Author: ECCYC

TAP Into Another Town’s News:

WEST ORANGE — Two men from out of state have been arrested and charged with bringing another man into New Jersey and killing him, but if authorities have an idea why the victim was murdered, they did not say so in a release Wednesday.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s and Sheriff’s offices announced the arrests of Michael Verdel, 71, of the Bronx, and Posley Sulaiman, 31, of Detroit, charging both with first-degree murder, felony murder, conspiracy, and robbery, and second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose in the March 4 death of Kelsey Steels, 31, of the Bronx.

According to investigators, Verdel and Sulaiman met Steels at Verdel’s apartment, then transported him to New Jersey and shot him on a hiking trail at Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange.

No motive for the killing has been disclosed. New Jersey 101.5 submitted a request for the affidavit of probable cause in the case.

Sulaiman was due in court in New York on Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office said, stemming from a gun charge for which he had been held at Rikers Island sometime between March 4 and the present.

Verdel, dubbed “The Rabbi” by those who know him according to the prosecutor’s office, was taken into custody in New York and extradited to New Jersey, where a detention hearing has been scheduled for Monday.

Anyone with potential information about the ongoing investigation is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office at 1-877-TIPS-4EC (847-7432).

Patrick Lavery is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com

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Newark

United Community Corporation is hosting a Mental Health Fair in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness month on Saturday, May 14, at Vailsburg Park in Newark from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. 

The fair, which Amerigroup sponsors, will feature various resources dedicated to mental wellness, including financial literacy, health care, substance abuse, trauma, meditation, and creativity. 

Attendees will learn about programs and tips to help them achieve physical, emotional, social, and intellectual wellness.

“The community is not aware of many available resources that can help them in many different aspects,” UCC Outreach Team Member and Event Organizer Amalia Ruiz said. 

“Everyone struggles, and no one should feel ostracized because they have been diagnosed with a mental illness. Mental Health is like any other disorder, and we need to stop the stigmas and labels. It is important to educate and show the community creative ways to heal and destress.”

 The cause is one close to Ruiz’s heart.

“My main motivator for this event is to honor a loved one that battled mental health,” she said. 

“Additionally, I want to stress the importance of speaking out, getting help, and never feeling alone.”

Saturday’s fair will do its best to show those in attendance that they aren’t alone, with over 15 partners committed to the event. 

There will be hands-on activities, giveaways, and demonstrations by self-defense and dance instructors. 

UCC will also have staff on hand to provide resources for youth after school and summer programming, housing and energy bill assistance, and UCC YouthBuild job training and preparedness. 

Hope & Esperanza Community Health will be attending the event to provide COVID-19 vaccinations. 

UCC and the New Jersey Department of Health will be performing outreach for COVID-19 vaccinations. 

UCC’s youth ambassador outreach team is possible thanks to funding from United Way of Greater Newark.

“We’re starting to see the COVID-19 number rise again, so it’s so important that we’re giving the community every chance possible to receive vaccinations,” UCC Director of Community Engagement Richard Greco said. 

“We’re so thankful that the staff at Hope & Esperanza Community Health made the time to provide this important resource at our event.”

The event is being run in partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Amerigroup, Barat Foundation, Clara Maass Medical Center, Creatively We Release, Hope & Esperanza Community Health, Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, MexiBoraSalsa, Nami, NJCRI, NJ Department of Health, Partnership for Children of Essex County, Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern NJ, The Hub Arts and Trauma Center, UnitedHealth Group, Wfa House and Wynona’s House of Child Advocacy.

A Browns Mills man has been indicted by an Ocean County Grand Jury for selling a lethal concoction of cocaine laced with fentanyl to a man who later overdosed in Toms River, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced on Tuesday.

Toms River Police were called to the Pelican Inn on Route 37 on February 28, 2019 for a report of an unresponsive 29-year old man who responding officers found to have been suffering from a drug overdose.

The officers attempted life saving measures and EMS were able to get a pulse, but after being brought to Community Medical Center in Toms River, the man passed away.

