Nicholas, whose father owns Carmine's Pizza Factory in Downtown Jersey City, will appear in a segment on tonight's airing of the "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." The boy's father, Carmine Testa, said Nicholas will play an 8-year-old version of Fallon during a spoof of the hit TV series, "Empire."

Nicholas Testa and his older brother Michael might be known for their incredible pizza-twirling skills, but the 8-year-old Colonia boy is taking a new act to late night television. 

Nicholas, 8, whose father owns Carmine's Pizza Factory in Downtown Jersey City, will appear in a segment on tonight's airing of the "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." The boy's father, Carmine Testa, said Nicholas will play an 8-year-old version of Fallon during a spoof of the hit TV series, "Empire."

"We'll be watching from home and there's no school tomorrow so the boys will get to stay up late to watch it," said Testa, who lives with his three kids and wife in Colonia.

Michael, now 11 years old, became somewhat of an internet sensation four years ago when Testa posted a video of the boy deftly twirling pizza dough at the Eighth Street pizzeria. Since then, Michael has appeared on a number of daytime talk and food shows, including "The Rachael Ray Show" and "The Chew."

In the meantime, Nicholas has also honed his pizza-twirling skills and has since joined his brother for appearances on "Access Hollywood," "The Steve Harvey Show," and a second taping of Rachael Ray. 

Testa said boys now have agents and will both appear in the upcoming film "Shake Off the World." As for his role as a young Fallon, Nicholas landed an audition for the part with the help of his agent. 

"It's a throwback to the 80s when Jimmy was probably 8 years old," Testa said of tonight's segment. "We met at the studio, but the segment was actually filmed in Harlem in this beautiful brownstone."

While Nicholas didn't get chance meet the popular late night host, Testa said the 3rd grader had brushes with a couple of A-listers -- country music star Carrie Underwood and actress Jessica Alba -- during costume fittings. 

"(Carrie Underwood) looked right at Nicky and said 'he's so cute.' He just shut down. He put his face in his hands," Testa said. "I asked him what was the matter and he said, 'Dad, she was too pretty.'"

Fallon, whose show airs week nights at 11:35 p.m. on NBC, has had audiences laughing with similar TV show spoofs, from the hilarious "Joking Bad" spoof of "Breaking Bad," to a "Game of Thrones" satire.  

"I don't think he really gets the enormity of the kind of show he was cast to be in," Testa said.

"Everybody's really excited for him."

A Middlesex County man was indicted Monday on charges he was distributing cocaine and heroin out of his Dunnellen home, state authorities said.

TRENTON -- A Middlesex County man was indicted Monday on charges he was distributing cocaine and heroin out of his Dunnellen home, state authorities said.

Jeffrey Groth, 35, was arrested in December after police seized 14,300 glassine folds -- about two kilograms -- of heroin, according to the Attorney General's Office. Authorities allege he was on his way to a drug transaction.

Authorities then searched Groth's home, which had been under surveillance, and the Attorney General's office said they found more than $39,000, 20 kilograms of cocaine, more than a kilogram of heroin, scales, packaging material, drug paraphernalia and surveillance equipment. 

ALSO: Cocaine shipping ring leader, brother plead guilty in N.J.

Jeffrey GrothAttorney General's Office 

Groth is charged with first degree maintaining or operating a narcotics production facility, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of heroin with intent to distribute, third-degree possession of heroin, possession of cocaine and money laundering, and fourth-degree possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a statement by the Attorney General's Office.

Timothy Smith, Groth's attorney, said he will be entering a not guilty plea on Groth's behalf and "vigorously representing his rights and interests."

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

 

Two drivers were taken to local hospitals where they were treated for non-life threatening injuries, police said.

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - A two-car collision Monday sent one driver through a row of bushes at a Courtyard by Marriott parking lot before plunging 12 feet into a retention basin, according to police.

The accident occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. as Florencia Nievas, 21, of Rahway drove her silver Toyota Corolla north on Route 535.

The accident occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 21, police said.South Brunswick Police Department 

As Nievas tried to make a left onto Route 32 West, she collided with a Lexus RX4 driven by Paras Dalal, 47, of East Windsor, according to police.

Nievas' car struck a curb, went through bushes, hit the Courtyard by Marriott sign and bounced off a retaining wall. The vehicle dropped 12 feet into a retention basin, landing on its roof, police said.

The basin, which is used to manage storm-water runoff, was dry at the time of the accident.

Nieves and Dalal were taken to local hospitals where they were treated for injuries not considered life-threatening.

The roadway was partly blocked for an hour as a towing company used a lift to remove the vehicle from the basin.

The accident is under investigation.

 

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Police have charged three people with connections to Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo for their alleged roles in an altercation outside the Hale Center on Sept. 12.

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Three people with connections to suspended Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo, including his mother, were charged Tuesday for their alleged role in the altercation that took place outside the university's football headquarters on Sept. 12, according to a statement from Rutgers spokesman Greg Trevor.

Lavern Carroo, the 41-year old mother of the Scarlet Knights star player, was among those charged by the Rutgers University Police Department for simple assault and disorderly conduct related to an incident.

Also charged were Maria Vega, 20, and Juan Vega, 52.

Authorities alleged that their actions included general fighting behavior, specifically hair pulling and striking a victim in the face with a hand.

PLUS: Rutgers' Leonte Carroo charged with simple assault in domestic violence incident

Police have accused Carroo of slamming a woman to a concrete surface outside of the Hale Center after the team's loss to Washington State on Sept. 12, according to a complaint filed in Piscataway municipal court.

He was charged with simple assault in a domestic violence incident. A day after the altercation, Carroo was suspended indefinitely from the team and on Sept. 14 he pleaded not guilty to simple assault.

Carroo reportedly was intervening in an altercation between two women he has been romantically involved with. It's believed that Maria Vega had a romantic relationship with Carroo. Juan Vega's relationship to Maria is unclear. Both are from Fort Lee.

