Cops won't release fatality report without OPRA request

Hue Dang, 64, the woman killed crossing the street in Hackensack on March 9, lived alone in an apartment at 340 Hudson St., above and below, only a few blocks away from where she was fatally injured by an unmarked car. The driver, Detective Sgt. John Straniero of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, has not been charged in her death.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack police asked Eye on The Record to file an Open Public Records Act Request Form to obtain the report on the accident that took the life of Hue Dang, 64, who lived alone in a nearby apartment.

The woman was carrying plastic grocery bags and crossing the street at Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street about 4:45 p.m. March 9 when she was struck by an unmarked lawman's car.

Her blood stained the pavement near the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the car's right rear tire came to rest in the crosswalk.

Police said Bergen County prosecutor's Detective Sgt. John Straniero, 49, of Wayne was making a right turn onto Kennedy, which leads to the entrance ramp for Route 80 west, when his car struck the woman.

She died less than a hour later at Hackensack University Medical Center. 

Straniero hasn't been charged in her death.

No witnesses?

Hackensack police Capt. Nicole Foley was quoted by The Record last Wedneday as saying "it's unclear where Dang was standing," and that "there were no witnesses," even though Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street are usually full of rush-hour traffic at that time of the day.

The Record's story didn't mention the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, and the reporter apparently never asked Foley if the pedestrian was in it.

The Woodland Park daily hasn't done a follow.

Today's paper

One look at today's Page 1 headlines tells readers Editor Martin Gottlieb didn't bother finding any real news in North Jersey.

"Haggling ahead for a divided Isreal" bores even Jewish readers.

The photo on the re-opening of the Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus is a non-event for the vast majority of humans in North Jersey.

"Tax breaks being tightened for farms" is another snoozer.

"New furor over tests" is of absolutely no interest to the baby boomers who make up the majority of the readership and whose children are in college or already working

Finally, who the hell is "Borland"?

College cops

The editors let slide hundreds of errors in Road Warrior columns, but take the trouble to correct a story on Monday's L-1 and give credit to Montclair State cops for the arrest of a "driver in the drill" held at the college (A-2).

PABT correction

Back-pedaling furiously, Staff Writer Christopher Maag now reports the Port Authority's chairman believes selling or leasing bi-state agency real estate could help finance a new midtown Manhattan bus terminal (A-3).

And Maag found a board member who said the $7.5 billion to $10.5 billion cost reported on Tuesday's Page 1 was exaggerated, and the actual cost of the building would be $4 billion.

Bus station story on Page 1 is full of heat, but no light

Workmen were so repulsed by the design of this Woodland Street house, on the East Hill of Englewood, they abandoned the site.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's coverage of mass transit in the past decade or more has been decidedly negative, and today's front-page story on a new bus station in Manhattan is no exception.

Who can forget the anti-light rail stories penned by onetime transportation reporter Tom Davis?

Or the editors ignoring the lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains in recent years, and refusing to call on the Port Authority to add a second reverse bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Staff Writer John Cichowski transformed the Road Warrior commuting column into a pulpit for drivers, running hundreds of emails from crackpots whose only interest is to see their names in print.

Now, transportation reporter Christopher Maag is tackling a proposal for a midtown Manhattan bus station with a maximum of controversy and a minimum of intelligence (A-1). 

It starts with the headline:

"A busload of cash"

The minimum cost of $7.5 billion stands alone in the story without any information on how much the Port Authority might be able to land in federal grants or what air rights sold to apartment or office developers might fetch.

There is nothing here on how many cars expanded bus service would take off the road, reducing pollution and boosting worker productivity.

The bi-state agency's midtown Manhattan bus terminal hasn't worked for years. The only solution is to replace it, and The Record should get behind the proposal.

In one of his first major acts in office, Governor Christie killed new Hudson River rail tunnels, setting back expanded train service a decade or more.

No one expects Christie to come out in favor of the Port Authority spending billions on a new bus station, but at least the GOP bully should stay out of the way.

The agency isn't tax supported, and will use grants, toll money and fees from airports and seaports to pay for the new terminal.

Hiding heroin

Among all the Law & Order stories the editors used to flesh out today's Local news section, the one about a male suspect hiding 40 bags of heroin in his sock caught my eye (L-2).

Today, Cliffview Pilot.com carried a similar story, but with a spin only former Law & Order Editor Jerry DeMarco could put on it:

"A pregnant Pennsylvania woman accused of stashing 89 folds of heroin in her vagina during a traffic stop [on Route 208 in Glen Rock] was due in court tomorrow...."

See: Summons, no bail for pregnant woman


Sloppy editing

The first paragraph of a story on the main Business page reports Tesla Motors sells "$100,000 luxury vehicles" (L-7).

But later, the story reports the all-electric cars sell for $71,000 to $140,000.

Maybe the reporter and editor averaged the price of different versions of Tesla's Model S.

350 vetoes give lie to Christie's image as a compromiser

Englewood officials found a cost-efficient way to fill a deep pothole on Jones Road and Linden Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page story today on vetoes during what a reporter calls "the Governor Christie era" has been years in the making.

This is the first time since the GOP bully took office in early 2010 that the Woodland Park daily has bothered to tally his vetoes, and the shocking number doesn't appear until the continuation page (A-6).

