December 17, 2014 • www.theobserver.com • Vol CXXVII, No. 30
COVERING: BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD
100G for Arena tax case
• EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
Help sought in cold case
By Ron Leir Observer Correspondent
HARRISON – Now that the state Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the New York Red Bulls professional soccer team should pay taxes on the stadium and the land it occupies in Harrison, the town has hired an outside law firm to defend its position before the court. To that end, Mayor James Fife and the Town Council voted Dec. 2 to retain the Bloomfield law firm of Pearlman & Miranda as special counsel, from Dec. 1, 2014, through Nov. 30, 2015, for a “maximum” amount of $100,000 (no hourly rate specified). To the casual observer, that would seem to be a lot of money to spend on a legal matter that will end up with the lawyers for both sides fielding questions from the chief justice and six associate justices. Because the court already has the facts of the case in hand, the lawyers won’t even have to write new briefs. But, for Harrison, the stakes are high enough to justify that kind of investment in a legal brain trust since the town currently is collecting more than $2 million annually between taxes on the land and the arena. see RED BULL page
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By Karen Zautyk Observer Correspondent
cold case. Do you recognize the suspect in the sketch? Did you ever hear KEARNY – any chatter on the omebody knows streets? Any rumors? something. Six years ago, did Six years ago, someone show up an 87-year-old man was around Christmas with deliberately run down a lot of gifts? Or a lot of by a car in a South cash? Or a lot of drugs? Kearny parking lot and Do you have any robbed while he lay information? Or suspihelpless on the ground. cions? He died of his If you have a injuries the next day. conscience, has it been Authorities ruled the bothering you? death a homicide. If conscience isn’t The Kearny Police enough of an incentive, Department and the maybe money is: There Hudson County Prosis a $10,000 reward for ecutor’s Office have information leading to been hunting the killthe arrest and convicers ever since, and as tion of the person(s) the anniversary of the involved. crime is marked, they The crime occurred are making a renewed call for the public’s help in solving this see COLD CASE page
S
HCPO
Composite sketch of one suspect in 2008 homicide.
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Scammers out in force for holidays NUTLEY – It may be holiday time but gremlins are out to spoil the festivities of the season. Mayor/Public Safety Commissioner Alphonse Petracco and Police Chief Tom Strumolo are cautioning Nutley residents to be wary of scammers posing as government agents,
door and told her there was a chemical spill the next block over and he needed to check her basement water supply. After displaying a fake ID, the resident allowed the man inside and led him down to the basement where he let the water run and then radioed an accomplice who, police said,
utility workers or whatever, out to plunder families’ hardearned cash. On Dec. 9, a Fischer Road resident contacted police with this hard luck story: At 3 p.m., a man who, the elderly woman resident believed to be a construction worker, pounded on her front
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entered the house and ransacked a bedroom. The pair got away with an undisclosed amount of proceeds, police said. Police said the phony construction worker was described as a Latino, 30 to 35, see SCAMS page
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