HE KILLS A MAN, TALKS AND WALKS
Charged with numerous serious crimes, he wiggles away with suspended sentences
Friday, October 17, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE and PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

A Jersey City man who pleaded guilty to killing a man and to drug-dealing charges in Hudson County last year, and more recently to burglary and criminal restraint in Atlantic County, has spent only 11 days in jail. Why? Because, according to sources, 32-year-old Angel Santos is an informant, and apparently a very good one.

Santos was arrested on Feb. 24, 2003 in Jersey City and charged with murdering Euclides Acosta, 29, in the Heights with one shot to his head fired at close range in front of his home, officials said. Police said Santos suspected Acosta, a registered sex offender, was sexually abusing a relative.

At the time, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio was quoted in The Jersey Journal as saying, "We cannot condone someone taking on the role of judge, jury and executioner."

But, court records show, when the case went to the courts, prosecutors dropped most of the charges and Santos pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a second-degree crime that carries a sentence of five to 10 years. Officials also agreed to have him sentenced as if the killing were a third-degree crime with a range of only three to five years.

After getting all those breaks, on June 8, 2007, state Superior Court Judge Fred Theemling, sitting in Jersey City, sentenced Santos to three years in prison and then suspended the sentence, court papers say.


ANOTHER BREAK


Further, three weeks before the killing, Santos had been charged with drug possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school and three related offenses, court papers show.

Prosecutors dropped all but the "1,000 feet charge" and, on the same day Santos was sentenced for manslaughter, Theemling sentenced him to three years on the drug charges and suspended that sentence, too.

In total, Santos has spent 11 days in the Hudson County jail after his arrests and before being bailed out. He has not served one day of his sentences for the crimes.

Reached by phone and asked about all the suspended sentences he received following guilty pleas to serious crimes, Santos said he had "no comment."

When asked the same question, DeFazio said: "There are law enforcement goals that we believe have to be accomplished. It's not a question of being happy with the result or not, as far as the sentencing goes. That's not what the measure should be."


NEIGHBORS UNAWARE

Interviewed by The Jersey Journal recently, a number of residents in Santos' Lexington Avenue neighborhood didn't seem to know his background.

"That's crazy," Ahmed Mohamed, who lives across the street from Santos, said when told of Santos' history. "That's some deep stuff."

A woman hanging laundry on her balcony said Santos is her upstairs neighbor. Asked if she knew he had pleaded guilty to killing a man, she said she didn't want to get involved.

Philip Phung, who lives two doors from Santos, said: "I would be very worried if a killer lived there . Everyone would be nervous."

According to Cathie Seidman, a criminal justice professor at Hudson County Community College, it is not necessarily unusual for a prosecutor to request a suspended sentence in return for information or testimony - as in some high-profile Mafia cases.

"The prosecutor has the most discretion in the criminal justice system," Seidman said. "Prosecutors often use the tool of making a deal with the defendant in order that the defendant promises to testify truthfully at the trial of another."

GOIN' TO COURT


The state Attorney General's Office has confirmed that Santos is scheduled to testify in an upcoming case, against a Jersey City bounty hunter, Adel Mikhaeil, who is charged along with two former county sheriff's officers and the commander of the county prosecutor's homicide squad in an alleged scam involving bail bonds.

Also, DeFazio said Santos testified in a murder case in which there was a conviction and he also gave a sworn statement in another murder case.

But DeFazio refused to discuss Santos' relationship with his office.

"There are law enforcement areas that I'm not going to discuss," DeFazio said. "These are difficult decisions that law enforcement is forced to make."


MORE CHARGES


In Santos' latest reported brush with the law, on Nov. 21, 2006, he was charged with kidnapping, criminal restraint, simple assault and burglary. Once again, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges and the judge suspended his two sentences, seven years for burglary and five years for criminal restraint.

According to Atlantic County officials, Santos was accused of going to the Pleasantville home of Gerardo Ortez, 20, saying he was trying to find Ortez's friend, Jose Correa, who allegedly skipped bail.

Santos and two others began searching the home illegally after Ortez's wife let them in, officials said. When Ortez arrived home, he was handcuffed, forced into the men's car, beaten and told to show them where Correa lived, officials said.

Prosecutors alleged that after pointing out Correa's Egg Harbor City home, Ortez was pushed out of the vehicle and told to walk home, and that when he got home, he called Correa, who said the men forced their way in and stole about $2,000.

