Category: Uncategorized

A 16-year veteran of two North Jersey police departments died Friday after battling COVID-19.

Detective James Peri was born in Paterson but spent most of his life in Clifton, according to his obituary. He worked for the Passaic Police Department for five years before joining the Bloomfield Police Department where spent the past 11 years.

The Bloomfield department posted on social media Friday morning, stating that Peri passed away after a “lengthy” battle with the virus.

“Jimmy was a devoted father and husband as well as a very special friend to so many,” the post reads. “He may have left us physically but his memory will be a part of this department forever.”

Michele Peri, his wife of more than a quarter century, posted announcing his death as well, saying that she is “at a loss for words and heartbroken.”

“He is my best friend, my soulmate, my confidant, my husband, a part of my heart, the father of our beautiful children and my steady Eddie for 28+ years…and none of this will ever change,” her post reads. “Always by your side Babe, so grateful that Quinci Peri, Logan Peri and I were there with you as you took your last breath. Until we meet again….see you in Turks, Key West, Asbury and everywhere I go.”

Local:Bloomfield College seeks partner as COVID drains historic school’s finances

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Marrocco Memorial Chapel on Colfax Avenue in Clifton. Visiting hours will be on Monday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. A funeral service will be held on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at the chapel.

The family asked that in lieu of flowers that donations be made in Peri’s memory to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Katie Sobko is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: sobko@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @katesobko

VOORHEES TWP. — The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday that a grand jury has returned an indictment against a township man charged with the murder of his wife in August.

Shawn Lichtfuss, 49, remains charged with first-degree murder in the death of Stefanie Caraway, 38, according to a release. Caraway’s body was found in a bedroom in Lichtfuss’ residence on Aug. 3, prosecutors said, and Lichtfuss was arrested the same day.

In ruling the case a homicide, the medical examiner determined that neck compression, or choking, was the cause of Caraway’s death.

Following Lichtfuss’ arrest, police provided the detail that he was apprehended in his car, which was parked at a local Royal Farms store adjacent to the township police station.

Authorities were initially called to Lichtfuss’ home after being notified that he was sending text messages indicating an intention to harm himself.

Lichtfuss is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 1.

Patrick Lavery is New Jersey 101.5’s afternoon news anchor. Follow him on Twitter @plavery1015 or email patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com.

Red flags for someone who claims to be from New Jersey

Montclair’s magnet school system is the pride of this town.  People who move here (even those without children) value the diversity that it brings. The beauty of the system is that it doesn’t bind residents to their neighborhood because children can attend school in other parts of town.  Magnet schools help to alleviate the town’s segregation by race and class, which is a serious problem in Essex County and other parts of New Jersey.

I don’t hear anyone who supports an appointed board saying that our schools couldn’t be improved. But it is pure folly to think that an elected school board will protect our magnet schools. Already there are rumblings about dismantling our district’s system of transportation, which is the cornerstone of a successful magnet program (How else could kids get to school across town with busy parents and caregivers who work?). People are too sophisticated to say the bad part out loud. So instead we hear sly references to “busing,” which has long been racial code. Or they say that the school budget could be reduced by using money currently allocated for “busing” to “other purposes.” There it is — the camel’s nose under the tent.  

Why do people think we can protect our magnet schools by injecting money and politics into our system? Perhaps because they don’t know the history of our magnets and how hard it was to establish them. Or perhaps because they assume that people would “never” vote to eliminate them. I can think of a certain other election outcome that people thought would “never” happen.  Let’s not be naive.  

Don’t jeopardize our magnet schools.  Vote no on an elected board.

Elise C. Boddie

Montclair

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TRENTON — The Mercer County Executive has loaned New Jersey’s capital city about 130 handheld radios while municipal officials pledge to work together on upgrading the city’s communications system used by police, firefighters, and other emergency responders.

A statement from Mayor Reed Gusciora’s office Thursday said that while the loan from Executive Brian Hughes, for which radios have been programmed to the county system, is “not optimum,” it will allow Gusciora and City Council President Kathy McBride more time to negotiate a solution compatible with county operations.

Earlier in the week, Gusciora and McBride dueled through the media over a $4 million American Rescue Plan appropriation for an upgrade that the council president had refused to consider, while more than $200,000 in back fees due to the city’s current provider remained unpaid.

