue generated by selling the electricity to the regional grid. The company could also receive financial clean energy credits from the state.
“This is a great environmental sustainability story,” said Steve Goudsmith, a United Water spokesman. “We believe this is not only an untapped renewable resource but attractive to hydro developers,” said Goudsmith.
The facility would become one of only a handful of hydroelectric facilities in New Jersey and mesh with Governor Christie’s goal of generating 70 percent of the state’s electricity through clean sources — such as wind, solar and hydro — by 2050.
JULY 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014, 1:21 AM BY LINDA MOSS STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
* Real estate developer in North Jersey says make laws fair
NEW BRUNSWICK — Calling current liquor laws outdated and inequitable, members of the commercial real estate industry are working to reform the process in a way that won’t penalize business owners who already have a license, which in some cases can cost millions of dollars.
“The license holders are the beneficiaries of the monopoly,” George Jacobs, a principal of Clifton-based Jacobs Enterprises Inc., told an audience of about 100 real estate officials Wednesday. “We’re trying figure out compensation schemes where these guys will not be hurt, but economic development can be stimulated.”
Jacobs was part of a panel that the New Jersey chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate trade group, held at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
Jacobs, who presented a 30-page report on restaurant-consumption liquor licenses in New Jersey in 2011 at the meeting, outlined what the industry is doing to bring change to liquor-license laws. He also explained why the status quo poses challenges to developers, supermarkets and restaurateurs.
“The law breeds corruption, inefficiency, delay and costs,” he said.
Tick Tock regulars say ex-manager’s guilty plea won’t hurt diner
JULY 14, 2014, 6:49 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JULY 14, 2014, 11:27 PM BY ANDREW WYRICH STAFF WRITER
It has hosted governors and members of Congress, and even a president’s daughter. A neon beacon luring hungry motorists and regulars day and night, the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton somehow stands apart even in a state where diners are treasured not as kitsch, but as culture.
It’s also where a disgruntled manager mulled a plot to kill his boss with a couple of newfound pals. Georgios Spyropoulos, 47, the diner’s former manager, reversed an earlier not-guilty plea to admit in a Paterson courtroom that he had orchestrated the ill-fated plot to rob |and kill his boss, who also is his wife’s uncle.
As the news of his guilty plea spread on Monday, longtime Tick Tock patrons said not even a lurid murder plot could tarnish their beloved diner.
“There are bad people everywhere,” said Rodney Cauthen, 42, of Bloomfield. “If you don’t go to a place because of their management, you’d have to cross a lot of places off your list.”
Cauthen said that it’s all sad, of course, but he’s gratified that the former manager confessed.
He said the Tick Tock’s food and atmosphere are the draw that makes him a regular.
“Of the few diners my wife and I go to, this one is definitely one of our favorites,” Cauthen said.
Todd Knowlden, a 46-year-old East Rutherford man who was entering the diner with his family, said he believed justice was being served when he heard of the plea.
Summer on hold for North Jerseyans struggling to rebuild their Shore homes
JULY 5, 2014, 11:52 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2014, 11:57 PM BY KATHLEEN LYNN STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
Almost two years after 2½ feet of stormwater surged into Michael Prezioso’s Ortley Beach vacation home, the place is still gutted and unusable. His flood insurance policy, Prezioso estimates, would cover only about 60 percent of the cost of repairing the house and replacing its contents.
In any case, he doesn’t want to spend anything on repairs until he can elevate the house — an expense, he says, he can’t afford.
DON SMITH/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Clifton resident Michael Prezioso’s second home is at Ortley Beach. “It would cost me $200,000 to bring it back,” he said.
“I really don’t know what I’m doing,” said Prezioso, who lives in Clifton. “It would cost me $200,000 to bring it back. I’m in limbo right now.”
Like Prezioso, many North Jerseyans who own beach homes have had a difficult time since Superstorm Sandy slammed into the shoreline in the fall of 2012. Some have spent tens of thousands to repair their homes; others have been unable to afford repairs, and their homes are still out of use.
Owners of second homes understand that their losses don’t compare to the destruction or devastation of a primary home, which so many suffered in New Jersey. But many vacation-home owners have deep family ties to the Shore. They tell stories of childhoods spent crammed into their grandparents’ or parents’ bungalows and remember afternoons at the beach and evenings of miniature golf with their own children. They mourn the loss of those beach experiences and wonder when they’ll be able to return to their homes.
JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM BY CHRISTOPHER DE VINCK THE RECORD
Christopher de Vinck is the language arts supervisor at Clifton High School in New Jersey. His 13th book is “Moments of Grace” (Paulist Press).
