A six-alarm fire at The Grand Hotel in North Dallas Tuesday evening was sparked by an accidental electrical short

6-Alarm Dallas Hotel Fire Caused By Electrical Short: Officials
By Holley Ford


A six-alarm fire at a hotel in North Dallas Tuesday evening was sparked by an accidental electrical short, investigators said.

More than 120 Dallas firefighters were dispatched to The Grand Hotel, just off Interstate 635 near the Coit Road exit and U.S. 75.

Thick smoke could been seen billowing from one of the buildings at the sprawling three-story hotel, and fire department spokesman Jason Evans said the fire had spread laterally through the open space just beneath the roof.

The six alarms were called in order to try and locate and extinguish all of the fire, Evans said. Much of the damage is near the unit of origin, but there are varying degrees of smoke damage throughout the hotel.

Firefighters rescued two people from a third-story unit by bringing them down an aerial ladder, and a third person — who is in a wheelchair — was rescued from a unit on the first floor, Evans said. The person from the first-floor unit was transported to a hospital for treatment of smoke exposure and is expected to recover.

Dallas Firefighters Battle 6-Alarm Hotel Fire (Raw Video)Dallas Fire-Rescue crews battle a six-alarm fire at The Grand Hotel off LBJ Freeway in North Dallas. (Published Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016)

At least 65 rooms were occupied in the hotel, and the number of tenants displaced is unknown. The American Red Cross has been called to assist those people with shelter.

A firefighter who was overcome by heat was sent to a hospital and later released, authorities said.

Buck Company foundry ordered to pay $19,000 fine after Fred Poston Jr. died from multiple traumatic injuries inside a sand mixer

Quarryville foundry ordered to pay $19,000 fine after fatal sand mixer accident
RYAN ROBINSON | Staff Writer

A Quarryville foundry where a mechanic died in a sand mixer accident in February has been cited with safety violations and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in penalties.


The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration charged Buck Co., 897 Lancaster Pike, Providence Township, with several “serious” violations on July 29, according to a citation. OSHA ordered the company to fix the issues and pay $30,000 in penalties. The fine was lowered to $19,000 in an informal settlement agreement Aug. 19.


Company President Matt Sullivan did not immediately return a phone call for comment Wednesday.


Fred Poston Jr., 56, of Washington Boro, was doing maintenance work inside a sand mixer on Feb. 8 when it somehow activated and fatally injured him, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said.


Poston’s leg was caught inside the molding machine, Rawlinsville Fire Chief Carl Strickler Jr. said at the time.


Poston was “exposed to moving machine parts when the hazardous energy sources associated with the Ductile Muller were not controlled after a lock-out device was removed in order to test or position internal parts,” OSHA said in the citation.


“The company failed to identify and evaluate the batch hopper air supply as an energy source required to be controlled.”


A Lancaster EMS medic unit stationed at the foundry provided advanced life support care. Firefighters freed Poston from the equipment and he was taken to Lancaster General Hospital, where he died.



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Coroner: Mechanic death in sand mixer at Quarryville foundry was accident

RYAN ROBINSON | Staff Writer
Feb 12, 2016
Update:


Fred Poston Jr. died from multiple traumatic injuries and his death was ruled accidental after an autopsy on Feb. 11, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said Feb. 12.


Previously reported:


Authorities have identified the man who was working inside a molding machine at a Quarryville foundry Monday when it somehow turned on and fatally injured him.


Fred Poston Jr., of Washington Boro, was doing maintenance work inside a sand mixer at the Buck Company at 897 Lancaster Pike in Providence Township at 1:21 p.m., according to county Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni.


“It activated or turned on while he was within the mixer,” Diamantoni said. “We are still sorting out the specifics (of how it happened.) There is no indication of foul play. It appears by all accounts to be accidental.”


Diamontoni described Poston as being in his “mid-50s.”


Poston’s leg was caught inside a molding machine, Rawlinsville Fire Chief Carl Strickler Jr. said.


A Lancaster EMS medic unit stationed at the foundry responded immediately and provided advanced life support care, Lancaster EMS’s Bob May said.


State police assisted, but provided no details of the incident Tuesday.


Firefighters freed Poston from the equipment at 1:34 p.m., Strickler said.


May said Poston was transported to Lancaster General Hospital, but died. An autopsy initially set for Wednesday was rescheduled.


Feds probe death


The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated at the scene Monday after being called by Buck Company, OSHA spokeswoman Leni Fortson said.


“We want to see what may have been the cause of the tragic accident and if any OSHA standards were violated,” she said. OSHA by law has up to six months to complete investigations, but often wraps them up more quickly.


Buck Company President Matt Sullivan released the following email statement:


“An accident occurred at our facility on (Monday.) Since the matter is part of an ongoing investigation, the company is not at liberty to provide details about the incident or the investigation.


“Our major focus at this time is on the family, friends and co-workers of our employee involved in the accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all at this difficult time.


“We want to thank all of the local emergency service providers that responded to assist us.”


Buck Company


In 1951, Dixon Valve & Coupling Company purchased a small ferrous foundry in Quarryville, according to the Buck Company website. Buck Iron, as it was then known, produced only malleable iron until 1953 when a non-ferrous foundry was added to produce aluminum, brass and bronze marine hardware.


Buck Company has grown to 220,000 square feet and 375 employees.

Cancer-causing hexavalent chromium found in drinking water across N.J.

High Levels of ‘Erin Brockovich’ Toxin in Many NJ Water Systems, Study Says
Jon Hurdle | September 20, 2016 



Cancer-causing metal found in drinking water across N.J.

Chromium-6, a chemical compound that can cause liver damage, reproductive and developmental problems and cancer, was found in water systems in every county in New Jersey, according to a study. (Michael Mancuso)
By Justin Zaremba | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author
on September 21, 2016 at 9:14 AM, updated September 21, 2016 at 5:04 PM




Nearly 200 million Americans, including many in New Jersey, have tap water that contains a toxin that can cause cancer even from minute exposures, according to a report by an advocacy group.

Chromium-6, a chemical compound that can cause liver damage, reproductive and developmental problems and cancer, was found in water systems in every New Jersey county, Environmental Working Group said in its report.

The compound, also known as hexavalent chromium, was the pollutant that gained notoriety in the 2000 movie, "Erin Brockovich."

An interactive map compiled by Environmental Working Group based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency provides a breakdown of its findings, which show the presence of chromium-6 in water systems in all 50 states.

While chromium-6 was repeatedly found in New Jersey drinking water, the levels were significantly below the current standard used by the Garden State. The levels were also below the most stringent threshold of 10 parts per billion — the equivalent of 10 drops of water in an Olympic-sized pool — set by California.

However, Environmental Working Group said the safe drinking water standard for chromium-6 is too high.


The former dean of Seton Hall Law School has been appointed as the new site administrator for a section of land contaminated by chromium, officials announced.

The group relied on California's public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion in tap water to reach the 200-million figure, about two-thirds of the U.S. population. California's actual legal standard is 10 parts per billion, and the federal limit is 100 parts per billion of combined chromium.

The Garden State has not yet set a legal limit for chromium-6 in tap water, but it does use the federal limit of 100 parts per billion of combined chromium, which includes chromium-3, chromium-5 and chromium-6.

More than 60,000 drinking water samples were collected nationwide by utilities between 2013 and 2015, and 75 percent of them were found to have the presence of chromium-6.

As noted in the report, "New Jersey's Drinking Water Quality Institute, a state agency comprised of scientists, utility officials and citizen experts, calculated (in 2010) a health-based maximum contaminant level — what California calls a public health goal – of 0.06 parts per billion, just slightly higher than California's."

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Chromium 6 has been linked to several types of cancer; environmental group says it is unsafe even at low levels


Drinking water in more than 150 New Jersey water systems contained the carcinogenic chemical chromium 6 at levels that exceeded a health limit recommended by California scientists when the local systems were tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a national analysis published on Tuesday.

The study by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy nonprofit, concluded that 218 million Americans in all 50 states, or some two-thirds of the population, are drinking water that contains the chemical at levels that are above the proposed California health limit but below current limits adopted by both that state and the federal government.

The chemical, best known for having been exposed as a threat to public health by the environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich, a battle depicted in the movie starring Julia Roberts, was found in different concentrations around New Jersey when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tested water systems in 1,370 counties across the country from 2013 to 2015.

The EWG combined the previously published the EPA data with a health limit proposed by the California Office of Health Hazard Assessment to calculate the national population that is exposed to the chemical in drinking water at above a limit of 0.02 parts per billion (ppb) recommended by the California panel.

The recommended standard was far stricter than a 10 ppb level that is now set as a legal limit in California, the only state to regulate the chemical so far, EWG said. It argued that the much less-rigorous limit reflected commercial and political pressures that were exerted on regulators in California and other states.

“Federal regulations are stalled by a chemical industry challenge that could mean no national regulation of a chemical state scientists in California and elsewhere say causes cancer even when ingested at extraordinarily low levels,” the EWG report said.

Chromium 6, which is used in steel making, chrome plating, and, as in the Brockovich case, lowering water temperature in the cooling towers of power plants, has been linked to lung cancer, liver damage, and reproductive and developmental problems.

In New Jersey, some of the highest concentrations were found in the Ridgewood Water system in Bergen County, where the chemical was found at above the proposed California level in 56 locations with an average of 0.398 ppb, or almost 20 times the recommended California standard. In Burlington County, the average level was 0.491 ppb in the Mount Holly system operated by New Jersey American Water, according to the EPA data.
A representative of New Jersey American Water did not return a phone call seeking comment.

While many New Jersey utilities exceeded California’s recommended health limit, none topped California’s legal limit of 10 ppb, the data show.

New Jersey’s Drinking Water Quality Institute, a state panel of scientific advisers, considered recommending a chromium 6 health limit of 0.07 ppb in 2010. The proposal never reached the desk of DEP Commissioner Bob Martin because the DWQI stopped meeting at that time because of a shortage of members, according to Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the DEP.

The DWQI resumed its work in 2014 and is due to meet this week to issue its recommendation for a maximum contaminant limit on another toxic chemical, PFOA, which has also been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

New Jersey currently follows the EPA’s recommended guidance limit of 100 ppb for total chromium — a combination of chromium 6 and chromium 3 — in drinking water, Hajna said.