Toms River Police Detectives along with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Strike Force teamed up in the ensuing investigation and they learned that 57-year old William Anderson gave the victim cocaine and fentanyl.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that through a toxicology analysis which also found that the cocaine and fentanyl in the man’s system came from Anderson and the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Officer determined that’s what caused his death.

Anderson was arrested on August 24, 2021, by Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and Pemberton Police Detectives and was charged and now indicted by a Grand Jury on charges of Strict Liability Drug-Induced Death, Distribution of Cocaine, Distribution of Fentanyl, Possession of less than One-Half Ounce of Cocaine with Intent to Distribute, Possession of less than One Ounce of Fentanyl with Intent to Distribute, Conspiracy to Distribute less than One-Half Ounce of Cocaine and Conspiracy to Distribute less than One Ounce of Fentanyl.

Prosecutor Billhimer said that Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Lynn Juan presented the case to the Grand Jury on behalf of the State.

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TAP Into Another Town’s News:

Oroho Responds to Murphy’s Call for No Limit, Free Abortions for All

Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho responded to Governor Phil Murphy’s call to expand New Jersey’s support for abortion even further.

“Governor Murphy’s radical proposal calls for free abortions with no limits right up to birth, and he wants struggling New Jersey families to pay for abortions for everyone through even higher taxes and health care premiums,” said Oroho (R-24). “His plan to codify that non-doctors can perform the highly invasive procedure of an abortion is just reckless and unsafe for women. Along with the extreme new sex education mandates they are forcing on our children, this is another example of New Jersey Democrats taking a radical approach that is far out of line with what most families believe is reasonable.”

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TAP Into Another Town’s News:

Intending to “send a message to women across the nation that we simply will not go backwards,” Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday announced proposals that would make abortion care cheaper in New Jersey and train more clinicians to treat people traveling from states where the procedure is expected to be illegal.

In January, the Democratic governor signed a bill that enshrined abortion rights into state law, anticipating the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court will render a ruling overturning or restricting Roe V. Wade in June.

Before Murphy signed the law, it was stripped of a provision that would have required state-licensed insurance plans to cover the cost of abortion care. Socially conservative Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly refused to support it, privately saying they didn’t want to make it “too easy” to terminate a pregnancy.

But with the leak of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion last week revealing the intent to repeal Roe — which would give states the authority to enact their own abortion laws — Murphy called on his colleagues in the New Jersey Legislature to take bolder action.

“At that time, there were also some who claimed we were being alarmist and that the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v. Wade. That was five months ago,” Murphy said Wednesday during a news conference at his office in Trenton.

“Today it is clearer than ever that in the coming weeks, a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court likely will take a wrecking ball to 50 years of its own precedent and for the very first time, overturn a decision in order to diminish our rights.”

”Abortion is health care and health care decisions should be left up to the individual,” he added. “Your body belongs to you. I do not know how to be more clear.”

Murphy proposed legislation that would mandate that insurance plans in New Jersey cover abortion with no out-of-pocket costs.

“A person’s ability to access abortion care should not depend on how much money they make,” the governor said.

Current state law can apply only to state-licensed plans, such as Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and the health plans that cover public school teachers and state workers. If signed into law, this legislation would apply to about 30% of New Jersey’s population.

Murphy also said he would support legislation that would expand New Jersey’s pool of potential abortion providers to include advance practice nurses, midwives and physician assistants. This was another provision that was removed from the original legislation, but late last year, the state Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses doctors, adopted rules allowing these clinicians to perform surgical or suction abortions. These procedures, also known as an aspiration abortion, are the most commonly used in-office technique to end a pregnancy in the first trimester.

If this bill passes, it would codify the board’s rules into law.

Just as Murphy was delivering his remarks, state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, issued a statement saying they “fundamentally support a woman’s right to choose” and “will continue working to protect access and ensure no woman is stripped of her right to choose.”

The statement made no mention as to whether Coughlin and Scutari supported the legislative ideas Murphy proposed Wednesday.