LET’S CREATE a national program called “No Child Left behind,” and flood the schools with standardized tests. Let’s change the name and call it “Race to the Top.” Let’s put kids in uniforms. Let’s increase the school day. Let’s pay teachers less money. Let’s pay teachers more money. Let’s create charter schools. Let’s create schools just for boys. Let’s create schools just for girls. Let’s have kids pray in school. Let’s create common core standards. Let’s blame the college teacher-education programs. Let’s blame the teachers. Let’s blame the parents. Let’s give the governors and the business community the keys to the schools. Let’s flood the schools with technology. Let’s call schools boring. Let’s blame the curriculum.
Don’t you see how foolish we have been? Don’t you see that all of these initiatives are focused on the politics of education and not education? Don’t you realize that none of these attempts has made any difference in the education of children for the past 40 years?
Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card), the average reading scores for 17-year-olds today is not significantly different from the scores in 1971.
For the past 43 years our nation has been dodging the real reasons why our system of education has been stagnant.
North Jersey police retirees cash in while lawmakers stall
JUNE 8, 2014, 11:03 PM LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014, 12:00 AM BY LINH TAT AND MELISSA HAYES STAFF WRITERS THE RECORD PAGES: 1 2 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE
In the last three months alone, North Jersey taxpayers have been put on the hook for $1.5 million in payouts to eight police officers — including five chiefs — to cover thousands of hours in unused sick, vacation and compensatory time.
Some of the payouts include:
Vincent Caruso, Lodi: $342,381
Thomas Johnson, Elmwood Park: $228,141
Arthur O’Keefe, Englewood: $182,542
Gary Giardina, Clifton: $134,000
Frank Papapietro, New Milford: $158,000
Matthew Paz, Passaic: $100,000*
*Acting chief, city figures are estimated
The recent payouts approved in Bergen and Passaic counties are just the latest examples of a system that critics say is out of control, and a burden on taxpayers. In fact, some municipalities have been forced to borrow millions to make the payments. The Record has reported on six-figure payouts from at least a half-dozen other North Jersey public employees, including school administrators, in recent years. And there are more to come.
Indeed, these perks have become a rite of passage for some retiring public employees — Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso is getting $342,381, for instance — and other longtime workers still on the job, despite repeated criticism from Governor Christie and fiscal watchdogs who have called for the benefit to be repealed entirely.
“These six-figure payouts are forcing other people to go without,” said Jerry Cantrell, president of Common Sense Institute of New Jersey, a non-partisan research-and-education non-profit that receives support from individuals, private foundations and businesses. “If those dollars weren’t being expended on these things, they could be going toward legitimate purposes, like fixing potholes.”
State lawmakers have been unable — or unwilling — to strike a deal and get a handle on the substantial payouts. And without comprehensive, statewide reform, local officials have been left to negotiate a solution with employees on their own. So far, those efforts have come piecemeal and vary from town to town. In the end, it means the payouts keep coming.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/north-jersey-police-retirees-cash-in-while-lawmakers-stall-1.1031530#sthash.al6KqD0W.dpuf
Photo from Bergen County Prosecutors office Kenny Frias, right, and his girlfriend Jeanessa Torres
Glen Rock cops make arrest in alleged credit-card fraud ring at gas stations
MAY 23, 2014, 6:28 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014, 7:22 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
A Lodi man has been charged with multiple offenses following a four-month Glen Rock police investigation into an alleged credit-card fraud ring that skimmed victims’ information at local gas stations.
Kenny Frias, 42, is charged with money laundering, trafficking in personal information of another and fraudulent use of credit card, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
Frias is allegedly part of a ring that supplied gas station attendants with skimming devices to fraudulently obtain credit card information from victims and then used that information to make purchases, mostly of alcohol, at various locations throughout the state. The alcohol then allegedly was sold at the Phebe Night Club and Restaurant in Jersey City, where Frias is a manager.Frias was arrested Wednesday by Glen Rock police in Clifton and remained Friday in the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail without a 10 percent bonding option.
Police do not know how many gas stations, stores or victims were caught up in the alleged scheme, though they estimate the number of victims could be in the hundreds or thousands, Glen Rock police Detective James Calaski said. The investigation is ongoing.
“If suspects are using stolen credit cards in my jurisdiction, they’re usually doing it in other jurisdictions as well,” Calaski said.
Police searched Frias’ residence and place of business Wednesday with a warrant and seized a credit card reading and writer device, fraudulent credit cards, false identification and more than $75,000 in cash.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/glen-rock-cops-make-arrest-in-alleged-credit-card-fraud-ring-at-gas-stations-1.1022721#sthash.oryO9zOz.dpuf
R.H.S. baseball: Veteran bats lead the way for Ridgewood
APRIL 18, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2014, 12:31 AM BY MATTHEW BIRCHENOUGH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
ALLENDALE — The first week of the season went according to plan for the Ridgewood High School baseball team, the No. 6 squad in The Record preseason Top 25: three games, three wins by a combined score of 33-14 over Hackensack, Clifton and Ramapo.
