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Newark man set free after serving 17 years for a rape he says he did not commit

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Rodney Roberts was recently freed after spending seven years in prison and another ten in civil commitment for a 1996 rape he says he did not commit.

rodney.roberts.JPGRodney Roberts was locked away for 17 years for a 1996 rape he says he did not commit. DNA evidence that recently surfaced cleared Roberts of his role in the rape. 

NEWARK — During the long years of confinement, cut off from his wife and the life he was just starting to build, Rodney Roberts gave up hope he’d ever live as a free man again.

“It was like being in the middle of a storm shouting and nobody hears you,” Roberts said.

Roberts spent 17 years locked up -- the first seven in state prison and the rest at a state treatment center for sexually violent predators. Through it all, he denied he was guilty of raping a 17-year-old Newark girl in 1996, even though doing so might have cleared the way for him to be freed much sooner.

“I knew I didn’t commit the crime I was charged with," Roberts said. "I knew I was innocent.”

Last month, Essex County prosecutors decided not to pursue an appeal of a judge's November decision to set aside Roberts' 1996 guilty plea to a kidnapping charge.

On March 14, Roberts was freed from a state facility for sex offenders in Avenel, where he'd been held for 10 years.

The decision was prompted by the surfacing of DNA evidence presumed to be lost forever that put a halt to a decade's worth of appeals, reversals and post-conviction legal battles.

Roberts was grateful for the decision by Assistant Prosecutor Clara Rodriguez.

“They could have 86’d it,” Roberts said, using a slang term for hiding evidence. “They could have continued with the same story but they didn’t.”

Roberts’ tortuous journey through the state’s criminal justice system began in July 1996 when he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge just two months after he was accused of sexually assaulting the woman by forcing her into a secluded area in Newark.

“They came at me saying they had all this evidence,” Roberts recalled. “I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Roberts claimed that on the day he pleaded guilty his attorney visited him in a holding cell and informed him that the victim had identified him, court testimony shows. Roberts denied knowing the woman.

At the time, Roberts had a criminal conviction for a robbery in his past, his attorney said.

Roberts said he mistakenly believed – based on what he said was his lawyer’s advice – that by pleading guilty to the kidnapping charge – and having the sexual assault dropped -- he would serve just a few years in jail. And, he believed wouldn’t face the consequences of indefinite civil commitment that’s used to hold defendants the state considers sexually violent predators.

In 2006, Roberts chose to fight to have the charges overturned on appeal by claiming his lawyer gave him bad advice.

Meanwhile, by refusing to admit his role in the rape, he had dashed any chance of being freed from indefinite civil commitment.

“He couldn’t progress in his treatment because he wouldn’t admit his guilt,” said Michael Pastacaldi, the Jersey City attorney who handled Roberts’ appeal. “He didn’t admit to what they wanted him to admit to.”

In 2007, the state’s Appellate Division reversed Roberts’ conviction and sent the case back to the trial court in Newark. State Superior Court Judge Eugene Codey held hearings on the case in 2009 and issued a decision in May 2010.

“It is obvious to even the most casual observer that this application by (defendant) is a blatant attempt to withdraw a voluntarily entered plea, whose sentence has already been served, solely to enhance his efforts to have his status as a Sexually Violent Predator reconsidered,” Codey wrote.

Codey determined that the victim’s 2009 hearing testimony, in which she claimed she could not recall identifying Roberts to police as her assailant, to be “rife with inconsistencies.”

And, he noted that DNA testing ruling out Roberts as the father of a child the woman gave birth to in February 1997 was “not dispositive” because she admitted having another sexual partner at the time.

The Appellate Division sent the case back to the trial court again in 2012.

This time, Newark police, at the urging of Essex County prosecutors, managed to find key pieces of evidence from a rape kit taken after the 1996 assault that hadn’t turned up before. Because Roberts pleaded guilty so soon after his arrest, no DNA tests of the evidence were done, prosecutors say.

Evidence in the form of semen from the kit was discovered by a Newark detective in 2013, Rodriguez said. And DNA tests conducted by state experts ruled out Roberts, she said.

It is still unclear whose semen was discovered, she said.

“It really did just come down to getting that DNA kit,” Pastacaldi said. “If we didn’t have that he could very well still be in there.”

In November, state Superior Court Judge Sherry Hutchins-Henderson dismissed Roberts’ kidnapping conviction.

“I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders,” Roberts said. “It was so great to sit in a courtroom and be vindicated.”

And Roberts was released from the Special Treatment Unit for sex offenders at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel when Essex County prosecutors chose not to appeal.

The decision on Roberts’ March release was first reported by the New Jersey Law Journal.

Rodriguez said the decision not to go ahead was influenced, in part, by the victim’s reluctance to testify. “The evidence was not sufficient to go to trial,” Rodriguez said. “It was the right thing to do to dismiss it.”

