In teen's death, editors miss a powerful seat-belt lesson

A three-story building at 76 Main St. in Hackensack, at Bridge Street, was torn down early today after a 3-alarm fire began on Saturday in the kitchen of Choripan Rodizio, an Argentinian-Brazilian restaurant, and spread to 10 upper-floor apartments.

When the restaurant opened in early 2013, it was a welcome sign of renewal in downtown Hackensack. Choripan Rodizio offered great salads and some seafood dishes, in addition to lots of grilled meat, pizza and pasta aimed at Argentinians with Italian ancestry.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Would Stephanie Morgan be alive today and preparing to graduate from Emerson High School, if she was wearing a seat belt on Wednesday night, when her best friend lost control of a speeding SUV, rolling it several times?

A Road Warrior column from staffer John Cichowski on the Local front today and a news story on Saturday's front page don't even discuss the possibility.

Cichowski, along with the rest of the news and editing staff in Woodland Park, again drop the ball, as they have so many times before in reporting fatal crashes and pedestrian fatalities.

Could the local editors' disdain for safety belts be traced to the sad fact that some of them are so fat they wouldn't be able to buckle up, even if they wanted to?

Charges filed

On Friday, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced the filing of charges against the unnamed 17-year-old girl who was driving the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder, a large SUV, at what "is believed to be a reckless, high rate of speed."

"The SUV flipped numerous times, leaving the roadway and coming to rest on its driver's side" in a yard, according to the press release.

No mention was made of whether Morgan was wearing a seat belt in The Record's initial Thursday story or Saturday's Page 1 story on the charges.

They are juvenile delinquency with the underlying offense of vehicular homicide and several motor vehicle summonses, including reckless driving, speeding and failure to abide by probationary driver's license requirements.

But from the outset, Jerry DeMarco's Cliffview Pilot.com quoted "authorities" saying Morgan wasn't wearing a seat belt and was ejected through the vehicle's sunroof. 

Finally, today's story on services for Morgan mentions she wasn't buckled in, but that the driver and a third occupant were (L-3).

Brother in car

Morgan was found on the street with severe head injuries, meaning her 15-year-old brother, who was in the back seat and climbed out of vehicle along with the driver, saw his big sister dying.

She was pronounced dead early Thursday at Hackensack University Medical Center.

An unbelted Morgan also is likely to play a big part in any lawsuit her family files against the driver's insurance company for damages, which would be extremely large considering the earning potential of a bright 18-year-old.

But those damages could be reduced based on Morgan's contributory negligence -- not buckling up.

A death notice today notes Morgan "had a real love of cats," and is also survived by "her cherished pets, Mia, Tommy, Joey a/k/a Dio, Sandy and Petey" (L-5).

Page 1

A long story on a "bloody feud" between street gangs in Paterson leads the paper today, reporting that the rivalry has claimed at least two innocent lives, basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, last weekend and Nazerah Bugg, 14, another basketball standout, last year (A-1 and A-8).  

Reporters quote Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes and Mayor Joey Torres extensively on the decades-old rivalry.

Where's Speziale?

But no one asked Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale why his department hasn't confiscated the gang members' guns and gotten the murderers off the street long before the shootings of Nazerah and Armoni.

If you've been on the moon and missed all the TV and front-page coverage of Armoni Sexton's death last weekend, burned-out Mike Kelly has written just the column you're looking for. 

The entire text on the Opinion front is mind-numbing background information, enough to discourage any reader from turning the page and searching for Kelly's opinion about the easy access to guns in Paterson and other cities (O-1 and O-4).

Christie lies

Another story on Page 1 today reports Governor Christie, "who is expected to run for the GOP nomination in 2016," frequently "bends the facts" when he meets with voters in New Hampshire or New Jersey.

Gee. New Jerseyans have known that since he took office in early 2010.

Mercury in tuna

In her The Corner Table column today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung shirks her responsibility as a journalist to tell other women of child-bearing age to avoid the fatty underbelly of tuna called toro, because it contains high levels of harmful mercury (BL-4).

The giant blue-fin tuna -- which can weigh 600 pounds or more -- is prized by the Japanese, whose exploitation of this fast-moving predator has led to it being raised on fish farms in Spain and other countries.

The tuna get their revenge on humans with high levels of mercury, which is especially harmful to children and women of child-bearing age.

No stars for dessert-obsessed restaurant critic Elisa Ung

The Bergen County Human Services Shelter for the homeless was built on South River Street in Hackensack opposite the Bergen County Jail, below. Police Director Mike Mordaga credits his quality of life patrols and cooperation by shelter officials for a reduction in the number of homeless on Main and Anderson streets.