Senior catcher Nick Coppola was involved in a pair of run-scoring rallies for Ridgewood in Monday’s Big North Freedom Division baseball game at Northern Highlands.
Since then, things haven’t been so easy for the Maroons, who dropped three of their next four and dipped to No. 14 in the rankings.
“We’ve been struggling, and the last couple games have been tough ones for us,” RHS head coach Kurt Hommen said following Monday’s 8-5 loss at Northern Highlands.
Making the recent troubles even tougher to swallow is that each of the three losses have come against Big North Freedom rivals — Indian Hills, Paramus and Northern Highlands — dropping Ridgewood’s record within the division to 2-3.
“We’re going through a bit of a rough stretch,” said senior shortstop Nico Symington, who is committed to play at Tulane. “We just have some things we need to clean up.”
APRIL 19, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014, 1:21 AM BY ANDREW WYRICH STAFF WRITER THE RECORD
* Nationwide flow of venture capital isn’t washing ashore here
A new report on Friday said funding for start-ups in New Jersey dropped sharply in the first quarter, falling 78 percent from the period a year ago and continuing a trend that began in the second quarter last year.
In contrast, funding for start-ups nationally reached levels not seen since 2001.
According to a MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, investors funneled $19.6 million in funding to five New Jersey companies in the first three months of this year, down from more than $80.2 million that went to eight companies in the 2013 quarter.
Two North Jersey companies were among the five that received funding. The Clifton-based software maker Caktus Inc., which designs software that tracks a person’s water intake, received seed funding. LiveU Ltd. of Hackensack, which develops technology for live broadcasting, received later-stage funding. The amount invested into both companies was not disclosed in the report.
“The $19.6 million invested is the lowest quarter in MoneyTree Report history, and the funding in New Jersey continues to trend downward in recent quarters,” Brett Harrington, a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers Emerging Companies Services, said in a statement. “Hopefully, the overall increase that has been seen nationally will positively impact New Jersey in Q2.”
Yearlong slide
The money venture capitalists invested in New Jersey-based start-ups and the number of companies that got funding have declined steadily since the second quarter of 2013. In the third quarter last year, the roughly $20 million invested in 11 companies was the lowest amount invested in New Jersey in 15 years, according to the report.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/tight-state-for-start-ups-1.999421#sthash.pQvL7Ybe.dpuf
Pressure is mounting for Trenton to reform public employee payouts
APRIL 6, 2014, 10:35 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2014, 11:33 PM
BY LINH TAT
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
It’s a practice that’s unheard of these days in the private sector — carrying over days, weeks, even months of unused leave time and collecting a hefty check at retirement. Yet it’s common for public employees, who continue to cash in at taxpayers’ expense.By the numbers
Municipalities with the highest |
payout liabilities of unused sick |
and vacation time:
Bergen County
Hackensack $18,875,368
Fort Lee $7,922,232
Ridgewood $6,492,123
Englewood $5,656,052
Teaneck $4,077,603
Passaic County
Clifton $14,788,633
Paterson $12,756,523
Passaic $5,387,942
Wayne $1,564,929
Bloomingdale $748,587
Source: New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 2011 data
A series of six-figure payouts that have forced towns to borrow millions of dollars have placed a renewed focus on the perk afforded to public workers for decades.
As the cases have mounted, the Legislature has yet to strike a deal for statewide reform. It’s a tug of war between those who want to scrap the benefit entirely and others who want to preserve it for existing longtime workers. Somewhere in the middle are town officials who are left to make up their own rules and negotiate with unions, while struggling to keep property taxes in line.
A 2 percent cap on property tax levy increases has put the pressure on towns to stop the payouts. At the same time, a loophole allows them to borrow the money — a quick fix that will pile on years of debt for taxpayers.
Winter runoff adding more than a pinch of salt to North Jersey’s drinking water
APRIL 4, 2014, 4:18 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2014, 11:58 PM
BY JAMES O’NEILL
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
After a profusion of snowstorms forced road crews in New Jersey to spread nearly twice as much salt this past winter than the year before, the snowmelt and spring rains are now washing that salt into wetlands and rivers, where it has infiltrated the local drinking water supply and could harm the region’s vegetation and wildlife.
So much salt has been making its way into the water supply that customers of a number of water utilities in the Northeast, including United Water, which serves North Jersey, have complained that their water tastes salty. “That’s a good marker that we’ve had a tough winter here,” said Howard Woods Jr., a private water industry consultant.
The Passaic Valley Water Commission, which provides drinking water to Paterson, Passaic, Clifton and other towns, has also seen sodium levels rise — at one point it was three times normal levels, said Joe Bella, the commission’s director. Too much sodium can exacerbate problems for people on low-salt diets for hypertension and other conditions.
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