The alleged victim worked for the Rutgers football program as a recruiting ambassador, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told NJ Advance Media last week.

ALSO: Father of Leonte Carroo's alleged victim wants Rutgers to protect his daughter

The alleged victim's father told NJ Advance Media that his daughter did not provoke the dispute. He said his daughter has a restraining order against Carroo, and has quit her job at the athletics department.

She was taken to Saint Peter's University Hospital for her injuries, and treated for bumps, bruises and cuts, and given tests to make sure she was okay after her head hit the ground, her father said. All tests were normal. He accompanied her to the hospital and, later, to the police department.

The statement from Rutgers said the RUPD investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information may call the RUPD Investigations Unit at 848.932.8025.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.

Brian Amaral contributed to this report. He may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

In a room packed with educators, Superintendent Richard Labbe told attendees that it was up to adults to report hazing.

MONROE TOWNSHIP -- In one of the worst days of his tenure at Sayreville War Memorial High School, Superintendent Richard Labbe was in a room of angry parents, demanding to know why the football season had been canceled. 

By then, in early October, very little information was out. The seven football players had not yet been charged with crimes ranging from sexual assault to riot. And the adults in the room didn't yet realize the enormity of the situation, Labbe said. 

"Why are you so angry?" one parent asked him, according to Labbe. 

He didn't say it at the time, but he wanted to say: "Why aren't you so angry?"

In his most extensive remarks yet since the hazing scandal began almost a year ago, Labbe told a packed room of New Jersey educators and coaches Tuesday that before the criminal charges were announced, few knew how serious it was -- both in general, about the issues facing school districts as they deal with hazing, and in particular, about what happened in the football locker room.

"That was an indication to me that our parents didn't realize what hazing was," Labbe said at the Monroe Township meeting, organized by the Department of Education in reaction to what happened in Sayreville. 

One assistant coach, Labbe said, told a school official that nothing happened in the locker room, and that the accusers were only trying to get out of playing football. When another coach learned that freshmen would flee from the locker room after practice, another coach surmised that they were rushing outside for the ice cream truck.

And the head coach, George Najjar, reportedly told students the day before the season's cancellation that "I don't trust you guys anymore" and that they would no longer be allowed to use the locker room unsupervised.

"Are you kidding me?" Labbe said. "They're children. They need to be supervised." 

RELATED: Sayreville tries turning page on hazing scandal, but echoes still rumble

Najjar lost his job as football coach and was transferred to a different district school. The district, meanwhile, has instituted new policies, including more training for both students and staffers about hazing. Most importantly, people need to stand up and say something, Labbe said. Labbe also encouraged those in attendance to have supervision in locker rooms. Don't look at the kids, he said, but have a presence there. 

The hazing in Sayreville's locker room has helped bring renewed attention to the issue in New Jersey. For weeks, it was one of the biggest news stories in America. Labbe was in the middle of it (one of his key lessons, gleaned from the threatening voice mails reporters would leave just to provoke him to call back: Don't trust the media). 

Labbe received a standing ovation from the crowd, consisting of school officials in business attire and coaches in standard-issue sideline polos. 

Sayreville's football season has started again. They're off to a 2-0 start. The district is dealing with several lawsuits -- Labbe said the board attorney, Jonathan Busch of the Busch Law Group, was at the event to "make sure I don't say anything wrong." 

To this day, there are some parents who think the season never should have been canceled (six of the defendants pleaded guilty or were adjudicated delinquent on charges ranging from simple assault to criminal restraint; one faces trial). 

Labbe said the school district has provided just as much therapy to the seven assailants as they did to the four victims. Nobody got out of the situation unscathed, Labbe said, and they'll never be the same again. 

The superintendent received an outpouring of support from other educators. But the real hero, he said, was the 14-year-old boy who told his parents what was happening to him. Those parents then went to police.

"They did what every responsible adult needs to," Labbe said. 

Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

 

Alex Farkas, 25, of Iselin is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Alex Farkas, 25, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, authorities said.Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office 

EDISON - A YMCA bus monitor and summer camp counselor was arrested Monday and charged with sexually assaulting two boys, authorities said on Tuesday.

Alex Farkas, 25, of Iselin is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department.

The assaults occurred while Farkas was working for the YMCA, according to the prosecutor and police chief.

Farkas was employed as a bus monitor by the Edison Branch of the YMCA and as a camp counselor at the Oakcrest Family Swim Club in Edison, according to Carey and Bryan. The swim club is a YMCA facility.

Scott Lewis, president and CEO at YMCA of Metuchen, Edison, Woodbridge & South Amboy, was not immediately available for comment.

According to the prosecutor and police chief, the investigation determined Farkas sexually assaulted a boy on the bus and at the camp on numerous occasions between March and September.

In a separate case, he was charged with improperly touching another boy on the bus on various occasions between July and September, investigators said.

The investigation began after one of the victims told a relative about the assaults.

The investigation is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Horvath of the Edison Police Department at (732) 248-7344, or Detective Heck of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-3600.

Farkas was being held Tuesday at the Middlesex County jail, waiting for bail to be set.

 

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Alex Farkas, 25, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department.

Alex Farkas Farkas is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office 

EDISON - A YMCA camp counselor arrested Monday and charged with sexually assaulting two boys passed a background check before he was hired, according to Scott Lewis, president and CEO of the regional YMCA.

"We are deeply disturbed by the situation involving Alex Farkas, a part-time staff person," Lewis said in a statement emailed to NJ Advance Media on Tuesday.

Farkas, 25, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and Chief Thomas Bryan of the Edison Police Department.

The alleged assaults occurred earlier this year while Farkas was working for the YMCA, according to the prosecutor and police chief.

Lewis said Farkas, like all YMCA job applicants, submitted to "criminal background checks, sex offender registry checks and reference checks" prior to hiring.

