May 20, 2015 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 52 Visit our
BUSINESS DIRECT on
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
Colon case: jury returns’ guilty verdict A Hudson County jury of nine men and three women returned a guilty verdict for the man accused of fatally shooting a 16-year-old Kearny girl in the head in the bedroom of her Belgrove Drive home more than two years ago. The jurors deliberated about a day and a half before reaching a consensus last Thursday night that Cruz Martinez Jr., now 43, of Hazleton, Pa., did, in fact, pull the trigger on Jan. 17, 2013, killing Alishia Colon, as the victim’s 7-year-old brother watched in horror. Martinez will be sentenced July 24 by Superior Court Judge Martha Royster in Jersey City. He could get up to life in prison. Three co-defendants who have pled to lesser charges are slated to be sentenced June 5 but that date is subject to change. “This was a horrible crime – the killing of a 16-year-old girl that happened in front of the victim’s 7-year-old brother – and the evidence to convict [Martinez] was overwhelming,” Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Sal Rozzi, who presented the case, told The Observer last Friday. The jury heard the testimony of nine state witnesses spread over three days of the see GUILTY page
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• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Criminal ring swiped equipment By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent LYNDHURST – n Aug. 10, 2014, a Caterpillar Skid-Steer, valued at $17,950, disappeared from the school construction site of Lyndhurst’s new Memorial Campus on New York Ave. In October, nearly two months to the day it went missing, it was recovered in the tiny Warren County town of Hardwick, Lyndhurst police reported. Last week, authorities announced that the local theft was one of at least 21 committed by a criminal ring that stole heavy equipment from construction sites throughout the state and then sold them out of a vacant lot in Newark to buyers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. According to Acting N.J. Attorney General John J. Hoffman, the machinery was worth a total of approximately $300,000.
O
Photos courtesy NJAG
see THEFTS page
Caterpillar Skid-Steer stolen from Lyndhurst construction site. Inset: Michael J. Troncone
Town’s credit rating downgraded By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
Moody’s announced on May 11 that it was taking down the town’s credit rating by two KEARNY – “notches,” from A2 to Baa1 Kearny took two shots and has forecast a “negative across its bow this month from Moody’s Investor Service outlook.” In the firm’s analysis, the but the captain of the ship of town’s financial obligations state is hoping to stay afloat, under a Baa rating “are subject even awash in debt.
201-460-8000 LYNDHURST OFFICE 761 Ridge Road, Lyndhurst, New Jersey C21Semiao@Century21.com
to moderate credit risk.” Far worse ratings can be applied to municipalities. It’s likely that municipal employee unions will be greeted with the news at the bargaining table. Civil Service Council 11, actively engaged in contract talks, may have already heard it and uniformed
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employees will soon enough. But local officials are trying to keep a stiff upper lip and, undeterred, will be going out to test the bond market later this year, according to CFO Shuaib Firozvi, despite the likelihood of facing higher interest rates. see DOWNGRADE page
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