In a recent interview with The Jersey Journal, Atlantic County Assistant Prosecutor Murray Talasnik said: "There are other persons (involved) who Santos has agreed to testify against. (Santos') full criminal history was known to us and the judge (when) this was negotiated."

Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Michael Donio didn't seem happy about the sentence, according to coverage by the Atlantic City Press.

"Because of your record, you could be looking at more than 20 years in state prison," Donio warned Santos at his sentencing, according to the Press. "Basically, you better keep to the straight and narrow."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Cops: Shopped
in parked cars

A Jersey City man was arrested when a cop spotted him trying to break into a vehicle Saturday afternoon in Jersey City, police said.

A police officer on foot patrol saw Jose Rivera, 35, attempt to break the back window of a Jeep parked on Seventh Street, cops said, adding that a GPS unit was in plain view inside.

Rivera has been charged with criminal attempt, burglary and receiving stolen property, cops said. Witnesses told police they saw Rivera breaking into another vehicle on 10th Street, looking into parked cars, and walking in and out of yards on Seventh Street, police said.

In a search of Rivera, police found three credit cards and a cell phone that belong to other people, cops said. Police said Rivera also had three tennis rackets and a pair of Nautica pajamas.

TOM SHORTELL

Mixed reaction
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Montgomery Gardens resident Geneva Jenkins thinks knocking down her home is a great idea.

"Hurry up, so I can get my money and move," said Jenkins when told of plans to replace the complex with low-rise, mixed-income buildings.

Jenkins said she's had mold in her apartment and her ceiling collapsed. "Too long," she huffed about her three years at the complex.

But resident Chimere Bell, 25, isn't convinced there's greener grass elsewhere. She blames her well-to-do next-door neighbors for shoving her out.

"There's violence everywhere. They're doing it (the new plan) because of the Beacon," Bell said, adding that the housing vouchers residents are to receive will not last forever.

KEN THORBOURNE

Planning transformation for Montgomery Gardens
Mixed income low-rise seen as solution to public housing
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Crime-ridden and too expensive to maintain, the Montgomery Gardens public housing complex in Jersey City is going the way of the dodo bird, according to city officials.

Meanwhile, its rich neighbor to the west - the Beacon condo complex at the old Jersey City Medical Center - could have a big say in how the six-acre site is transformed.

Before the year's out, the city's Housing Authority hopes to select a developer to replace the six-tower, 549-unit complex along Montgomery Street with a low-rise, mixed-income development, said JCHA Executive Director Maria Maio.

The developer would be part of a team that would also include tenants. A fully developed plan would be ready six to nine months after the developer is picked, she said.

Four developers have tossed their hats into the ring for the job, including Manhattan-based Metrovest Equities, the developer that's renovating the 1,200-unit market-rate complex at the old medical center, Maio said.

Asked if proximity and obvious self-interest gives Metrovest a leg up on the competition, Maio insisted, "Absolutely not."

Maio and Metrovest president George Filopoulos batted down rumors Metrovest was told radical changes at Montgomery Gardens were in the offing before the developer decided more than six years ago to sink $400 million into the nation's largest historic renovation effort.

The decision to adopt a new course at Montgomery Gardens came in June, Maio said, when the authority's board voted to seek a developer, offer vouchers to families who want to leave, and agreed not to refill emptied units.

No one is being asked to move and leases are being renewed, she said. So far, 100 families have requested Section 8 vouchers and about 50 apartments are empty.

Filopoulos, whose proposal for the site includes a large supermarket, added, "The success of the Beacon has allowed this process to be undertaken."

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said the old model of high-rise, low-income public housing, bred "social ills, with crime being the big complaint," adding: "Our Jersey City Housing Authority has . done this successfully in Curries Woods, at Lafayette Gardens, and are in the process at the A. Harry Moore Housing Complex."

The goal of the new development is an even split between market-rate, public housing, and moderate-income housing, Maio said.

About 40 percent of displaced tenants would return to the new development, Maio said. Others would receive Section 8 vouchers.

The other developers vying to build the new Montgomery Gardens are: Boston-based Community Builders; Community Investment Strategies of Bordentown, and the Michaels Development Company of Marlton.

Sought in early-morning assault on his ex-wife
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City man entered his ex-wife's apartment, kicked in her locked bedroom door and punched her in the back of the head early Saturday morning, police reports said.

A 46-year-old Jersey City woman told police her ex-husband, Mustapha Goolcharran, called at 11:45 p.m. Friday while she was sleeping and said he wanted to speak with her.