For now, Roberts, who graduated from West Side High School in Newark, is working as a paralegal and helping other defendants who he believes were, like him, wrongfully convicted.

“I’m not bitter or anything,” he said. “I’m grateful and humbled.”

He is back living with his wife Lynda in Newark while he pursues a legal claim against the state seeking compensation for what he says was his unjust conviction.

And, Pastacaldi said, Roberts is trying to catch up to some of the technological changes that occurred outside prison walls while he was locked up.

“He’s got a smartphone and he’s been sending me texts,” Pastacaldi says.

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British hacker sought to disrupt U.S. military and federal agencies, authorities say

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Lauri Love, 28, of Stradishall, England, is accused of working with co-conspirators to attack U.S. government and other computer systems, ultimately stealing “massive quantities of confidential data,” authorities say.

computer-porn-charges.JPGA 28-year-old British man is accused of working with co-conspirators to attack U.S. government and other computer systems, ultimately stealing “massive quantities of confidential data,” authorities say. The above photo is unrelated to the case.

The hacker sat behind a computer in the United Kingdom, aiming his “Coldfusion” and “SQL Injection” attacks at U.S. government and other computer systems, ultimately stealing “massive quantities of confidential data,” authorities say.

In the midst of it, prosecutors say, Lauri Love, a 28-year-old from Stradishall, England, often chatted online brazenly with his co-conspirators about how they would export the U.S. government data they stole, and what they might do with it.

“you have no idea how much we can f___ with the us government if we wanted to,” he allegedly wrote on July 31 to an unnamed conspirator living in or near Australia, according to an exchange quoted in a federal indictment against Love that was unsealed in federal court in Newark yesterday.

Then, using his oft-chosen moniker -- “peace” -- Love allegedly sent out a follow-up message, reading, “this … stuff is really sensitive.” “ooh nice,” his alleged co-conspirator responded.

In turn, Love allegedly typed: “it’s basically every piece of information you’d need to do full identity theft on any employee or contractor for the [government agency].”

Based on the 18-page indictment and other information put out by federal officials yesterday, it’s unclear whether Love and his alleged criminal cohorts could have actually done as much sweeping damage as they liked to talk about. But at the same time, authorities used clear and alarming language to describe the extent of Love and his three co-conspirators’ criminal hacking -- which allegedly took place between October 2012 and this month -- along with the threats their actions posed.

“Lauri Love and conspirators hacked into thousands of networks, including many belonging to the United States military and other government agencies,” said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman yesterday, while adding that those institutions included the Army, Missile Defense Agency, Environmental Protection Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, resulting in “millions of dollars in losses.”

Fishman added, “As part of their alleged scheme, they stole military data and personal identifying information belonging to servicemen and women. Such conduct endangers the security of our country and is an affront to those who serve.”

Daniel Andrews, director of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit, said, “Computer intrusions present significant risks to national security and our military operations.”

In the indictment brought against Love in New Jersey -- home to some of the computer networks and servers he allegedly attacked, such as the Engineer R&D Center in Morris County, along with certain alleged victims, such as Fort Monmouth military personnel – he is accused of both accessing a U.S. department or agency computer without authorization and conspiring to do the same. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison, upon a conviction, along with a major fine, authorities said.

No defense lawyer for Love was listed by federal officials, and it’s unclear whether he has one. He was arrested on Friday, authorities said, by law enforcement in the U.K. U.S. authorities said they continue to “coordinate” with British authorities, and it is unclear at this point whether Love will be extradited to America.

The indictment said Love and co-conspirators scanned the internet using an automated process to identify vulnerable computer systems. “Once inside ... (they) placed hidden ‘shells’ or ‘backdoors’ within the networks, which allowed (them) to return to the compromised computer systems at a later date and steal confidential data,” the indictment stated.

Authorities added that the investigation into the hacking is continuing and no charges have been brought against Love’s alleged co-conspirators, who lived in or near Australia and Sweden.

Love is also charged by complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia with conduct allegedly related to other intrusions, authorities added.

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Civil case taking too long? A court advisory committee hopes to speed that up

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In a report issued last week but released today, a committee of judges, lawyers and judicial staff, suggested ways to get the cases resolved more quickly for the disputing parties and to unclog the court dockets.

TRENTON — Lawyers, judges and litigants have often complained they’ve had to wait years for resolution of civil lawsuits, and now a state Supreme Court advisory committee has offered guidelines to try to speed the process.

In a report issued April 8 but released last week, a committee of judges, lawyers and judicial staff, suggested ways to resolve the cases more quickly and to unclog court dockets.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner formed the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Expedited Civil Matters in May 2013 to consider how cases could be streamlined while still retaining a litigant’s due process and fairness.

