September 19, 2018 • www.theobserver.com • Vol. CXXXI, No. 19
HIGHLIGHTS Man shot, killed in Harrison near Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard & Harrison Avenue See theobserver.com
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
TO THE MOUNTAIN TOP
Group of Kearny Scouts climb to highest point on the East Coast By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
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Photo courtesy of Christine Jablonski
OY SCOUT TROOP 305 OF KEARNY SUCCESSFULLY reached the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the highest peak in the northeast, at 6,288 feet, as the apex of their first-ever high adventure outing this summer. The Scouts and leaders hiked through terrain on the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail that varied from loose boulders, gorges, steep drop-offs, waterfalls and treeless rocky trails marked by cairns. This part of their outdoor adventure took a day and a half, including an overnight stay at the picturesque and rustic Lakes of the Clouds Hut at 5,012 feet. The off-the-grid accommodations that sit above treelines are operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club on one of the faces of Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Following the Boy Scouts of America’s motto “Be Prepared,” Troop 305 planned for the erratic weather on Mount Washington that can change in an instant and turn danger-
With the stunning sight of Mount Washington in view, Boy Scouts from Troop 305, Kearny, climb to the top of the highest point on the East Coast in New Hampshire.
See SCOUTS, Page 18
Elevated soil tests shut down Lyndhurst’s Washington School Sept. 17, while environmental officials continued to test for elevated soil gas levels, Superintendent of Schools Anthony Grieco said. And while testing continues, students were relocated to the former St. Michael’s Grammar School.
By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com
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ASHINGTON SCHOOL, Lyndhurst, remained closed through at least Monday,
On Wednesday, Sept. 12, Grieco sent a letter to parents to inform them of the environmental issue. The testing, he said, came as continued renovations were to take place at the Ridge Road School. “As part of the planned school im-
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provements to Washington School, the Board of Education commenced a series of soil tests prior to the start of construction,” Grieco wrote in the letter to parents and guardians. “The
See SCHOOL, Page 18
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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
Clerk who stole hundreds of thousands from Kearny Board of Education won’t do time By Ron Leir Special to The Observer
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HERE’LL BE NO JAIL time for a former Kearny Board of Education bookkeeper who admitted stealing district cash during a multi-year period. Gina Neri, 50, of North Arlington, got five years’ probation at sentencing hearing Friday, Sept. 14, before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale, sitting in Jersey City. Neri was ordered to make restitution for $318,000 and submit updated tax returns. “Considering her background and certain extenuating circumstances in her life, [the sentence] was a just and measured resolution of the situation – and compassionate – and
we are thankful to the authorities for it,” said the defendant’s Fairfield attorney Timothy Smith. Smith declined to elaborate. Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Joseph Pahopin represented the state at the hearing. The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office did not request a custodial sentence. Neri entered into a plea agreement July 10 with the HCPO in which she pleaded guilty to one count of theft by deception, a third-degree crime, and one count of failing to file state tax returns, also a third-degree crime. Had Neri gone to trial and been convicted, she could have faced imprisonment for a term of up to five years, based on criminal
Gina Neri sentencing guidelines for third-degree crimes. The Kearny school district has every expectation of recovering its losses through its insurance carrier, including the cost of an
audit of the district’s books conducted to help pinpoint the extent of the missing money, according to Kenneth Lindenfelser, attorney for the Kearny Board of Education. Neri, a bookkeeper in the payroll department, was initially charged on Jan. 22, 2018, with the theft of about $190,000 in district funds by unlawfully negotiating checks drawn on the KBOE’s bank account between 2011 and 2017. She was alleged to have used the money for her personal benefit, the state charged. Neri was initially suspended from her $60,000-a-year job without pay and subsequently let go. The state subsequently revised its estimate of the money purloined after consultation with district
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT authorities. After the discovery of the theft, Kearny Superintendent of Schools Patricia Blood said the district had taken steps to restructure personnel and internal accounting protocols to protect the district against any possible future thefts. On May 21, 2018, the HCPO’s Public Integrity Special Investigations Unit charged Neri with multiple tax violations – failure to file return, failure to pay and filing of fraudulent return – following a joint investigation with the state Division of Taxation’s Office of Criminal Investigation.
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THE OBSERVER | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
03
Part-time Belleville judge can’t hear DWI cases for a year, committee rules By Ron Leir Special to The Observer
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part-time municipal court judge in Belleville who talked back to state troopers at a traffic stop has been slapped with a penalty by the state’s top tribunal. In a Sept. 7 order, the Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled Wilfredo Benitez cannot hear cases involving DWI matters at least through Sept. 7, 2019. The court acted after the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct recommended that Benitez – who also sits on the East Orange bench – be disciplined for: • Failing to maintain high standards of conduct. • Failing to avoid impropriety or the appearance of impropriety. • Compromising the judicial office by advancing personal interests of the judge. The judge’s troubles stemmed from an incident at 2:13 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2016, when N.J. State Troopers Justin Kearns and Danny Kim came across Benitez asleep in the front seat of his car parked on the shoulder of the westbound side of Rt. 80 in Teaneck. As detailed by the ACJC, after the troopers roused him and began questioning him, Benitez told them he
was a judge and denied having been taking drugs or drinking, although the troopers alleged they smelled alcohol on his breath. Informed he was being charged with DWI, the court said Benitez told the troopers, “I’m not a f-----g drug addict. I’m not a drunk. I can’t believing you’re doing this.” While being handcuffed, Benitez said: “You’re not going to give me any courtesy? None?” After being given his Miranda Rights warnings, Benitez said: “[y]ou’re wasting your time and you know it. I’ll fight you. You know you’re being a dick. I will f-----g fight you.” On May 11, 2017, Benitez was found not guilty of DWI by the Teaneck Municipal Court after the judge ruled results of a breathalyzer test inadmissible “because of the New Jersey State Trooper’s noncompliance with proper protocol for the testing,” the ACJC noted. However, the ACJC still took issue with the judge’s “inappropriate interaction” with the troopers and with his “belligerent use of vulgar, false and threatening language directed toward law enforcement” and on Feb. 24, 2018, it filed a formal complaint against Benitez and convened a hearing on
the complaint May 23, 2018. Benitez said he identified himself as a judge only “to convey that the handcuffs were unnecessary since he was a judge and he was not going to harm [the troopers] in any way” and that he was simply seeking relief from the pain from the restraints. Nonetheless, the ACJC found that the judge sought to use the power of his judicial office “to advance his private interests” and sought “preferential treatment during his arrest ….”
IN THE COURTS These actions, it said, amounted to “significant violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct for which severe public discipline is warranted” and constitute “an affront to the ethical precept that no one is above the rule of law.” While acknowledging the judge’s “remorse” for his action, the receipt of “11 character letters
submitted by attorneys on behalf of [Benitez]” and the judge’s otherwise “unblemished’’ record while serving on the bench in Bloomfield, Belleville and East Orange since 2014, the ACJC found that these factors failed to outweigh Benitez’s “excessive use of threatening and insulting language” directed at the troopers, his threatening to fight them and his misrepresentation of the facts about his having consumed alcohol that night.
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