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Police & Fire
Paterson Police Sergeant Indicted By Federal Grand Jury Paterson Police Sergeant Indicted By Federal Grand Jury
Paterson Police Sergeant Indicted By Federal Grand Jury A Paterson police sergeant stole money from a suspect, then lied on reports to protect himself and his department accomplices, an indictment returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Newark charges. Sgt. Michael Cheff, 49, of Paterson signed off on bogus reports submitted by a group of rogue officers he supervised who routinely violated citizens’ civil rights by stopping and searching them on the street and in vehicles, the indictment says. Cheff “routinely received a portion of these stolen monies from some of these officers and signed off on corresponding false police reports about th…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
After Racist Comments Surface, Calls For Renaming Elizabeth's Reagan Academy After Racist Comments Surface, Calls For Renaming Elizabeth's Reagan Academy
After Racist Comments Surface, Calls For Renaming Elizabeth's Reagan Academy A college student and Democratic Party activist has started a petition calling for the Ronald Reagan Academy in Elizabeth to be renamed after a recording of the 40th president referring to Africans as "monkeys" emerged a few weeks ago.  Ricky Castaneda, 21, launched the petition on Change.org and hopes to have it signed by 1,000 people in time for the next Elizabeth Board of Education meeting Aug 22.  "In [the] wake of the damaging October 1971 racist phone conversation between Governor Ronald Reagan and President Richard Nixon that recently surfaced, outraged human/civil rights a…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
FEDERAL CASE: Ex-Paterson Police Officer Admits Beating, Robbing Suspects, Ordinary Citizens FEDERAL CASE: Ex-Paterson Police Officer Admits Beating, Robbing Suspects, Ordinary Citizens
Federal CASE: Ex-Paterson Police Officer Admits Beating, Robbing Suspects, Ordinary Citizens A now-former Paterson police officer is headed to federal prison for at least 2½ years after admitting Tuesday that he beat and robbed suspects as well as ordinary citizens. Frank Toledo, 30, is one of seven rogue officers that the U.S. government has recently helped the city police department remove from its ranks, authorities in Paterson said. Toledo pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Newark to conspiring to violate citizens’ civil rights in the Silk City as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that will bring him a shorter prison sentence than if he’d been convicted at a…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Lakeland HS Student Hides Jewish Heritage After Finding Swastika On Her Chair, Desk Lakeland HS Student Hides Jewish Heritage After Finding Swastika On Her Chair, Desk
Lakeland HS Student Hides Jewish Heritage After Finding Swastika On Her Chair, Desk A Lakeland High School sophomore says she feels hiding her Jewish heritage from her classmates after finding swastikas drawn on her desk and overhearing anti-Semitic jokes. The 15-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous in a NorthJersey.com report, says things escalated after overhearing classmates making Holocaust jokes a few months ago.  Then, she found someone had drawn a swastika on the back of her biology chair, and inside of a Star of David on her desk, the report says.  Superintendent Hugh Beattie said the drawing on the desk was old but the student's mother said it w…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
LAWSUIT: Paterson Police Officers Beat Man In Hospital After Suicide Attempt, Videotaped It LAWSUIT: Paterson Police Officers Beat Man In Hospital After Suicide Attempt, Videotaped It
Lawsuit: Paterson Police Officers Beat Man In Hospital After Suicide Attempt, Videotaped It A Paterson man has filed a lawsuit against the City of Paterson, its police department and a pair of officers who beat him in the hospital just after attempting suicide. Andrew Casciano of Paterson filed the federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday, weeks after Paterson police officers Roger Then and Ruben McAusland were sentenced to prison for attacking him in St. Joseph Regional Medical Center and recording it, NJ.com reports. Officers McAusland and Then responded to Casciano's 9-1-1 call March 5, 2018, when he asked for help during a suicide attempt, the article says.  Video footage …

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by Cecilia Levine
Politics
NJ Flags Fly At Half-Staff To Honor Pioneering Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson NJ Flags Fly At Half-Staff To Honor Pioneering Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson
NJ Flags Fly At Half-Staff To Honor Pioneering Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson The state and U.S. flags were lowered over the Statehouse in Trenton Monday to honor Kenneth Gibson, who became the first black mayor of a major Northeastern city when he was elected in Newark in 1970.  Gibson died Friday. He was 86.  Gibson came to power at a time when New Jersey's largest city was still recovering from a devastating riot three years earlier, part of a wave of racial violence sweeping the nation touched off partly by assassinations of prominent civll rights leaders, including Martin Luther King.  Born in Alabama, Gibson attended Central High School and…

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
Feds Accuse 4th Paterson Police Officer Of Stopping, Robbing Civilians Feds Accuse 4th Paterson Police Officer Of Stopping, Robbing Civilians
Feds Accuse 4th Paterson Police Officer Of Stopping, Robbing Civilians The FBI on Tuesday arrested a fourth Paterson police officer on charges of targeting pedestrians and motorists for stops just to steal their money. Federal authorities charged 32-year-old Daniel Pent of Paterson with conspiring to deprive the victims of their civil rights “under color of law.” Pent was part of a group of rogue city officers who “stopped and searched motor vehicles without any justification and stole cash and other items from the occupants,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. They also “illegally stopped and searched individuals in buildings or on the streets of Paterson a…

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by Jerry DeMarco