“The recommendations of the committee help address access to justice issues in civil cases,” Rabner said in a statement. “Under the proposed pilot project, parties would be able to have their day in court and proceed to trial more promptly, the cost of discovery and litigation as a whole would be more affordable, and judges could oversee cases more effectively.”

New Jersey currently allows expedited trials – where all parties tailor certain aspects of a trial to shorten its length – but it’s not used frequently, said attorney Thomas Curtain, co-chairman of the 39-member committee along with state Supreme Court Justice Faustino Fernandez-Vina.

The time for civil cases to get to trial varies by county, but it's not unusual for the process to take about two years, Curtain said.

The panel's recommendations were designed to speed the pretrial phase – from the time a lawsuit is filed to the time all sides gather and exchange information, a process known as discovery.

The committee recommended the changes first be tested in a pilot program implemented in two or three counties that have yet to be selected.

If adopted, the guidelines would automatically apply to uncomplicated cases, such as contract disputes, automobile accidents and employment contract disputes, but would be voluntary for more complicated cases, such as medical malpractice lawsuits involving multiple parties or a shareholder dispute against a large corporation.

Litigants would be able to opt out of the expedited program with a judge's consent, according to the report.

The committee envisions the program would apply to contracts or commercial transactions, debt collection, simple personal injury claims, simple insurance coverage claims, and cases requiring minimal discovery. Cases involving name changes, forfeiture, case dismissals and the Open Public Records Act would be excluded.

If there are disputes over the discovery process, attorneys would be encouraged to work it out themselves. If they can’t, they won’t have to file motions for a judge to hold a formal hearing weeks later. Instead, the judge can hold an informal conference quickly to resolve the matter.

The case is given a trial date that takes precedence over cases not in the program.

The report suggests that lawyers take no more than two depositions for uncomplicated cases and no more than five depositions for the more complex cases.

The committee also calls for speeding up the time that parties are given to answer interrogatories, a set of written questions issued by attorneys at the beginning of a lawsuit.

Written comments on the new report will be accepted until June 6.

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Rutgers-Newark philosophy chairwoman fights criminal sexual assault charges

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Anna Stubblefield, the chairwoman of the philosophy department at Rutgers-Newark, is facing aggravated sexual assault charges involving a 33-year-old man diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Anna Stubblefield, the chairwoman of Rutgers-Newark’s philosophy department, has been an outspoken proponent of “facilitated communication,” a technique she believes gives the disabled the power to communicate thoughts to the outside world that otherwise would remain locked away.

By guiding the “facilitator’s” fingers across a keyboard, the disabled person can, with some help, “speak” for the first time.

And D.J., a 33-year-old man with cerebral palsy since infancy whom doctors have declared severely mentally disabled, became a model for what Stubblefield believed.
She met him in 2008 through his brother, who’d taken a Stubblefield class in which she discussed the technique.

In the years to come, she worked with him at her offices in Newark and at his adult day care center, court records show.

By 2010, Stubblefield was taking D.J. to conferences in Philadelphia and Wisconsin, where, according to his family, D.J. would communicate to the audience with Stubblefield acting as his facilitator.

“If people believe that people who do not talk do not think, they will believe that they have nothing to contribute,” D.J. wrote in a 2012 essay published under his name in an academic journal for the study of disabilities. “This is a part of disability oppression that must be put forth for more study.”

It was a remarkable breakthrough for someone who doctors claimed had the mental capacity of an 18-month old and could not even effectively communicate with his family.

Or was it?

Today, Stubblefield, 44, is facing criminal charges of aggravated sexual assault for allegedly molesting D.J. repeatedly in her Newark offices in 2011. She’s been placed on administrative leave without pay, university officials say.

And she’s facing a civil lawsuit filed in federal court by D.J.’s mother and brother, who say she used D.J. as a “guinea pig” to advance her cause. They cast her suggestion that D.J. could communicate through her as “a farce” and are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

The pending criminal case, should it go to trial as expected in the coming months, promises to be a referendum on facilitated communication, a technique dogged by controversy almost from the moment it was first publicly identified in the 1990s.

Question of consent

At issue is whether D.J. effectively communicated his consent through facilitated communication, according to Stubblefield’s lawyer, James Patton.

“This man is in his 30s,” Patton said. “The only issue is whether he’s even capable of giving consent and whether that’s what he did.”

Patton claims that he did.

Essex County prosecutors are expected to counter with experts who will testify that facilitated communication is an idea peddled by advocates that has repeatedly failed to stand up to the rigors of scientific research.

The issue has become a lightning rod for debate among academics and practitioners over whether facilitators — either purposefully or through a misguided desire to help — are communicating the words of the disabled or simply substituting their own.

Stubblefield, who lives in West Orange, has been at the center of the fray.

