Editors hit dog slayer, but not cop who ran down woman

In the more than seven years I've lived in Hackensack, the lack of turn lanes on Passaic Street at Summit Avenue constitutes an annoying bottleneck at almost any time of day, because cars can't pass turning vehicles on narrow, antiquated Passaic.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you're wealthy and live in a good town, you can get The Record to use Page 1 for your endless complaints about a cop who shot and killed your vicious dog.

And the editors will even demonize the officer by dredging up his past involvement in the unrelated death of a suspect in Newark more than four years ago (A-1).

But if you're a Vietnamese-American woman living alone in a shabby Hackensack apartment building and get run down by a detective as you're crossing the street, the editors won't even question why no charges were filed against the driver in your death.

That's the stark contrast presented by today's front-page story on Wyckoff Patrolman Kyle Ferreira, who shot and killed a German shepherd that lunged at him and bit his boot when he was investigating a burglary report on April 29 (A-1).

The Record reports that when Ferreira was a Newark police officer in 2010, his patrol car fatally injured a fleeing domestic violence suspect.

Cop kills woman

On March 11, The Record ran a single story on the death of Hue D. Dang, 64, who was fatally injured two days earlier by an unmarked car driven by John C. Straniero, an off-duty detective sergeant from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

The story, reported by telephone, omitted key facts:

Dang was walking in or near a crosswalk when she was struck on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack, only a few blocks away from where she lived.

The 5-foot, 100-pound woman, who was carrying a plastic grocery bag, fell and struck her head, leaving heavy blood stains on the pavement.

Hackensack police filed no charges of any kind against Straniero, 49, of Wayne, but the accident is being reviewed by the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

The Record's editors never questioned the decision of Hackensack police nor did they do a follow-up story.

Hue D. Dang's blood, right,  staining the pavement hours after she was fatally injured crossing Jackson Avenue in Hackensack. This photo, from a neighborhood resident, also shows police markings that indicate the unmarked car's right rear tire, left, stopped in the crosswalk, below.

The driver who killed Dang was turning the corner of Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street toward the ramp for Route 80 west.

Also on Page 1

The A-1 story on the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania is a huge waste of precious space. Why was it written by the paper's transportation reporter?

There is nothing sillier than a reporter who covers a court hearing on Governor Christie's sleight of hand with state pension payments, and tries to predict how the judges are leaning on the issue from their questions to the lawyers on both sides (A-1).

That reminds me of an editor in Hackensack who asked me when a jury would be returning with a verdict in a federal court trial I covered for The Record.

Local news

The Record's story on two people who were fatally injured by a Washington Township police cruiser as they were walking in a travel lane of the New Jersey Turnpike doesn't report the time of the accident early Wednesday (L-1).

But the story does say Sgt. Arsenio Pecora was involved in a training exercise at Fort Dix that ended "shortly before 1 a.m." Wednesday (L-6).

Cliffview Pilot.com reported the pair were struck by Pecora's cruiser at 1:06 a.m., according to state police.

They were pronounce dead at the scene at 4:33 a.m.

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.

Ignored by the editors, enraged 100-year-old kills his wife

Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack at 4:44 p.m. on Monday, one month after Hue D. Dang, 64, was fatally injured in or near the crosswalk by an unmarked car driven by Detective Sgt. John C. Straniero of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. After Hackensack police declined to file any charges, the investigation was taken over by the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Can you "accuse" a dead man of homicide?

The brain-dead editors at The Record of Woodland Park say you can in the very first paragraph of today's report on a centenarian who killed his 88-year-old wife with an ax before committing suicide (A-1).

Even the headline on the Page 1 story is vague, referring to the killer, Michael Juskin of Elmwood Park, as being "at the center" of the case:

"100-year-old at the center of murder-suicide"

The headline should have said he killed his wife, Rosalia, with an ax, and then the sub-head could have mentioned he suffered from dementia.

A sidebar reviews similar cases in recent years, and concludes "the elderly population is often underserved by services for battered woman and overlooked by research on domestic violence" (A-6).

Gee. Shouldn't the editors of the Woodland Park daily admit how they also have ignored seniors with dementia and Alzheimer's disease for years, preferring to publish overwrought stories on children with autism?

Why 9 months?

At the center of today's rare all-New Jersey front page is a court photo of the sister and mother of Genesis Rincon, the 12-year-old who was slain in Paterson last July (A-1).

But the story on L-1 doesn't explain why the two defendants are being arraigned nine months after the fatal shooting.

Maybe it took that long for the accused killers' families to come up with the hefty retainer needed to land representation by attorneys Harvey Briete and Matthew Cavalier.

Judging from the photo on L-1, Briete's hourly rate apparently has to pay for suits that cost a couple of thousands of dollars each as well as hand-tied bow ties.

Briete also is given to hyperbole -- dismissing a plea bargain with a 40-year prison sentence for his 20-year-old client as a "life sentence," according to the paraphrase on L-1.

Another look

On Monday, I re-visited the T-intersection of Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street in Hackensack, where Hue D. Dang, 64, a Vietnamese-American woman who lived a few blocks away, was struck and fatally injured by a car one month before.

I took a photo at 4:44 p.m., the time police said Dang was hit by Detective Sgt. John C. Straniero's unmarked car, which was turning right toward the Route 80 west ramp.

Hackensack police said they didn't know where Dang was standing when she was struck, and didn't mention the Jackson Avenue crosswalk to the reporter who wrote The Record's only story on the case, on March 11.

No charges filed

Police didn't file any charges against Straniero, 49, who lives in Wayne and works for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

They did note "a large amount of sun glare from the west," but that shouldn't have obscured the view of Dang, who appeared to be in or near the Jackson Avenue crosswalk when she was hit.

Dang's feet landed in the crosswalk when she fell parallel to the passenger side of the car.

And, according to a neighborhood woman I spoke to on Monday, a plastic grocery bag she had been carrying landed near a wheel on the detective's silver Ford Crown Victoria.

The victim was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

The Union County Prosecutor's Office took over the investigation, and on March 31, a spokesman said I should check back in "several weeks."