The ABC struck at 11 a.m., with help from the state Division of Criminal Justice, seizing certain inventory and serving demeands notices from 29 licensed bars and restaurants throughout the state.

Of those, 13 were TGI Fridays, including one on Route 17 in Wood-Ridge and another on Route 3 in Clifton.

The move followed a year-long investigation into what New Jersey authorities said was the substitution of premium alcoholic beverage brands with “well brand spirits” — as in: bottom-shelf booze — “in an effort to fool the customer and increase their profits,” state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said.

Chiesa said the probe began with citizen complaints and employed not only confidential informants but “new technology used to test samples taken covertly from the licensed establishments.”

The Attorney General’s Office provided this list of accused violators:

Railroad Café, East Rutherford;
The Brick House, Wyckoff;
Sunset Tavern, Burlington;
Graziano’s Ristorante, Chesilhurst;
Villari’s Lakeside, Gloucester Township;
Yesterdays, Marmora;
Italian Affair, Glassboro;
Bells Tavern, Lambertville;
Brunswick Grove, East Brunswick;
Murray’s, Dover;
Sona Thirteen, Morristown;
Blackthorn Restaurant, Parsippany;
Ruby Tuesday, Bridgewater;
Café 34, Matawan;
Applebee’s, Kearny;
Cucina Calandara, Fairfield;
TGI Fridays, Wood-Ridge;
TGI Fridays, Clifton
TGI Fridays, West Orange;
TGI Fridays, Springfield;
TGI Fridays, Old Bridge;
TGI Fridays, North Brunswick;
TGI Fridays, Piscataway;
TGI Fridays, Freehold;
TGI Fridays, Marlboro;
TGI Fridays, Hazlet;
TGI Fridays, Linden;
TGI Fridays, East Windsor;
TGI Fridays, East Hanover

The facts are clear that the State and local governments went nearly a decade without making a full contribution into the State pension system, and nearly a full 3 years passed without a penny of employer contributions being made. Unfunded liabilities exploded and combined with a failing economy and pension investments, and what was once an over-funded pension system soon became, in the Governor’s words, “unsustainable.”

But sometimes the facts don’t get in the way of good politics.

NJ PBA Pres. Anthony F. Wieners

The Governor’s mastery of storytelling has rewritten the State’s pension history. So when the pension and health benefit reform law was signed in 2011 and the champagne corks were popped in some circles around the State that public employees were finally put in their place, we were told to be thankful that our pensions were finally “saved” and that the increased employee contributions would only help restore fiscal soundness to the pension fund.

Retired cops in their 70s, 80s and 90s who have small pensions and needed a COLA(cost of living adjustment) to survive were told by the Governor and others that these reforms were leading to a day around the corner when COLA would be given back to them. Active officers who saw their pension contributions jump to 10% and their health care contributions increase to as much as 35% of an uncontrollable premium were told their increased payments were needed to pay off the unfunded liability in THEIR pension system.

So after 3 years and 2 rounds of pension cuts, in which New Jersey law enforcement officers were making their increased payments, we learn the real truth.

As with everything else that has been said about pension reform in New Jersey, the demand that increased employee payments were required immediately to “save their pensions” were a half-ruth designed to mislead the public.

On October 16, the Governor announced that because of the pension changes local governments could skip making another $116 million in payments to the pension system. That was on top of $267 million in “savings” the law yielded after its passage.

So, in the end, the same local governments that skipped billions in pension payments that created the unfunded liability in the pension system that became “unsustainable” are now being rewarded with $383 million in cuts to their current pension obligations.

Now let’s be clear. I don’t oppose using lower pension liabilities to lessen the impact on property taxpayers. The Governor and his allies have done their best to make this an “us versus them” debate.

But I am a taxpayer, too. A solvent pension system is what I was promised, and I am ready to pay my fair share because it matters a lot more to me whether my pension is around for my retirement. But his rewritingof  the math is a kickback to local government that reeks of hypocrisy and rewards the same credit card spending politicians who created the crisis in the first place.

