Dark days ahead if Ken Zisa returns as Hackensack chief

If you stay off Route 17 or Route 4, below, driving on Bergen County's two-lane roads can actually be a pleasant experience.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A Record story that could have been written by former Police Chief Ken Zisa's defense attorney had many Hackensack residents soiling their underwear this morning.

Staff Writer Todd South reports on the Local front today Zisa intends to sue the city for nearly $35 million in damages, and is fighting to get his old job back.

But the reporter leaves the other side of the story to deep on the continuation page:

Zisa remains under indictment on an official misconduct charge, and Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli is seeking a new trial on that count (L-6).

And the police chief position no longer exists in Hackensack, which has a police director.

"He cannot be reinstated to a job that no longer exists," City Attorney Alexander H. Carver III said of Zisa.

Legal arguments

Zisa's defense attorney, Patricia Prezioso, has wide latitude when filing a lawsuit notice, but that is no excuse for The Record to basically adopt her arguments in paragraph after paragraph, and leave any rebuttal for deep into the story.

Zisa was convicted in 2012 on charges of official misconduct and insurance fraud, and sentenced to five years in prison. 

He was under "house arrest" for three years as he appealed the convictions, and managed to get the insurance fraud charge dismissed. 

Lawsuits galore

Zisa's conduct as police chief and as a onetime state assemblyman was cited in lawsuits filed against him and the city by more than 20 police officers.

City officials say Zisa cost the city at least $8 million in settlements and related legal costs.

Now, his motive in suing Hackensack and the county prosecutor for damages may be an attempt to recoup the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees he paid Prezioso to defend him on criminal charges.

San Bernardino

Today's front page carries a story about another Rutgers University athletic team, showing just how cavalierly Editor Martin Gottlieb is acting just two days after one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history (A-1).

Meawhile, in New Jersey and the nation, the political stalemate over gun control doesn't appear to be easing (A-1).

Governor Christie must have had too much kosher wine to drink at the Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Forum in Washington on Thursday.

"We need to come to grips with the idea that we are in the midst of the next world war," said Christie, who focused on his years as U.S. attorney, not his terrible record as governor of New Jersey (A-3). 

Yamagata

The one time I tried to eat at Yamagata in Fort Lee, I walked into a crowded, noisy restaurant, and was repelled (BL-16).

Then as now, I could retreat to a quiet, family run Japanese restaurant less than a mile away with a large menu of high-end sushi and cooked dishes that seems to have escaped Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's notice.

Her 2.5-star review of Yamagata, which has new chefs and owners, includes a photo of a 20-piece shushi platter for $60.50.

But some of the pieces must be very small, because I counted and re-counted and can't find 20 items.

Democrats answer Christie's racism

The New Jersey Constitution requires the state Supreme Court to provide parking.

When Governor Christie dumped the only African-American on the state Supreme Court in 2010, he claimed the respected judge didn't fit his "ideology," Columnist Charles Stile reports today.


The Record and other media not only didn't question Christie's motives, they also didn't explore whether racism played a part in the unprecedented move against Associate Justice John Wallace. Most of the stories that followed even omitted any mention of Wallace's color.


Kimchi chronicles


Now, Democrats have denied Christie's nominee, Phillip Kwon, the chance to become the first Asian-American on the high court, and let's hope they do the same for his second nominee, Bruce A. Harris, a gay black lawyer who is an abomination to most of the state's church-going African-American community.


Today, Editor Marty Gottlieb delivers two news stories and Stile's column to explore a major political defeat for the GOP bully, who usually gets his way through bluster and a veto pen (A-1 and A-8).


Winding up Ravi


Also on Page 1 today, Gottlieb runs two more stories about Dharun Ravi, the homophobe who was convicted of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation against his gay Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood.


These are the third and fourth A-1 stories about Ravi in the past three days, but the first to tell readers the former student is on a "media tour." How easily he has manipulated Gottlieb, despite all the years the editor spent at The New York Times.


I guess even a veteran newsman like Gottlieb can't resist the urge to sell newspapers for Publisher Stephen A. Borg.


Prison mentality


Road Warrior John Cichowksi continues to be the laughing stock of the Woodland Park newsroom, ringing his hands today over license plates instead of writing about commuting problems (L-1).


Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin reports yet another development in the lawsuits police officers have filed against Police Chief Ken Zisa, who has been suspended pending a criminal trial (L-1).


Small-town news


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has been responsible for better coverage of her hometown, Harrington Park, and other small communities than for Hackensack, the county seat and onetime home of The Record for more than 110 years.


When Sykes sends out Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi to chase ambulances and come back with images of fender benders and non-fatal rollover accidents, she runs the blown-up photos on L-1, L-2 or L-3 to fill the space of local news she doesn't have. 


Today, his artistic shot of the GWB shrouded in fog gets buried on L-8.


Raw deal for readers


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung and her two guests were crammed into a table for two; charged $65 for 25 pieces of sushi with "chewy, stringy toro," the expensive belly meat of the endangered giant blue-fin tuna; and treated brusquely by the manager -- yet she gives Yamagata in Fort Lee two and a half stars (Good to Excellent).


Maybe it's because her grandmother was Japanese. But her abysmal lack of knowledge about raw fish continues to grate.


Women of child-bearing age like her are warned about consuming regular cuts of raw tuna, as well as toro, because of the fish's high mercury content. And nowhere does she mention whether Yamagata freezes or uses frozen fish for sushi and sashimi, as the law requires, to kill parasites in the raw flesh.


The cramped, noisy Yamagata isn't the only high-end Japanese sushi restaurant in Fort Lee, and Ung doesn't convince readers it is the best (Better Living centerfold).