Gusciora’s statement re-emphasized that radio service will end Oct. 31 if that payment to MPS Communications is not made.

The mayor expressed his gratitude to Hughes for agreeing to meet with city officials, and also thanked McBride for her “goodwill and willingness to work together.”

McBride, whose previous comments on the radio system controversy were made via her personal Facebook page, had not made any new, public posts on the matter as of Friday afternoon.

Patrick Lavery is New Jersey 101.5’s afternoon news anchor. Follow him on Twitter @plavery1015 or email patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com.

Red flags for someone who claims to be from New Jersey

A Jersey City man who solicited sexually illicit photos and videos from a teenage girl in Keansburg and then sent them to her family was the recipient of an 18-count indictment returned by a Monmouth County Grand Jury on Friday.

Listen to Vin Ebenau mornings on Townsquare Media Jersey Shore Radio Stations, email him news tips here, and download our free app.

Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey announced Friday that 38-year old David Lopez sent the pictures and videos to her family because she wanted to break off contact with him.

Investigators on the case learned that Lopez reached out to the victim on social media “sometime prior to August 2020”, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office, and then he asked her to send him sexually explicit videos and photos.

There were several exchanges of such materials until one day the victim told him she didn’t want to communicate anymore.

Lopez then allegedly sent a series of photos and videos of the teen to several members of her family including children as young as 11-years old.

He is also accused of threatening to harm her family and have others harm them while also threatening to burn their house down and reportedly went as far as to say he could make her life “a living hell.”

Keansburg Police arrested Lopez on August 25, 2020 and he was released shortly thereafter on home detention while being ordered to have no contact with the victim and no internet access while his criminal case was pending.

Lopez faces charges of first-degree Manufacturing Child Sexual Abuse Materials, five counts of second-degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child via Distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Materials, three counts of third-degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child, single counts of third-degree Making Terroristic Threats, third-degree Criminal Coercion, and third-degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child via Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Materials and six counts of fourth-degree Cyber Harassment.

Anyone with information about Lopez’s alleged behavior is  asked to contact Keansburg Police Department Detective Lt. Bryan King at 732-787-0600.

If convicted, Lopez, on first-degree criminal charges faces 10 to 20 years in state prison, and on second-degree crimes, could see 5 to 10 years.

This case is being handled by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Ryan Lavender.

Lopez is being represented by Joshua Hood, Esq., with an office in Freehold.

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LAKEWOOD — A crash on Route 9 Thursday night was the fourth involving a school bus in this township in recent weeks but police said the bus driver was not to blame.

A southbound 2020 Dodge Challenger swerved onto the path of a northbound school bus after the Challenger was cut off by a 2019 Ford Expedition. The Expedition had been turning into the parking lot of a banquet hall, police said.

Pictures from the crash show heavy damage to the front of the bus, including a tire dislodged from the axel.

Police said they have not confirmed the number of students on the bus but said no one suffered serious injuries.

The driver of the Challenger, Moshe Wasserman, 22, was taken to a hospital with ankle pain.

The driver of the Expedition, Shulem Ekstein, 37, was issued a summons for careless driving.

Fourth school bus crash

A bus carrying 15 students to a private Jewish girls school on Sept. 14 struck an unoccupied parked car after “racing and tailgating” another car for several blocks, according to the police report on the crash.

On Oct. 6, a 58-year-old driver from Eatontown suffered a medical episode behind the wheel and lost control of the bus. Video shows the bus crossing the front yard of a house on Glen Avenue, hitting two parked cars.

Two days later, a school bus struck several vehicles at the intersection of Clifton Avenue and 7th Street. One of the vehicles may have caused the crash by ignoring a stop sign, according to police.

No one was injured in any of the crashes.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

Red flags for someone who claims to be from New Jersey

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — A 7-year-old girl came home from school earlier this month upset, impatient to tell her mother a story.

The second grader said her teacher in Maplewood had begun to pull off a hijab she wears as an observant Muslim, exposing her hair and prompting her to hold on to the head covering, the family’s lawyer said.

The girl’s mother recounted the story on Facebook. Then, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab and lives in the same New Jersey school district denounced the incident on Instagram, where she has 384,000 followers.