Dr. Keith Cooper, a Rutgers University toxicologist who chairs the DWQI, said he couldn’t comment on what the panel considered in 2010 because he was not involved with it then. But he said chromium 6 could become part of the DWQI’s work in the future.

“The current NJ DWQI in the future will likely review previously proposed levels, if nothing else to see if new information and current exposure warrants the chemical of concern to be assessed,” Cooper wrote in an email.

Bryan Goodman, director of product communications for the American Chemistry Council, said the EWG report contained no new data on chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, in the water supply.

Goodman said that when the chemical is found in ground water, it is present at low levels that are well below the EPA’s national drinking water standard. He said there is limited scientific data on how human health could be affected by low naturally occurring levels of the chemical, and so the council has supported third-party research into the issue.

“This is a positive example of industry supporting independent, peer-reviewed research to inform regulatory decisions about hexavalent chromium and drinking water,” Goodman wrote in an email.

North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality recommended a limit of 0.06 ppb, but, like New Jersey, has not set a legal limit for chromium 6 in tap water, EWG said.

“In both states, scientists’ health-based recommendations were at odds with the decisions of politically appointed regulators,” the EWG paper said.

Bill Walker, who wrote the report with the EWG’s Senior Scientist David Andrews, said the group was publishing its analysis as the latest stage of a campaign in which it conducted its own tests for chromium 6 in 35 cities in 2010 and found the chemical in 25 systems at levels exceeding the California health standard.

In its new study, EWG published a list of 22 major metropolitan water systems serving at least 1 million people where the chemical exceeded the recommended California limit. None of the systems exceeded California’s legal limit.

“We want people to be aware that the EPA is dragging its feet on setting a national drinking water standard; that the chemical industry and the electrical power industry have delayed that process, and that as a result of industry influence, the EPA might eventually decide to do nothing,” Walker said. 

EPA Finalizes Cleanup Plan for defunct E.C. Electroplating Plant in Garfield, N.J. Cleanup will Cost an Estimated $37 Million

09/21/2016

Contact Information: 

Elias Rodriguez (rodriguez.elias@epa.gov)

212-637-3664

(New York, N.Y. – Sept. 21, 2016) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized its plan to address groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium at the Garfield Groundwater Contamination Superfund site in Garfield, New Jersey.

Groundwater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from a former electroplating plant located at 125 Clark Street, has seeped into area basements in the surrounding community. Hexavalent chromium is extremely toxic and can cause cancer and other serious health impacts, including kidney and liver damage. 

When groundwater contaminated by hexavalent chromium evaporates, it can leave behind chromium crystals, which can then adhere to the skin and be accidentally ingested by people. The EPA has inspected over 500 homes in Garfield and remediated 14 basements and has an ongoing program of assessing and remediating basements.

“The EPA has taken action to address a serious toxic problem in a residential area in Garfield, N.J,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “Because the company that created the toxic problem is no longer in business, the EPA will spend $37 million in tax dollars from our Superfund program to deal with this toxic legacy. The situation in Garfield illustrates the need for a well-funded federal Superfund program, something that is not currently in place.”

The EPA’s plan requires a combination of cleanup measures to address the problem in the long term, including treatment of the contaminated groundwater with a non-hazardous additive that will reduce the contamination, and restrictions on the use of the groundwater.

The site consists of the E.C. Electroplating property and chromium-contaminated groundwater that extends a half-mile west from the property to the Passaic River. In December 1983, 3,640 gallons of chromic acid spilled from an underground tank at the now defunct E.C. Electroplating property and contaminated the groundwater. From 1983 to 2009, the electroplating plant continued to operate as the chemical contaminated the factory building, soil, and groundwater in the area.

In 2010, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the N.J. Department of Health concluded that hexavalent chromium exposure in Garfield is a public health hazard, primarily if people are exposed to chromium dust in basements. In 2011, the EPA put the site on the federal Superfund list.

Since then the EPA has spent $5 million at this site by addressing the immediate concerns from hexavalent chromium seeping into area basements. The EPA has demolished the factory building, removed 5,700 tons of chromium-contaminated soil, 1,150 tons of concrete, 600 cubic yards of debris, 325 drums of hazardous waste and 6,100 gallons of polluted water from the E.C. Electroplating property. Through this effort, the EPA has addressed the source of the contamination originating from the former plant. The EPA conducted an in-depth investigation of the extent of the groundwater contamination and conducted a pilot study to determine how best to clean up groundwater over the long term.

The EPA will use multiple cleanup strategies at the site:

• The EPA will continue cleaning up basements when contamination is detected. Cleanup of basements includes washing basement floors and walls to remove hexavalent chromium and applying sealants, installing drains and sump pumps, when necessary, to prevent recontamination of basement surfaces.

• Within the area that is the source of the contamination, the EPA will consider applying non-hazardous additives to the groundwater that will convert the highly toxic hexavalent form of chromium into the far less toxic and less mobile form of chromium called trivalent chromium. The specific types of additives to be used will be determined by the EPA as part of the design of the cleanup. Also, a system of pumps will be used to bring the polluted groundwater to the surface where it can be cleaned.

• Outside the area that is the source of the contamination, the EPA will consider applying non-hazardous additives to the groundwater to promote the breakdown of the pollutants. The specific process to be used to inject the additives will be determined by the EPA as part of the design of the project. Once the process has begun, the EPA will collect samples to confirm that the treatment is effective.

• The EPA will periodically collect and analyze groundwater samples to verify that the level and extent of contaminants are declining and that people’s health and the environment are protected.

• The groundwater will be monitored and restrictions will be put in place to restrict the use of groundwater from the site until the cleanup goals are met. The EPA will conduct a review every five years to ensure the effectiveness of the cleanup.

The EPA held a public meeting in Garfield on May 19, 2016 to explain its proposed plan. The EPA took public comment for 30 days and considered public input before finalizing the plan.

To read the final EPA cleanup plan, called a record of decision, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/garfield-groundwater
To link directly to the record of decision, visit: https://semspub.epa.gov/src/document/02/377072

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A Neighborhood in Peril: Dangerous chromium spreads through Garfield groundwater
By SCOTT FALLON
STAFF WRITER |
The Record

A highly toxic industrial chemical has been spreading under a Garfield neighborhood for almost three decades, slowly seeping into homes and threatening the health of thousands.


Contractors testing the contents of abandoned industrial drums stored at the closed E.C. Electroplating site in Garfield last month.

Residents live in fear that hexavalent chromium is infiltrating their basements, that their families could get cancer and that their property values have been destroyed.

And state officials allowed it all to happen.

What occurred in Garfield over the course of 28 years is a story of an environmental oversight system that failed the people it was supposed to protect. In instance after instance, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection showed poor judgment, lax enforcement and bureaucratic indifference to an emerging public health threat.

Three tons of cancer-causing chromium leaked from a tank at the E.C. Electroplating plant on Clark Street in 1983. Despite evidence that it was migrating under an entire neighborhood, the DEP let the company stop the cleanup after just 30 percent had been recovered.

"The expense of such an effort might not be justified by the result," DEP Principal Environmental Specialist John DeFina wrote in a May 1985 letter to E.C.’s attorney. Because there were no wells for drinking water in the area, DeFina and others concluded "there is no threat to the public health."

Today, this neighborhood of 600 homes and businesses is New Jersey’s newest Superfund site. Federal officials have warned residents that the contamination in their homes poses "a significant threat" to their health.

The DEP "dragged their feet," said Jennie Coulter, whose Grand Street house was contaminated. "They could have solved this 20, 30 years ago. Now I won’t go down to my basement until a man from the government puts his hand on the Bible and says everything is safe."

The Record spent months investigating the spill, reviewing hundreds of DEP documents. It found:

* Engineers reported early on that the chromium had migrated underground from the E.C. plant toward the Passaic River, but nobody at the DEP or the company mentioned the hundreds of homes and businesses that stood between the plant and the river.

* The initial investigation was deeply flawed. Monitoring and recovery wells were drilled at the factory site — but not in the neighborhood — and the first wells were dug far too shallow for engineers to be able to reach the bulk of the chromium.

* Four months after the spill, high levels of chromium were found in E.C.’s basement after a heavy rain — but this didn’t trigger any action to prevent that pollution from seeping into other basements.

* A decade later, chromium was discovered in a firehouse a mile away — and despite this evidence that the chemical had spread, no testing was done in the neighborhood.

* Years went by without the DEP checking on the site. For instance, it took four years for the state to notice that E.C. was not testing its monitoring wells for chromium, even though the company was supposed to file regular reports with the DEP.

Now, almost 30 years after the spill, teams of men in hazmat gear are a common sight in the neighborhood. The contamination has been found in an apartment building, in homes and in stores. In one basement, the chromium pollution exceeded the federal safety standard by 2,500 times.

North Jersey has a history of failed cleanups, including a Superfund site in Ringwood that was declared clean when it was still polluted. But Garfield has the awful distinction of being one of the few places in America where an entire neighborhood sits atop a Superfund site. It didn’t have to be this way, regulators said.

"Clearly it would have been good had [the DEP] been looking at this site 20, 30 years ago in a more aggressive way," said Walter Mugdan, who oversees the Garfield cleanup for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. It could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars to clean up the neighborhood.

State environmental officials recently admitted to The Record that the DEP failed in Garfield. Assistant Commissioner David Sweeney called the case a "poster child" for mismanagement.

"It’s clear that when this case was being handled, I don’t think the right decisions were made," said Sweeney, who oversees site cleanups. "It wasn’t handled with the urgency that it needed."

In a recent interview, E.C.’s attorney, Dennis Krumholz, disputed the EPA’s claim that the company was the main source of the contamination. Chromium was used at several industrial facilities in Garfield over the years.

Krumholz also said the company "went to great lengths" to comply with the DEP.

"They were good corporate citizens," he said. "They always had the best interests of Garfield at heart in everything they did."

Like many towns along the Passaic River, Garfield exploded with textile mills, chemical plants and other industry in the early 20th century. It was a factory town with workers living in modest homes built, in some cases, right next to the plants.