"All of the checks we conducted on Mr. Farkas before he was hired came back clean," Lewis said.

PREVIOUSLY: Edison summer camp counselor charged with sexually assaulting 2 boys

Lewis said the YMCA would review its abuse-prevention policies "to ensure they reflect the latest thinking of experts."

"As part of our internal investigation of this situation, we will work to determine how our policies and/or procedures could be further strengthened," Lewis said.

After his arrest, the YMCA terminated Farkas' employment and barred him from the facilities, Lewis said.

"We are fully supporting the Edison Police Department's investigation, and are reaching out to the families of the alleged victims offering our support," Lewis said.

Farkas is being held at the Middlesex County jail on $300,000 bail.

An Iselin resident, Farkas is the lead singer of the Woodbridge-based band "All New Atmosphere."

Friends took to Farkas' Facebook page on Tuesday to comment on the allegations.

"I hope none of it's true. But either way, I know Alex through music and he is such a great dude with such talent and passion," wrote Jason Fria. "I pray he gets through any of the upcoming struggles and battles he may face due to all this."

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Dr. Farooq Rehman is charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact.

Dr. Farooq Rehman, 61, of Colts Neck, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact. Brian Amaral | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 

OLD BRIDGE -- A neurologist has been charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact after accusations that he improperly touched a female patient, according to the Middlesex County prosecutor's office.

Dr. Farooq Rehman, 61, was arrested Tuesday, police said. On Tuesday evening, Rehman was at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center on $100,000 bail. 

Authorities allege that Rehman improperly touched the 37-year-old woman during examinations on Aug. 26 and Sept. 9 at Rehman's Old Bridge office. Police say the investigation began when woman contacted police. 

Rehman lives in Colts Neck, according to a joint statement from Prosecutor Andrew Carey and Chief William Volkert of the Old Bridge Police Department. 

Prosecutors asked anyone with information to contact Detective Michael Machen of the Old Bridge Police Department at (732) 721-5600, extension 3210, or Detective Abromaitis of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-3600.

Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

 

 

Michelle Lodzinski's lawyer will ask a judge to dismiss the indictment, arguing it is based on flimsy evidence

Calling the state's case a patchwork of speculation and flimsy circumstantial evidence, a lawyer for Michelle Lodzinski will ask a judge Wednesday to throw out the indictment charging the former New Jersey woman with the 1991 murder of her 5-year-old son.

Lodzinski, arrested in Florida last year after more than two decades of intensive, on-and-off investigation, is expected to be present in a New Brunswick courtroom for the 9 a.m. hearing. She has been held in the Middlesex County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail.

Court papers filed ahead of the hearing provide the clearest portrait yet of the state's evidence against Lodzinski, whom authorities have long identified as the prime suspect in one of New Jersey's more notorious unsolved slayings.

Timmy Wiltsey, 5, seen in a picture taken at his school. He disappeared in 1991. His mother, Michelle Lodzinski, was charged with his murder in 2014. 

The filings also illustrate the challenges ahead for the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, which will try to prove to a jury that Lodzinski killed the boy, Timothy Wiltsey, despite an absence of physical evidence or eyewitnesses. A cause of death has never been determined for the child, who went by Timmy.

Two items -- a blue and white blanket and a pillowcase -- appear to be an important part of the state's evidence. Both were found near Timmy's skull in a marshy area of the Raritan Center business complex in Edison in April 1992, 11 months after his disappearance.

Some 20 years later, Lodzinski's niece, an occasional babysitter for the child when she was a teenager, identified the blanket as one from her aunt's former home in South Amboy, prosecutors wrote. Separately, an unidentified close friend of Lodzinski told investigators the pillowcase "looked familiar."

Yet neither item contained any forensic link to Lodzinski or her son, court papers show, and six other people shown the blanket were unable to say if it came from Lodzinski's house, the filings show.

The niece, identified for the first time as Jennifer Blair, could not be reached for comment by NJ Advance Media. Blair was 14 when Timmy disappeared.

"The state admits that it presented no direct evidence to the grand jury that Michelle Lodzinski caused Timothy's death, or inflicted serious bodily injury resulting in his death," Lodzinski's lawyer, Gerald Krovatin, wrote in his motion to dismiss the indictment. "In the absence of any direct evidence, the state contends that it was entitled to have the grand jury infer that she caused Timothy's death from the circumstantial evidence that it did present."

Such an inference, Krovatin said, amounts to "pure speculation."

Michelle Lodzinski enters a courtroom in New Brunswick in October 2014 for a status conference. Lodzinski, a former South Amboy resident, is accused of murder in the death of her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, in 1991. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) 

The 44-page motion contends the prosecutor's office over-reached in its presentation to the grand jury by suggesting Lodzinski must have killed her son because she gave police varying accounts of his alleged abduction from a Sayreville carnival.

Prosecutors also cobbled together disparate facts about Lodzinski's life, such as her financial struggles and apparent lack of emotion over her son's disappearance, to paint a damning portrait of the woman, then a 23-year-old single mother, Krovatin wrote.

The indictment, he added, is "palpably deficient," a phrase used by the courts in determining when an indictment may be dismissed.

Lodzinski, 47, faces life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. The mother of two sons born after Timmy's death, she was living in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and working as a paralegal when authorities arrested her on Aug. 6 of last year, Timmy's birthday.

She has pleaded not guilty.

In its reply to Krovatin's motion, the prosecutor's office acknowledges it has built a circumstantial case, but it says that, discovery by discovery, it has amassed compelling evidence that can point only to Lodzinski as Timmy's killer.

In a lengthy reprisal of the investigation, Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Christie L. Bevacqua noted how Lodzinski repeatedly changed her story, first saying that Timmy disappeared from the carnival in Kennedy Park when she left him to get a soda, then telling investigators two men abducted him.