The woman went back to sleep, but was awakened 30 minutes later when Goolcharran, who rents a room in her basement, let himself in with a key to her Danforth Avenue apartment, according to police. He then kicked in the bedroom door, grabbed the woman by the hair and punched her in the back of the head, causing her to black out, the report said.

When she woke up, the woman asked Goolcharran for ice for her head and water, but Goolcharran threatened to choke her if she didn't stop making noise, according to the report.

An upstairs tenant knocked on the door and threatened to call the police, police said, adding that Goolcharran fled in a 1995 silver Toyota Rav4.

Goolcharran, 45, is sought on charges of criminal mischief, simple assault and domestic violence. Authorities have issued a temporary restraining order against Goolcharran, police said.

Woman's purse,
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
cellphone taken

by two juveniles

A 12-year-old Jersey City boy stole a cell phone from a woman, while a girl, believed to be not much older, snatched the woman's purse Friday night, police said.

A Jersey City woman, 19, was walking north on Kennedy Boulevard near Lembeck Avenue around 11:30 p.m. when she was approached by a group of juveniles, cops said. The 12-year-old asked to use her phone, and when he was rebuffed, a girl of about 14 demanded the woman's money.

The 12-year-old then grabbed the woman's cell phone and the girl grabbed her purse, cops said, adding that the group fled east on Pearsall Avenue.

While riding through the area with police, the woman spotted the boy near the corner of Peace Drive and Hope Lane at 12:15 a.m., reports said. Police arrested him and contacted his mother, police said. The cell phone was not recovered.

Aunt: 'Young are dying quicker than old people'
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

For grieving family members gathered at the home of Adrell Bennett, it did not matter that he was an alleged gang member or that he was being hunted by the law.

"He was my first nephew, and he was my world," Bennett's aunt, Devin Simpson, said through tears as she sat with family members on the porch of his Wade Street home yesterday afternoon. "I loved him like I love my three."

Gesturing to the Greenville neighborhood, Simpson said: "There is nothing out here for the kids except to get in trouble - their gangs. It's sad because they don't even know what gangs are, they're babies. The young are dying quicker than old people."

Simpson said Bennett was born in Jersey City and she proudly displayed a photograph of him wearing a white tuxedo for the Bayonne High School prom in May.

"Pay attention to the things your kids are doing," she said as a family member came from the house and gave her something to wipe her eyes. "Talk to the kids."

MICHAELANGELO CONTE

SHOOT & KILL A WANTED 'GANGSTER'
Gunmen burst into apartment, suspect is target: cops
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A teen being sought in a large street gang probe would be alive if police had gotten to him first. Instead, he was gunned down yesterday and died in a bathtub in Jersey City, officials said.

Adrell Bennett, 19, of Wade Street near Martin Luther King Drive, was shot dead when at least two people forced their way into an apartment at Arlington and Myrtle avenues in the Greenville neighborhood just after midnight, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. Investigators think Bennett was targeted.

A resident of the building said a teenage girl screamed, "They killed my cousin!" after the gunfire took the life of the man whose photograph was published Saturday in The Jersey Journal. Authorities said last week Bennett was a gang member with the "52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips."

The building resident, who chose not to give her name, said she woke to the sound of gunshots, then heard an apartment door slam, and then what sounded like two people running down the stairs.

Bennett was at the apartment with five teenage girls and an 18-year-old man when someone came to the door, DeFazio said. The man was recognized and the door was partially opened when he and at least one other man forced their way in, DeFazio said.

Homicide investigators believe more than one gun was fired, DeFazio said, adding that Bennett did not appear to have been armed.

The prosecutor said the murder "may be related to his gang affiliation, but we are still trying to determine the motive. It does not appear to be a robbery at this point."

No one else in the apartment was hurt, DeFazio said.

Homicide detectives think Bennett may have wound up in the bathtub while trying to run from his attackers. The man who knocked on the door has been identified, but police have not located him, DeFazio said.

The building resident said everyone in the apartment was hysterical when she walked in after the shooting. She said the other man in the apartment ran up the fire escape when the intruders broke in, but that he had returned.

She was told that Bennett was having his hair braided when the man came to the door and that one of the girls went to the door and recognized him, but Bennett "was saying don't let anybody in because he thought it was the cops. They said he told her to move away from the door, and he looked, and then he opened the door."

Bennett was being sought on numerous drug charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of school property, DeFazio said.

Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Squad at 201-915-1345.