A home that once sat on a large parcel of land at 125 Clark St. was eventually replaced by chicken coops and, later, a machine shop. In 1935, Edward Calderio opened E.C. Electroplating at the address. There, a small band of workers went about the often dangerous task of chemically plating copper and chromium onto machine parts so they would last longer. The company, which would pass down through generations of the family, became a successful small business, serving clients from the plastic, paper and film industries.

Chrome plating can be done using two types of chromium — trivalent and hexavalent. Both provide excellent resistance to corrosion. Hexavalent — which is cheaper but far more toxic — became the chromium of choice at E.C.

At 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 14, 1983, a tank outside the factory was close to capacity with about 7,280 gallons of chromium plating solution.

Around 2 a.m. the following morning, the tank was found to have lost half its contents — 3,640 gallons. An inspection would later reveal that a flange had broken, causing the solution to leak into the ground for hours. Computations would show that 5,560 pounds of the chemical, also known as chromium 6, had spilled.

E.C. alerted city officials and the DEP that day.

The DEP’s role was to gauge the extent of contamination, approve a cleanup plan and make sure the work was done.

The department would fail on all three counts.

Over several months in 1984, E.C.’s contractors pumped 85,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater from beneath the site and hauled it away. But only 30 percent of the hexavalent chromium was recovered, state records show.

That spring, heavy rains caused a problem on the E.C. property that would eventually plague the neighborhood: Chromium-contaminated groundwater seeped into the basement, according to a letter from E.C.’s contractors to the company’s lawyer.

E.C.’s engineers reported to the DEP in January 1985 that test wells showed the chromium was migrating into the neighborhood, documents reveal.

The revelation didn’t trigger any testing of the homes next to the plant or at the 350-student elementary school a half-block away.

Instead, the company asked the DEP to allow it to end the cleanup.

"We believe that E.C. Electroplating has taken all appropriate steps to deal responsibly with this situation and we are eager to put this matter to rest," the company’s attorney, Krumholz, wrote to the DEP in January 1985.

E.C. Electroplating submitted a report that said most of the chromium had moved beyond the plant through the bedrock toward the Passaic River. But the report’s authors at Princeton Aqua Science said they couldn’t tell the exact pathway of the chromium because the monitoring wells weren’t deep enough.

"Clearly, rapid contamination migration is possible," the report stated.

Although maps of the area were provided in the report, nowhere did it mention the densely packed neighborhood of hundreds of homes and retail businesses that stood between the E.C. plant and the river.

The DEP decided the cleanup could stop.

"Little additional recovery is possible without a major effort," DeFina, the DEP environmental specialist, wrote.

"Presently the upper aquifer appears clean, there is no threat to the public health, no private or public wells in the immediate area."

No red flags were raised even though 70 percent of the chromium was still missing. There was no mention of the shallow monitoring wells. No talk of whether the groundwater that contaminated E.C.’s basement could also infiltrate homes.

By the end of 1985, two things were certain about the E.C. spill:

Almost 4,000 pounds of the dangerous chemical was still unaccounted for, coursing its way under Garfield.

And no one was planning to do anything about it.

It took the DEP four years to check back on E.C. Electroplating.

During that time, none of the wells at the site had been tested, as required. No well logs had been kept.

A DEP investigator noted in June 1989 that the company had ignored the DEP’s plan. But records show the DEP didn’t do anything about it.

And so everything continued. E.C. kept plating rollers and screws. The contamination continued to move under the neighborhood.

In the spring of 1993, firefighters at Fire Company 3 on Willard Street noticed greenish water seeping into the basement during heavy rainstorms.

The city took samples and found it contained 250 times the level the state considered safe for chromium.

A decade after the spill, here was evidence the contamination had spread: The firehouse was located nearly a mile from E.C. Electroplating.

The city immediately sealed the basement. Weeks later, amid concerns about the potential health hazard, the firehouse was boarded up. It remains so today.

The DEP told city officials that if they wanted the firehouse cleaned up, Garfield would have to conduct, and pay for, the work. The city would also have to reimburse the DEP for reviewing the case. The city declined, with officials explaining the municipal government could not afford it.

Despite the discovery of contamination at the firehouse, no one talked about testing the many homes between the plant and the firehouse. The DEP merely required E.C. to sample groundwater — at its plant.

When someone finally came to test homes, it wasn’t the DEP — it was the Bergen County Department of Health.

Worried about residents living near the firehouse, County Health Official Anthony DeCandia and his team began surveying homes within a six-block radius in 2000.

They tested the basements of two homes on Palisades Avenue about a half-mile from the plant — and discovered high levels of chromium 6 in both.

In addition, crystallized residue containing very low levels of a less dangerous form of chromium was found in the basements of four other houses. Hexavalent chromium can change under certain conditions.

For the first time, the DEP considered the possibility of a public health threat.

"There may be other buildings in the city that have exhibited these problems that the NJDEP or the Bergen County Health Department does not know about," Brian Crisafulli of the Bureau of Ground Water Pollution Abatement wrote in late December 2000.

"E.C. has been progressing too slow with a potential hazardous risk to the people and environment of the City of Garfield," he wrote.

Still, it wasn’t until December 2001 — 14 months after the county Health Department made its report public — that the DEP visited and tested the two contaminated homes on Palisades Avenue.

The contamination had increased.

The DEP also began finding high levels of chromium at contaminated sites it was monitoring in Garfield that had never been polluted with the chemical. Chromium was detected in monitoring wells at an Amoco service station on Monroe Street, two blocks from the firehouse. It was also found in test wells at an auto repair shop on Midland Avenue, two blocks west of E.C.

On Sept. 19, 2002, the DEP issued a formal notice of violation to E.C.

"The slow rate of progress and lack of long term planning by E.C. Electroplating is unacceptable," a DEP memo stated.

E.C. responded immediately, denying responsibility and arguing it was unable to pay for a massive cleanup.

Faced with a polluter crying poverty and the possibility of a large-scale cleanup that could cost tens of millions of dollars, the DEP turned to the federal government.

In an Oct. 7, 2002, letter asking the EPA to take over, DEP official Janet Smolenski acknowledged what she called a "lack of progress" by her agency over the previous two decades.

"The slow progress of the case is perceived as a reluctance and failure on the part of NJDEP," Smolenski wrote. "Should the case continue down the present track, this perception shall only grow."

The pace didn’t quicken much after the feds came on board.

In January 2003, yellow dust found on the basement floor of the Golden Tower senior apartments after a flood was determined to contain hexavalent chromium as well as a less toxic form of chromium. The basement was cleaned up by contractors and a wall was caulked to keep out the groundwater.

By August, the building was contaminated again.

The 10-story building on Midland Avenue is three blocks from E.C.

It took the EPA more than a year to examine the building. Air, dust and water tests in November 2004 showed no chromium in the apartments. But samples taken four months later found contamination in the basement.

Every time the basement was cleaned up, the contamination would return. The chromium would seep into the basement via floodwater and, when the water evaporated, chromium dust was left on the floor. Some of the dust would become airborne and settle on other surfaces.

It became clear to the EPA that whenever it flooded — and it floods often in this neighborhood — chromium would find its way into Golden Tower’s basement. And if it was happening all the time at this building, what about all the other buildings in the neighborhood?

The EPA asked the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the New Jersey Department of Health to review the case and its potential risk to the community.

Meanwhile, E.C. Electroplating was faltering financially. After the DEP issued a notice to E.C. for failure to pay $9,200 in oversight costs, the company’s president, Anthony Calderio, sent a letter to the state in August 2008, saying the company was "experiencing a cash flow problem of catastrophic proportions.

"We have always tried to put our best foot forward at all times to comply with the DEP," he wrote.

The next month, the EPA began surveying the neighborhood. Within days, contamination was found in three basements.

On March 3, 2009, E.C. Electroplating quietly closed its doors after 74 years, according to a report from its engineer, Richard Chapin. Joshua Gradwohl, a DEP site-remediation supervisor, e-mailed Chapin expressing concerns that a "lack of funding may again be used to stall any investigations."

Chapin fired back. "It is a bit disconcerting that you’ve chosen to use terms such as ‘stall’ and ‘routinely used to delay’ in your last e-mail … you must understand it was never a matter of stalling or delaying anything" Chapin wrote. "It was a matter of what the company could afford to do given their financial resources.

"Can you spent [sic] hundreds of thousands of dollars you don’t have and have no prospect of earning because your business, the source of cash to fund that work, is slowly being destroyed by fundamental changes in the economy of the State of New Jersey?" he wrote.

Meanwhile, the investigation of the neighborhood continued. Harmful levels of chromium had now been found in 13 homes.

In one alarming instance, EPA investigators found contamination that was 2,500 times the federal safety standard for chromium on the basement stairs of a building near Midland Avenue and Grand Street that housed a retail business and apartments.

Within days, a team of EPA workers began cleaning up the building’s basement. The wooden staircase was torn down and replaced. All surfaces were washed down. Sump pumps were installed to prevent flooding and walls were painted to add a barrier of protection.

In 2010, the ATSDR took the rare step of issuing a public health warning for the neighborhood and recommended that the area be placed on the Superfund list. "We consider the site a serious threat to human health," wrote Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the ATSDR.

Twenty-seven years after the spill, the government told the people in the neighborhood: Stay out of your basement because it presents "an immediate and significant threat" to your health.

The extent of the contamination is worse than envisioned in any of the documents.

It is deeper than first believed, according to EPA scientists. And they now think the 1983 spill was only part of the story, and that chromium may have been leaking from the plant for years.

"What we suspect now … is that, in fact, that there were frequent leaks or stuff was dumped down drains," said Mugdan, head of the EPA’s Superfund cleanup for New Jersey and New York. "We have reason to believe this had been a messy operation for some time."

E.C. Electroplating contends it is not solely to blame for the chromium pollution in the neighborhood. As evidence that some other factory may have polluted the area, Chapin points out that a city drinking well on Willard Street was closed off in the mid-1960s because of chromium contamination from a source that was never determined. Chromium 6 was used at other facilities in the area, including a tannery and at least one other electroplating company.