A day later, Lodzinski told authorities the boy was taken by two men and a woman who cashed welfare checks at a bank where Lodzinski worked in 1987. Lodzinski said she knew the woman as Ellen.

Michelle Lodzinski in the early 1990s, shortly after the disappearance of her son, Timothy Wiltsey. Lodzinski has been charged with his murder. (File photo) 

Another version emerged in the days afterward, with Lodzinski saying Timmy was taken from her at knifepoint by a woman in a red car.

No one at the carnival could corroborate any of Lodzinski's accounts, authorities said.

Lodzinski, prosecutors said in court papers, also sought to mislead by omission, claiming, for instance, that she did not recognize her son's sneaker, which had been discovered by a man bird-watching at the Raritan Center.

In another instance, authorities said, when asked to list her places of employment, she failed to say that she had worked at a business four-tenths of a mile from the spot where Timmy's remains were found.

Investigators learned from a co-worker -- later Lodzinski's "lover" -- that Lodzinski often took walks around the area on her lunch breaks, Bevacqua wrote.

Responding to Krovatin's argument that authorities used the difficulties in Lodzinski's life to paint a dark picture for grand jurors, Bevacqua said the pieces, taken together, provide a clear motive for Lodzinski to kill her son.

"Here, the motive evidence demonstrates that defendant had compelling reasons to murder Timmy," the prosecutor wrote. "He was a financial drain on her as well as an impediment to her busy social life. In addition, Timmy was the reason that at least two boyfriends broke off their relationship with her."

The blanket, Bevacqua said, provided an additional layer of evidence after Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey ordered the investigation reopened in 2011.

Though mitochondrial DNA analysis on hairs recovered from the blanket showed they did not come from Lodzinski, the niece, Jennifer Blair, had a visceral reaction when investigators showed it to her.

"Jennifer Blair burst into tears when she saw the blanket and positively identified the blanket as coming from the defendant's home," Bevacqua wrote, adding that both Lodzinski and her mother had previously said they didn't recognize it.

Lodzinski, the prosecutor said, also never acknowledged Timmy had a blanket with him the day of his disappearance.

"Identification of the blanket by Blair undermined defendant's claim that Timmy was abducted and provided a direct link between defendant and Timmy's remains," Bevacqua wrote.

The prosecutor's office and Lodzinski's lawyer are expected to spar over a number of other issues during Wednesday's hearing, including an effort by Krovatin to have 12 of Lodzinski's statements to police barred from trial because she spoke without an attorney present.

It was not clear how quickly Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves would issue an opinion on the motion.

The hearing comes less than a week after Lodzinski's brother, Michael Lodzinski, released more than 200 pages of documents compiled by the FBI as it assisted in the investigation. Michael Lodzinski obtained the reports through a public records request.

The papers reveal the extent to which investigators labored to solve the case, including sifting through Essex County welfare records in an attempt to find the woman Lodzinski claimed had abducted Timmy.

Lodzinski's trial is scheduled to begin in January.

Staff writer Susan K. Livio and staff researcher Vinessa Erminio contributed to this report.

Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

The Pope will hold a midday prayer service with all U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St, Matthew of the Apostle in the morning and then a canonization mass in the late afternoon where members of Catholic parishes in New Jersey will also be represented.

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Members of New Jersey's clergy are traveling to Washington D.C. to represent the state's Catholic community during Pope Francis's first visit to the United States.

The Pope will hold a prayer service on Wednesday morning with all U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew of the Apostle and then a canonization mass in the late afternoon where members of Catholic parishes in New Jersey will also be represented.

"It's a privilege," said Rosemarie Gazaleh, who along with her husband, Richard, will attend the 4:15 p.m. canonization mass. They are parishoners at the Cathedral of St. Francis Assisi in Metuchen, where Rosemarie worked in the parish office until she retired and is a cantor, leading the congregants in song.

The Rev. John Rozembajgier, who is now vice-rector and dean of community life at the college of liberal arts at the Pontifical College of Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, is still attached to the Metuchen Diocese and grew up in New Brunswick.

He was on hand in Washington D.C. Tuesday afternoon when Pope Francis arrived at Andrews Air Force Base and has been involved in the whole planning of the visit.

"I'm very excited," he said.

On Saturday, the Pope will be in Philadelphia.

Bishop Dennis Sullivan of Camden is scheduled to attend the 10:30 a.m. Mass at Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, before heading to the Pope's 4:45 p.m. visit to Independence Mall.

On Sunday, Sullivan will attend a Papal meeting with all the bishops at St. Martin's Chapel, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary before attending Mass in the Windy City.

Jessica Beym of NJ Advance Media contributed to this report

Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 

PISCATAWAY — It was an ancient falconry practice that likely saved the life of a burned osprey. Imping, short for implanting, is a surgical technique where new feathers are grafted onto a damaged bird's feathers. The osprey, listed as a threatened species in New Jersey, was found in Verona with burned wing feathers earlier in the month. It was likely...

PISCATAWAY -- It was an ancient falconry practice that likely saved the life of a burned osprey.

Imping, short for implanting, is a surgical technique where new feathers are grafted onto a damaged bird's feathers.

The osprey, listed as a threatened species in New Jersey, was found in Verona with burned wing feathers earlier in the month. It was likely injured while perching on a smokestack from a methane burner, possibly at a nearby landfill. It's common for landfills to burn off unwanted methane gas which is produced by decomposing organic matter. The systems produce a nearly invisible flame of up to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit. 

"It is something we have seen in the past," said Chris Soucy, Director of the Raptor Trust in Millington where the surgery was performed. "The bird was unable to fly very well. Certainly not well enough so it can survive in the wild for very long." If a bird survives such an encounter and is unable to fly, it's likely to die from starvation, infection, predation or exposure to the elements.

