AUGUST 2019 FREE
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Abuse detailed in infant murder
Volunteers help save dogs in hoarder house
Court documents spell out accusations against Ewing cop accused of killing daughter
By Patricia taylor It is a truth universally acknowledged that dog lovers do not recognize political boundaries. While that may be the case, city departments must and do. Thus, when a PSEG worker went on a service call in Trenton’s 800 block of East State Street on June 24 and found one of the homes emitting a raucous onslaught of barking as well as an overpowering stench, he called the Trenton Police Department. That is the beginning of the incredible rescue of 52 dogs barely surviving in disgusting hoarding conditions. There were huge smooth haired mastiffs; tiny, shaggy haired Yorkshire terrier puppies; mixed breeds of all kinds. Some were manacled, some were starving. All were suffering. The rescue—removing more than four dozen dogs from East State Street and then providing not only medical care but also new homes—was accomplished in less than a week. It was a rescue that involved numerous people—private citizens and public workers—from Trenton, Ewing, Lawrence, Hamilton, and across state borders into Pennsylvania. But to start at the beginning. Upon receiving notice of See DOGS, Page 10
By Bill SanServino
bsanservino@communitynews.com Hailey Bannister lived in mis-
Robbinsville Sgt. Scott Kivet, Quori, Ewing Officer Brittney Fornarotto, Jax, Mercer ery for more than half her life County Prosecutor’s Office Sgt. Joe Angarone and Bela scoured a large Liberian- before she died last December. During her short life, the flagged container ship in June and pinpointed cocaine with a street value of about baby suffered from broken $1.1 million.
A nose for the job
Ewing K9 officer helps sniff out record cocaine haul By MicHele alPerin
Even if 17.5 tons of cocaine represents only a fraction of the illegal drugs flowing through the United States, the 15,582 bricks nosed out by eight K-9 dogs in Philadelphia on June 17 was “the largest cocaine seizure American history,” says Robbinsville Police Sergeant Scott Kivet. Three of the eight K9 handlers and their dogs who searched out
the drugs were from Mercer County, including Ewing Police Officer Brittney Fornarotto and Jax. The other two were Kivet and Quori and Det. Sgt. Joe Angarone and Bela of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. The dogs scoured a large Liberian-flagged container ship and pinpointed cocaine with a street value of about $1.1 billion hidden in just seven of thousands of containers on the ship. Other agencies involved in the big bust were Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Coast Guard, all under
the Department of Homeland Security, as well as state and local law enforcement partners. The three officers got a call to come directly to the port where, says Angarone, the “three football field-long” ship MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) Gayane was docked. They were told the containers would be both on and off the ship, because “the ship is so big there were areas we can’t get to.” For the dogs, it was just another day of work. “It’s just like searching a house or a car—you give the dog the command to See K9, Page 8
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bones, bruises and a brain bleed, which ultimately wound up being fatal. The infant, who was born on Aug. 28, 2018, allegedly endured significant abuse from her father—a Ewing police officer and township resident— that began at least a month after she was born, according to documents filed in Mercer County Superior Court by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Her father, Daniel Bannister, 31, of Gilmore Road, was taken into custody on July 17 at the Wawa on Silvia Street by detectives with the Mercer County Homicide Task Force. Catherine Bannister, 29, Hailey’s mother and Daniel’s wife, was also arrested. She was charged on the same day as her husband with second-degree See HAILEY, Page 6
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