When asked if he was open to the proposals, Coughlin spokeswoman Cecilia Williams replied in an email: “The statement speaks for itself.”

Scutari did not respond to a call or a text message seeking comment.

A legislative source who spoke on condition of anonymity said it appears unlikely Scutari and Coughlin will support the proposed bills if you “read between the lines” of their statement. The source did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly.

The bills must be passed by the Senate and Assembly before Murphy could sign them into law.

Murphy acknowledged that getting legislative support may prove difficult.

“We have to meet the moment,” he said. “It won’t be easy. It won’t be a light switch. But we have no choice.”

State Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho, R-Sussex, issued a statement roundly criticizing Murphy’s announcement.

“Gov. Murphy’s radical proposal calls for free abortions with no limits right up to birth, and he wants struggling New Jersey families to pay for abortions for everyone through even higher taxes and health care premiums,” Oroho said.

Republicans say that because the law Murphy signed in January does not contain language that includes any time limits on when a pregnancy may be terminated, it means an abortion could be performed at any time.

“His plan to codify that non-doctors can perform the highly invasive procedure of an abortion is just reckless and unsafe for women,” Oroho added, noting this was “another example of New Jersey Democrats taking a radical approach that is far out of line with what most families believe is reasonable.”

Recognizing that New Jersey is already becoming a sanctuary state for people seeking abortions, Murphy urged legislators to sponsor two other bills. One would provide legal protections for clinicians and patients who provide or receive abortion care in New Jersey from legal actions in states that have criminalized the procedure.

The other measure would create a “Reproductive Health Accessibility Fund,” a pool of money that would be used to train more clinicians to provide abortion care, provide security for abortion clinics and expand reproductive services to women who are uninsured and under-insured.

Kristyn Brandi, an abortion provider in north Jersey and chairwoman of the national organization, Physicians for Reproductive Health, praised the recent rule expanding the roster of clinicians legally permitted these services. Training them right now is essential, she said.

“I am hopeful they incorporate abortion care into their practice,” Brandi said. “New Jersey is gong to have to ramp it up if people are coming from other states. … I don’t know we have the infrastructure to handle it.”

“I am really thankful I am in state that recently put protections in place, but I know these protections can be temporary,” she added.

Murphy was joined by Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, D-Essex, and Assemblyman Raj Mukherji, D-Hudson, the lawmakers who are expected to sponsor the legislation he described.

“Equality demands not just the availability of services but access to services, and it cannot be predicated upon the size of one’s paycheck and the scope of one’s insurance coverage,” Jasey told the packed room of supporters. “It is a moral imperative. We won’t go back.”

The governor was introduced by Monica Attias of Millburn, a mother of three who shared her decision to get an abortion 22 years ago in an interview with NJ Advance Media.

Attias said she wanted to tell her story to help the public understand how complex these decisions are, and to encourage people in red states to support candidates who support abortion rights.

She said she barely survived the birth of her twins after her lungs collapsed and a massive hemorrhage damaged her heart and kidneys. Her doctors told her husband, Philippe she had a 25% chance of survival and “to prepare for the worst,” she said.

Nine months later, still recovering and with a damaged heart, Attias got pregnant again. Doctors could not predict whether she would survive another pregnancy. The couple decided an abortion made the most sense for their young family.

“I was physically, emotionally, and mentally unable to continue with my pregnancy,” Attias told NJ Advance Media. “I loved the children I had too much to possibly allow them to grow up without a mother because she risked her life trying to have another child.”

Following the press conference, New Jersey Right to Life Executive Director Marie Tasy blasted Murphy’s proposals, attributing them to furthering his ambitions for higher office.

“The truth of the matter is that New Jersey does not have an abortion access problem, we have an abortion problem,” Tasy said in a statement.

“According to the most recent statistics, 28% of pregnancies in New Jersey end in abortion, distinguishing us as the state with the highest rate of abortion in the nation,” said Tasy, citing 2017 statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization.