In an essay published in Disability Studies Quarterly, she accused the technique’s detractors of engaging in hate speech.

“Anti-FC rhetoric functions not as principled scientific debate intended to help humanity in its quest for truth but rather as hate speech intended to silence dissenters, with the result (whether intended or not) of contributing to the ongoing marginalization and oppression within our society of people labeled as intellectually impaired,” she wrote.

Critics point to several high-profile criminal cases in which evidence gleaned through facilitated communication eventually turned out to be untrue.

The most recent occurred in 2007 when Michigan prosecutors charged the father of a 14-year-old autistic and mute girl with sexual abuse. The girl’s mother was also charged with allowing the abuse.

Charges against the couple were dropped the following year and they are pursuing a lawsuit against Oakland County, Mich., prosecutors, according to reports.

Howard Shane, a speech pathologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, is among those who have attacked the practice as unproven. Shane declined to comment because he may be called as a witness in the case.

But in prior interviews, he’s questioned how certain individuals, with the help of facilitators, were suddenly able to communicate in full, grammatical sentences.

Stubblefield has suggested in her writings that the entire field should not be tarred because of mistakes made by inexperienced facilitators.

She points to the experience of Sue Rubin, a California woman with autism who, after years of using facilitated communication with a therapist, learned to type on her own.
Rubin’s story was recounted in the 2004 documentary “Autism is a World.”

During spring 2008, Stubblefield showed her class the film. In the audience was D.J.’s brother, according to the lawsuit the family filed in federal court last year.

Soon after, at the brother’s urging, Stubblefield began meeting with D.J. in her office and at his adult day care center, the lawsuit says.

In October 2010, Stubblefield arranged to have D.J. present his research at an autism conference in Wisconsin, the lawsuit says. D.J.’s mother joined them on the trip, the lawsuit says.

But several months later, in May 2011, the relationship soured when Stubblefield met with D.J.’s mother and brother and, according to the civil lawsuit, admitted that she had sexual relations with D.J.

In August 2011, D.J.’s family brought their allegations to university police officers, who contacted Essex County prosecutors. Stubblefield was indicted on aggravated sexual assault charges in January 2013.

Hearing Thursday

Both sides are expected to appear in court Thursday for a hearing before state Superior Court Judge Siobhan Teare. The judge is expected to decide whether more tests need to be done to determine the extent of D.J.’s ability to communicate and comprehend.

Meanwhile, the pending civil litigation has been placed on hold until the criminal case is resolved, lawyers say.

Rutgers-Newark spokeswoman Helen Paxton declined to comment.

In January, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton dismissed Rutgers as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The judge brushed aside claims made by the family’s attorney, Charles Lorber, who suggested Rutgers effectively turned a “blind eye” to human research being conducted by its own professors.

“Plaintiffs argue that Rutgers failed to police human research, especially with respect to facilitative communication where the teacher must use a vulnerable class of people who are handicapped in that they cannot communicate,” Wigenton wrote. “Even taking all of these factual allegations as true, they do not amount to the institution or implementation of an unconstitutional policy which condones or encourages rape or sexual exploitation.”

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Judge grounds convicted swindler: 37 months for Teterboro charter flight scam

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A Florida man was sentenced to 37 months in prison today for conning Jet Aviation of Teterboro out of three charter flights last year.

corporate.jets.jpgA Florida man has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for conning a Teterboro company out of three charter flights last year, federal prosecutors say. Shown here are corporate jets based at Teterboro Airport. 

NEWARK — A smooth-talking swindler who has spent half his life conning others out of millions was sentenced today to more than three years in prison for his latest caper – posing as a high-level executive to score charter flights out of Teterboro Airport and the limo rides that went with them.

U.S. District Court Judge William Martini said he was imposing the 37-month sentence for Dante Dixon because he’d failed to abandon his criminal ways despite serving several prison stints for swindles that caused $2 million in losses.

“He hasn’t learned,” Martini said. “Nothing has deterred him up to this point.”

Dixon, 46, pleaded guilty in December to a federal charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud for a scheme to con officials at Jet Aviation into advancing him a $350,000 line of credit so he and others could take three charter flights between Miami and New Jersey last year.

In May 2013, Dixon called Jet Aviation’s offices in Chicago and California, identifying himself as “Josh Stevens,” a senior level executive of a financial institution, Newark federal prosecutors said.

Dixon and others, through their misrepresentations, managed to obtain charter flights and limousine services valued at nearly $176,000, prosecutors said. The scheme was uncovered when a Jet Aviation employee contacted the company where Dixon and the other man supposedly worked and discovered neither was an employee.

They also managed to use their phony ties to a financial institution to obtain more than $45,000 in stays at a luxury hotel in Miami as well as high-end Tiffany & Co. watches, sunglasses and sterling silver, prosecutors say.

