An 18-year veteran of the Hillside Police Department is on administrative leave after allegedly shooting his teenage son in the leg Monday night.
According to Toms River Police Chief Michael Mastronardy, Detective James Holmes returned to his Toms River home Monday around 7 p.m. during a dispute between the 17-year-old victim and the teenager’s mother. The detective became involved in the argument, which ended with Holmes firing a .40-caliber bullet into the victim’s leg. MORE
The Hillside police department, in conjunction with the YWCA of Eastern Union County, is seeking volunteers to join a Domestic Violence Response Team in the township.
The volunteers would meet confidentially with victims of domestic violence at police headquarters on an on-call basis, according to Union County’s response team coordinator Divya Dodhia. MORE
Assigning one Hillside police officer to a federal task force investigating suspicious financial activity has netted the township more than $150,000. . .
Hillside plans to use $100,000 to buy three new police cars for its fleet. “Radio cars are a perishable item,” said Police Chief Robert Quinlan, who said his search for outside sources of funding prompted the department to participate in the effort. “It’s difficult for the township to buy new cars every year,” he said. MORE
Suspended Newark police detective Michelle Davis, convicted of aiding a northern New Jersey drug ring, has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for conspiracy and money laundering. . .
In announcing Monday’s sentencing, prosecutors said the 37-year-old Hillside resident helped ringleader Rasheem Small launder money by registering one of his vehicles in her name and writing a check for his home improvements in exchange for cash. . . MORE
Last year, 91.75 percent of drivers and front-seat passengers buckled up. Twenty-four years ago, only 18.2 percent of those occupants used a seat belt, according to the state division of highway traffic safety.
With such a high rate of current usage, progress from here gets tougher. In 2007, the usage rate stood at 91.36 percent.
But as impressive as that progress has been, the message is getting lost somewhere between the front and rear seats. In the back, we’re pretty much flunking. MORE
STAR-LEDGER: Federal and local authorities ar rested 14 people this week and seized guns, drugs and a white Cadillac in a sweep targeting street gangs in Newark and Elizabeth, officials said yesterday. MORE
Police continued a search Monday for a silver BMW that hit a pedestrian and fled the scene of the accident. About 1:22 a.m. Sunday, the car was traveling eastbound on Route 22 when it hit the unidentified victim, police said. MORE
Star-Ledger Newark columnist Joan Whitlow slams Hillside today over the traffic barrier township officials erected last month on Bergen Street at the Hillside/Newark city line.
No one in Newark’s government was told it was coming, which has some Newark officials seething. They have a right to seethe. Blocking Bergen Street off just as it was about to end anyway seems so illogical that the “Road Closed” signs on the barrier appear to carry another message: “Keep Out of Hillside.”
After a month-long trial and two days of jury deliberation, Otis Blunt and Kenneth Graham were found not guilty today of critically wounding a Hillside store manager in a 2005 robbery. . . Today, Blunt, 34, and Graham, 36, friends and neighbors from Toms River, avoided up to 20 years in state prison when they were acquitted of charges including armed robbery, aggravated assault and weapons possession. The Union County Prosecutor’s Office declined comment on the verdict. MORE
The crime is nearly 20 years old, but investigators are still looking for Joao Viriato Simoes.
Simoes was convicted in 1998 of having sex contact with a 14-year-old Piscataway girl eight years earlier while her mother was working . . . His last known address was 1289 Bright St., Hillside, and in South River. MORE
An 18-town crackdown last month on drivers using cellphones — a program in which Hillside Police participated — saw a 50 percent decline in violations from last year, according to Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
Just six percent of motorists were caught chatting on their cells, and just 1 percent were stopped for driving while texting, down from 12 percent and 2 percent last year when the law went into effect. Here’s MORE.
Hillside officials have put up a traffic barrier blocking traffic driving south on Newark’s Bergen Street from accessing Hillside’s Bailey Avenue, according to a report in the Star-Ledger – and Newark is not too happy about it.
The portion of Liberty Avenue running under the Route 22 overpass will be closed to traffic beginning next Friday, May 1, until Monday, May 4, Hillside Police Chief Robert Quinlan said.
Hillside politics can almost be like a contact sport. And this campaign season, Police Chief Robert Quinlan wants all the candidates to know he’ll be on the sidelines refereeing.