Also shocking are the number of staff stories and columns that have portrayed Christie as a moderate who often compromised with the Democratic majority in the state Legislature to achieve so-called reforms.

The front-page headlines are deceiving, only hinting at how many vetoes Christie has used to get his way on a range of issues, and insulate wealthy companies and individuals from higher taxes:

"Another try to override Christie
Democrats are 0-for-49 against governor's vetoes"

In fact, "Governor Christie has enthusiastically embraced his veto power, exercising it at least 350 times since he took office," The Record reports on A-6.

Still, the story never says what seems obvious: Christie has used his veto power more than any other governor in New Jersey history.

More Christie

Two other Page 1 stories report on Port Authority airport rescue teams, and another desperate Christie grab for environmental money to help plug gaping holes in his budget plan.

Christie vetoed Port Authority reform legislation passed unanimously by New Jersey and New York lawmakers last year, ensuring the bi-state agency will continue to do things as expensively as possible.

The creation of fire and rescue squads at each of the agency's airports tripled the cost of response teams, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports on A-1.

Falling short

But Boburg still hasn't linked the agency's  profligate spending to increasingly higher tolls and a refusal to expand bus and rail transit in the region.

And the editors run three major Page 1 stories today on how Christie has screwed up the state and region, and still won't declare him the worst governor in New Jersey history.

Residents: Detective's car struck woman near crosswalk

The blood of a 64-year-old woman staining the pavement, right, on Kennedy Street and Jackson Avenue in Hackensack amid markings left by investigators last Monday after the pedestrian was fatally injured by a lawman's unmarked car. The "RR" marking, left, indicates the car's rear tire stopped inside the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, shown in the photo below. The blood-stain photo was taken by a resident of the neighborhood the night of the accident.

The proximity of the bloodstain to the corner of Kennedy Street and Jackson Avenue, and the crosswalk, above, appears to be at variance with the account that appeared on Wednesday in The Record, which quoted Capt. Nicole Foley of the Hackensack police. I tried to reach Foley on Friday, but she didn't respond to a message left on her voice mail. This photo was taken today and the woman's blood is no longer visible.

"LR," "LF" and "RR" are markings that indicate where the tires of the Ford Crown Victoria were when the vehicle stopped on Monday about 4:45 p.m. after striking Hue Dang, whose plastic grocery bags were strewn on the pavement after the accident, according to residents who live nearby. She was pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center less than an hour later.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

People who live near the Hackensack corner where a 64-year-old woman was struck and fatally injured last Monday afternoon question why the prosecutor's detective driving the car was not charged.

Photographs taken by residents and supplied to Eye on The Record appear to contradict the single story that quoted Hackensack police and appeared in The Record on Wednesday.

The Woodland Park daily reported John Straniero, 49, of Wayne, a detective sergeant with the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, had stopped his 2011 Ford Crown Victoria for the stop sign on Jackson Avenue and Kennedy Street.

"When he made a right turn onto Kennedy, police said, his car struck the woman," according to the story, which was done by telephone.

"It's unclear where Dang was standing," the story said. "[Capt. Nicole] Foley said there were no witnesses."

But the woman's blood stained the pavement very close to the corner, and the unmarked car's right rear tire stopped in the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, so Straniero doesn't appear to have "made a right turn," as the story reported.

The story doesn't even mention the crosswalk, and the reporter apparently didn't ask police if the victim was in the crosswalk when she was struck.

In that story, Staff Writer Stefani Dazio quoted Foley of the Hackensack police as saying "the traffic fatality appears to be the result of an accident," and that "she [Foley] did not anticipate criminal charges or motor vehicle charges being filed against Straniero."

But people who live nearby question why police said there were no witnesses.

Neighbors say the streets are usually packed with drivers heading home during the afternoon rush hour, and that Jackson Avenue is a shortcut to Kennedy Street and the ramps to Route 80 east and west.

One resident speculated Straniero, the detective, was looking at his phone and didn't see the woman crossing in front of his car, possibly in the Jackson Avenue crosswalk, before he struck her.

Today's paper

Why did The Record wait so many years before tackling the issue of campus rape in New Jersey, as the editors do in today's lead Page 1 story.

In her first tedious paragraph, Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton cites "the epidemic of sexual assaults among students" (A-1).

"Among students"? 

Hey, Mary Jo, aren't you talking mostly about men victimizing women? Why pussy foot around the assaults, which many college administrators try to keep quiet?

Also on Page 1 today, Columnist Charles Stile regurgitates another column on Governor Christie's "right turn" the reporter apparently has on a save-get key now that the GOP bully is likely to run for president (A-1).

And would you look at that gee-whiz front-page photo of wealthy people's yachts wrecked by a cyclone in the middle of nowhere (A-1). What a waste of space.

Defective reporters

Road Warrior John Cichowski still doesn't get that the biggest problem faced by drivers and other commuters is increasing traffic congestion and the lack of mass transit in North Jersey (L-1).

Meanwhile, on the Better Living cover today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung uses her Sunday column to build up the image of an organizer of food events and festivals, as well as celebrity chefs.

The schizophrenic reporter supposedly represents restaurant goers in her Friday fine-dining reviews, then, on Sundays, completely turns her back on the issues that concern them.

On the Opinion front, a photo of Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin appears next to a notice:

"Record Columnist Mike Kelly is off." 

Way off.