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Soon, the story was cascading across the internet, drawing news crews and police cars to the front of the elementary school as the controversy roiled the suburb.

Fundamental facts surrounding the Oct. 6 interaction remained in dispute, but Reddit and Instagram were awash in opinions. New Jersey’s governor weighed in on Twitter, and a statewide Islamic group demanded the teacher’s “immediate firing.”

It was the fifth week of school. The teacher, Tamar Herman, has said that she brushed back the girl’s hooded sweatshirt because it was covering her eyes, unaware the girl was not wearing her usual hijab underneath. The “moment” she realized it, Herman said, the student “kept the hood on.”

But the secondslong interaction between a white teacher and a Black student was already firmly in the grip of an online maw, underscoring the extraordinary power of social media to quickly pass judgment, with little regard for accuracy or fallout.

“It’s made clear what was always kind of clear: There’s dividing lines around race and religion and identity that we have yet to really tackle in substantive ways,” said Khadijah Costley White, who teaches journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and runs SOMA Justice, a nonprofit created to promote racial justice in the school district.

By last week, administrators for the school district, South Orange-Maplewood, had fielded more than 2,000 emails — most from outside the state and nearly all calling for the teacher’s termination, they said. The teacher sought police protection after people showed up at her house and threatened her online, her lawyer said.

Story continues

Recess and lunch at the school, Seth Boyden Elementary, were held indoors. Last Friday, families were told that students might be asked to enter and exit through the back door to shield them from news cameras or protesters.

“What I keep trying to tell people is that there is a child at the center of this,” said Costley White, who also lives in Maplewood. “She is a neighbor. She has to return to this school. And this community has to exist after this is all over.”

Because the claim involved potential bias over a religious item worn to cover hair and maintain modesty, the school district stopped its investigation and it was taken over by the Maplewood Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

“At this point we’re just trying to determine what occurred,” said Katherine Carter, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.

Herman, in a statement, said that she asked the student to “raise the hood of her sweatshirt” because it was covering her eyes.

“With her mask on too, her whole face was covered. I gently got her attention by brushing up the front of her hood,” said Herman, who has been placed on paid administrative leave.

“The moment I realized she was not wearing her usual hijab underneath, she kept the hood on,” she said. “And the learning went on.”

The student returned to school Monday, her lawyer, Robert Tarver, said. Her mother, Cassandra Wyatt, who also wears a hijab, appeared Thursday at a news conference arranged by Tarver but did not comment. She has told ABC-7 Eyewitness News that her daughter no longer wanted to wear a head scarf.

“The teacher put her hands on the child,” said Tarver, adding that another person in the classroom had recounted the story similarly. “It was not a hoodie. It was a hijab. I have seen the actual clothing.”

The same day, another parent complained that Herman threw a student’s drink in the trash, telling the child it “wasn’t water,” a permitted beverage, according to an email sent by the family and shared with Tarver.

The 493-student elementary school has the highest percentage of students of color in the district, which educates children from two neighboring commuter towns that are roughly 25 miles from midtown Manhattan. About 56% of students at Seth Boyden are Black, 23% are white, nearly 4% are Latino, 2% are Asian and the rest identify as multiracial.

The school’s Parent Teacher Association is active and varied: There is both a vice president of diversity and equity, and a vice president of happiness.

Seth Boyden has also been the focus of efforts to further desegregate the towns’ schools. The Black Parents Workshop, a local advocacy group, enlisted Tarver to file a federal lawsuit that accused the district of discriminating against students of color and allowing a wide achievement gap to persist between Black and white students. The lawsuit was settled last year and the district agreed to make changes.

Herman has taught in elementary schools for more than 30 years and often volunteered to teach at a Hebrew school, relatives said. A former student and parents of past students described her as warm and caring, signing off emails, “Together we can make the world a better place!”

Lesson plans she sent to parents in March when classes were being held virtually included an image of a girl wearing a pink hijab while reading.

After a student’s father died after contracting the coronavirus, Herman arranged for a retired teacher who had volunteered in her classroom to tutor the child.

“You could see the worry lines on her forehead, making sure each child was being served in the way they needed to be served,” said the tutor, Treasure Cohen, who spent one afternoon a week in Herman’s classroom before the pandemic as a volunteer with a community program.