Krumholz, E.C.’s attorney, said the company was "an easy target" because of the spill.

While the EPA is looking into the possibility of other sources for the contamination, Mugdan said the focus is on E.C.

When the EPA got access to the E.C. Electroplating property in August, they found an environmental mess.

Almost 1,000 buckets, drums and other containers were discovered at the site, filled with liquid and other substances the agency is still trying to identify. Seven large mixing vats were still partially full. Drums labeled as hazardous waste from when the plant closed in 2009 were found — long past their 90-day limit for removal and disposal, an EPA official said.

In April, firefighters and a hazmat team had been called to the site after water leaked from the roof into a 5-gallon bucket of concentrated acid, causing it to smoke.

The EPA is testing to make sure the chromium hasn’t spread further.

Federal investigators recently discovered that the chromium may be as deep as 100 feet underground.

That is too deep for a cleanup-process that has worked well at other Superfund sites, one that involves digging a ditch and placing a "permeable reactive barrier" that turns chromium 6 into non-toxic trivalent chromium.

"It’s not good news," Mugdan said of finding chromium so deep. "It’s harder to deal with. You can’t drill a trench 100, 200 feet down."

The EPA is now considering a "pump and treat" system, which would require extraction wells to siphon the contaminated groundwater to the surface. The water would then be treated at a nearby plant, which would have to be built, likely at taxpayer expense.

Until then, the EPA believes residents are at significant risk any time it rains heavily. The state Health Department analyzed its cancer registry and did not find elevated rates of disease in the area. But health officials also said it may be too soon for such cancers to have appeared and that it is difficult to track the many people who have moved away.

The Passaic River is not in danger, however, according to officials. They believe the hexavalent chromium will turn into the less toxic trivalent chromium if it reaches the river. The chemical can break down when exposed to "a more oxygenated environment," Mugdan said.

Officials contend that no one in the regulatory or scientific community knew back in the 1980s that chromium had the ability to infiltrate homes through floodwater and crystallize into a toxic dust.

Still, DEP officials admit they should have done more since the danger of hexavalent chromium was common knowledge and given how much had spilled.

"Absolutely, poor decisions were made," Sweeney said.

The DEP doesn’t have much of a role anymore in the case.

Based on other Superfund sites, it may be a decade — or more — before the neighborhood is cleaned up.

At last year’s community meeting Mugdan introduced his staff to the audience. He told the residents they’d better get to know these people "because folks, you’re going to be living with this for years."

LISTERIA: Blue Bell Ice Cream has issued a voluntary recall for its ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces.

Blue Bell recalls ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces over Listeria concerns

Blue Bell Ice Cream has issued a voluntary recall for its ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces.

Updated 22 mins ago

HOUSTON (KTRK) --

Blue Bell Ice Cream has issued a voluntary recall for its ice cream containing chocolate chip cookie dough pieces due to the potential for Listeria.

The Brenham-based company says the products were produced in its Sylacauga, Alabama plant and made with a chocolate chip cookie dough ingredient supplied by Aspen Hills, Inc.

The recall covers the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, both pint and half-gallon size, and Two Step products in the half-gallon size.

In a press release, Blue Bell says they identified the "potential problem" through testing and notified Aspen Hills.

"Aspen Hills then issued a voluntary recall of the products supplied to Blue Bell. Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for Listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution," the company said in a release.



Blue Bell released the following statement to Eyewitness News:

"This voluntary recall does not affect our production facilities. The ingredient was produced and supplied to us from a third-party supplier, Aspen Hills. Although our products in the marketplace have passed our test and hold program, which requires that finished product samples test negative for listeria monocytogenes, Blue Bell is initiating this recall out of an abundance of caution."

The ice cream produced with the chocolate chip cookie dough pieces were distributed in the following ten states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Consumers should not eat the recalled products and are encouraged to return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

Officials are investigating to determine whether an odor in Vallejo is connected to a 40-yard sheen that was located in the northern part of the San Pablo Bay Wednesday morning

Tanker berthed at Phillips 66 refinery may be cause of sheen in San Pablo Bay






Officials are investigating to determine whether an odor in Vallejo is connected to a 40-yard sheen that was located in the northern part of the San Pablo Bay Wednesday morning. (KGO-TV)

By Amy Hollyfield
Wednesday, September 21, 2016 01:38PM
VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- The U.S. Coast Guard located oil sheen coming from a tanker berthed at the Phillips 66 Rodeo Refinery Marine Terminal on San Pablo Avenue in Rodeo Wednesday morning.

The oil sheen could be seen in the northern part of San Pablo Bay, which caused massive delays to ferry service.

Phillips 66 officials released a statement saying:

 "At 8:00 a.m., a light oily sheen was discovered at the Phillips 66 Rodeo Refinery Marine Terminal. At the time, a tanker was berthed at the marine terminal. Our internal response team immediately responded to the incident and we notified the National Response Center (NRC) and the United States Coast Guard. Operations at the marine terminal have been temporarily shut down and we are working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies regarding the response. The exact volume of material released is still being determined, and the cause of the incident is under investigation. At this time, there have been no injuries associated with the release and there is no anticipated health impact to the community. The safety of the community, the environment and our people are of utmost importance to our company and these priorities will guide our efforts as we work with the agencies on the response."
Officials said the oil sheen may be connected to an odor that hospitalized dozens in Vallejo Tuesday night.

The smell seemed to be most concentrated on the southern side of Vallejo in the Beverly Hills Park and Glen Cove Park neighborhoods.

The odor can no longer be detected in Vallejo. Meanwhile officials are investigating the sheen on the water.

City leaders are getting a lot of calls from residents in Vallejo wondering what the smell was. Officials had to bring in crews to handle at least 800 phone calls that came in from concerned residents. A shelter-in-place order for the smell was lifted early Wednesday morning.

Vallejo residents have been told by officials it's safe to leave the house and school is back in session. But ferry service was unexpectedly shut down.
Many people were surprised the rotten smell and sheen led to ferry service disruption.

"It was strong, it burned your nose. It smelled like bad rotten eggs, I got home and it was all in my place," a Vallejo resident said.

Officials said the sheen and smell were reported at the same time. "They do seem to be tied, in fact they happened at the same time. Again with the sheen being a mile long and 40 yards wide, it seems like it's more than just a coincidence that they occurred at the same time," Vallejo Fire Department spokesperson Kevin Brown said.

Fire officials don't think the source of the smell is in Vallejo. Their gas detectors didn't pick up the trace of gas in the air and nothing was reported from the refineries. "We're continuing to check in with them, but so far they've reported there's been no burn offs and that there is nothing coming from them," Brown said.

Officials said ferry service has resumed in Vallejo.

Ventura County firefighter dies after water tender truck rolls over while working on Canyon Fire

Ventura County Fire Engineer Ryan Osler is shown in a photo alongside images from the scene where a truck overturned, killing him on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016. (Ventura County Fire Department / KEYT)

By ABC7.com staff
Wednesday, September 21, 2016 12:19PM
LOMPOC, Calif. (KABC) -- A Ventura County firefighter died in the line of duty while working on the Canyon Fire near Lompoc Wednesday morning.

Authorities said around 6:20 a.m., a water tender truck was traveling westbound on State Route 246, approaching a roundabout on Purisima Road. The driver ended up hitting a curb on the roundabout, causing the truck to rollover. The driver was taken to a hospital for minor injuries.

The fire engineer, identified as Ryan Osler, was the passenger in the truck and sustained fatal injuries, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP officers with the Buellton Station are investigating the crash.

Osler had been with the fire department for 18 years, beginning his career in 1998 as a member of the Ventura County handcrew. After serving for six years as a hired trainee firefighter, Osler was promoted to fire engineer at Fire Station 42 in Moorpark.

"Our collective hearts are broken at the loss of our friend and brother Ryan. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family," VCFD Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said. "We are deeply moved by the outpouring of public support for Ryan and on behalf of all the men and women of the Ventura County Fire Department, we thank you for your continued prayers."

Flags were ordered at half-staff after news of Osler's death, and mourning bands will be worn on firefighter badges. Osler is survived by his wife and two children.

The two firefighters were providing help in the Canyon Fire, which erupted in a remote canyon near the Vandenberg Air Force Base on Sunday. The wildfire has grown to more than 12,000 acres, or 19 square miles, and is 45 percent contained.

More than 1,000 firefighters are battling the blaze. Voluntary evacuations were also ordered for about 400 residents in San Miguelito Canyon.

Numerous rollover accidents happen this way.  The water trucks are unstable due to the sloshing water;  if the driver is going too fast for the conditions or curve, then the tanker will rollover.  It only takes a 0.2 g.

Trenton City Police officer Ed Leopardi committed suicide because he was under investigation, along with several other officers, from the department's K-9 unit for bringing a prostitute into the building the unit occupies on East State Street

Trenton police K-9 officer, Ed Leopardi, committed suicide amid investigation.  Another corrupt Italian cop bites the dust.  

Something seems off. Being investigated for having sex with a prostitute hardly seems like a "reason" to end one's own life.  There must be more to this story, such as allegations of child molestation.  Maybe he had psychiatric issues, or maybe he had more of a reason. Anyway, he took the easy way out, the way of the coward so that he does not have to face the music.






(FranklinFirst)

By Nora Muchanic
Updated 1 hr 17 mins ago
TRENTON, N.J. (WPVI) -- City officials have confirmed Trenton City Police officer Ed Leopardi has taken his own life, committing suicide Wednesday at his home.

Leopardi lived in Franklin Township, Gloucester County.

He spent over two decades on the police force, and was also a committeeman and former mayor in Franklin.

Leopardi was under investigation, along with several other officers, from the department's K-9 unit for allegedly bringing a prostitute into the building the unit occupies on East State Street. Trenton Police Director Ernie Parrey confirmed the investigation Tuesday, but would not reveal details.





An alleged prostitute paying a visit to the Trenton Police K-9 unit has reportedly landed several members of the force in hot water.

There was a heavy police presence at Leopardi's house Wednesday - a number of officers and police vehicles. And the street nearby was blocked off.