Man wanted in gang probe gunned down in Jersey City
by Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
Monday October 13, 2008, 2:12 PM

A Jersey City teen being sought as part of an investigation into street gangs was gunned down in an apartment in the city's Greenville section this morning, police said.


Adrell Bennett, 19, of Wade Street, was fatally shot after at least two people forced their way into the apartment, at Arlington and Myrtle avenues, just after midnight, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. His body was found in the bathtub.

Bennett was at the apartment with five teenage girls and an 18-year-old man when someone came to the door, DeFazio said. The man was recognized and the door was partially opened when he and at least one other man forced their way in, DeFazio said.

Homicide investigators believe more than one gun was fired, DeFazio said, adding that they have no reason to believe Bennett fired a weapon.

The prosecutor said the murder "may be related to his (Bennett's) gang affiliation but we are still trying to determine the motive. It does not appear to be a robbery at this point."

Homicide detectives think Bennett may have wound up in the bathtub while trying to run away from his attackers, or perhaps collapsed in the tub afterward. The man who knocked on the door has been identified but police have not yet located him, DeFazio said, adding that the apartment appears to have been connected to one of the girls present.

No one in the apartment has been charged with a crime.

Bennett was being sought on numerous drug charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of school property, DeFazio said. The victim was one of four men still being sought as part of an investigation centered on Crips street gang members operating in Jersey City's Booker T. Washington housing complex.

A total of 13 adults and six juveniles were arrested between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 in the probe, conducted by local, county, state and federal law enforcement. The sweep netted five adults and four juveniles who have been charged in four Jersey City homicides, according to the prosecutor's office.

Still being sought at part of the round up are:

? Rashawn McFadden, 19, of Pearsall Avenue, who is an alleged member of the 52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips and is wanted on numerous drug distribution charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school.

? Jamal O'Neal, 24, of the Booker T. Washington complex, who is wanted on numerous drug charges, including distribution of heroin within 500 feet of public property and 1,000 feet of a school.

? Travis Booker, 19, of the Booker T. Washington complex, who is wanted on the charges of aggravated assault, several firearm offenses and a warrant for a violation of probation.

Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the remaining three suspects at large in the gang investigation is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Gang Task Force at (201) 915-1229.

They are given section 8 when they leave so any place that accepts section 8 that they can find.

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They were in there late teens so the curfew probably wouldnt apply to them the curfew is for 16 and under. Also this happened at 11:30pm so even is they were 16 they would have just made curfew since it is at 11:30pm.

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He might have been visiting from another country since it says he was carrying his passport and identification papers.

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My guess is they get people coming from the 24 hour store.

Mugged by five in Downtown

A 39-year-old man was assaulted by a gang of five in a Downtown mugging Wednesday night, Jersey City police reports said.

The Bright Street resident told police he was at Newark Avenue and Barrow Street at 11:30 p.m., when he was punched and robbed by two men and three women in their late teens, reports said.

They fled with his jacket that had $1,000 in cash, two cell phones, and identification papers that included a passport, reports said.

CHARLES HACK

Quote:

The Newport stop does have a elevator, just not Grove st.

This easily could be a gang initiation. The Bloods are known to slash random people in the face as one of there initiations. Also October is a big month for them to recruit, Halloween and Mischief Night being the days they use the most.

Western Slope is just a neighborhood with in a neighborhood, like Van Vorst or Paulus Hook are still Downtown. Its still in the Heights.

This isnt in Westside its in the Heights near the North Bergen border.

Robbers pistol-whip resistant victim
Friday, September 26, 2008

A Jersey City man was pistol-whipped for his cell phone Wednesday evening.

A 29-year-old Kennedy Boulevard resident told police shortly before 11 p.m. that two men mugged him on Marcy Avenue, authorities said.

He said he was on his way home when two men approached him, flashed a black handgun and demanded money and anything else he had, according to police. When he refused to comply, one of the men struck him in the head with a black handgun, reports indicated.

Medics treated the victim for a minor cut to his forehead.

CHARLES HACK

Cops: Man stabs his neighbor
Friday, September 26, 2008

A 23-year-old man suffered a punctured lung when his next-door neighbor stabbed him in the hallway outside their apartments Wednesday evening, reports said.

Mario Manzanal, 59, of Newark Avenue in Jersey City, was charged with aggravated assault and weapons charges, reports said.

Manzanal stabbed the victim at around 9:25 p.m., and then chased him to the stairs, reports said. The victim ran out of the building and onto Kennedy Boulevard, where he found his brother and called the police, reports said.