“Very passionate. Very concerned about individual needs,” said Cohen, 74, who also teaches child development at Montclair State University. “When I tell you she is warm — that’s who Tamar is.”

After Herman’s Jewish faith was injected into the online discourse, the conversations on Facebook pages popular with residents of Maplewood and South Orange grew even more fraught.

Some commenters noted similarities between Judaism and Islam related to head coverings and modest garb and urged restraint. Other people lashed out angrily.

In 2016, Ibtihaj Muhammad, a fencer who lives in Maplewood, became the first Muslim woman to represent the United States at the Olympics wearing a hijab. Her team won a bronze medal; the next year, Mattel revealed a Barbie doll modeled after Muhammad with brown skin, athletic legs and a white head scarf.

In an Instagram post the day after the school incident, Muhammad wrote that a teacher had “forcibly removed” a student’s hijab. “Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates,” said Muhammad, who urged people to “denounce discrimination” and to call the school and email the district.

Muhammad, who has written a memoir and a children’s book to inspire Muslim girls and started a clothing line, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

Samantha Harris, one of Herman’s lawyers, said the ensuing online furor had caused “tremendous harm” to a veteran teacher.

“This really just speaks to the power of social media to allow a story to spiral out of control before anything is really known,” said Harris, a civil rights lawyer.

Tarver called the social media groundswell “unfortunate,” but said the publicity had also served a vital purpose. “We have seen too many instances where these things get swept under the rug,” he said.

Costley White, who has spoken to the girl’s mother about the classroom interaction, said she believed a series of missteps had allowed the controversy to snowball.

Herman, she said, could have contacted the girl’s parents to let them know what had happened, as would have likely happened had another article of clothing been removed by a teacher.

The school district, Costley White said, could have done more to defuse the situation by talking to the girl’s mother “as a person,” rather than quickly turning to the police and prosecutors.

Had there been “just a little tiny bit of humanity,” she said, the girl’s mother “wouldn’t have felt like her only recourse was to share the story on social media.”

© 2021 The New York Times Company

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — A 7-year-old girl came home from school earlier this month upset, impatient to tell her mother a story.

The second grader said her teacher in Maplewood had begun to pull off a hijab she wears as an observant Muslim, exposing her hair and prompting her to hold on to the head covering, the family’s lawyer said.

The girl’s mother recounted the story on Facebook. Then, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab and lives in the same New Jersey school district denounced the incident on Instagram, where she has 384,000 followers.

Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times

Soon, the story was cascading across the internet, drawing news crews and police cars to the front of the elementary school as the controversy roiled the suburb.

Fundamental facts surrounding the Oct. 6 interaction remained in dispute, but Reddit and Instagram were awash in opinions. New Jersey’s governor weighed in on Twitter, and a statewide Islamic group demanded the teacher’s “immediate firing.”

It was the fifth week of school. The teacher, Tamar Herman, has said that she brushed back the girl’s hooded sweatshirt because it was covering her eyes, unaware the girl was not wearing her usual hijab underneath. The “moment” she realized it, Herman said, the student “kept the hood on.”

But the secondslong interaction between a white teacher and a Black student was already firmly in the grip of an online maw, underscoring the extraordinary power of social media to quickly pass judgment, with little regard for accuracy or fallout.

“It’s made clear what was always kind of clear: There’s dividing lines around race and religion and identity that we have yet to really tackle in substantive ways,” said Khadijah Costley White, who teaches journalism and media studies at Rutgers University and runs SOMA Justice, a nonprofit created to promote racial justice in the school district.

By last week, administrators for the school district, South Orange-Maplewood, had fielded more than 2,000 emails — most from outside the state and nearly all calling for termination, they said. The teacher sought police protection after people showed up at her house and threatened her online, her lawyer said.

Story continues

Recess and lunch at the school, Seth Boyden Elementary, were held indoors. Last Friday, families were told that students might be asked to enter and exit through the back door to shield them from news cameras or protesters.

“What I keep trying to tell people is that there is a child at the center of this,” said Costley White, who also lives in Maplewood. “She is a neighbor. She has to return to this school. And this community has to exist after this is all over.”