Dr. Erica Miller performed the surgery to repair the damaged wing. The process requires the shaft of the damaged feather to be cut out. A new feather is inserted using a light weight dowel and then glued into place. The replacement feathers came from Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research in Delaware who keep a feather bank. Feathers are harvested and saved from birds that did not survive.

Over time, the implanted feathers will molt out and the bird will have a new set. The procedure is used on birds of prey because it can take more than one year for them to naturally molt a damaged feather. "We turned this bird into the six million dollar bird," joked Soucy.

The surgery at the Trust was a success and the osprey was ready for release. Robert Blair, a 16 year part-time staffer at the Trust, used a net to capture the bird from its flight cage. The bird was placed in a carrier, covered and transported to Johnson Park in Piscataway adjacent to the Raritan River where it was returned to the wild. "This is a bird that feeds primarily on fish," said Soucy. "So that's a good spot for him."

"You get to feel the power of the bird in your hands as you release it," according to Blair. "It's just awesome to see him go."

Andre Malok may be reached at amalok@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndreMalok. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Police have charged three people with connections to Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo for their alleged roles in an altercation outside the Hale Center on Sept. 12.

NEW BRUNSWICK - The lawyer representing Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo in a court hearing involving a temporary restraining order said Wednesday that two cellphone videos will show that Carroo never touched the alleged victim.

William Fetky, Carroo's attorney, said that the alleged victim was actually the aggressor in the Sept. 12 brawl. 

"Everything indicates that she is the only one who should be charged in this," Fetky said.

Fetky also said that Carroo's friend, Shane Turner, will testify that he grabbed the victim's arm and pushed her to the ground outside the Hale Center in Piscataway. 

RELATED WATCH: Video shows brawl involving Rutgers football player Leonte Carroo

Fetky said Carroo instead grabbed his girlfriend Maria Vega to get her out of the fight, and never touched anyone else. Vega, who has also been charged with assault in the incident, suffered a few scratches and bruises from the event, and was treated at the hospital, he said.

The victim, who has a temporary restraining order against Carroo, was in Family Court today to request a permanent restraining order. The victim had previously been romantically involved with Carroo, leading to hte domestic violence charge. 

Outside of the courtroom Wednesday she stood by her original claim, and said Fetky's statement was false. She said she did not provoke the incident.

She also said that she knows Turner, and knows that it wasn't him who knocked her to the ground. 

PLUS: Carroo charged with simple assault in domestic violence incident

Carroo was charged Sept. 12. Carroo was immediately suspended indefinitely from the football program by Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood.

His mother, Lavern Carroo, 41, Vega, 20, and her father, Juan Vega, 52, were also charged by the Rutgers University Police Department for simple assault and disorderly conduct Tuesday in connection to the same fight. 

Authorities said their actions included general fighting behavior, specifically hair pulling and striking a victim in the face with a hand.

Carroo is the seventh Rutgers player arrested since Sept. 3. Six other players have been arrested and suspended from the team, as a result. Two players, cornerback Dre Boggs and fullback Lloyd Terry, have been charged in home invasions. Four other players -- cornerback Nadir Barnwell, cornerback Ruhann Peele, safety Delon Stephenson and fullback Razohnn Gross -- face assault charges.

Although suspended from the team, Leonte Carroo is still a student at the university, according to a university spokesman.

"We want to get Leonte cleared ASAP so he can get back on the team," said Peter Gilbreth, another of Carroo's attorneys. 

Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

The brief, chaotic video exonerates their client, Leonte Carroo's attorneys said. Watch video

NEW BRUNSWICK -- The attorneys for suspended Rutgers wide receiver Leonte Carroo released two videos Wednesday that they say exonerates their client of simple assault. 

The cellphone video of a fight near the Hale Center in Piscataway on Sept. 12 shows several seconds of a chaotic altercation. The video is dark and punctuated by flurries of action from several different directions. It's difficult to decipher exactly what's happening, and it does not capture everything that occurred, but Carroo's attorneys plan to call witnesses to support their version of events: that Carroo did nothing wrong. 

"Everything indicates that (the alleged victim) is the only one who should be charged in this," said William Fetky, Carroo's attorney in Family Court.

The alleged victim, whose identity is being withheld, said that Fetky's interpretation was untrue. In fact, she said, Carroo picked her up and slammed her to the ground that night, sending her to the hospital and leaving her with lingering pain.  

Both sides agree that the incident began with a dispute between the alleged victim and Carroo's now-girlfriend, Maria Vega. The alleged victim previously had a dating relationship with Carroo. 

The first video shows a group of people arguing outside the Hale Center. Leonte Carroo isn't even in that video, Fetky said. 

The second video was taken about 10 to 15 minutes later, Fetky said. It shows that Vega was surrounded and attacked by women who, like the alleged victim, worked for Rutgers recruiting, Fetky said. The alleged victim approached the scrum and swung a purse at Vega, who was wearing white pants, Fetky said. 

The second video shows an escalation of the previous dispute, with several people shoving, pushing and punching. 

Fetky said the second video shows Carroo grabbing Vega and taking her away from the fight to protect her. But the video does not show Carroo assaulting the victim, because he didn't, Fetky said. 

The two videos were combined into the one video above by NJ Advance Media, lasting about 16 seconds in total. 

Shane Turner, a friend of Carroo, was prepared to testify Wednesday in Family Court that he grabbed the alleged victim's arm and pushed her, making her fall, Fetky said. 

But the victim said after a court hearing Wednesday that Turner did not assault her -- Carroo did. She knows both men, and Turner wasn't big enough to throw her to the ground, she said. She said that she was attacked, unprovoked, by Carroo's girlfriend and others after a football game. As she was on top of Vega, pinning her to the ground but not hitting her, Carroo came up, grabbed her and slammed her on the pavement, she said. 