A witness told police the victim was stabbed with a silver-handled knife as he walked past Manzanal's apartment to reach his own apartment, reports said.

"This guy came out of no place and stabbed (the victim)," the witness said.

CHARLES HACK

Cops cuff alleged carjackers
Friday, September 26, 2008

Sharp-eyed Jersey City plainclothes police arrested three men early yesterday who were riding around in a vehicle they had carjacked Wednesday night, police reports said.

Aaron Connors, 18, of Grand Street, Corey Pridgen, 38, of Catherine Court, and Robert Evans, 18, of Bramhall Avenue were charged with receiving stolen property, reports said.

Cops saw three men in a silver Toyota Corolla, which had been reported stolen in an earlier armed carjacking, in a parking lot at Montgomery Street near Ristaino Drive at 12:37 a.m., reports said. While the officers waited for backup, the car pulled out of the lot and onto Florence Street, reports said. Police followed the car and arrested the trio when the driver parked the car on Fremont Street, reports said.

There was no mention in the police report if the gun allegedly used in the carjacking was recovered.

CHARLES HACK

PLAYING DUMB?
Sentencing delayed as 2 request evaluations
Saturday, September 27, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Two Jersey City brothers who admitted they robbed bingo players at a Downtown church have had their sentencing put off nine times between them, but a judge lost patience yesterday and told one of them to await sentencing in jail.

"To protect the public, he will be in jail until sentenced," said state Superior Court Judge Melvin Kracov at what was supposed to be a sentencing hearing for Victor Morales, 23, and Miguel Morales, 22.

Victor Morales was then handcuffed and led out of court.

Victor and Miguel Morales pleaded guilty in May to the Nov. 19, 2006 armed robbery of $6,000 from Our Lady of Czestochowa Church bingo players, officials said.

Both were out on $100,000 bail and Kracov canceled Victor's bail and ordered the money he posted be returned to his family. He will be sentenced Oct. 31.

The brothers have asked to have their sentencings postponed until they can undergo mental evaluations to determine if they are developmentally challenged, as they contend, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Dill said.

The two have not been evaluated yet, but believe if they are deemed developmentally challenged their sentences may be reduced, Dill said.

Yesterday, Victor Morales' lawyer said his client again hadn't gotten the evaluation because his mother had three heart attacks and he was in Pennsylvania caring for her.

Victor Morales had his sentencing postponed four times, including yesterday. Miguel Morales' sentencing has been put off five times, including yesterday.

Miguel Morales told Kracov his girlfriend's water broke Thursday and she went into labor. The judge rescheduled his sentencing for Tuesday.

"The longer the sentence is put off, the longer the victims feel that justice hasn't been served yet," said Dill.

On the day of the robbery, a handful of bingo players had arrived at the church grammar school, at Luis Munoz Marin Boulevard and Grand Street, when two masked gunmen confronted a 58-year-old woman and she collapsed, police said.

They forced the woman into the building, where they ordered a 68-year-old woman and five others to the floor and took the money, police said.

Victor Morales faces up to eight years in prison and Miguel Morales faces up to 10, Dill said.

The robbers specifically demanded a briefcase containing money that was in a closet, police said. That knowledge led investigators to believe they had inside help. Prosecutors think the inside man is Adrian Santana, 25, of Charles Street. He is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and remains at large, Dill said.

A witness gave police a description of the robbers and a third man who was watching the door, and a description of the getaway car, police said.

Cops found the car parked on Bright Street and saw Juan Ortiz, 22, who matched the description of one of the robbers, get into another car. When the car was pulled over, officers found two guns in the car and $2,338 in cash still wrapped in denominations as they had been at the bingo hall, police said.

Police later connected the Morales brothers to the robbery, officials said.

State killings at 5-year low but urban figures up a bit
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
By RICK HEPP
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The number of murders in New Jersey fell to 381 last year, the lowest statewide total in five years, even as slayings continued to mount in the state's cities.

The so-called "Urban Fifteen" cities catalogued 264 murders - up from 255 the previous year - even though they have less than a quarter of the state's population, according to the annual Uniform Crime Report issued by the State Police yesterday. Essex County recorded the most homicides with 148.

The decrease in the statewide murder total from 427 to 381 came as New Jersey's overall crime rate continued to fall to historically low levels, the report said. There was also a 7 percent drop in the total number of violent crimes, including decreases in reported rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults with a firearm.

"It seems to be that virtually all categories of reported crime have experienced a decrease, and that has to be taken as an encouraging sign," said Wayne Fisher, director of the Police Institute at Rutgers-Newark.

