Hey, readers: a fellow Freehold-area blogger has just posted their first syndicated post on our site– a restaurant review of A Little Bit of Cuba in Freehold Township. You can follow the link to their full post on JerseyBites.com.
Full disclosure: I occasionally write Hudson County restaurant reviews for JB.
Thanks to the readers for keeping an eye on the weekend updates– I’ve unpublished the community contribution that lacked relevance to the Freehold area. As you know, all are welcome to register and post their Freehold news here, let’s just try to keep it Freehold-specific!
Have youngin’s interested in journalism or social media or getting out of the house on a Wednesday night? Come hang out with me tonight at the Freehold Public Library at 7:30. 12 & up.
Traffic light at South & Main is malfunctioning, according to a reader– avoid the intersection for now. Wonder if it has anything to do with last week’s electrical fire.
Free Preview Lesson for the Yamaha Music School at Freehold Music on Aug 7th, 2010. Interactive group music lessons for kids ages 3-8. Visit freeholdmusic.com or call 732-462-4730 for more info!
So Wal-mart is expanding, huh? Will you shop at the merchandise giant for your groceries next year? Or stay loyal to a favorite local purveyor? Answer our survey below or add it here in the chatter.
I will shop there for certain things, Sams Club for the big stuff, Foodtown for other things, Top Tomato for even other things, Wegmans for more other things….just like always!
In other exciting news: we’ve got some new community contributors posting stories to the site regularly. Interested in contributing? Just click the ”Sign Up” button above the Chatter and you’ll be able to post your own news story.
Want to pitch an idea or get some feedback? You can always reach me at colleen@injersey.com.
Freehold drivers, you've been warned. And you clever pedestrians that think jay-walking isn't a real offense, well, you listen up too:
The Freehold Borough Police Department is out en masse this afternoon at the intersection of Main Street and South Street in the downtown, scribbling tickets to lawbreakers and trouble-makers.
Freehold was the target of a 17-person drug bust today, launched by local, county, and federal authorities last fall and targeting a drug ring that peddled cocaine, heroin, and painkillers.
Most of the arrests were made earlier today, and police also seized some $28,000 in suspected drug proceeds, according to the Prosecutor's Office.
Wonderful police work! I know it is often frustrating to report suspicious activity in our neighborhoods and then to see “nothing happen” as it continues on, in plain sight. Know that the police are doing their job to get these folks and to make the charges stick.
Why they put a pic of a FBPD car I don’t know. They had nothing to do with this bust. It’s been going on for so long under their noses, they deserve no credit for this.
As a Freehold Township couple was saying goodbye to visiting relatives in the driveway of their home on Gravel Hill Road they heard the siren of an oncoming police car before turning to witness, to varying degrees, a fatal collision just yards away.
Pietro Parillo told jurors today that he had turned to look toward the sound of the siren in time to see a black GMC Jimmy slide through a stop sign at the intersection of Gravel Hill Road and Route 537 just before a motorcycle slammed into the rear passenger area of the sport-utility vehicle.
Authorities said the SUV was driven by Scott Bennett, 44, of Gravel Hill Road in Freehold Township. He is on trial on charges of vehicular homicide, aggravated manslaughter, eluding police, aggravated assault and other counts connected to the accident on Oct. 7, 2007, that took the life of the motorcyclist, Timothy Flanagan, 41, of Edison.
Bennett is accused of leading a Manalapan police officer on a high-speed chase before running the stop sign and causing the fatal crash while being unlicensed and driving intoxicated at speeds in excess of 75 mph in a 35-mph zone, according to court testimony last week.
Pietro Parillo's wife, Lori, told jurors today she heard the police siren followed by a crash before she turned to see "people flying through the air."
Dominick Parillo of Port Jefferson, N.Y., brother of Pietro Parillo, told jurors he saw the SUV approach the intersection prior to the fatal collision and it appeared the driver was trying to brake, but the rear of the SUV skipped across the road several times before going through the stop sign and colliding with the motorcycle.
Pietro Parillo testified that he watched as the SUV ran over Flanagan and part of the curbing as he sped away from the scene east on Route 537.
In the collision, Flanagan and his passenger -- his girlfriend, Diane L. Oberly, 44, also of Edison -- were thrown from the motorcycle, Oberly to the middle of the roadway, and Flanagan to the side of the road at the intersection, said Ocean Township Police Sgt. Todd Gregory, who reconstructed the accident for the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.