The Gloucester County Democratic's website says over the years, Leopardi has also served as a volunteer firefighter, EMT and Little League coach and umpire, and that he was the married father of three.  I am sure this guy molested children.  These creeps cannot be trusted with little children. Look what he did to the prostitute.

A city official, who has known Leopardi for years, described him as a good guy, three years away from retirement, who got caught up in a bad thing.

========


Prostitute allegedly brought into Trenton K-9 HQ 






An alleged prostitute paying a visit to the Trenton Police K-9 unit has reportedly landed several members of the force in hot water. (WPVI)

By Nora Muchanic
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 05:40PM
TRENTON, N.J. (WPVI) -- An alleged prostitute paying a visit to the Trenton Police K-9 unit has reportedly landed several members of the force in hot water.

They are under investigation for allegedly bringing a prostitute into the unit's headquarters on the 1200 block of East State Street, a location separate from police headquarters.

"The only thing I can say right now is that it is in fact an active investigation. Active investigations, involving especially personnel matters - until they're dealt with at the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office - I'm really not at liberty to talk about," said Trenton Police Director Ernie Parrey.

Sources say that a member of the K-9 unit is alleged to have brought a prostitute into the building, which is surrounded by chain-link fence, concealing her from surveillance cameras.

But other sources say her presence was not missed by the cameras inside. It's alleged several other officers knew what was happening.

Sources say the story was uncovered when the prostitute was jailed for an unrelated offense. She allegedly reached out to some of the officers from the K-9 unit and when no one helped her, she started naming names.

"It's the office policy not to comment on any internal affairs investigation that may be going on but something could be forthcoming," said acting Mercer Co. Prosecutor Angelo Onofri.

The Trenton K-9 Academy trains dogs and their handlers from area departments as well as patrolling the streets of Trenton.

Sources say the alleged prostitute was able to describe the inside of the building "to a T."

=======

Trenton police officer under investigation takes his own life, sources say

  By Kevin Shea | For NJ.com
 
on September 21, 2016 at 7:01 PM, updated September 21, 2016 at 7:26 PM

TRENTON, NJ — A Trenton police officer that law enforcement sources say was under investigation recently died suddenly at his Gloucester County home Wednesday, officials said.

It was widely known among Trenton police officers Wednesday evening that Ed Leopardi killed himself. Officers could not discuss the circumstances because they were not authorized to talk about it.

Law enforcement sources confirmed Leopardi took his own life but they could not elaborate about because they were not authorized to discuss it.
Ed Leopardi (Peterson's Breaking News of Trenton)

Leopardi was a 22-year Trenton police officer and longtime K-9 handler.

Leopardi was also was a councilman in Franklin Township, where he lived. He was first elected to the township committee in 2013 and has served as a committeeman and as mayor.

Trenton Police Director Ernest Parrey Jr. confirmed Wednesday evening that Leopardi was deceased, saying, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."

He also declined to comment on the circumstances of the death, which was under investigation by Franklin Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, Parrey said.

Grief counselors will be available to city officers, especially those who worked closely with Leopardi, Parrey said.

The Gloucester prosecutor's office declined comment, and the Franklin police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Times of Trenton newspaper's archive is filled with news briefs since the mid 1990s in which Leopardi was an arresting officer, mostly as a K-9 officer.

He was being mourned on Facebook Wednesday night as a respected, well-liked veteran officer who consistently worked patrol on the streets of Trenton.

Leopardi also also served for many years as a volunteer firefighter and EMT in Hamilton, and was a Little League baseball coach and umpire.






Trenton cop under investigation for alleged on-duty sex

Sources said the investigation centers on a specific officer assigned to the K-9 unit.

The town of Franklin canceled a committee meeting Wednesday due to his passing.

"The township is very saddened," township administrator Nancy Brent said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Leopardi family."

"With heartfelt sadness, the Mayor and Township Committee learned today that our colleague Committeeman Ed Leopardi died suddenly at his home," the town said in a statement Wednesday evening.

"We ask that all residents of Franklin Township take this time to mourn Ed's passing and to take time to express their personal condolences to Ed's wife, Rene, and their family," the statement said.

Sources had identified Leopardi as being investigated for allegedly engaging in a sex act with a prostitute while at the department's K-9 training facility recently.

The investigation, by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, began when the woman was arrested last week on an unrelated charge and tried to use the alleged encounter to help her own case, sources have said.

Parrey and Acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri declined comment on the matter Tuesday, citing the ongoing investigation.


it has been well known fact that (some) Trenton Policemen  have been "Whore Mongers" for years. I know for a fact that a former TPD Lieutenant, now retired had a sexual relationship with a minor while he was on the force. Also, he would take the underage girl to Bars and clubs in Trenton. Also, he was observed drinking liquor at Irish Bars in Trenton while in uniform and the driving a city unmarked police car while under the influence. All which was reported to the Trenton Police "but nothing ever happened".

"By the way These Trenton cops are ALL OVERPAID and are living like Kings and Queens in mansions" They should be forced to live where they work, none of them have pride in OUR city because they don't live here. What a shame.

See also this article about the crooked cops in Braintree, Mass.: 
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-crooked-cops-guns-drugs-and-cash.html 

See also the scandal in Harris County, Texas where they tossed away 100 cases after they "lost the evidence", mostly drugs and cash and guns:

http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-corrupt-cops-criminal-investigation.html

See also this explosive article:

BOMBSHELL:  IS PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF RICHARD BERDNIK GOING TO RESIGN FOLLOWING THE LUCAS/D'AGOSTINO CONSPIRACY?
  http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/is-passaic-county-sheriff-richard_13.html

IS PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF RICHARD BERDNIK GOING TO RESIGN FOLLOWING THE DISCOVERY OF THE LUCAS/D'AGOSTINO CONSPIRACY AND THE CHANCERY JUDGE MARGARET MCVEIGH BOMBSHELL?

http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/03/is-passaic-county-sheriff-richard_13.html

@GovChristie CORRUPT PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICER FABRICATED CHARGES TO ILLEGALLY EVICT INNOCENT MAN FROM HIS HOME http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/02/ronald-lucas-and-victor-dagostino-two_8.html

 

@GovChristie URGENT! PASSAIC COUNTY SHERIFF MADE MILLIONS OF $$ BY PERFORMING ILLEGAL EVICTIONS, VIOLATED STATE LAWS http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/01/walter-dewey-jr-of-passaic-county_14.html

 
  See also the latest corruption and criminal charges filed (these thugs-for-cops pleaded guilty few weeks ago) against four Edison, NJ cops:

http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-criminal-cops-of-edison-new-jersey.html
 

The corruption and misconduct list never ends.  We are in some deep trouble folks if these are the people who "are protecting us".




========

THE CRIMINAL COPS OF EDISON, NEW JERSEY: Officers Michael Dotro, 39, Brian Favretto, 41, Victor Aravena, 45, and Sgt. William Gesell, 48, Plead Guilty To Retaliation Charge Against North Brunswick Cop over DUI

Edison: Four Police Officers Plead Guilty To Retaliation Charge Against North Brunswick Cop


Thugs disguised as cops. And they wonder why people don't trust them. Pathetic.

By CHARLES W. KIM, CONTENT EDITOR

September 17, 2016 at 8:24 AM

EDISON, NJ – Four township police officers pleaded guilty Friday to charges they planned to retaliate against a North Brunswick police officer who arrested an individual, known to one of the officers, for drunk driving in 2012, according to a Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office press release.

Officers Michael Dotro, 39, of Manalapan, Brian Favretto, 41, of Brick, Victor Aravena, 45, of Edison and Sgt. William Gesell, 48, of Edison, made the pleas Friday with jury selection in their trial underway, according to the release.


The charges stem from a 2012 incident where a North Brunswick police officer arrested an individual for drunk driving, police said.

Dotro, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in the case, knew the individual charged and admitted that he sought to retaliate against the North Brunswick officer for the arrest, according to police.

Favretto pleaded guilty to a count of obstruction of the administration of the law, admitting that he tried to intervene in the drunk driving case, police said.

Sgt. Gesell admitted that he accessed computer records on the North Brunswick officer to aid Dotro in the retaliation plan, according to police. He pleaded guilty to tampering with public records, police said.


Aravena pleaded guilty to a count of obstruction of administration of the law by admitting that he passed along computer records to Dotro as part of the plan.

Although the plans were in process, no actual retaliation took place, investigators determined.

The officers are scheduled to be sentenced in New Brunswick on Jan. 13, 2017 and each will forfeit their jobs and never hold public jobs in the state again as well as face probationary terms under the terms of the plea agreement, police said.

“This is a sad day for the Edison Police Department because of the tarnish it brings to the reputations of our many other upstanding and hard-working police officers,” Edison Business Administrator Maureen Ruane said. “We are glad to see these men chose to resign their positions, bringing an end to their tenure here. We must also commend the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office for its diligent investigation and prosecution of this matter.”

The case is not the end for Dotro, however.

He is facing several other charges from two unrelated matters.

Dotro is also charged with slashing a township woman’s tires, having prohibited devices, possession of an imitation firearm, carrying brass knuckles, carrying a small club known as a “black jack,” possession of a small quantity of marijuana and possession of a device to smoke marijuana, all from a May, 2013 incident, according to police.

He is also charged with attempted murder and other charges from trying to set fire to the Monroe Township home of his police captain, while the captain and his family were asleep.



=========





4 Edison cops plead guilty in retaliation plot over DUI



 
Defense Attorney Laurence Bitterman speaks to Officer Michael Dotro during his arraignment on charges of attempted murder and arson for allegedly firebombing a supervisor's house. Dotro makes his first court appearance at the Middlesex County Superior Courthouse in New Brunswick on Friday, May 24, 2013. (Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)
Frances Micklow | For NJ Advance Media

  By Noah Cohen | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
 
on September 16, 2016 at 5:23 PM, updated September 16, 2016 at 6:57 PM



NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Four Edison police officers pleaded guilty Friday for their roles in a plot to retaliate against a North Brunswick police officer who cited one of the officer's relatives on a drunk driving charge, prosecutors announced.