"It's very difficult to point to one thing, if not impossible, and say this is what did it. But we may be seeing the beginning of a return on the measures police departments are taking around the state."

In particular, Fisher pointed to the increased use of visible police patrols in high-crime areas, the greater responsibility and accountability given to officers on the streets, and the push to arrest fugitives as the most likely strategies implemented over the last several years that have had the largest effect.

Those strategies may be on the chopping block in many departments, however, following President Bush's decision this year to reduce by $350 million nationwide the funding for certain federal anti-crime grants. Known as the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, the money pays for local and state drug, gang and fugitive task forces as well as gang prevention efforts, drug courts and prisoner re-entry programs.

Unveiled last year, it seeks to change how police go after gang members, prevent children from falling into the gang life in the first place and help convicts adjust after they leave prison to make sure they don't return to their old routines. It was initiated to address a rise in murders as well as an increase in shootings.

While the number of murders statewide decreased last year, the Uniform Crime Report shows there is still a need to address urban violence. The number of murders in East Orange, Elizabeth, Irvington, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson remained constant, while Camden and Trenton both saw increases in slayings.

The Uniform Crime Report, which compiles statistics from 552 law enforcement agencies, focuses on seven categories of crime: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Confronting robbers,
Monday, September 22, 2008
man is shot in ankle

A 40-year-old Jersey City man told police he was shot in the ankle at the Montgomery Gardens public housing complex Friday night after confronting three men he believed committed a robbery, according to reports.

Responding at 11:37 p.m. to a shooting report, police found the victim sitting on a bench with a gunshot wound to his foot and ankle, reports said.

The Lexington Avenue resident, who was treated at the Jersey City Medical Center, told cops he heard someone calling for help because of a robbery.

He said he tackled one of three men charging out of one of the towers when one of the two other alleged robbers shot him, reports said.

Police found two shell casings near the scene, reports said.

CHARLES HACK

Does it bother anyone else that a retired officer has a key to the property and evidence room?

Arrest teen in shooting of Bayonne man after quarrel
Saturday, September 20, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A 19-year-old Jersey City man was arrested at his home in the Greenville area yesterday and charged with shooting a man in the stomach last month following an argument over a bicycle, police said.

Derrick Stinson, of Fulton and Ocean avenues, was arrested at his house at 7 a.m. and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and weapons offenses, according to police reports.

Stinson was wanted in connection with the shooting of a 29-year-old Bayonne man who was found on the ground in the fetal position in a backyard on Fulton Avenue near Bayside Place on the night of Aug. 6, reports said.

When police arrived at the scene of the shooting they found the victim had blood on his shirt and they found blood and spent 9mm shells in the area, reports said. He was yelling, "I'm shot. Help. I'm shot," reports said.

Police learned that before the shooting the victim had been arguing with two men over a bicycle that was chained to a nearby fence, reports said.

Police were able to develop information on the identity of the two men and a warrant for Stinson's arrest was issued, reports said. When officers served the warrant yesterday morning they found Stinson at home and arrested him in a hallway, reports said.

There are alot of problems with the Greenville area, not all of it is with the residents (but a good amount of it is). I never lived there but as a teen I hung out and slept over there alot because I had family there. There were many times there would be shootings and the police would show up a half hour or more later and sometimes not at all. Most of the shootings in this area never even make the papers. The drug dealers would sell drugs by the cameras the city put up, but it seems like no one really watches them you only hear about them helping arrest someone when they review them after a murder or robbery. I remember there being a huge fight 15-20 people on my families block in the middle of the street. A cop car drives down the street flashes the lights and tells them to stop fighting on the loud speaker never leaving his car. They ignore him and keep fighting but moving toward the sidewalk. As soon as they are out his way the cop just drives away and no other cops come back. There are alot of residents on that block that constantly called the police for the violence and drug dealing, many of them are hard working decent people. Now dont get me wrong most police do there job but it seems greenville has a good amount of the cops that dont fully do there jobs in this city and the city for the most part ignores this area.

An apology and order to keep jail cell clean

Saturday, September 20, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

The story of Gerhard Hofer, the German man who as a result of bad luck, unfortunate timing and inflexible regulations spent a night in jail after failing to buy a $1.90 ticket to ride the Light Rail, elicited apologies and promises of change this week from Hudson County officials.

Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli, who oversees the Jersey City Municipal Court, sent Hofer, who lives in Hoboken, a letter of "sincere apology" stating that he hopes "all associated with the Jersey City Municipal Court will have learned a lesson."

