Day: October 31, 2022

Mercer County, Trenton

Trenton Firefighters Rescue People Hanging Out Of Windows Of Burning Home On Tyler Street

October 31, 2022

TRENTON, NJ (MERCER) — Multiple people suffered burns and other injuries in a house fire and were rushed from the scene in ambulances this evening (Oct. 31). Firefighters used a ladder to rescue at least one person from a second-floor window of the burning structure on Tyler Street.

The Trenton Fire Department’s Engines 3, 7 and 10, Ladder 2, Rescue 1 and Battalion Chief Dave Smolka were dispatched at 9:05 p.m. after the city’s communications center started receiving multiple 9-1-1 calls reporting that the multifamily house at 24 Tyler Street, near East Canal Street, was on fire with multiple people trapped on the upper floors.

Patrolling police officers were quickly on the scene. They confirmed people were trapped in the three-story rowhouse. Based on the police’s report, additional firefighters were sent to the scene as the “All Hands” signal for a working fire was transmitted. 

Engine 7 arrived and reported they had a person hanging out a second-floor window. Firefighters raised a ladder to the window to rescue that person. Searches were made of the basement and all three floors and firefighters confirmed that everyone was out by about 9:15 p.m.

The total number of people injured and how they escaped from the fire was not immediately known. At least three people were transported by city and mutual aid ambulances to Capital Health Regional Medical Center. At least one trauma alert was called.

Firefighters used two hoselines to quickly extinguish the fire. The blaze was declared under control at 9:24 p.m.

Police quickly cordoned off the street on both sides of the burned building with crime scene tape. Investigators from the police department, fire department, county prosecutor’s office and state fire marshal’s office were called out to probe the cause of the blaze.

It proved to be a busy Halloween evening for city emergency personnel. About two hours before the fire, police and EMS crews responded to a double shooting in the area of New Willow and Kirkbridge avenues.

Middlesex County, Sayreville

Juvenile Taken into Custody for Sayreville Aggravated Sexual Assault On 68-Year-Old Woman

An act of juvenile delinquency for offenses which if committed by an adult would constitute as Aggravated Sexual Assault, Sexual Assault, Burglary, and Theft.

October 31, 2022

SAYERVILLE, NJ (MIDDLESEX)–Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Acting Chief Daniel Plumacker of the Sayreville Police Department announced today that a juvenile male has been taken into custody and charged with an act of juvenile delinquency for offenses which if committed by an adult would constitute as Aggravated Sexual Assault, Sexual Assault, Burglary, and Theft.

Today, October 31, 2022, between Midnight and 12:30 A.M., a 68- year-old female victim was sexually assaulted in her residence. The suspect entered the victim’s apartment located on Swider Drive in Parlin, New Jersey, woke her, sexually assaulted, and deprived her of belongings before fleeing the scene.

This is an active and ongoing investigation anyone with information or surveillance footage of the area is asked to call Detective Lauren Leyva of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victim’s Unit 732-745-4499 or Detective Jeff Taylor of the Sayreville Police Department at 732-525-5450.

Mercer County, Monmouth County, Robbinsville, Robbinsville, Upper Freehold, Upper Freehold

Two Motor Vehicles Crash On Old York Road At Montgomery Way

October 31, 2022

ROBBINSVILLE, NJ (MERCER)–Hope Fire Company and Allentown – Captial Health EMS responded at 6:37 p.m. to Old York Road and Montgomery Way for a T-bone crash with reported injuries. Robbinsville Township Police and New Jersey State Police also responded to the scene of the crash. The injuries were minor, and one person was placed in the back of the ambulance for evaluation of injuries but did not seek transport to the hospital. Hope Fire Company stood by for cleanup and assisted Robbinsville Police with traffic control. The Robbinsville Township Police Department is investigating the crash.

Mercer County, Trenton

Two Injured In Drive-By Shooting In Trenton

October 31, 2022

TRENTON, NJ (MERCER)—City of Trenton, Public Information Officer, Timothy J. Carroll told MidJersey.News that a double shooting was reported at 7:18 p.m. Two male victims were reported shot after having a verbal altercation with a passing vehicle on New Willow Street near Kirkbride Avenue and Wiley Avenue. Trenton EMS and Capital Health Paramedics transported the two victims to the Trauma Center at Capital Health Regional Medical Center. The Trenton Police Department Shooting Response Team is investigating the shooting. No additional details are available at this time.

