Prosecutor's embargo spooks editors and reporters

For frustrated commuters, North Jersey has it all: Narrow, antiquated streets; bus and rail service with not enough seats; and exorbitant tolls. On Passaic Street in Hackensack, a major commuting thoroughfare, above, traffic backs up for nearly a block behind a bus that stopped near Summit Avenue. Passaic and Summit is a major bottleneck for another reason: No turn lanes on Passaic.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

You don't have to be a police reporter or homicide detective to know that when there are no signs of forced entry, it's a good bet the victim knew her killer.

But if you are a sheepish editor or reporter at The Record, covering the murder of 23-year-old Mary Greff, a single mom in Waldwick, you go only with what Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli tells you.

In today's sensational Page 1 story, Molinelli is quoted in the third paragraph as saying "it was too early to reveal the identity of potential suspects" (A-1).

Too early for what?

Suspect charged

Readers, of course, know how this tortured tale ends, as finally reported on NorthJersey.com at 11:34 a.m. today: the ex-boyfriend, Mark Spatucci, 22, of Midland Park was charged with first-degree murder.

He was arrested Wednesday, the day Greff was found strangled "with her baby lying unharmed in a bassinet nearby," and that arrest should have been in today's paper.

Apparently, none of the four reporters who worked on the story -- or any of the local editors screaming about the sky falling back in the Woodland Park newsroom  -- bothered to ask Molinelli if the ex-boyfriend was a suspect or owned the black Volkswagen investigators were looking for (A-1).

Another natural question is whether the victim, who lived with her parents, was seeking sole custody of her infant son after breaking up with Spatucci.

Kelly's failures 

Mike Kelly and The Record's other lame columnists should make time to read Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald (Opinion, A-21).

In a quarter of the space taken up by the long-winded Kelly, who delights in pushing around thousands of words to little effect, Pitts makes clear exactly how he feels about America's "enslavement of Africans and forced removal of American Indians."

Pitts delivers his opinion, forcefully and eloquently, while Kelly's columns are merely an assemblage of information and quotes that are indistinguishable from news stories.  

Alpine and Paterson

Molinelli isn't the only law enforcer who isn't talking to The Record, according to an L-1 story on the collision of a motorcycle and Alpine police cruiser in Paterson.

The police officer from the wealthy Bergen County town ran a stop sign, according to an eyewitness.

Was the cop visiting the impoverished city to testify in state Superior Court? The story doesn't say.

Weak local report

There is a second Paterson story on L-2, but no Teaneck or Hackensack news, as Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza continues to struggle during the prolonged absence of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

However, Sforza learned well from Sykes, and found a good deal of filler, including: 

An L-1 story on the mayoral contest in far-off Wayne, and the photo of a 2-vehicle accident in Paramus (L-3).

A short break

Eye on The Record will return next week, but readers should brace themselves for more crappy work from Kelly, Road Warrior John Cichowski and the other assorted hacks at the paper.