In a stern but polite letter to the 16 candidates seeking office in the May 12 municipal election, Quinlan offers two pages of safety tips, rules and etiquette involving door-to-door campaigning, lawn signs, sound trucks and standing outside polling places on election day — all in an effort to “avoid embarrassing confrontations and incidents that require police intervention.”
Hillside police chased a stolen Mercedes-Benz into Newark this morning — capturing the driver who reached speeds in excess of 70 mph on residential streets, said Hillside Detective Lt. Matthew Ross. . . .Detective Jamie Howell injured during pursuit of Nyjuane Scott, 25, of Newark, down Leslie Street and Winans Avenue. MORE
A Hillside man who was pursued in a high-speed chase by Maryland and Delaware police last week has also been charged with raping an 11-year-old, the Sussex Countian of Delaware reports.
Maryland and Delaware police say they have arrested a Hillside Township man after a high speed pursuit that ended with Elraheem Nesmith, 26, crashing through a car dealership on Sunday.
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office released the names of the four Hillside police officers involved in the March 30 shooting of a 25-year-old man in his car on Liberty Avenue.
The 25-year-old repeatedly shot by Hillside police officers Monday morning on Liberty Avenue has a criminal history, state Department of Corrections records show.
Fuquan Stribling, of Newark, who was shot seven times in a hail of bullets while sitting in his car during the Monday morning incident, was convicted in 2006 on robbery and unlawful possession of handguns charges, which carried a maximum sentence of three years.
Stribling — who has also gone by the names of John Murray, Fu Scribling, Fuquan Scribling and Fuguan Scribling — was released in November 2008.
Relatives of the 25-year-old man shot by Hillside police officers in his car early Monday morning said today that he was hit seven times in the chest, neck, arms, legs and back in what they called an unprovoked attack. . .
The Union County Prosecutors Office, which is handling the investigation, has declined to release details about the shooting. The office has only said that Hillside police officers were on routine patrol that morning when they came upon Stribling’s car parked in an alleyway off Liberty Avenue at about 1:45 a.m. Soon after, shots were fired, according to the prosecutors office. MORE
UPDATE: No charges have been filed against a male driver shot by Hillside police in an incident early Monday morning, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. Few details released… MORE
STAR-LEDGER: Two Hillside police officers shot a man and a woman during a traffic stop early this morning, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. The shooting happened at around 1:45 a.m. on the corner of Liberty Avenue and Clark Street, said John Holl, a prosecutor’s office spokesman. MORE
For the past year, Deborah Simmons, a veteran dispatcher with the Hillside Police Department, has been collecting her weekly paycheck from the department. But unlike other employees, she hasn’t been showing up to work.
That’s because in March 2008 Simmons was suspended with pay for, what her union representative calls, “trumped-up charges” brought against her by Police Chief Robert Quinlan.
When the suspension was first initiated, Simmons said, the township attorney said officials would try to find her another position outside the police department, an offer she accepted.
But she never heard from them again until 12 months later when, after collecting almost $50,000 in salary with full benefits, the attorney notified her of the township’s intent to terminate her.
Simmons, a single mother of 11 and 15-year old children who takes care of a brother with medical issues, is now fighting to keep her job.
Isaac J. Little, implicated in a Hillside shooting last week, surrendered to authorities this morning, according to a report released by township police. Little turned himself in after a three-day police search for the Hillside High School student. MORE
Warren Brown, 68, a Hillside resident and former teacher in Summit made his first court appearance last Friday before Union County Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross in Elizabeth, The Independent Press reports.
He has been charged with first and second degree sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor. . . Following additional interviews with the victim, it now appears their relationship became sexual in July of 2008. . . The relationship continued for several months after Mr. Brown left Kent Place. An investigation was launched after the victim’s parents became suspicious. MORE
Shouting matches. Stolen lawn signs. Anonymous attack fliers. 
Maryland and Delaware police say they have arrested a Hillside Township man after a high speed pursuit that ended with Elraheem Nesmith, 26, crashing through a car dealership on Sunday.
For the past year, Deborah Simmons, a veteran dispatcher with the Hillside Police Department, has been collecting her weekly paycheck from the department. But unlike other employees, she hasn’t been showing up to work.