RELATED: Rutgers' Leonte Carroo never touched assault victim, his lawyer says

Vega has also been charged with simple assault, along with Vega's father, Juan, and Carroo's mother, Lavern. The alleged victim has not been charged.

Carroo "never laid a hand on her," said Peter Gilbreth, who is representing Carroo in his criminal matter. Gilbreth said the legal team has decided to release new information to clear Carroo as soon as possible so he can get back on the team. 

On Wednesday, a hearing in Family Court on a temporary restraining order against Carroo was adjourned because the alleged victim did not have an attorney with her. 

Carroo has a criminal court hearing in Piscataway on Oct. 1. In the meantime, he remains suspended by a football program dealing with several controversies: Coach Kyle Flood was suspended for three games for meddling in a player's academics; six current and former players were charged in an assault in the spring; and four current and former players were charged with a series of home invasions. 

Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

 

Without any rain, reservoir levels have fallen below normal, spurring fears of the state's first drought in a decade.

A drought watch has been issued in parts of 12 New Jersey counties, encompassing more than two-thirds of the population, after months of dry, warm weather that have driven the state's water supply to worryingly low levels. 

Rainfall totals in parts of northern and central New Jersey have been just over 50 percent of average over the last three months, and long-term forecasts show little chance of significant rain into the first weeks of October. Streamflow and ground water levels have dipped significantly as a result and a warm September has extended the peak water usage season, allowing the state reservoir levels to dip well below average in recent weeks.

"We have been carefully tracking precipitation, stream flows, groundwater and reservoir levels since the spring and over the course of the very dry summer," DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. "While it is not uncommon to see reduced stream flows and ground water levels by the end of the summer season, we are beginning to observe signs of stress in our water supply indicators, and this warrants closer scrutiny and public cooperation."

MORE: No drought about it, N.J. publishes faulty drought data

The drought watch, issued by the Department of Environmental Protection Wednesday, is the first formal action taken by the state and acts as a warning to the public and local officials that mandatory water restrictions could be in the offing if conditions worsen further.

The watch includes all or parts of 12 counties, including Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset and Union. It includes about 6.2 million state residents. 

While the drought watch itself does not enact mandatory water restrictions in the affected regions, local officials often use such declarations to do so on a municipal level. The state is urging residents in these counties to be mindful of how they are using water and to follow mandatory actions taken by their communities, should they occur.  

"There are two ways we can avoid mandatory water restrictions in this situation --  voluntary conservation and rain," said Dan Kennedy, the DEP's commissioner of water resources. "Obviously, we can't control whether or not it rains, but we can ask our residents to be part of our solution ... This step is being taken to avoid mandatory restrictions in the area we can control." 

The watch comes two weeks after an NJ Advance Media analysis found that the DEP had been publishing erroneous drought information on their website, understating the severity of dry conditions in the state's worst affected regions. While acknowledging the error, the DEP said it had no bearing on their decision to enact a drought watch.  

RELATED: Fall begins with a delightful day

A potential drought beginning at the start of fall can be deceptive, experts say. Water usage naturally ebbs as winter approaches, allowing reservoirs to naturally replenish. But dry conditions through the fall and winter can hinder that process, putting the state in a serious situation as the spring growing season approaches.

"When we come to the end of August, usually we see the peak demand stop. This year, because we've had such a warm September, it didn't," said acting State Geologist Jeffrey L. Hoffman. "We cant wait around for rains that might occur.  From a planning point of view we have to assume it is not going to rain.  We have to assume that this is the start of a major drought."  

Stephen Stirling may be reached at sstirling@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @sstirling. Find him on Facebook.  

 

When the attorney for Michelle Lodzinski, the former South Amboy mother charged with killing her 5-year-old son, demanded that prosecutors turn over any physical evidence linking her to the alleged crime, the lead prosecutor on the case admitted there wasn't any.

NEW BRUNSWICK -- At a contentious court hearing Wednesday morning, the attorney for Michelle Lodzinski, the former South Amboy mother indicted on charges she murdered her 5-year-old son in 1991, demanded that prosecutors turn over any physical evidence they had linking his client to the death.

The lead prosecutor on the case, however, unapologetically said there wasn't any.

"We cannot create what we don't have, judge," Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua told Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves in a tense 90-minute hearing in New Brunswick.

"We know Timothy Wiltsey is dead, his remains were found four-tenths of a mile from where his mother used to work, his blanket was found close to his remains, and the defendant is the last person to see him alive," Bevacqua said. "She gave conflicting stories as to her son's disappearance and death."

Lodzinski, 47, is accused of killing him or causing bodily harm that led to his death on May 25, 1991, after she reported him missing from a carnival in Sayreville, the prosector said.

"We are here because the evidence we presented to the grand jury led to one conclusion, and that was Michelle Lodzinski murdered her son," Bevacqua said.

Lodzinski, arrested in Florida last year after more than two decades of intensive, but on-and-off investigation, has been held in the Middlesex County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail. Court papers filed ahead of the hearing provide the clearest portrait yet of the state's evidence against Lodzinski, whom authorities have long identified as the prime suspect in one of New Jersey's more notorious cold cases.

Timmy Wiltsey, 5, seen in a picture taken at his school. He disappeared in 1991. His mother, Michelle Lodzinski, was charged with his murder in 2014. 

Nieves called the hearing to allow Lodzinski's pro bono attorney, Gerald Krovatin, to argue the court should dismiss the indictment against his client -- a routine request made in most criminal trials.

But this case is "different than the average case," Krovatin said, because neither the prosecutor nor the medical examiner could determine how Timmy died, or even prove that he was murdered. The forensic examination of the boy's bones -- found in April 1992 in a creek in a remote section of Raritan Center, a sprawling industrial park in Edison -- revealed "absolutely no evidence of trauma."

"The defendant should not be compelled to stand trial on the state's theory of the crime. Ms. Lodzinski cannot prepare a defense based on the state's theory," which is "illogical and irrational" based on the lack of evidence, Krovatin said.