This type of playing with the numbers to meet the politics is the same thing that created the perceived chaos two years ago. It puts our pension system back in the same spiral and pushes the costs off to our great-grandchildren and steals benefits from our senior citizens.

Look at it as you would your mortgage, as if you were behind on your payments and the interest was piling on. If you suddenly received a big cash payment, wouldn’t you want to pay down your debt on the house or would you use that money to buy something unrelated? I would like to think you would pay off your house debt to make sure you don’t lose it.

But that is the point the State is missing here. They have demanded that our senior citizen retirees lose their COLA on their pension, have increased our contribution rate to the highest in the State at 10% and have made structural changes to lower their costs. Wouldn’t it make more sense financially and out of fundamental honesty to then take those “savings” and use them to pay down more of the unfunded liability faster? Wasn’t the point of all these changes to lower “unsustainable” pension liability so that employee pensions would be secured for the future?

Any cop will tell you that all they are looking for when they are working is honesty.In this case, we are all wondering where the honesty is in using reduced pension costs to reward State and local government failure to fund their past obligations.

Where is the honesty for an older retired officer who was promised these savings would bring his COLA back quickly but then told by the State that COLA won’t be restored until 2026? Where is the honesty for a cop who is now paying $20,000 more for pension and health benefit costs only to see health care premiums continue to rise while politically connected health care brokers continue to get rich? Where is the honesty as additional pension contributions go to a government that nearly bankrupted his retirement rather than paying down pension debt, as we were told had to be done immediately?

When cops are made out to be the enemy of the people to advance a political agenda, we can see it for what it is. But when we are called on to bail out the government for  abuses that caused record losses in our pension and then watch that money leave the pension system, we can’t help but feel disgust and disappointment we didn’t think possible after the last 3 years.

(By Anthony F. Weiners, president, New Jersey State PBA)

To help raise money for the dog, the Hasbrouck Heights Police Department is hosting a pasta dinner fundraiser next month.

Besides alerting others when she’s having a seizure, a service dog could do deep pressure massage to pull Marybeth out of an anxiety attack. It would also increase her sense of self-reliance and independence, which is extremely important at this stage of her life.

It’s been a tough stretch for the Hasbrouck Heights youngster, who has received various types of therapy since she was 10 months old for epilepsy and chromosomal deletion, a genetic disorder.

She recently had two 4-day video EEGs done of her brain. All showed several seizures a day.

She’s also been hospitalized three times this school year. It’s increased her anxiety over both the medication she must take and the possibility of a massive seizure.

WHAT:  Get Marybeth a seizure service dog
WHERE: Hasbrouck Heights VFW, 513 Veterans Place
WHEN:  3 p.m. Sun., June 2
PRICE: $25/adult, $50/family

Raffle Tickets: $10 for an arm’s length (You don’t have to be there to win)

TICKETS/INFO: Joanne Inglesby (HHPD): (201) 288-6019

For those familiar with the terms, Marybeth has had different types of seizures – among them: absences, myoclonic, tonic clonic, drop, and complex partial.

As she gets older, her medications must be adjusted.

Whether she’s in her room playing, in the shower, or even sleeping, someone must watch over her.

During the night, her mother keeps her hand on Marybeth’s back to check her breathing. She sometimes awakens, startled, afraid for her daughter’s well-being.

A service dog could change that, helping everyone in the household rest a bit easier.

If you can’t attend the dinner, you can still mail a donation to:

Hasbrouck Heights Police
PBA 102 / Marybeth Barrios
248 Hamilton Avenue
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ  07604
ATTENTION: Joanne Inglesby

Even a psychologist enlisted by Spanick’s attorney “does not say he has the inability to form intent,” one of the standards that must be met for such a defense, Superior Court Judge James J. Guida said.