Martini ordered Dixon to pay some $221,000 in restitution.

Dixon’s criminal history dates back to 1991 when, at the age of 23, he made false statements for a loan application and was sentenced to 13 months in prison by a federal judge in Detroit, Martini said.

Charges of forgery and tampering with evidence followed in 1992 in Ohio, Martini said. Three years later, Dixon was convicted of larceny in Michigan, followed by a conviction for impersonation in Illinois in 1997, the judge said.

And in 2000, he was accused of obtaining hundreds of unauthorized credit cards by submitting applications in the names of individuals dead and alive, court records show.

Dixon was on supervised release for an unrelated credit card fraud when he called Jet Aviation to arrange the charter flights, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Pak, who prosecuted the case.

He will begin serving the 37-month sentence after he wraps up a one-year sentence for violating the terms of his release on the credit card charge.

Dixon’s brother, Rashid Dixon, urged the judge to show leniency to a man who he said suffers from compulsive behavior he’s been unable to keep in check, even as he was beginning work as a minister in Florida.

“He was doing really well for several years and now it’s come back,” Dixon said.

“He doesn’t get it, OK,” Martini said. “This is not a mistake. We’re dealing with a mature adult here who has lived the life of cheating people.”

Dixon wrote a number of letters to the judge, detailing health-related issues that include chronic migraines and trouble with his teeth.

“I’m not standing here trying to get probation because of a toothache,” Dixon told Martini today. “I have done a lot of positive things…I’m not some guy who is not trying to take responsibility for his actions.”

Martini expressed concern with Dixon’s plans once he’s released – running a ministry near his home in Pensacola, Fla. The judge said he feared Dixon could use his position to con others out of money.

“He’s pretty smooth in terms of his ability to talk,” Martini said.

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A smooth-talking swindler who’s spent half his life conning others out of

Former truant officer for Elizabeth schools admits he was truant

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The former attendance liaison officer for the Elizabeth Board of Education pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $5,000 from the schools by working a second job when he was supposed to be tracking down missing students.

elizabeth.bdofed.JPGScott Farley, the former attendance liaison officer for the Elizabeth Board of Education, admitted that he embezzled more than $5,000 from the schools.  

The former truant officer for Elizabeth schools pleaded guilty to being truant today.

Scott Farley, 45, admitted during an appearance in federal court in Newark that he embezzled more than $5,000 from the Elizabeth Board of Education by logging some 250 hours at a second job when he was supposed to be tracking down missing students.

Farley, of Cranford, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $125,000 fine when he is sentenced Aug. 6 before U.S. District Court Judge Kevin McNulty.

Federal prosecutors say that during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years Farley was working a second job in the shipping and receiving department of a Mountainside company.

Company time sheets showed that Farley had worked at least 100 days in each of both school years when he was supposed to be visiting the homes of Elizabeth students who had excessive absences, prosecutors say.

Farley, who was hired by the schools in 2004, was paid $40,499 for the 2009-10 school year and $42,825 the following year.

As a condition of his plea deal, Farley agreed to pay the schools $22,065 in restitution – the amount he was paid by the schools for time he spent at his second job.

During the 2009-10 school year, Farley worked seven full days at the company’s Tampa, Fla. facility at a time when schools were in session and he was scheduled to work as a truant officer, prosecutors say.

"Scott Farley is one of the most noble people I know," said his attorney, Timothy R. Smith. "I'm confident that after this case reaches its final resolution that the integrity of this fine individual will have been preserved."

The investigation was led by the FBI, which was assisted by investigators from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren and Assistant Prosecutor Robert Vanderstreet of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office.


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Lakewood rabbi pleads guilty in bizarre plot to get husband to consent to Jewish divorce

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A Lakewood rabbi pleaded guilty today to his role in a bizarre plot to kidnap an Israeli man so that he would agreed to give his wife a divorce.

paul.fishman.JPGU.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced that David Wax, a Lakewood rabbi, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to commit kidnapping. 


TRENTON — A rabbi pleaded guilty today to masterminding a bizarre plot to lure an Israeli man to his Lakewood home where he was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten until he agreed to give his wife a “get,” a religious divorce under Orthodox Jewish law, federal prosecutors say.

David Wax, 51, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to commit kidnapping during an appearance before U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson in Trenton.

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison at his sentencing on Aug. 19, as well as a $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors say Wax was paid $100,000 by the wife’s family to obtain the religious divorce -- known as a get -- and his co-conspirators received another $50,000.

Without a husband’s consent to the get, women are typically prevented from remarrying under Orthodox Jewish law.

Wax was charged with the crime in July 2011.

A criminal complaint filed then details the lengths Wax and others went to persuade the Israeli man into relenting to the get after his repeated refusals.

The victim was living with a cousin in Brooklyn after leaving Israel, according to a complaint filed by the FBI.