Officer Michael A. Dotro, 39, of Manalapan, Officer Brian Favretto, 41, of Brick, Officer Victor E. Aravena, 45, and Sgt. William H. Gesell, 48, both of Edison, reached plea agreements as jury selection was underway to try the four, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office.

Each officer faces probation, must give up their government jobs and be barred from future public employment after sentencing scheduled for Jan. 13 in New Brunswick, prosecutors said.

All four officers resigned from the force, according to a township spokesman.

"This is a sad day for the Edison Police Department because of the tarnish it brings to the reputations of our many other upstanding and hard-working police officers," Edison Business Administrator Maureen Ruane said in a statement. "We are glad to see these men chose to resign their positions, bringing an end to their tenure here."

"We must also commend the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office for its diligent investigation and prosecution of this matter," Ruane added. 


The one guy had 11 excessive force complaints against him, and the only disposition, was that he see a shrink.   No suspension, leave of absence, termination??     Then he tries to burn down his boss's home.  Typical New Jersey cops, especially the Italians.  They are the worst thugs of all.





4 Edison cops indicted on conspiracy, misconduct charges

Michael Dotro and the three others are charged with trying to retaliate against a North Brunswick cop who issued a ticket to one of Dotro’s relatives.

Dotro pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted he planned to retaliate against the North Brunswick officer, who ticketed one of his relatives. The officer also faces separate charges, including attempted murder, for allegedly setting an Edison police captain's home on fire while the captain and his wife were asleep inside.

The officer allegedly torched his supervisor's home after the captain reportedly ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation following his 11th excessive force complaint. Dotro pleaded not guilty in that case.

In another case against the officer, prosecutors allege Dotro slashed the tires on an Edison woman's car and had brass knuckles, an imitation weapon, a black jack, a small amount of marijuana and a device used to smoke the drug in his police duty bag on May 23, 2013.

Favretto pleaded guilty to obstruction of the administration of law for trying to intervene in the DUI case. Gesell admitted he accessed computer records on the North Brunswick officer and pleaded guilty to tampering with public records.

For his part, Aravena admitted he gave the computer records to Dotro to help in the retaliation scheme. Aravena pleaded guilty to obstruction of the administration of law.

The prosecutor's office, however, said its investigation found the four never actually carried out the retaliation scheme against the North Brunswick officer.

The charges against the four Edison officers was among a series of embarrassments for the department, which has included lawsuits and criminal probes.

Typical New Jersey cops. These ones just got caught.  They are also mostly Italians, the worst thugs around.  They have that scumbag sense of entitlement which makes them think they're above the law. Most of their criminal behavior gets swept beneath the carpet. Where there is smoke, there is fire. The public doesn't know a fraction of it.

See also the link here 
http://metroforensics.blogspot.com/2016/01/walter-dewey-jr-of-passaic-county_14.html 
for the crimes committed by other New Jersey Officers.

===========







Betraying the badge: Edison police produce astonishing record of misconduct




  By Mark Mueller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
 
on December 10, 2012 at 12:15 AM, updated November 09, 2015 at 1:49 PM



Edison police investigation: Day 2 Documents
Internal affairs report sustaining allegations of excessive force in arrest of Delevan Du Bois
Internal affairs report summarizing complaints against Sgt. Alex Glinsky
Legal certification by former internal affairs commander regarding allegations of racism against Sgt. Alex Glinsky
Officer Daniel Boslet's internal affairs statement about Sgt. Alex Glinsky
Officer Jerome Sisolak's internal affairs statement about Sgt. Alex Glinsky
Officer Shawn Meade's internal affairs statement about Sgt. Alex Glinsky
Officer Joseph Kenney's internal affairs statement about Sgt. Alex Glinsky


EDISON, NJ — From her room in a low-budget motel on Route 1, a prostitute working as an informant for the Woodbridge Police Department reached out to her handler with an urgent tip.

A client had contacted her. He was flush with cocaine — "white," he called it — and he wanted to trade some of it for sex, she told the handler.

Woodbridge detectives, deep into an investigation of drug-trafficking at hotels along the highway, moved into position and waited.

On that Saturday morning in 2010, the man the prostitute identified as her client, Thomas Wall, was inaugurated into one of New Jersey’s more infamous brotherhoods: Edison police officers who have betrayed the badge.

Wall — who would later fail a department-ordered drug test, documents show — is one of at least 30 Edison officers who were fired or who abruptly resigned amid allegations of inappropriate or illegal behavior over the past two decades. That figure, confirmed by Chief Thomas Bryan, includes six officers removed from the force or prosecuted in the past four years alone.

It is an astonishing record of misconduct unmatched by any department of equivalent size in New Jersey, a Star-Ledger review has found. Edison — the state’s fifth-largest municipality, with a population of about 100,000 — has 168 officers, down from a high of 215 eight years ago.

In neighboring Woodbridge, which has a slightly larger force and about 400 fewer residents, just seven officers have run afoul of the law or committed rules violations serious enough to warrant termination in the past 20 years, a township spokesman confirmed. Two of the seven were later reinstated.

And in Toms River, with 150 officers and 91,000 residents, not a single officer has been charged or removed for cause in the same time period, longtime Police Chief Michael Mastronardy said.





Edison police officer Thomas Wall resigned from the force after failing a drug test, documents show. He was tested after a prostitute working as a confidential informant for Woodbridge police told her handlers a client wanted to trade cocaine for sex, law enforcement officials said. The prostitute identified Wall as her client, the officials said. (Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger)
Star-Ledger Staff

Asked if any officers had been allowed to quietly retire in lieu of criminal or administrative action, Mastronardy responded: "We don’t negotiate on behavior. If you do something, you get charged."

The misconduct in Edison is even more stark when compared with New Jersey’s biggest law enforcement agency, the State Police.

With about 2,800 enlisted personnel, the organization is nearly 17 times larger than Edison’s force, yet in the past two decades, just 72 troopers have been forced out, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office. Thirty-eight were terminated outright. The remaining 34 retired or resigned while under investigation or after disciplinary charges had been filed, Loriquet said.

The Edison Police Department’s defenders say most officers are dedicated and honest. They say, too, the force’s darkest days are well in the past, that a long-standing tolerance for bad behavior has been largely snuffed out.

But the bleak fact remains that in Edison, police officers continue to find trouble at a far greater clip than their counterparts across the state.

"I wish I had the answer," said Councilman Wayne Mascola, who has pushed for greater accountability on the force. "Why do the Mets get someone — maybe a Hall of Famer — and he goes down the tubes?

"Maybe it’s the Edison uniform."

At the same time, the department is contending with multiple allegations of police brutality and a related attack on the integrity of the internal affairs unit by plaintiffs’ lawyers, who say investigators skew their findings to benefit accused officers.

The FBI is investigating one of the brutality cases as a civil rights violation and has seized records and other evidence, including officers’ clothing and video footage from squad cars, according to court records and law enforcement officials familiar with the probe.

"They’re really not trying to stop this stuff," said Thomas Mallon, a Freehold lawyer who has filed two suits alleging excessive force.

"It’s an ongoing problem," Mallon said, "and it will keep happening unless they reform their internal affairs procedures, because they’ve got some serious problems with guys who are heavy-handed and act like thugs."
Edison Police Chief Thomas Bryan, a former internal affairs commander, says he is working to reform a culture of bad behavior on the force. “As a leader of the department, I finally have a chance to make a difference, ” he said. “And I say, ‘No, not on my watch.’” Aaron Houston/For The Star-Ledger

Compounding the department’s troubles, an internal power struggle has exploded into open civil war, with officers plotting against one another and the chief, The Star-Ledger reported Sunday.

The newspaper found an environment of threats and intimidation, an internal affairs unit that gathered intelligence on politicians and officers’ families, and more than a dozen lawsuits alleging harassment, discrimination or political favoritism.

The collateral casualties in this fight are the taxpayers, who will bear the legal bills for years to come.

‘CLEANING HOUSE’

Thomas Bryan, now in his fourth year as chief, could look at the roster of officers drummed out of his department and view it as a mark of shame. Instead, he says, he sees it as a measure of progress.

"It looks bad. It looks like a black mark. But it’s getting better," said Bryan, a former internal affairs commander who investigated many of the officers. "We’re cleaning house. There’s a culture that me and my administration are changing."

That culture, Bryan said, has been embedded in the fabric of the police department for decades. It is the sense among some officers that they are above the law and that a badge is a form of protection, because any decent cop, the belief goes, would do whatever it takes to protect another cop.

It is a philosophy enshrined in the police department’s most high-profile embarrassments.

No one on the force likes to talk about the Captain’s Wheel. Ancient history, officers say, calling any reference to the 1977 incident unfair to today’s members. Bryan says it’s history that should not be forgotten.

On Oct. 25 of that year, Sgt. William Quigley and two patrolmen, Charles Fekete and Dominic Semenza, brutally beat two Staten Island men in the Captain’s Wheel bar on Route 1 in Edison during an off-duty fight. To mask their roles in the attack, the three summoned on-duty officers to charge the men with assault.
Former Edison officer Charles Fekete was convicted of raping a woman in her apartment while he was on duty in 1991. Fekete has since died. Star-Ledger file photo

The cover-up ultimately failed, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements and legal fees. Despite their actions, the officers were not fired. Quigley was suspended for two years, Fekete and Semenza for 45 days each.

Fekete would go on to rape a drunken woman in her apartment while on duty in 1991, a crime that landed him in prison for 10 years. Quigley, in yet another cover-up, falsely portrayed the victim as a woman with severe psychological problems, authorities said. He later resigned to avoid prosecution.

Semenza, too, would run into trouble again. Summoned to a parking lot where his granddaughter had been drinking alcohol with her boyfriend in 2004, Semenza allegedly punched the boyfriend in the jaw, pointed his service weapon at the man’s head and threatened to kill him, according to a lawsuit against the department.

Semenza, by then a lieutenant, retired amid an internal affairs investigation, court papers show. An IA report obtained by The Star-Ledger shows he almost certainly would have been disciplined for taking the boyfriend behind a Dumpster for several minutes, a violation of protocol.

Charges of assault could not be sustained — meaning they could neither be proven nor disproven — because other officers on the scene testified the Dumpster obscured their view, the report said.