The expert said that Spalnick previously was diagnosed with depression, suicidal thoughts and post-traumatic stress disorder, caused in part by abuse as a child, which “caused him to exercise poor or impaired judgment,” according to Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Jessica Gomperts.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Jessica Gomperts (STORY / PHOTO: Mary K.Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

That doesn’t meet the legal standard of diminished capacity, which requires proof of a mental disease or defect that could have prevented a defendant from forming the “requisite intent,” she said.

“I am not making light of the defendant’s problems,” Gomperts told the judge. “He may very well suffer from PTSD, suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation, but none of those allow a defense of diminished capacity.”

Spalnick, a 42-year-old Army veteran, is charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, aggravated assault against his wife and endangering his boy, along with two counts of weapons possession and resisting arrest.

As CLIFFVIEW PILOT originally reported, Spalnick’s third wife called for medical attention from the couple’s locked bathroom after he hit her — apparently for not inviting him to a Christmas party — according to police.

Finding Spalnick with a knife in each hand, the medics retreated and called police, authorities said.

South Hackensack officers chased the knife-wielding Spalnick into another room and summoned the SWAT team, a commanding officer at the scene told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“He chose a bedroom in the corner of the house, so he was basically trapped,” he said. “The only way out was the window.”

A nearly five-hour roller-coaster round of talks followed — first with South Hackensack police and then with negotiators from the Bergen County Police Department SWAT Team.

While those talks continued, South Hackensack firefighters dramatically raised a ladder to the bathroom window and carried the woman and child down.

“We were concerned because he said he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory,” the commanding officer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“The holidays affect some people really hard,” the officer added. “But the negotiators stayed with him, kept him talking. He eventually began crying. He was still a little weepy when he walked out.”

Defense attorney Bob Cherry contended that medical reports from the time didn’t adequately explain injuries that Spalnick’s wife sustained in the standoff.

He asked Guida for a new medical exam.

“That’s ridiculous,” Gomperts countered.  “The jury is absolutely allowed to hear the extent of the victim’s injuries.  The hospital records are absolutely relevant.  The victim suffered a concussion, broken nose, contusions, scratches.  These are now all healed.”

The judge agreed, denying Cherry a second exam.

Jury selection in the case begins next Wednesday morning.

STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

“I always knew I wanted to participate in the fight against cancer, but I had to think carefully about how I could best make an impact,” Magno said.

In the end, the Hasbrouck Heights High School student said she decided to both honor the memory of her grandfather (inset, below) and “contribute to medical developments that will help to cure the disease that took him from us.”

“We are extremely grateful for Amanda’s generosity,” said Andrew Pecora, the chief innovations officer, professor, and vice-president of cancer services at the center. “Her donation will support important cancer patient support services and research efforts.”

The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is among the nation’s top 50 cancer hospitals – and the highest-ranked in New Jersey – in U.S. News and World Report ratings.

Officials there tout it as “New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive cancer center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, preventive care, as well as survivorship of patients with all types of cancer.”

With 14 specialized divisions, the center provides “comprehensive multidisciplinary care, state-of-the-art technology, access to clinical trials, compassionate care and medical expertise”

The gas-fed fire broke out around 3 o’clock this afternoon on Goffle Road. No injuries were reported.

Goffle Road was closed between Ravine Avenue and Lake Street while PSE&G crews worked to extinguish the fire and repair gas & electrical service.

Outages were limited to a small number of area homes, emergency workers said.

Ridgewood police, firefighters and Emergency Services personnel responded.

Wyckoff police assisted with traffic control.

STORY / PHOTO: Boyd A. Loving

The squad also arrested a 60-year-old Sears employee from Maywood who was charged with both possession and trafficking such images. He was being held on $50,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

Anthony Zito (above, left), a 33-year-old paralegal in the billing department of Leahey & Johnson, had a court appearance this afternoon. A release issued by Molinelli afterward said that Zito was released without bail on charges of child endangerment – specifically: possession of kiddie porn.

Molinelli said Zito was “using the Internet to acquire and transmit images and/or video files depicting child pornography,” including “images and/or videos of pre-pubescent children engaged in sexual acts.”