On Oct. 17, 2010, Wax lured the man to his Lakewood home by telling him that he would be working on Talmudic books that Wax – a Jewish scholar –was publishing, according to the complaint.

When he arrived he was brought upstairs to a second-floor bedroom and beaten for several hours, the complaint says. His legs and arms were bound and he was forced to lie face down on the floor, it adds.

Wax, sporting a cowboy hat, placed a dark-colored body bag over the victim and told him that if he didn’t agree to the get and relinquish custody of his children, he would be buried somewhere in the Pocono Mountains, the complaint said.

After the victim agreed to the get, Wax forced him to call his father in Israel. Wax, according to the complaint, then demanded the father transfer $100,000 to the wife’s family, telling him that he would be killed if he didn’t comply.

The victim’s father recorded the call, the complaint says. “For you, there’s a special gift,” Wax told the father, according to the complaint. “It’s called a bullet…in your head.”

The victim was then driven back to Brooklyn in a car driven by Judy Wax, Wax’s wife, the complaint says. The criminal case against Judy Wax is pending.

Wax’s attorney, Mitchell Ansell, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The investigation was led by agents of the FBI.

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A mother's quest for justice after daughter found dead in Elizabeth motel room

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Brooke LaZare was found sprawled across a queen-size bed at the Royal Motel on Routes 1&9 in Elizabeth

These are the snapshots of Brooke LaZare’s life: Child soccer star, high school choral member, college psychology student, law office clerk, daughter, sister, friend, bridesmaid. She lives on the shelves of her parent’s home in Summit, on laptops and cellphones of her family and friends.

These are the coroner’s photos of Brooke LaZare’s death: She is sprawled across a queen-size bed at the Royal Motel on Routes 1&9 in Elizabeth, her body framed by rumpled pillows and bed linens.

Her tank top, emblazoned with the brand PINK, is pushed up over her belly, her black pants pushed down on her hips. Her head is tilted to the right, near a stain of her own vomit. Her right arm is stretched at 90-degree angle from her body, her left is dangled off the bed. Both were covered with multiple puncture marks, which the police report described as "consistent with the use of narcotics through injection."

But in picture after picture of her alive, she is sleeveless or in shorts, not looking like a person trying to hide track marks. In picture after picture, her face is full, her eyes and smile alive, not looking like a person strung out on drugs.

But sometimes a kid grows up, finds the wrong people, makes some bad decisions and, just like that, they are lost.

Brooke LaZare died on May 8, 2012. Her 24th birthday would have been May 11. This year, her birthday falls on Mother’s Day.

"It (the grief) is unquantifiable," Jill LaZare, her mother, said while going through pictures in her Summit home. "When you suffer a loss like this, your whole sense of right and wrong and justice and fairness goes off kilter. Everything is so much darker. I don’t know if I want to go on."

The "justice and fairness" Jill LaZare speaks of are directed at the Union County prosecutor’s investigation into her daughter’s death.

Brooke checked into Room 12 at the Royal Motel before midnight on May 7, 2012, with a man, and surveillance video shows her never leaving. The man with whom she checked in, and another man, come and go several times in the early morning hours. Both were later identified by police and questioned.

On the video, the man she checked in with leaves the room frequently through the night and next day. The last time he leaves, according to the Elizabeth police report, is 3:35 p.m. May 8, a half-hour after the coroner’s latest estimated time of Brooke’s death from a heroin and cocaine overdose.

According to police, the man returned the key to a motel clerk and said: "She is in there sleeping, and she’ll be there for awhile so don’t bother her."

The police report questioned why the man left the air conditioner blasting on a cool and rainy day. In the catalog of items found in the room, there is a hidden syringe but no empty heroin bags or other drug paraphernalia.

In a taped conversation with a private investigator hired by the LaZare family, the man admitted to using Brooke’s debit card three times. A motel video shows him using it to rent the room for a second night and a video from a nearby Walgreens shows him twice purchasing items there. The man said he used the card with Brooke’s permission.

NO CHARGES FILED

Bank records show the card was used to rent two rooms in a nearby hotel at about the same time the man used it to rent the Royal room, and it was later used twice at a liquor store in Newark but rejected. The man denied using the card for those transactions. It was found in Brooke LaZare’s wallet after her death.

But some of her other items were missing. Jill LaZare said Brooke’s GPS and iPod were stolen and the earrings taken out of her ears.

And yet the man has not been charged with any crime. According to Jill LaZare, the prosecutor offered to charge him with theft of the earrings if she could produce a receipt for their value.

Jill LaZare wants to know why no one has had to answer for her daughter’s death, or at the very least, for leaving her to die.