Oberly was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune where she was treated and released within 48 hours, according to Dr. Felix Garcia, director of the trauma center there.
Assistant County Prosecutor S. Allan Stacy showed the jury a series of photographs taken of Flanagan's body in the road street despite objections from defense attorney Edward C. Bertucio Jr., who argued the images were "unnecessarily graphic."
State Superior Court Judge Ira E. Kreizman disagreed, ruling the photos could be shown to the jury, and overruling Bertucio's objection.
An investigation by East Windsor police uncovered an identity theft and credit card theft operation run by two workers at the Subway restaurant in the Freehold Raceway Mall food court, police said.
Police believe the theft operation was run from the eatery and that there could be more victims. They are asking anyone else who believes they were a victim of the thefts to contact authorities.
The victim, a East Windsor resident, reported the theft to police in her hometown Monday, police said.
East Windsor Detective Chris Jackson began an investigation, and was joined by Freehold Township Detective George A. Burdge III and Officer Jeffrey Palladino.
Armando Sampayo-Carro, 18, and Diego Aranzu Dominguez-Jaimez, 21, both of Lakewood, were arrested around 7 p.m. Monday at East Windsor police headquarters on charges of identity theft and credit card theft.
Both Lakewood men were sent to the Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township, with bail set at $5,000 each. They are no longer employed by Subway.
One of the owners of the business declined comment.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
Police said anyone who believes their personal information has been compromised after making a credit card transaction at the Subway at the Freehold Raceway Mall food court should call Burdge at 732-462-7908, Ext. 3106.
The long-awaited trial of habitual offender Scott Bennett will begin today, as opening arguments get under way for the Township resident charged with killing a man after running a stop sign at Gravel Hill Road and Route 537 in the Township.
Bennett, 44, of Gravel Hill Road, faces charges including vehicular homicide, aggravated [...]
The Monmouth County DWI Task force will conduct a DWI checkpoint on Route 9 in Marlboro this weekend to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The checkpoint will run from 11 p.m. Friday through 3 a.m. Saturday on Route 9 north, police said.
A New York City man was formally charged today with the 2008 murder of an Asbury Park man outside of a Freehold Elks club.
Authorities believe Brandon Montes, 29, of Manhattan, shot and killed 39-year-old Rodney Keys and shot and injured Keys' friend, Tyrone Ellis, 38, both of Asbury Park, on May 3, 2008 outside the club.
Montes made his first court appearance today on the charges he is facing: murder, attempted murder and weapons offenses.
Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Jennifer Lipp read the charges against Montes, as he sat shackled at the wrists and ankles, dressed in a yellow jumpsuit, in the courtroom of state Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Scully.
Scully ordered Montes would continue to be held on the $2.5 million bail set in the case earlier this month.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Montes and Terrell Ryans, 23, of Trenton, in the shooting death, which authorities have labeled as gang-related. Ryans is also being held on $2.5 million bail.
Authorities have released few details about the shooting. At the time of his death, Keys' family members said they believed the killing was linked to an earlier dispute at the Elks lodge.
A Freehold Township woman noticed a car in her neighborhood that seemed suspicious, so she called police with a description of the vehicle Tuesday night.
Earlier that night, Colts Neck residents also saw a suspicious vehicle in their neighborhood, so they noted the license plate number of the car.
It was those tips from residents that led to the arrest of a Paterson man, charges in a Colts Neck burglary case, and the discovery of a break-in in Freehold Township -- before the residents even knew their homes had been burglarized, authorities said.
Demar Brown, 26, has been charged in Colts Neck with burglary, theft, and criminal mischief, and in Freehold Township with conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of stolen property.
"It was because of the public's keen eye that we were able to (arrest him)," said Freehold Township Detective William Rette.
Brown was taken into custody Tuesday night, while apparently free on bail from charges filed against him in December by police in Holmdel and Middletown.
Now, police are trying to determine if Brown is connected to several other burglary cases in western Monmouth County in which the phone lines of homes were cut and valuables were stolen. And they are searching for other suspects.
Around 8:15 p.m., Freehold Township Patrolman Jack Mandala responded to the call about the suspicious vehicle and found Brown sitting in a rented 2010 Hyundai Sonata, parked in a cul-de-sac on Yearling Place.
Police said they began to talk to Brown, and they noticed items in the backseat that turned out to be stolen from Colts Neck.