"Bottom line: mistakes were made," Gallipoli wrote, adding he hopes Hofer "will be as forgiving of the mistakes acknowledged here as I am sincerely apologetic for those mistakes having occurred in the first place."

In June, Hofer was issued a summons in Jersey City for failing to pay his Light Rail fare. After trying unsuccessfully to get his court date postponed, Hofer missed his scheduled appearance while visiting Germany and was arrested after he returned to Hoboken.

After spending 17 hours in the Hudson County jail in Kearny, jail officials released him on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day and said he would have to walk to Jersey City to retrieve his wallet and keys. He made it back to Jersey City by borrowing $10 from employees at a nearby warehouse.

Jim Kennelly, a spokesman for Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, said the jail's standard procedure is to offer stranded prisoners bus tickets. He also said the county is looking into centralizing bookings closer to the jail, which would allow released prisoners to get their belongings back immediately.

He said there is no appropriate space for bookings in the jail. As for the possibility of sending prisoners' property along with them to the facility, Kennelly said changing that procedure would be up to the police, not the county.

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey noted that prisoners' belongings aren't locked in the property and evidence room until the day after an arrest and most prisoners are bailed out the same day.

Meanwhile, Hudson County Administrator Abe Antun sent an e-mail to prison officials instructing them to improve the sanitation in the holding cells with 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cleaning and to make sure to help released prisoners claim their property.

Skipping $1.90 fare sent him on a nightmare ride of his life
Friday, September 19, 2008
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It took just the right confluence of bad luck, unfortunate timing and inflexible regulations to cause a hapless German businessman to start his summer with an unpaid $1.90 Light Rail ticket and end it in jail.

But it was that combination - exacerbated perhaps by a smidgen of stubbornness on Gerhard Hofer's part and an equal measure of unhelpfulness from people he encountered - that caused the 40-year-old who moved to Hoboken from Germany in April to share a cell with three other men, a leaking toilet and a horde of flies.

"Nobody's done anything dramatically wrong. Technically, I think people followed the rules," said Hofer, a sales manager at a Jersey City company that imports herbal teas. "But the punishment was just too much in comparison to the actual offense."

The journey began on June 4 when Hofer lost a dollar to a broken ticket machine at the Ninth Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station in Hoboken.

"I didn't try the second machine. I was still fighting the first one when the train came, and I was already late for work," he said. "Sure enough, when I got off at Newport (in Jersey City), there were the traffic police."

Hofer tried to pay the $74 ticket online, but the site asked for a license plate number and he doesn't own a car. He next planned to pay in person. "But then I looked at the ticket and realized that in order to do that you have to plead guilty, and I didn't really feel guilty," he said.

So Hofer decided he'd throw himself on the mercy of the court, offering as his defense the lost dollar, the broken machine and an otherwise stellar ticket-payment record.

The ticket gave him a court date of June 20, which the court postponed to July 19, and then postponed again to Aug. 4, when he would be on vacation in Germany. He called the court for a postponement, but said he was told: "Just pay the fine and you won't have to come to court."

"But I want to go to court and present my case," Hofer said he told the woman, who then hung up.

Hofer sent a letter to the court asking for a postponement and left for Europe. On Aug. 28, he received a letter informing him of a warrant for his arrest.

"I thought I would go in the next day and sort it out, but then I worried the police would be out looking for me," he said.

Then as he walked outside to get a beer, the police drove up to answer a false alarm next door, as he later found out. So he asked the officer for advice on how best to deal with the warrant situation, he said, acknowledging, "Maybe I was as a little naive."

"(The officer) looked at me and said, 'If you make me aware of the fact that there's a warrant out for your arrest then I have to arrest you,'" Hofer said.

So, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 28, Hofer was cuffed and arrested. After a long stop at the Hoboken police station, he was delivered to the Jersey City police, who, he said, found the situation quite funny.

"They said, 'I can't believe you got arrested for that,'" he said. "But once the proceedings had started, there was no way to stop it."

Hofer was asked if he had $250 cash to bail himself out. But he did not, and was not allowed to use a credit card or go to an ATM.

"Just having arrived from Germany, I didn't have anybody to call," he said.

He explained his story to several police officers, who were professional and polite, he said, but couldn't help him.

"We have zero wiggle room there," confirmed Jersey City Police Tom Chief. "If we release someone we would be in contempt of court."