“Sadly, women and minor girls will pay the price for Murphy’s extremism and political ambitions,” Tasy added. “New Jersey Citizens will also be paying much higher premiums because abortion coverage will be available under N.J. health plans with no deductibles, no co-pays and no co-insurance.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that state Sen. Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, attended the press conference. She did not attend.

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Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @johnsb01.

With commercials for betting popping up everywhere you look these days, New Jersey is now facing an epidemic of sports and casino gambling, with dire results for some. That’s the warning from the executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.

Appearing before the New Jersey Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee on Monday, Felicia Grondin told panel members that advertising for lottery games, brick and mortar casinos, internet gambling and sports betting has exploded in the Garden State, with $725 million spent last year alone on TV ads.

She said these messages increase the likelihood “of state residents potentially developing a gambling problem, and for those who have recognized they have a gambling problem incessant advertising can be an accelerator for individuals to relapse and break their gambling sobriety.”

She pointed out as gambling in Jersey has increased, the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline has received more calls, which translates into more people needing help.

She said there are so many ads on the airwaves encouraging people to gamble, it has been called predatory.

“Advertising of this nature can be equated to a liquor store offering free alcohol, or a drug dealer offering a free bag of heroin to individuals with a substance abuse problem,” she said.

Grondin noted gambling is a hidden addiction because you can’t see it or smell it, and many compulsive gamblers are too embarrassed to seek help until they suffer financial disaster.

“Disordered gambling ruins families, careers and credit scores. It ruins lives of the gambler and their loved ones,” she said.

She told members of the panel that out-of-control gambling also takes lives.

“There is nearly a 20% suicide rate of those exposed to this disorder, which is the highest suicide rate of any addiction,” she said.

What should be done?

Grondin said to combat this growing social epidemic a number of steps can be taken, including:

• Develop public service announcements to inform the public about gambling risks and available services

• Set gambling advertising limits and parameters similar to alcohol commercials

• Require warning labels on gambling sites and a brick and mortar casinos about the potentially addictive nature of gambling

• Continue to provide education and awareness

She also urged the committee to increase funding for the council.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, the chairman of the committee, called the amount of sports betting ads “obscene” and indicted points raised by Grondin need to be looked at and considered.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

With commercials for betting popping up everywhere you look these days, New Jersey is now facing an epidemic of sports and casino gambling, with dire results for some. That’s the warning from the executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey.

Appearing before the New Jersey Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee on Monday, Felicia Grondin told panel members that advertising for lottery games, brick and mortar casinos, internet gambling and sports betting has exploded in the Garden State, with $725 million spent last year alone on TV ads.

She said these messages increase the likelihood “of state residents potentially developing a gambling problem, and for those who have recognized they have a gambling problem incessant advertising can be an accelerator for individuals to relapse and break their gambling sobriety.”

She pointed out as gambling in Jersey has increased, the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline has received more calls, which translates into more people needing help.

She said there are so many ads on the airwaves encouraging people to gamble, it has been called predatory.

“Advertising of this nature can be equated to a liquor store offering free alcohol, or a drug dealer offering a free bag of heroin to individuals with a substance abuse problem,” she said.

Grondin noted gambling is a hidden addiction because you can’t see it or smell it, and many compulsive gamblers are too embarrassed to seek help until they suffer financial disaster.

“Disordered gambling ruins families, careers and credit scores. It ruins lives of the gambler and their loved ones,” she said.

She told members of the panel that out-of-control gambling also takes lives.

“There is nearly a 20% suicide rate of those exposed to this disorder, which is the highest suicide rate of any addiction,” she said.

What should be done?

Grondin said to combat this growing social epidemic a number of steps can be taken, including:

• Develop public service announcements to inform the public about gambling risks and available services

• Set gambling advertising limits and parameters similar to alcohol commercials

• Require warning labels on gambling sites and a brick and mortar casinos about the potentially addictive nature of gambling

• Continue to provide education and awareness

She also urged the committee to increase funding for the council.

Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex, the chairman of the committee, called the amount of sports betting ads “obscene” and indicted points raised by Grondin need to be looked at and considered.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.