Bryan said he could not comment on individual disciplinary cases. Speaking generally, he said the lessons of the past should be a reminder of the need for vigilance.

"As a leader of the department, I finally have a chance to make a difference," he said. "And I say, ‘No, not on my watch. You’re not going to do that.’ We’re not talking about someone who works at a convenience store. Not someone who works at a factory. This is someone the public entrusts to make diligent, fair, non-biased decisions about public safety and people’s welfare."
Edison police officer Ioannis Mpletsakis was fired after fleeing the scene of an accident in 2005. He was naked at the time. In 2007, a judge ruled termination was too harsh a punishment and ordered him reinstated. Amanda Brown/For The Star-Ledger

WHO WAS COUNTED

The Star-Ledger reached its figure of 30 officers by examining the public record and internal affairs files. Law enforcement officials familiar with the circumstances of terminations and retirements augmented the list.

One of the fired officers, Ioannis Mpletsakis, was reinstated in 2007 after a Superior Court judge ruled termination was too harsh a punishment. Mpletsakis fled the scene of an accident while off-duty in 2005. He was naked.

The newspaper’s list does not include Fekete, the convicted rapist, because he was fired before the 20-year review period. Quigley, who tried to cover up the rape, is included because he did not resign until years after the crime. Both men have since died.

Among the remaining officers, some lost their jobs to common greed, others to anger, according to published accounts and the law enforcement officials familiar with the cases.

One repeatedly had sex in headquarters while on duty. Two knowingly wrote bad checks. Two more, including the former head of the vice squad, were found to be working part time at brothels. Drugs — prescription and otherwise — claimed a handful.

David Yanvary threw his livelihood away for a bottle of canola oil, a jar of honey, a candle and a DVD of the movie "Role Models."

Three years ago, the veteran officer stole the items — with a total value of $42 — from a supermarket where he worked part time as a security guard. He pleaded guilty to shoplifting and was placed on probation for a year.

Robert Spinello went for a bigger score. Forty minutes before reporting for duty in January 1999, he used his service weapon to rob an Edison bank, walking away with $3,500. Spinello was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.
Former Edison police officer David Yanvary pleaded guilty to shoplifting in 2009 and was sentenced to a year of probation. He stole $42 worth of items, including a DVD of the movie "Role Models."€ File photo

Violence or the threat of it cut short several careers.

Alan Farkas drew a handgun on a rescue squad member during an off-duty argument in 2005. Joseph Tauriello, a former president of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association, attacked his wife’s ex-husband at a youth soccer game in 2003.

Six years earlier, Wayne Seich roughed up his 71-year-old neighbor in a fit of rage after she complained to his superiors about the way he parked his patrol car on their block. Seich, who pleaded guilty to simple assault, would later be granted a disability pension based on an inability to control his anger.

A jury acquitted Clint Vickery of battering a man in a 2005 bar fight, but an internal affairs investigation found his behavior troubling enough that he was charged departmentally. Vickery resigned under a settlement agreement with the township. His girlfriend had testified at the trial he was a "time bomb."

"Everybody agrees that he’s an aggressive individual," she said.

Lt. Bruce Polkowitz — president of the Superior Officers Association, the union that represents sergeants, lieutenants and captains — acknowledges the department has had problem officers, but he said most incidents occurred off duty and that the offending officers were appropriately punished.

"When you look at the police department as being rogue or Wild West, it’s simply an unfair statement," Polkowitz said. "We come to work. We do our jobs professionally. We rise to every occasion. And we perform above and beyond expectations."

Recounting past incidents, Polkowitz added, unfairly "paints current officers with the same brush."

DOZENS OF COMPLAINTS

But for every older transgression, there is a more recent one.

Sgt. Alex Glinsky retired in February of last year after leaving a photo of himself, naked and fully aroused, on a computer at police headquarters.

An investigation showed Glinsky also downloaded pictures of nude women and cruised adult dating websites while on the job, according to an internal affairs report.

Granted a nine-month paid stress leave, he eventually pleaded guilty to departmental charges, agreeing to forfeit accrued sick and vacation pay, internal documents show. He retained his $84,000-a-year pension.

The incident marked the final blow to a career shadowed by trouble almost from the start. Glinsky, 49, the son of a former treasurer for the Edison Democratic Organization, amassed at least 29 internal affairs complaints over 18 years, records show. He also faced criminal charges of assault and sexual contact with a minor. In each of the criminal cases, a grand jury declined to indict him.

Polkowitz, who passionately defends most officers, called his former co-worker "the worst of the worst" and suggested Glinsky should have been fired long ago.

Colleagues complained he called a pregnant officer a "whore" whose unborn baby "should be killed." At least five officers told internal affairs the veteran sergeant routinely used racial epithets to describe suspects and law-abiding citizens alike, sometimes in earshot of residents.

"The respect for the public is horrendous, absolutely horrendous," Officer Daniel Boslet told an IA investigator in August 2008, according to an interview transcript obtained by The Star-Ledger. "It leaves a bad mark on the entire department because people see him act that way and they think we all act that way."

Glinsky, who most recently worked as a security guard at a state Motor Vehicle Commission office in Edison, said in an interview he was an exemplary, hardworking supervisor who made enemies on the force because he held officers accountable, writing them up for failing to follow procedures or for loafing on the job.
Edison police Sgt. Alex Glinsky amassed more than two dozen internal affairs complaints over his career. He retired in a departmental plea deal in 2011 after a naked photo of him was found on a computer in police headquarters. Glinsky also downloaded nude photos of women and cruised dating websites while on the job, internal affairs records show. Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

He and his lawyer, Lawrence Bitterman, adamantly denied wrongdoing by the former officer.

"He’s been targeted by a half dozen or a dozen lazy malcontents who did not want to work under a demanding sergeant," said Bitterman, a New Brunswick-based attorney who regularly represents officers accused of misconduct.

Glinsky called the naked photo of himself a "personal matter."

He is one of six officers who resigned, retired or faced criminal charges over alleged improprieties since 2008.

Thomas Marino Jr., the son of an Edison sergeant, was dismissed after testing positive for a controlled dangerous substance, according to a termination letter signed by Edison’s former police director, Brian Collier.

David Rodriguez resigned while under criminal investigation, another letter from Collier shows. The law enforcement officials with knowledge of the cases said Rodriguez made a traffic ticket disappear.

Adam "Buddy" Tietchen, a veteran patrolman, admitted lying to investigators about a local business where he worked security on his off-hours. That business, authorities say, was a front for prostitution.

Tietchen, who pleaded guilty to the equivalent of a disorderly persons offense and swiftly retired, maintains he did not know the business was a brothel and said he would have fought the charges had his girlfriend not been dying of cancer, clouding his thinking at the time.

He also insists he was targeted because he previously filed an age discrimination suit against the department. The township settled with him for $50,000, records show.
Veteran Edison police officer Adam "Buddy" Tietchen, now 67, pleaded guilty in 2009 to lying to investigators about a township business where he worked security during his off-hours. That business, authorities say, was a front for prostitution. Tietchen was sentenced to a year of probation over the charge, the equivalent of a disorderly persons offense. File photo

"I was on the force for 29 years and nine months, and I was never charged with anything before," said Tietchen, now 67. "There are guys who did 100 times worse than me, and they’re still working. It’s absolutely amazing."

The other officers forced out in the past four years are Yanvary, the supermarket shoplifter, and Wall, the patrolman accused of offering to trade cocaine for sex with a prostitute who advertised on the internet.

Wall, whose role in the incident has not been previously made public, was spared the possibility of criminal charges, the product of an on-scene mix-up.

Three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the details said that when Wall arrived at the Route 1 hotel that day in June 2010, he was confronted by Woodbridge police officers who recognized him.

Wall, the officials said, told them he was working undercover. The Woodbridge officers, unaware of the client’s identity, in turn told him they had their own operation under way and to leave.

Minutes later, the officers learned from the prostitute they had just sent the client away, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Following protocol, Woodbridge police alerted the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, but Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said in an interview the notification came after a full day, slowing the investigative response.
Edison police say this building, off Brunswick Avenue, once housed a brothel where officer Adam "Buddy"€ Tietchen worked security. In 2009, Tietchen pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his role at the company and retired. Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger

Woodbridge also reached out to Bryan, who quickly ordered his officer to submit to a drug test. Wall, a 13-year veteran who was making $102,000 at the time, came up positive for cocaine, two of the law enforcement officials said.

A letter to Wall from Mayor Antonia Ricigliano, Edison’s public safety director, shows he was immediately suspended without pay. He soon quit the force, acknowledging the failed drug test in his resignation letter. The Star-Ledger has obtained copies of both letters.

Because he did not enter the hotel room, Wall was not criminally charged, the officials said. He is barred from working in law enforcement in New Jersey again.

Wall’s direct supervisor at the time, Sgt. John Vaticano, said he was stunned when he heard the allegations of his officer’s actions that day.

"It knocked the breath out of me," said Vaticano, now retired. "I was very disappointed. My opinion of him as a cop at the time was, ‘Wow, he’s very proactive,’ and to hear this happened?"

Kaplan said he could not go into detail about the case, but he expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome.

"Suffice it to say we were not happy with how the investigation was handled or concluded," he said. "Any time you’re dealing with a police officer who is a suspect or on the periphery, I believe that matter has to be handled at a high level and delicately."

Wall, now 41, did not respond to requests for comment. After leaving the force, he filed for a disability pension, a request that was denied. He has appealed the decision and is scheduled to make his case before an administrative law judge in March.
Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, left, is shown in this file photo. Star-Ledger file photo

Other allegations of misbehavior among officers could have resulted in terminations, but investigators lacked the evidence to make charges stick, records show.

According to internal affairs correspondence obtained by The Star-Ledger, members of the department stole a police cruiser — Car 70 — from a parking lot at police headquarters in 2008 as a practical joke on the sergeant to whom it was assigned. The culprits then parked it on a dead-end street four miles away, where it went undiscovered for a week.

Because of post-9/11 concerns that law enforcement vehicles could be used in a terrorist attack, the theft triggered a homeland security alert, drawing in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the correspondence shows. A township chemical company, designated a "Tier 1" facility under federal security guidelines, also was placed on alert.