Meanwhile, Walter Urbanowycz of Maywood was scheduled for a court hearing tomorrow following his arrest today.

Molinelli thanked Maywood police for their help, as well as the manpower support that he said was provided to his computer crimes squad by the Maywood, Oradell and Waldwick police departments.

MUGSHOTS: Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

Thomas J. Fagan, 57, of Rye, NY, already has been sued by the state Attorney General’s Office on charges of defrauding nearly 800 investors of $9.5 million by selling unregistered stock in one of the companies, Energex Systems, Inc.

More than 225 of them were in New Jersey, state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said today.

Fagan was president and CEO of Energex Systems, which was “promoted as a developer of various biotech products, including ones related to blood safety,” Chiesa said.

“Only one Energex product received FDA approval, and the company never had significant sales,” he added.

In 2009, Chiesa said, Fagan founded Arbios Acquisition Partners to gain control of Arbios Systems, Inc., a medical device company, and sold over $1.6 million in unregistered Arbios Systems promissory notes and stock.

“Investors entrusted Fagan with millions of dollars of their hard-earned money, which they expected he would use to advance these high-tech companies, but he allegedly repaid their trust by stealing and misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars and running the companies into the ground,” Chiesa said. “He rightfully faces serious criminal charges.”

The grand jury indictment returned today charges Fagan with misapplication of entrusted property, theft, money laundering, and corporate misconduct.

He is also charged with three counts of failing to file personal income tax returns in New Jersey, for tax years 2007 through 2009, and filing a fraudulent state tax return in 2010.

The charges stemmed from an investigation by the state Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau, which received a referral from New Jersey Bureau of Securities, Chiesa said. The bureau filed suit against Fagan and his companies in July 2011.

“We are making it a priority to investigate major financial crimes,” said DCJ Director Elie Honig.  “This type of white collar crime has a devastating impact on victims.”

Chiesa said Fagan commingled investor funds among the two companies, stealing or misappropriating more than $230,000 “for his personal use and enrichment,” including withdrawals of tens of thousands of dollars for casino gambling.

Fagan paid himself several hundred thousand dollars a year in salary, bonuses and reimbursement of business expenses, as well, the attorney general said.

Although those amounts aren’t the subject of the indictment, Chiesa said Fagan also “took additional unauthorized funds for his personal use either by making company checks directly payable to himself, making bank counter withdrawals, or making ATM withdrawals from company accounts.”

The indictment also alleges that Fagan wrote Energex checks to himself in 2008 totaling $117,772.  The checks were categorized in company books and records as “other” expenses.

It says he used $60,772 of those checks to cover gambling losses in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, $40,000 to give to his sister, and $17,000 toward payment of a personal out-of-court legal settlement.

What’s more, the indictment alleges, Fagan made $114,031 in cash withdrawals for personal use from accounts of Energex and Arbios Systems, including withdrawals made in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

He also “disguised the source and ownership of company funds he stole or misappropriated through a series of inter-company cash transfers, cash deposits and withdrawals, and deposits of company checks into his personal account, followed by withdrawals as cash or cashier’s checks,” Chiesa said.

That includes structuring at least $84,000 in transactions to conceal or disguise instances when he stole or misappropriated company funds, the indictment alleges.

Deputy Attorney General Peter Gallagher presented the case and secured the indictment from the state grand jury.

The investigation by the DCJ’s Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau was handled by Detectives Edward Augustyn III and Cheryl Smith, Lt. David Nolan, Lt. Michael Fallon, Deputy Attorney General Gallagher and Analyst Alison Callery.

Also investigating the case for the Department of Taxation, Office of Criminal Investigations was Special Agent William Makar and Supervising Forensic Auditor Michael Mullane.

David Fernandez showed little reaction as the verdicts were read. Family members later sobbed quietly as the courtroom was being cleared and Fernandez was escorted out in handcuffs by Bergen County Sheriff’s officers.