The county shelter serves three free meals a day, attracting a large number of homeless. But police say many of those with criminal records appear to be staying away from Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite a growing awareness in the United States of heart-healthy foods and the harm to humans of antibiotics used to raise animals, The Record's chief restaurant critic seems to be stuck in the 1970s.

Today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gives only 3 out of 4 stars to the widely respected Esty Street in Park Ridge, and throws a temper tantrum over what she calls "a sad list of options for sweet-toothed customers" (BL-16).

Ung never explains whether the desserts are what led her to deny the 23-year-old "institution" that coveted fourth star (Outstanding), but slams the place for being "in expense account, price-is-no-object territory."

Gee. 

In the eight or nine years Ung has had this job, I'm sure she has reviewed far more expensive restaurants, especially steakhouses where she thinks nothing of dropping $85 of the newspaper's money for a huge hunk of aged mystery beef pumped full of harmful antibiotics and growth hormones.

Naturally raised?

I would think the $39 short ribs and $43 filet mignon she sampled at Esty Street were raised naturally and came from animals that were grass fed, justifying the prices.

But all Ung says about their origin is "the steak quality here cannot be contested."

She does complain the restaurant's menu doesn't "note" the prices of three steaks or such "enhancements" as crispy oysters.

Yet, she is guilty of praising the wine selection and "enticing" cocktails, but forgetting to tell readers how much they cost.

No sugar high

Then, she devotes an entire long paragraph to her disappointment over the "leaden" creme brulee, "too-thick chocolate" in another dessert and the lack of "lush creaminess" in an ice cream.

The first sentence of that paragraph, one of 10 in the review, is missing commas: "Avoid the leaden creme brulee pound cake French toast and a chocolate trio ...."

Anyone concerned about their weight or heart health would avoid all of those artery clogging desserts like the plague.

'Health vice'

And despite all the years she has been stuffing her face on The Record's dime, her writing remains rough, and she doesn't seem to get any editing.

She claims the restaurant's "finesse screeches to a halt at dessert."

A starter of grilled octopus with creamy gigante beans contains a "health vice," Ung reports, referring to a few slices of chorizo.

Yet, the overweight reviewer doesn't warn of a "health vice" in any of the desserts she sampled.

Ung's unhealthy eating habits don't serve the vast majority of readers, who are older and may be diabetic, watching their weight or trying to avoid heavy cream and butter.

Her departure would be no loss. 

Page 1

The 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide certainly deserves front-page coverage, but why didn't the editors assign any reporters to question North Jersey's Turkish residents on their views concerning the standard denials from officials (A-1)?

The Record's coverage of the two hostages killed by a U.S. drone doesn't contain a word on whether we will compensate the families or defend lawsuits filed by them (A-1).

President Obama's statement that the deaths were "not necessarily the result of negligence" suggests the latter (A-1 and A-8).

Clueless reporting

Another fatal accident exposes the deeply flawed editing and local reporting staff in the Woodland Park newsroom (L-1).

The first question any reporter should ask when a passenger is ejected from a vehicle is whether he or she was wearing a seat belt.

Instead, Staff Writers Andrew Wyrich and Stephanie Akin knock themselves out getting quotes on what a wonderful person Stephanie Morgan was before the Emerson High School senior died Thursday.

The first paragraph wasn't even edited. 

Morgan died from head injuries suffered, the reporters say, "when she was ejected from a single-car accident hours before" [italics added].

Of course, she was ejected from a vehicle, not an "accident." 

Update

Cliffview Pilot.com quotes Prosecutor John L. Molinelli as saying Morgan, 18, wasn't wearing a seat belt, and that she was ejected through the vehicle's sunroof.

Jerry DeMarco also reports the driver will be charged with a juvenile offense, and he supplies details on how the vehicle crashed that you don't find in The Record today.

See: Emerson teen wasn't wearing seat belt

Nissan recall

From The Record's description of the one-vehicle crash, the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder involved may have had a mechanical problem, causing it to flip"numerous times," or the driver, Morgan's friend, could have been speeding.

According to cars.com, the 2008 Pathfinder was recalled in 2010 to replace a control arm in the front suspension for improper welds that could lead to separation and a crash. 

This kind of flawed reporting is evident in almost every motor vehicle or pedestrian fatality covered by the inept local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, and edited by staffers under the supervision of six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton.

Recall the single story on the March 9 pedestrian death of Hue D. Dang, 64, a Vietnamese-American woman who was run down in Hackensack by a detective driving an unmarked car from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

The story never mentioned a crosswalk at the T-intersection, Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street, or that Dang was struck when she was walking in or near it. 

Hackensack police filed no charges against the driver, Detective Sgt. John C. Straniero, 49, of Wayne, but another prosecutor's office is investigating the accident.