Because the claim involved potential bias over a religious item worn to cover hair and maintain modesty, the school district turned the investigation over to the Maplewood Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

“At this point we’re just trying to determine what occurred,” said Katherine Carter, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.

Herman, in a statement, said that she asked the student to “raise the hood of her sweatshirt” because it was covering her eyes.

“With her mask on too, her whole face was covered. I gently got her attention by brushing up the front of her hood,” said Herman, who has been placed on paid administrative leave.

“The moment I realized she was not wearing her usual hijab underneath, she kept the hood on,” she said. “And the learning went on.”

The student returned to school Monday, her lawyer, Robert Tarver, said. Her mother, Cassandra Wyatt, who also wears a hijab, appeared Thursday at a news conference arranged by Tarver but did not comment. She has told ABC-7 Eyewitness News that her daughter no longer wanted to wear a head scarf.

“The teacher put her hands on the child,” said Tarver, adding that another person in the classroom had recounted the story similarly. “It was not a hoodie. It was a hijab. I have seen the actual clothing.”

The same day, another parent complained that Herman threw a student’s drink in the trash, telling the child it “wasn’t water,” a permitted beverage, according to an email sent by the family and shared with Tarver.

The 493-student elementary school has the highest percentage of students of color in the district, which educates children from two neighboring commuter towns that are roughly 25 miles from midtown Manhattan. About 56% of students at Seth Boyden are Black, 23% are white, nearly 4% are Latino, 2% are Asian and the rest identify as multiracial.

The school’s Parent Teacher Association is active and varied: There is both a vice president of diversity and equity, and a vice president of happiness.

Seth Boyden has also been the focus of efforts to further desegregate the towns’ schools. The Black Parents Workshop, a local advocacy group, enlisted Tarver to file a federal lawsuit that accused the district of discriminating against students of color and allowing a wide achievement gap to persist between Black and white students. The lawsuit was settled last year and the district agreed to make changes.

Herman has taught in elementary schools for more than 30 years and often volunteered to teach at a Hebrew school, relatives said. A former student and parents of past students described her as warm and caring, signing off emails, “Together we can make the world a better place!”

Lesson plans she sent to parents in March when classes were being held virtually included an image of a girl wearing a pink hijab while reading.

After a student’s father died after contracting the coronavirus, Herman arranged for a retired teacher who had volunteered in her classroom to tutor the child.

“You could see the worry lines on her forehead, making sure each child was being served in the way they needed to be served,” said the tutor, Treasure Cohen, who spent one afternoon a week in Herman’s classroom before the pandemic as a volunteer with a community program.

“Very passionate. Very concerned about individual needs,” said Cohen, 74, who also teaches child development at Montclair State University. “When I tell you she is warm — that’s who Tamar is.”

After Herman’s Jewish faith was injected into the online discourse, the conversations on Facebook pages popular with residents of Maplewood and South Orange grew even more fraught.

Some commenters noted similarities between Judaism and Islam related to head coverings and modest garb and urged restraint. Other people lashed out angrily.

In 2016, Ibtihaj Muhammad, a fencer who lives in Maplewood, became the first Muslim woman to represent the United States at the Olympics wearing a hijab. Her team won a bronze medal; the next year, Mattel revealed a Barbie doll modeled after Muhammad with brown skin, athletic legs and a white head scarf.

In an Instagram post the day after the school incident, Muhammad wrote that a teacher had “forcibly removed” a student’s hijab. “Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates,” said Muhammad, who urged people to “denounce discrimination” and to call the school and email the district.

Muhammad, who has written a memoir and a children’s book to inspire Muslim girls and started a clothing line, could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

Samantha Harris, one of Herman’s lawyers, said the ensuing furor had caused “tremendous harm” to a veteran teacher.

“This really just speaks to the power of social media to allow a story to spiral out of control before anything is really known,” said Harris, a civil rights lawyer.

Tarver called the social media groundswell “unfortunate,” but said the publicity had also served a vital purpose. “We have seen too many instances where these things get swept under the rug,” he said.

Costley White, who has spoken to the girl’s mother about the classroom interaction, said she believed a series of missteps had allowed the controversy to snowball.

Had there been “just a little tiny bit of humanity,” she said, the girl’s mother “wouldn’t have felt like her only recourse was to share the story on social media.”

© 2021 The New York Times Company