Superior Court Judge James J. Guida revoked his bail and set sentencing for Sept. 16.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Kristin DeMarco told Guida that she would accept the partial verdict and wouldn’t seek a retrial on the two counts on which the jury was hung.

Defense attorney Angela Rodriguez objected, but Guida accepted the partial verdict.

“We’ll be filing an appeal,” she later told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “I took this case because I strongly believe in my client’s innocence.”

DeMarco said that Fernandez is facing a minimum of 15 years. Rodriguez, however, argued that the estimate is based on separate offenses and that she’ll argue they should be consolidated as one for sentencing purposes.

Jurors convicted Fernandez of rape, oral sex, touching her breasts and impairing her morals.

They couldn’t decide on two other counts — of digital penetration of a minor and touching the girl’s buttocks.

In accepting the partial verdict, Guida said he believed jurors made a thorough and sincere effort to reach agreement.

“It’s not a complicated case,” the judge said. “There were two witnesses for the state, the victim and the officer who laid the foundation for the video, and a character witness as to the way the defendant acted in the telephone conference.

The verdict followed last-minute courtroom drama this morning while jurors were deliberating elsewhere.

Rodriguez tried to present a new defense witness, a Hackensack woman who she said is the mother of a Fernandez’ 19-year old son.

She said the woman, who came forward last Friday evening, would testify that portions of a crucial phone confession recorded by the victim’s mother were made without Fernandez on the line, because she herself was speaking to the woman during that time.

Guida rejected the request — although he noted: “I have never had a defense attempt to stop jury deliberations to introduce a new witness.”

The judge also said Rodriguez had others — including the victim’s mother — who could have provided the same testimony.

The phone call, during which prosecutors said Fernandez admitted to the crimes, was a key piece of evidence in the case.

Rodriguez insisted the recording was made without his knowledge and was “coerced and [made] under duress.”

However, Guida told jurors before they began deliberating last week that only one party needs to consent to a telephone recording in New Jersey.

DeMarco told jurors during closing arguments last Wednesday that the call was recorded in March 2012 while Fernandez was helping to make funeral arrangements for his father in Florida — “not in the same room, house or state with the victims, not with a gun to his head, but with his family and friends.

“Imagine his 39-year old hands all over a 13-year old child, impairing and debauching her morals,” she said.

Rodriguez countered that investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office didn’t collect DNA samples or analyze the recording to determine whether it might have been edited.

“Even Monica Lewinsky kept her dress for a year,” she said.

Rodriguez also claimed inconsistencies in the girl’s testimony during the week-long trial.

DeMarco said there was no opportunity for DNA testing because “the defendant wore a condom, and the 5-day time period had lapsed.”

“There’s no sperm, there’s no physical evidence, no Monica Lewinsky dress,” the prosecutor said.

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

Frank Hadley, 40, of Hillburn, is charged with four counts of burglary, two counts of theft and drug-related charges.

Hadley rented a room at the Super 8 Hotel a week ago and quickly went to work, Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli said this morning.

Batelli’s officers were called on Saturday by a 2^nd-floor hotel guest who said he was in town on business and found his suitcases unzipped, dresser drawers rifled and other items scattered around after briefly leaving his room.

The guest, who showed the officers pry marks on his locked briefcase, reported two watches stolen, the chief said.

Another resident on the same floor told police he was asleep and slow to get up when he heard a knock at the door. As he approached it, he said, someone on the other side was using a card key to get in.

The guest said he grabbed the door, then confronted a man later identified as Hadley, who :rambled about having satellite reception on the third floor,” Batelli said.

Interviewing hotel workers, police learned that a master key had been stolen from one of the housekeepers, the chief said.

Maintenance workers pointed them to Hadley, who they said they saw “attempting to use a card to enter a room other than the one he was staying in,” Batelli said.

Before long, officers learned that other rooms had been burglarized, he said.

In addition to the other charges, Hadley was charged with theft of the master key.

He has a first appearance scheduled in Mahwah Municipal Court tonight.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy MAHWAH PD