In documents filed in advance of the hearing, Krovatin's contends the prosecutor's office over-reached in its presentation to the grand jury by suggesting Lodzinski killed her son because she gave police varying accounts of his alleged abduction from the carnival. Krovatin said prosecutors also cobbled together disparate facts about Lodzinski's life, such as her financial struggles and apparent lack of emotion over her son's disappearance, to paint a damning portrait of the woman, then a 23-year-old single mother.

The indictment is "palpably deficient," a phrase used by the courts in determining when an indictment may be dismissed.

"What happened here from day one was the state decided Michele Lodzinski was responsible for the death of her son, and from day one forward, they tried to put together a case against her," Krovatin said. "They did not look at anyone else."

Lodzinski, wearing a baggy green sweatshirt, sat beside her attorney during the hearing, her hands and feet shackled, her eyes facing downward.

Krovatin also attacked the prosecutor's key piece of evidence: a blue and white blanket found in the vicinity of the boy's body. Prosecutors said in court papers that Lodzinski's niece and Timmy's frequent babysitter, Jennifer Blair, burst into tears when police showed the blanket to her in 2011, saying it belonged to him. Lodzinski, the prosecutor said, never acknowledged Timmy had a blanket with him the day of his disappearance.

The attorney disputed the contention that Blair was a frequent babysitter and noted that six other relatives or close friends said they could not identify the blanket as belonging to Timmy.

"Both of you are making some great arguments," Nieves said, adding the questions they raised are usually left to a jury to decide. A ruling on the motion is expected late Wednesday or Thursday morning.

The hearing started with Nieves asking whether the disclosure of an FBI file into the boy's disappearance by Lodzinski's brother Michael last week posed any problems for the trial going forward.

"What's that all about?" Nieves said, appearing surprised and concerned.

Attorneys on both sides said the file's release would not be an impediment.

"He's assured me he will not be making any additional disclosures. If he does, I may have to come before your honor to seek relief," Krovatin said.

Lodzinski faces life in prison if convicted of the murder charge. The mother of two sons born after Timmy's death, she was living in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and working as a paralegal when authorities arrested her on Aug. 6 of last year.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook

The 8-year-old 3rd grader from Colonia was cast to play the younger version of Fallon and appears in the segment telling an 1980s-themed funny to a group of children on a stoop.

Add FOX's hit series "Empire" to the list of TV shows that Jimmy Fallon has poked fun at on The Tonight Show. 

Last night's episode of Fallon featured a 10-minute spoof of the hit drama with the host dressed like Empire's lead actor, Terrence Howard. Playing the role of "Juicy Jim," Fallon must chose who will take over The Tonight Show, considering he "might not be around forever, with my finger being in the condition it is." 

But before choosing whom to entrust his "Jimpire" to, Fallon waxes poetic about the jokes he told as a youngster in Brooklyn.  

Enter Nicholas Testa. 

The 8-year-old 3rd grader from Colonia was cast to play the childhood version of Fallon and appeared in the hilarious segment. Nicholas shows up when Fallon reminisces about a joke he told a group of children on a stoop one day as a kid.

"Where does the cantaloupe go for vacation?" Testa asks the group. 

"John Cougar's melon camp!" he responds.

Nicholas, whose father Carmine owns Carmine's Pizza Factory in Downtown Jersey City, is no stranger to the camera. He and his older brother, Michael, have been featured in several daytime talk shows for their amazing pizza-twirling skills. 

Nicholas booked the role as a young Fallon and filmed the segment last week in Harlem, his father said Tuesday. 

While Nicholas was only shown for moment during last night's episode, who knows, one day perhaps Fallon will pass the reins of his Tonight Show "empire" to the pizza-twirling youngster from Colonia. 

 

Born in South River, Mr. Kamin was an immigrant baker's son who rose to become president and editor of the Daily and Sunday Register of Shrewsbury.

Arthur Z. KaminPhoto courtesy of Blair Kamin 

RED BANK - Longtime journalist Arthur Z. Kamin, who served on the Rutgers University board of trustees for more than two decades, died Tuesday at his home in Red Bank. He was 84.

Born in South River, Mr. Kamin was an immigrant baker's son who rose to become president and editor of the Daily and Sunday Register of Shrewsbury.

Mr. Kamin was editor of The Register from 1965 to the mid-1980s. At Rutgers College, from which he graduated in 1954, Mr. Kamin served as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, The Daily Targum.

From 1971 to 1993, he served as chairman of the Rutgers University board of trustees, according to his son, Blair Kamin.

Survivors include his wife, Virginia P. Kamin; his son, Blair, of Wilmette, Ill.; a daughter, Brooke Kamin Rapaport, of New York; five grandsons; and a sister, Ceil Rubin of Long Island, N.Y.

Memorial services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Fair Haven First Aid Squad and the Arthur Z. and Virginia P. Kamin Fund for Journalism Innovation at Harvard, care of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The John E. Day Funeral Home in Red Bank is handling arrangements.

 

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

The unidentified 45-year-old had been working on a lawn mower with a friend late Tuesday afternoon.

File photo 

WOODBRIDGE - A man smoking a cigarette near a can of gasoline caught fire Tuesday and suffered serious burns over a large part of his body, authorities said.

The unidentified 45-year-old had been working on a lawn mower with a friend late Tuesday afternoon and put gas into the mower, leaving the can on the ground, according to police Capt. Roy Hoppock.

"Later, they both were sitting in the back yard having a cigarette," Hoppock said, citing information the friend gave to investigators.

"The friend got up, walked off the deck saw a bright flash, turned and saw the victim on fire," Hoppock said.

The friend wrapped the victim in a tarp and rolled him on the ground, eventually extinguishing the fire, Hoppock said.

"Still unknown exactly how he caught on fire," Hoppock said.