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office declined to answer specific questions about its investigation. Instead, it sent this prepared statement:

"The Union County Prosecutor’s Office conducted a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding Brooke LaZare’s death. However, the investigation revealed insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against anyone who had contact with Ms. LaZare during the time period leading up to her death. We continue to offer our deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Brooke LaZare."

Reached by The Star-Ledger, the man who checked in with LaZare refused to talk about her death.

"No, I’m not talking about that," he said. "I’m good."

I’m good. He actually said that.

Between 2010 and 2013, about 4,300 people in New Jersey died of drug overdoses; 800 of them were in 2012, the year Brooke LaZare died.

It’s not news that the prescription painkillers like oxycodone can be pathways to heroin addiction, and ultimately, some overdoses.

"The pills are expensive and heroin is so cheap and pure now, that’s why we’re seeing the problem," said Al Della Fave of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Jill LaZare said Brooke hurt her back while working at a liquor store several years ago and was prescribed oxycodone. But, her mother said, there was no evidence she got hooked.

'STRICT LIABILITY'

"When they told us she had used intravenous drugs, you could have knocked us over with a feather," her mother said.

It’s also not news that the spate of overdose deaths have some county prosecutors aggressively pursuing the state’s "strict liability" laws that hold people who supply drugs criminally liable for overdose deaths.

Jill LaZare wonders why the strict liability can’t be applied to her daughter’s death. She has a record of Brooke’s text messages where the man brags about how easily he can get the drugs: "I can always get it, 24/7, 6 a bag."

Last Wednesday, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato charged three men with manslaughter for distributing heroin that killed Jamie Caravella, 23, in Toms River, bringing to eight such charges in the last year. On the same day, two Paterson drug dealers were indicted in Bergen County in the heroin death of Brendan Cole, 22, of Allendale.

These charges are about demanding accountability. They say overdose victims have a complicit partner in their death, their drug dealer. They say that any life is worthy — and any death should be investigated — even if the deceased was a drug user.

Celina Gray, the head of the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, says the stigma attached to drug addicts can sometimes cloud law enforcement’s view of a crime.

"The stigma is the biggest problem," she said. "It’s why people don’t seek treatment, and it’s why drug users are, at times, not seen as victims of crimes."

Jill LaZare says that is exactly the problem in her daughter’s case.

"I just can’t believe the indifference they (the prosecutor’s office) have shown toward her life," she said. "Everyone wants to feel that their children matter. Doesn’t Brooke’s life matter?"

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East Brunswick dermatologist accused of evading currency reporting rules

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Federal prosecutors today charged Sandy S. Milgraum, 60, with purchasing nearly $850,000 in money orders to evade federal currency reporting requirements.

sandy.milgraum.JPGFederal prosecutors today charged Sandy S. Milgraum, 60, with purchasing nearly $850,000 in money orders to evade federal currency reporting requirements. He is shown here in a 2006 photo. 

NEWARK — A prominent New Jersey dermatologist who once owed more than $2.2 million in child support was charged today with buying up nearly $850,000 in money orders to get around federal currency reporting requirements.

Sandy S. Milgraum, 60, was charged with conspiring to structure financial transactions during an appearance today in U.S. District Court in Newark. He was released on a $300,000 bail.

Federal prosecutors say that between January 2005 and August 2010, Milgraum and others at his direction purchased 1,280 money orders valued at $846,092 so that he could pay off his own debts as well as the credit card debts of a girlfriend.

Each of the money order purchases was for less than $3,000, prosecutors say. A money order of $3,000 or more is supposed to trigger a cash transaction report to the Internal Revenue Service and would reveal Milgraum’s identity to the government, prosecutors say.

Milgraum is a licensed dermatologist who runs the Academic Dermatology Laser Surgery Center in East Brunswick. He made a name for himself in the 1990’s using laser techniques to remove tattoos or unwanted birthmarks and perform other cosmetic procedures.

His attorney, Joseph Benedict, said Milgraum was just trying to pay business-related bills after being hit with alimony payments for seven children that at one point hovered around $2.5 million.

“Basically, you’ve got an alleged crime without a victim,” Benedict said. “This is a guy who is trying to run a legitimate business so he can pay alimony, so he can pay his taxes.”

In November 2006, Milgraum and other so-called “deadbeat dads” were rounded up by officers from the Middlesex County Sheriff’s office for failing to keep up with court-ordered child support payments. At the time, Milgram owed nearly $2.2 million, according to a Star-Ledger report.

Benedict said Milgraum turned to the money order purchases because his bank accounts were being “raided” by court orders stemming from divorce and child support obligations.

To avoid detection, individuals engaged in tax evasion, money laundering or other illicit activity will “structure” multiple purchases of money orders in amounts less than $3,000, according to a criminal complaint filed by an agent of the IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division, which led the probe of Milgraum.