Monmouth County, Oceanport

Oceanport, Monmouth County, Man Sentenced To 5+ Years In Prison For Defrauding Lenders Of $50 Million

October 31, 2022

TRENTON, N.J. – A Monmouth County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 63 months in prison for defrauding lenders of $50 million dollars in connection with an invoice factoring scheme perpetrated over nearly a decade, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Vincent Galano, 60, of Oceanport, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud. Judge Quraishi imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

Accounts receivable factoring, also known as invoice financing (factoring), is a financial transaction through which a company obtains cash by selling its unpaid invoices, ordinarily at a discount, to a factor. Factoring clients send their debtors notices of assignment naming the factor as the assignee of the debt owed on the invoices. The factor collects invoiced amounts owed by the clients’ debtors and, upon collection of the entire invoiced amount, pays its clients the balance of the invoice, deducting the factor’s fees.

Galano formed PF Funding LLC (PF Funding) in 1996 for the purpose of factoring accounts receivables for various corporate clients. In 2007, PF Funding entered into a secured lending relationship with a single purpose entity created to finance PF Funding’s factoring business. Shortly thereafter, the factoring lender established a line of credit as a means to provide PF Funding capital to grow its receiveables portfolio. Over the next several years, PF Funding grew its factoring business by drawing from the line of credit while maintaining as current its loan obligations to the factoring lender. However, beginning in 2011, Galano, through PF Funding, purchased increasingly greater numbers of invoices for which he was unable to collect the debt owed on the receivables. To justify PF Funding’s continued draws from the line of credit, Galano concealed this bad debt from the factoring lender by misrepresenting the bad invoices as collectible on reports he routinely provided to the factoring lender. In other instances, Galano mischaracterized invoices that had already been paid and collected as outstanding and capable of being factored, in essence double-counting to drive up the outstanding receivables. In the reports provided to the factoring lender, Galano manipulated the overall value of PF Funding’s portfolio of outstanding invoices in an amount proportional to the funds he needed to draw from the unsecured line of credit to maintain as current the principal and interest payments on his outstanding loans.

Engaging in this pattern of misrepresentation over nearly a decade, by 2020 PF Funding had ultimately defaulted under its loan obligations, owing approximately $50 million to its lenders by virtue of the scheme. During a May 2020 telephone call with his lenders, Galano admitted that he had concealed significant losses suffered by PF Funding over many years. He admitted that he had routinely distributed to lenders over that prolonged period fabricated reports that overstated the number and value of outstanding invoices which the reports represented as payable.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentenced Galano to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $50 million.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric A. Boden of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

22-406

Defense counsel: Christopher Porrino Esq. and Rachel Maimin Esq., New York

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com
Lacey, Monmouth County, Ocean, Ocean County

Forked River Man Charged With Murder Of His Wife

October 31, 2022

FREEHOLD – An Ocean County man has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife and leaving her body on the side of a road in Ocean Township this past weekend, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced Monday.

Jeremy B. Cruz, 51, of Forked River is charged with First-Degree Murder in connection with the death of 51-year-old Dawn C. Cruz.

At approximately 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 30, a woman who appeared to have sustained severe injuries was observed by a concerned motorist at the intersection of Asbury and Colonial avenues in the Township of Ocean. Upon responding, Ocean Township Police Department officers located the victim, identified as Dawn Cruz, who was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene.

A short while later, Jeremy Cruz turned himself in to authorities at Berkeley Township Police Department headquarters in Ocean County. A joint investigation by members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Ocean Township Police Department, Asbury Park Police Department, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, and Berkeley Township Police Department ultimately led to the arrest and charging of Cruz. He remains in custody pending a first appearance and detention hearing to take place in Monmouth County Superior Court.

This case has been assigned to Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Caitlin J. Sidley of the Major Crimes Bureau. Information on Cruz’s legal representation was not immediately available. Convictions on Murder charges are commonly punishable by terms of up to life in state prison.

Anyone with information about this matter is being asked to contact MCPO Detective Aaron Shaw at 800-533-7443 or Ocean Township Police Department Detective Zachary Rhein at 732-531-1800.

Despite these charges, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and State law.

Hamilton, Hamilton, Mercer County

Fatal Motor Vehicle Crash In Hamilton Township

October 31, 2022

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NJ (MERCER)–On October 30, 2022, at approximately 10:15 p.m., a motor vehicle crash occurred on Whitehorse-Mercerville Rd near Godfrey Drive.  A 2014 Buick Enclave driven by Linda McBride, a 55-year-old, female from Hamilton, was traveling southbound on Whitehorse-Mercerville Rd near Godfrey Drive when she crossed over the northbound lane and left the roadway.  The Buick then struck a 2016 Ford Van that was parked in the driveway of 779 Whitehorse Mercerville Road before coming to a stop against the driveway retaining wall.  Members of the Hamilton Fire Division arrived on scene to assist with medical attention.  McBride was pronounced deceased at the scene.

          The crash is under investigation by Officers C. Clugsten and J. Galant from the Hamilton Police Division’s Traffic Unit. 

          Any witnesses are asked to contact the Hamilton Police Traffic Unit at (609)581-4000.