PREVIOUSLY: Gas container explodes, injuring Middlesex County man who tried to burn ants off a log

The man suffered serious burns over nearly half his body and was taken by helicopter to the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston. His condition was not available Wednesday morning.

The Colonia Fire Department is investigating, but investigators don't believe the incident is suspicious.

 

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Judge Dennis Nieves said the state had established a circumstantial case in the 24-year-old murder of Timothy Wiltsey

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Saying the state provided enough circumstantial evidence tying Michelle Lodzinski to the murder of her 5-year-old son, a judge ruled late Wednesday the 24-year-old case will proceed to trial.

Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves in New Brunswick wrote he was reluctant to dismiss any indictment "except in the most egregious circumstances," and that was not the case here.

Lodzinski's attorney, Gerald Krovatin, argued in the morning in favor of a dismissal, saying prosecutors "irrationally and illogically" pursued a theory of the crime without a "scintilla" of corroborating physical evidence.

Neither the prosecutor nor the medical examiner could determine how Lodzinski's son, Timothy Wiltsey, died, though the death was declared a homicide. The forensic examination of the boy's bones -- found in April 1992 in a creek in a remote section of Raritan Center in Edison, 11 months after his mother reported him missing -- revealed "absolutely no evidence of trauma."

"The defendant should not be compelled to stand trial on the state's theory of the crime. Ms. Lodzinski cannot prepare a defense based on the state's theory," which is "illogical and irrational" based on the lack of evidence, Krovatin said.

Nieves disagreed.

"This creates enough evidence to bring Ms. Lodzinski's charge to the grand jury, which resulted in the indictment," he wrote in the 15-page opinion.

Timmy Wiltsey, 5, seen in a picture taken at his school. He disappeared in 1991. His mother, Michelle Lodzinski, was charged with his murder in 2014. 

"While the credibility and the weight of the evidence will ultimately be up to the jury, a ... case under circumstantial evidence has been established, and the defense has not met its burden to dismiss the indictment."

The judge noted that Lodzinski, now 47, repeatedly changed her story about her son's alleged abduction from a Sayreville carnival. In her varying accounts, Lodzinski said Timmy disappeared while she went to buy a soda, that he was taken by two men, that he was snatched by two men and a woman and that a woman in a red car abducted him at knifepoint.

"During the course of the investigation, Ms. Lodzinski admitted she changed her statement as the police 'wanted to hear it,'" Nieves wrote. "Accordingly, Ms. Lodzinski's active omission and hindrances to the investigation through her statements may reasonably establish circumstantial evidence of her guilt."

Beyond her shifting accounts, Lodzinski did not tell investigators that she once worked four-tenths of a mile from the spot where Timothy's skeletal remains were found, Nieves said, calling it another apparent attempt to throw investigators off track.

RELATED: Did she kill Timmy Wiltsey? Evidence includes blanket, pillowcase

The judge appeared to give credence to the state's key piece of evidence: a blue and white blanket discovered near Timmy's remains. Lodzinski's niece, Jennifer Blair, identified the blanket as Timmy's when investigators brought it to her in 2011, the year the Middlesex County Prosecutor' Office ordered a new look at the infamous cold case.

Krovatin noted in his motion to dismiss that six other relatives or friends could not identify the blanket, but Nieves did not question the identification by Blair, who occasionally babysat Timmy when she was a young teenager. The judge called it improbable that the boy would have a blanket with him on a day when the temperature reached 90 degrees and that the blanket must have come from the Lodzinski home.

In all her interviews with police, Lodzinski never said Timmy was carrying a blanket when he disappeared.

Nieves questioned whether Lodzinski and her son were even at the carnival the night of May 25, 1991, when Timmy's abduction was reported, because no witness could recall seeing the child.

Krovatin and a spokesman for the prosecutor's office declined to comment on the judge's ruling.

The morning hearing provided a window into many of the issues expected to come up at trial, now scheduled for January.

Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua acknowledged during the 90-minute hearing the state had no physical evidence tying Lodzinski to the crime, but she said the totality of the circumstantial evidence was enough to prove Lodzinski killed Timmy, a slight boy with brown hair and brown eyes.

"We know Timothy Wiltsey is dead, his remains were found four-tenths of a mile from where his mother used to work, his blanket was found close to his remains, and the defendant is the last person to see him alive," Bevacqua said. "She gave conflicting stories as to her son's disappearance and death. ... We are here because the evidence we presented to the grand jury led to one conclusion, and that was Michelle Lodzinski murdered her son."

Lodzinski, arrested in Florida last year after more than two decades of intensive, but on-and-off investigation, has been held in the Middlesex County Jail in lieu of $2 million bail. Wearing a baggy green sweatshirt, she sat beside her attorney during the hearing, her hands and feet shackled, her eyes facing downward.

She faces life in prison if convicted of the murder count. 

Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously said Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey ordered the investigation into Timothy Wiltsey's death reopened. While Carey has supported the probe, he was not yet prosecutor when the case was revisited.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Authorities say chief had cars, motorcycle fixed at municipal garage

Chief Benjamin Ruiz (File photo)  

PERTH AMBOY -- An official misconduct case against the city's police chief will go forward after he failed in his attempt to have the indictment dismissed, mycentraljersey.com reported this week.

Benjamin Ruiz, who is suspended, was arrested in December after authorities said he used public money to buy parts for his motorcycle and also had his classic car, as well as a friend's vehicle, repaired at the municipal garage.

RELATED: Chief pleads not guilty to theft

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office also alleges Ruiz tried to get a police sergeant, Andy Montalvo, to say that Ruiz had ordered the vehicle towed to his mother's house and not to the city garage.

The judge who denied Ruiz's attempt to dismiss the indictment said the evidence suggests Ruiz may have "abused his official position."

Paul Milo may be reached at pmilo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaulMilo2. FindNJ.com on Facebook