For example, on a single day in April 2007 Milgraum and others visited five different financial institutions in New Jersey and purchased 19 money orders totaling $19,100, according to the complaint. Three of those purchases were for $2,500, the complaint says.

Federal prosecutors said money orders were purchased through MoneyGram, Western Union, Bank of America and the U.S. Postal Service and were used to make mortgage, credit card and business payments. They also went to pay for credit card debt incurred by “Milgraum’s paramour,” according to the complaint.

The woman was not identified. But Benedict said she is a former employee.

Milgraum faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Benedict said Milgraum lives modestly in an apartment and has worked to get himself out of debt. “He’s a terrific doctor,” Benedict said.


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Former NJ Transit supervisor admits taking bribe for company's snow removal bid

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A former NJ Transit supervisor pleaded guilty today to accepting an $8,000 bribe and a free power washing of her house in Jackson in exchange for assisting a company's bid for a snow removal contract.

snow.removal1.JPGWorkers remove snow from an NJ Transit station in this 2009 photo. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman says a former NJ Transit supervisor accepted an $8,000 bribe and a free power washing of her house in return for helping a Lakewood company secure a bid to remove snow from a station in Trenton. 

NEWARK — A former NJ Transit supervisor pleaded guilty today to accepting an $8,000 bribe and a free power washing of her house in exchange for backing a Lakewood business’ bid to remove snow from a Trenton station.

Donna Schiereck, 56, of Jackson, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine as a result of her guilty plea to a federal charge of agreeing to accept a bribe during an appearance in U.S. District Court in Newark.

Schiereck’s sentencing has been scheduled for Sept. 9 before Judge William H. Walls.

Schiereck retired from her $80,000-a-year position as a station terminal manager in November, according to NJ Transit officials and public records.

The allegations against Schiereck stemmed from a separate probe of an unidentified NJ Transit employee who agreed to cooperate with the feds after being recorded in April 2012 participating in a bribery and mail fraud scheme, according to a criminal complaint filed by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

In September 2012, a vice president of the Lakewood company reached out to the NJ Transit employee to ask for assistance in securing a snow removal contract for a station in Trenton, the complaint says.

The vice president said he could pay $20,000 to the employee but could not get all the money together at once in a lump sum, it adds.

On Oct. 10, 2012, during a car ride, Schiereck told the employee that the company was not likely to get the snow removal contract, the complaint says. The employee told Schiereck that the company had offered $16,000 for the snow removal contract and that she would personally receive $8,000 if the company got to keep the contract, the complaint says.

The following day, Schiereck, in a recorded phone conversation with the employee, said the job would go to the company, the complaint says.

“You owe me eight grand,” Schiereck told the employee.

“You got it?,” the employee asked.

“Uh, huh,” she replied, according to the complaint.

Schiereck then told the employee that she wanted her own house power washed in return for assisting in the company’s bid, the complaint adds.

During a second recorded phone conversation on Oct. 25, 2102, Schiereck told the employee she was still waiting for “our guys” to power wash the front of her house in Jackson, the complaint adds. That same day company workers appeared at her house and did the work, with federal agents watching, according to the complaint.

Less than two weeks later, the company was removing snow from the Trenton station, the complaint adds. It sent the bill for snow removal to NJ Transit.

The investigation was led by the FBI and was prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Amy Luria and Michael Monahan.

Schiereck’s attorney, David Schwartz, could not immediately be reached for comment.


Ex-longshoremen's union officials plead guilty to extorting payments from members

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Three former members of the International Longshoremen's Association plead guilty to extorting Christmastime tributes from members.

paul.fishman.JPGNew Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman says three former officials with the International Longshoremen's Association union have pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort payments from members.  


NEWARK — Three former officials with the International Longshoremen’s Association union pleaded guilty today to conspiring to extort Christmastime tributes from members who worked on New Jersey’s piers, federal prosecutors say.

Vincent Aulisi, 82, of West Orange; Thomas Leonardis, 56, of Glen Gardner; and Robert Ruiz, 55, of Watchung, entered their pleas during appearances before Judge Claire C. Cecchi in U.S. District Court in Newark.

The three men admitted conspiring to force members of ILA Local 1235, through real or implied threats of force and violence, to pay unspecified amounts in tribute, prosecutors say.

Aulisi is the former president of Local 1235 and was retired at the time of his arrest in January 2011. Leonardis was the president of the local from 2008 through 2011 and Ruiz was a union delegate from 2007 through 2010, and is a former ILA representative.

Leonardis and Ruiz were suspended from the union following their arrests in 2011.

All three men face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at their September sentencings.

Charges are pending against eight other defendants indicted along with Aulisi, Leonardis and Ruiz. Among them are several members of the Genovese organized crime family who are accused of conspiring to collect tribute payments from workers at New Jersey ports by using their influence over corrupt union officials, prosecutors say.

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