Officers began checking each house on that block, and they realized the back door of one of the homes had been forced open, Rette said. The telephone lines to the home had been cut, and the residents had not yet returned home, police said.
K9 units from the Monmouth County Sheriff's Department and Bradley Beach Police Department were called to the scene, along with a county helicopter crew, to search for other suspects, police said. None was found.
Around 9:15 p.m., a Colts Neck woman returned to her Slope Brook Lane home and realized it had been burglarized, police said.
Police believe entry was gained through a rear window, and some $5,000 worth of jewelry and other items were stolen, said Colts Neck Detective Sgt. Joseph Whitehead.
He said police have been asking residents to call them about suspicious activity, so that's why the Colts Neck residents noted the license plate number of the suspicious car in their neighborhood that evening. They gave police that license plate number, and police said they used it to connect Brown to that break-in.
On Dec. 30, Brown was arrested by Holmdel police. In that case, police responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle in a neighborhood off of Crawfords Corner Road. When officers tried to pull him over, he drove away, eventually pulling into the vacant AT&T property, police said.
He jumped out of the rented Ford Focus, and ran into the woods near Garden State Parkway, but was arrested by Holmdel Officers Theodore Sigismondi and Robert Philhower, police said.
In that case, he was charged with attempting to elude police, possession of weapon for unlawful purposes, possession of burglary tools and receiving stolen property.
That property was stolen from a home in Middletown, police said.
Middletown police then charged him with the Dec. 30 burglary and theft from a Westwood Drive home, where telephone lines had been cut, authorities said.
Brown's bail was set at $60,000 on the Colts Neck charges and $80,000 on the Freehold charges.
Whitehead, Detective Richard Zarrillo, and Patrolman Matthew Miyakawa handled the Colts Neck investigation. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Whitehead at 732-780-7323 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 732-780-7323 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. Detectives also ask that any residents who notice suspicious activity in their neighborhood call police immediately.
Police arrested two Lakewood residents who they say broke the front door of a pharmacy on Route 9 North, but could not get inside.
Around 2 a.m. Monday, Officer Chris McCormack was on patrol when he saw a suspicious vehicle pulling out of the Chadwick Square Shopping Center, police said.
He began to follow the car, and around the same time, police were notified about an activated burglar alarm at Tony's Family Pharmacy in the same shopping center, said Detective Sgt Jerry Kiwit.
So McCormack followed the vehicle to McDonald's on Route 9 South, while another officer - Ralph Donato -- went to the pharmacy and found the front door smashed, the sergeant said.
Police said they arrested the two occupants -- Joseph McSulla Jr., 30, and Lauren
Pierce, 25, -- of the vehicle and found a hammer inside.
Police believe the pair tried to break into the pharmacy, but were deterred by the
lock on the door.
McSulla and Pierce were both charged with conspiracy, burglary, possession of
burglary tools and criminal mischief.
McSulla was sent to the Monmouth County Jail, Freehold Township, with bail set at $44,000; Pierce was processed and released.
Sgt. Daniel Pasquinucci and Detective William Holohan assisted in the investigation.
Police arrested a Freehold man on Friday for having 14 failure-to-appear warrants.
Brandon Simms, 27, of 42 McDermott St., has failed to appear in several municipal courtrooms in Monmouth and Ocean counties, police said. One of the warrants is for a burglary charge in Lakewood, they said.
Police stopped Simms shortly after 1 p.m. after they saw him walking down the middle of Highland Avenue, police said.
Simms was taken to the Monmouth County jail in Freehold Township where he was being held in lieu of $30,000 bail, police said.
-- Kevin Penton
BROAD STREET: Borough man Juan C. Alvarez-Peralta, 37 was charged Jan. 12 with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose. The victim, a 28-year-old borough male, was treated at CentraState Medical Center for knife wounds. Alvarez-Peralta was transported to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in lieu of [...]
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mariamaria, and 
Marc LeVine are discussing. 
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Marc LeVine 11:19 am on May 1, 2010 Permalink |
Wonderful police work! I know it is often frustrating to report suspicious activity in our neighborhoods and then to see “nothing happen” as it continues on, in plain sight. Know that the police are doing their job to get these folks and to make the charges stick.
mariamaria 2:34 pm on May 24, 2010 Permalink |
Why they put a pic of a FBPD car I don’t know. They had nothing to do with this bust. It’s been going on for so long under their noses, they deserve no credit for this.