Hofer was relieved of his wallet, keys, Blackberry, shoelaces, belt and other property, fingerprinted and photographed, and, after five hours in police custody, driven to the Hudson County jail in Kearny.

There he was offered another phone call and chance to post bail, but he still didn't have the cash. Then there was more processing and a change into prison clothes.

He was taken to his cell around 2:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, he said.

"I was shocked. As I walked in there, I thought it can't be," he said. The cell had a toilet that was leaking, there were flies, and then there were the mattresses with suspicious brown stains.

"I sat down on a mattress and thought 'I'm not going to move, I'm not going to touch anything,'" he said. "But one of the other inmates looked up at me, and said, 'It's terrible, I know, but just try to get some sleep, so you're in shape to face the judge.'" So he did.

Later that morning, Hofer finally had his day in court - via video conference from the jail. In the end, he pleaded guilty.

"I would have pleaded guilty to anything just to get out of there," he said, "and put an end to this all."

The judge sentenced him to time served, waived the $74 and billed him $10 court fees. (And NJ Transit has since given him a $1 credit for the lost fare.)

After more waiting Hofer was released at 4:30 p.m. to the streets of Kearny, without a belt, shoelaces, or his wallet.

"I asked them how I would get back to Jersey City (to retrieve his belongings), and they said to walk," he said.

Luckily, the jail was across the street from a warehouse his company used, so he went there, introduced himself, and scored $10.

He arrived at the Jersey City police station at 6:30 p.m. and was told his property, including the keys to his apartment, was locked up until Tuesday morning due to the Labor Day holiday, he said.

He tried to explain that he would have to sleep on the street. "She said, 'Look, I'm not having this argument here, good-bye,'" he said.

"I just lost it," he said. "I punched a street sign in frustration, and a police car stopped."

And at that moment his luck turned.

Sgt. John Reo drove up in his police car and asked him what was wrong. After hearing Hofer's tale, Reo made some calls and found a retired police officer who still had a key to the East Precinct's property and evidence room. The officer, Dennis Carroll, drove to the precinct and gave Hofer back his possessions - and his faith in the kindness of strangers.

3 shooting incidents hours apart
Friday, September 19, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

It was Dodge City in Jersey City's Greenville section Wednesday night into early yesterday morning as shootouts left a bullet buried in the wall of a daycare center, two men wounded, and one man in handcuffs.

Police are investigating if the three incidents are related.

"I'm concerned about the number of violent crimes that are taking place, in general. But it's highlighted by these shootings in pretty close proximity to each other," said Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson. "If violent crime is down, it's not in my neighborhood."

At 5:36 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to Martin Luther King Drive and Dwight Street, where they found a bullet had crashed through the window of the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center and lodged in the wall of a daycare room that was empty, reports said.

In his nearby locksmith shop, Mofalc Meinga peeked through his bullet-proof door yesterday and said he had heard shots and saw a male running with an outstretched arm as if aiming a gun.

"He was young and they (witnesses) said he was chasing someone on a bike," Meinga said. "This was broad daylight so it was really a shock."

At 7:50 p.m., a shootout broke out at Bidwell and Ocean avenues, where police found three spent shells of different calibers and a 20-year-old Neptune Avenue man with bullet wounds to his back and arm, reports said.

He told police a man had gotten out of a van and opened fire on him so he ran away. The man was rushed to the Jersey City Medical Center, reports said.

Then at 12:12 a.m. Thursday police responded on a call of a shooting at Stegman Street and Ocean Avenues, where they found blood on the sidewalk and a 20-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to his right elbow in his nearby residence, reports said. He said he had been approached by a man who fired at him with a revolver, reports said.

A short while later, officers at Ocean and Claremont avenues pulled over Perry Bowens, 28, of Arlington Avenue, in his car because he matched the description of the gunman in two of the shootings, reports said.

As the officers approached they saw Bowens hide something and found he was sitting on a handgun, reports said.

Outside the car, Bowens elbowed one cop in the face, punched one and struck another before he was subdued, reports said. Bowens was not charged in the shootings, but he was charged with three counts of aggravated assault on police officers, as well as resisting arrest and weapons offenses, reports said.

Bowens was in prison from Aug. 6, 2004 to Dec. 17, 2007 on drug dealing charges and weapons offenses, corrections records say.

"Everything is still under investigation as to whether they are connected and what the cause might be," Jersey City Police Inspector Kenneth Teschlog said of the shootings.

Richardson said she is setting up a meeting with Police Chief Tom Comey to talk about the violence.