Three night-shift officers — Michael Dotro, Matthew Haras and Jeffrey Tierney — initially agreed to take responsibility for the theft, according to an internal memo written by Sgt. Darrin Cerminaro, then an internal affairs investigator.

The officers changed their minds when they were told they could not be guaranteed the minimum punishment, a written reprimand, Cerminaro wrote.

Dotro, Haras and Tierney "decided not to come in to police headquarters to turn themselves in because they believe they would be terminated," Cerminaro wrote.

The case remains open. All three officers continue to work for the department.

Bitterman, the New Brunswick attorney, represented Dotro and Haras during the investigation. He called Cerminaro’s characterization "completely and utterly false."

"These officers categorically denied their involvement in a tape-recorded statement and were never charged," Bitterman said.

It wasn’t the first time internal affairs had been called on to investigate Dotro, and it wouldn’t be the last. In 2005, he was at the center of tensions between the department and the township’s Asian-Indian community after arresting a man who accused him of brutality. Amid community protests and headlines, he was cleared.

Three years later, he had a fistfight with his 68-year-old neighbor, who claimed the officer, then 31, punched him a half-dozen times after a dispute about a shed on Dotro’s Manalapan property. Both men filed assault charges in the case. Both were acquitted in municipal court.
Delevan Du Bois claims in a lawsuit Edison police officers beat him because he refused to relinquish a bottle of pills he was holding during a visit to his psychologist’s office. This photo was introduced as evidence in the case. In February, Du Bois settled with the township for $100,000.

ALLEGATIONS OF VIOLENCE

The woman on the 911 call seemed frantic.

"He’s flipping out," she told a dispatcher. "He’s gonna — he’s punching (inaudible). He’s gonna (expletive) attack me. I’m done with his (expletive) temper. I’m done with his temper."

Then she added: "He’s a police officer. He’s on duty."

The caller that day in October 2007 was the wife of Edison Patrolman Paul Pappas, whose marital problems and volatile emotional state were well known to supervisors in the police department, according to documents filed in federal court in connection with an excessive force lawsuit.

A few months earlier, Pappas had been involved in another domestic dispute with his wife, who told an investigator her husband had punched a hole in the wall and smashed a phone, the court papers show.

Over the next two years, Pappas would be named in two excessive force lawsuits and an additional brutality complaint that did not result in litigation. The suits are among at least five alleging Edison officers were unduly violent while making arrests in the past four years.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs contend the department’s internal affairs unit and a succession of chiefs have done little to rein in heavy-handed officers, clearing them of wrongdoing even in the face of strong evidence and serious injury to defendants.

"There’s a pattern, and it gives everyone on the department confidence to believe, ‘I’m gonna get away with it,’ " said Nicholas Martino, a Marlboro lawyer who has brought three lawsuits against the department in the past decade.

Mallon, the Freehold lawyer who has twice sued the department, argues the internal affairs unit’s handling of Pappas illustrates the problem.

While Pappas received crisis counseling after his first domestic dispute, Mallon said in legal papers, there is no record of additional counseling or discipline after the second domestic incident.

In between those disputes, Pappas was accused in an internal affairs complaint of grabbing a teenager at a football game and ramming him against a fence. Chief Bryan, then a lieutenant in charge of the IA unit, exonerated him, court documents show.
Delevan Du Bois claims in a lawsuit Edison police officers beat him because he refused to relinquish a bottle of pills he was holding during a visit to his psychologist's office. This photo was introduced as evidence in the case. In February, Du Bois settled with the township for $100,000.

Then in June 2008, Pappas and another officer, Christopher Sorber, were accused of punching, kicking and kneeing Delevan Du Bois, a 65-year-old Piscataway man who refused to hand over a bottle of medication as ordered during a visit to his psychologist. The psychologist, fearing Du Bois would harm himself, had summoned police to transport him to a hospital.

Internal affairs records show Lt. Mario Severino determined Pappas and Sorber used excessive force on Du Bois, who suffered a torn ear, gashes on his forehead and cuts and bruises across his face.

After a lawsuit was filed, Bryan ordered a different officer to conduct a new internal affairs investigation. This time, Pappas and Sorber were exonerated.

Severino later said in a deposition the new probe was ordered after an attorney for the township’s joint insurance fund raised questions about the case.

"Obviously, the outcome of the investigation was — did not enhance their (the township’s) standing with this lawsuit," he said, according to a transcript.

A year later, Pappas was involved in an alleged attack on a man whose wife had called police, saying she worried he was about to ride his motorcycle while drunk.

Like Du Bois, Joao DeMatos suffered a lacerated ear and numerous cuts and bruises. He also had a mild brain injury and broken bones in his face, according to medical records appended to DeMatos’ lawsuit. Pappas and another officer, Anthony Sarni, were cleared of wrongdoing by internal affairs. Bryan, by then chief, was not involved in the investigation.

Mallon calls it a whitewash.

"Had they properly disciplined one of the officers in the Du Bois case, we probably would not have been back in court with DeMatos," Mallon said. "It tells me they’re not serious about their internal affairs process."





 Police video of officers arresting Lenus Germe in Edison This video shows police officers arresting Lenus Germe, a suspect in a domestic violence incident, around the corner from his home in Edison. In a lawsuit, Germe contends the videotape shows the first of two beatings by various officers on May 20, 2008. The second alleged incident, which was not recorded, was more severe and involved officers throwing him down a flight of stairs and beating him into unconsciousness at police headquarters, Germe alleges. Lawyers for the officers say they used appropriate force to subdue Germe, who has an extensive criminal history. According to law enforcement officials and court documents, the FBI is investigating the case as a civil rights violation. The video was shot from a camera inside the squad car shared by officers Salvatore Capriglione and Scot Sofield. Sofield is the first out of the car. Seconds later, Capriglione follows and is seen kicking Germe in the head. The other officers on the scene are Jeffrey Tierney and Sgt. Jason Gerba, who is standing, gun drawn, at the start of the tape. After the incident, Capriglione went out on a lengthy stress-related medical leave and retired on disability. A law enforcement expert who viewed the tape at the request of The Star-Ledger said the video does not clearly demonstrate excessive force because Germe, once kicked in the head, strenuously resists attempts to handcuff him.

The Du Bois suit settled for $100,000 in February. Taxpayers also picked up the legal fees, which topped $184,000, according to bills obtained under the Open Public Records Act. DeMatos’ trial has not been scheduled. Legal fees in that case have climbed above $72,000, records show.

Pappas, 38, declined to comment. In a letter to The Star-Ledger, his attorney, Lori Dvorak, called Pappas a "longstanding and dedicated" member of the department. Dvorak declined to comment on behalf of Sorber, Pappas’ co-defendant in the Du Bois suit, and Sarni, the co-defendant in the DeMatos case.

Bryan said his internal affairs unit handled the claims of excessive force appropriately. In the Du Bois case, he said, he ordered a new probe not because a lawsuit was filed but because Severino, the first investigator, did not do a thorough job.

"It was just a very, very incomplete investigation," Bryan said. "There were a lot of holes in the report."

Severino was later transferred out of internal affairs and assigned to a watch commander’s post. He retired in 2010 at age 54.

Another case in which charges of excessive force were not sustained remains under investigation by the FBI.

Lenus Germe, a suspect in a domestic violence incident at the time, was allegedly beaten twice on May 20, 2008, once in the driveway of a township home and again at police headquarters, where officers threw him down a flight of stairs and battered him into unconsciousness, he claims in a lawsuit.

Part of the initial confrontation outdoors was captured by a squad car camera before officers, apparently realizing they were being recorded, appeared to turn the camera off.

The video — which can be seen on NJ.com, the online home of The Star-Ledger — is at odds with mandatory use-of-force reports filed by two of the officers, Salvatore Capriglione and Scot Sofield.

In the reports, which were reviewed by the newspaper, Sofield checked a box for the use of a compliance hold but left blank a box for the use of hands or fists. The video shows he punched Germe several times.

Capriglione, in his own report, checked boxes for a compliance hold and "other" force but did not elaborate. The video shows he kicked Germe in the head, and he appeared to throw at least one punch.
Lenus Germe contends in a lawsuit Edison police officers beat him twice on May 20, 2008, once in a driveway and again, more severely, at police headquarters. An internal affairs investigation found the charges could not be sustained. The FBI continues to investigate the case as a civil rights violation. A squad-car video of the initial confrontation can be found on nj.com. File photo

Dotro, Haras and Tierney — the officers suspected by internal affairs of stealing the police car — also are defendants in the case. The lawsuit accuses Tierney of taking part in both alleged beatings. Dotro and Haras stood by and did nothing to stop the attacks, the suit contends.

In legal papers, the accused officers denied throwing Germe down the staircase or acting inappropriately in any way.

A law enforcement expert asked by The Star-Ledger to review the video of the initial confrontation said Germe appeared to resist the officers after he was kicked in the head.

Wayne Fisher, a professor at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Criminal Justice and a former deputy director of the state Division of Criminal Justice, said that while the kick by Capriglione was perhaps unnecessary, it did not amount to a clear-cut case of police brutality.

The second alleged beating at police headquarters — which Germe claims was far more severe — was not recorded.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment. The agency’s involvement is verified in a subpoena seeking files related to the case and in court documents filed by the officers’ lawyers. The attorneys sought to put the civil case on hold last year while the federal probe progressed. A judge denied their motion.

Capriglione, now 46, was out for a year on a stress-related medical leave after the scuffle, a period in which he was questioned several times by the FBI, according to two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the probe.

He has since retired on an accidental disability pension that pays him $6,592 per month, according to the state Division of Pensions and Benefits. Capriglione’s lawyer declined comment.

No trial date for the case has been set. Legal fees have so far eclipsed $236,000, records show.

Bryan said he could not address the Germe case because of the ongoing litigation. But he said he’s confident the findings in all of the department’s excessive force cases would hold up under scrutiny by the county prosecutor’s office or the state Attorney General’s Office.

"They will come to the same conclusion given the facts and circumstances of each case," he said. "I have no doubt about that."

Star-Ledger staff writer Amy Brittain contributed to this report.