Thursday, December 1, 2011

Camden man fatally shot in Paulsboro

PRESS RELEASE
December 1, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

Jamaal A. Barker, age 25, of 1029 South 8th St., Camden NJ was shot multiple times and killed about 10 p.m. Wednesday (11/30) on West Washington St., Paulsboro NJ.

Barker was believed to have been visiting an acquaintance in Paulsboro. He died at the scene of the shooting.

The shooting is being investigated by the major crimes unit of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and the detective bureau of the Paulsboro Police Department. Anyone with information about Barker’s death is asked to contact Det. Stacie Lick of the GCPO at 856-384-5608, Det. Gary Kille of the Paulsboro PD at 856-423-1101 or anonymously text a tip to the GCPO. Text GLOTIP and the message to CRIMES (274637).

This is the third murder in Gloucester County in 2011.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Driver safety course offered

PRESS RELEASE
November 29, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

For the first time, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office is offering county residents a free defensive driving course that will give them a discount on motor vehicle insurance premiums and can also remove points from their driving record.

The six-hour course will be offered in two sessions- Wednesday and Thursday evening, Feb. 8 and 9 from 6 to 9 or in one session on Saturday, Feb. 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Classes will meet in Room 403 of the Instructional Center at Gloucester County College, Tanyard Road, Deptford Township NJ.

“This is an opportunity for county residents to learn more about safe driving while lowering their auto insurance rates,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton. “It’s a win for the residents and will help make our streets safer.”

Those who complete the course are entitled to a five-percent discount on their vehicle insurance premiums. They can also have two penalty points removed from their driving record, a reduction allowed once every five years and which can also result in lower insurance premiums.

“While the course and an accompanying manual are free, if you want a point reduction, there is a $10 processing fee,” said Det. Nick Schock, motor vehicle crash investigator for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office and instructor for the course.

The class, using lessons developed by the National Safety Council, will be limited to Gloucester County residents and to 30 per class. Instruction will include operating a vehicle in adverse weather conditions such as snow, and dealing with driving around larger vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and aggressive drivers.

To register, e-mail either Det. Schock at nschock@co.gloucester.nj.us or Phyllis Covici of the GCPO at pcovici@co.gloucester.nj.us, or telephone Phyllis Covici at 856-384-5534.

Lindenwold man agrees to 4 yrs NJSP in cocaine case

PRESS RELEASE
November 28, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

Jamaine L. Levi (DOB 7/5/88),of 825 Myrtle Ave., Lindenwold NJ pleaded guilty today (11/28) in Superior Court, Woodbury NJ to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute when he was arrested in Paulsboro NJ on Nov. 3, 2010.

Levi acknowledged he was driving his mother’s car and was in possession of less than a half-ounce of cocaine when police stopped him on Capitol St. The vehicle had been seen in the vicinity on Buck St. in Paulsboro at the time of an earlier report of suspicious persons there. Under terms of a plea agreement, Senior Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Paul Colangelo will recommend that Levi be sentenced to four years in New Jersey state prison, and that he serve two years before becoming eligible for parole. The sentence would be concurrent with a three-year prison sentence imposed on a narcotics conviction in Camden County on Oct. 7, 2011. The sentence would also be concurrent with a federal prison term Levi is serving. Charges and duration of that sentence were not immediately available.

Superior Court Judge M.Christine Allen-Jackson scheduled sentencing for Feb. 6.

2 months-no fatal crashes; keep it going during holidays

PRESS RELEASE
November 22, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

Gloucester County’s last fatal motor vehicle crash in 2011 was Sept. 17, and law enforcement officials want to see that continue through the joyous but dangerous time between Thanksgiving and the new year, weeks that typically claim 2,000 lives on the nation’s roads.

Especially during the month of December, a fast-paced time with celebrations and stress, often made more hazardous by sleet and snow, “we want to urge everyone to drive sober, safe and focused on the road,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton. “Traffic in many places will be heavy and distractions can be many. Do your best to drive responsibly this holiday season.”

As indicated by last year’s holiday period in Gloucester County, it is possible to get through the month without becoming a statistic. There were no motor vehicle fatalities in 2010 after October.

Some reminders:

• Designated driver- if drinking, arrange for one in advance.
• If you’re with an impaired drinker, take their keys and help them get home.
• Eat as well as drink. Balance booze intake with high-protein foods.
• Medication-takers: remember interactions with alcohol.
• Party hosts: stop serving alcoholic drinks well before the party’s over.

Since 2003, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office has overseen the Gloucester County Highway Task Force, dedicated to reducing the number of fatal accidents on our roadways. It is made up of residents and businesses working to make our roadways safer. If you are interested in participating, please e-mail the Task Force at nschock@co.gloucester.nj.us or call (856) 384-5635.

Infoshare criminal records system a cost-saver

PRESS RELEASE
November 21, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

For most of the history of criminal investigations in Gloucester County and elsewhere, law enforcement has generated file cabinets of paper, originating with police departments, turned over to the county prosecutor’s office and then shared as required with defense attorneys.

But for the past three years, the paperwork involved in police reports, Miranda forms, photographs, hand-written witness statements and other records has been turned into digital documents- a computer transformation that the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office has been a state leader in accomplishing.

The traditional paper records flow “was labor-intensive and also expensive with respect to supplies,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton.

Under what is called the Infoshare system, only the original criminal complaint signed at police departments is still required to be in paper form. “Everything else is sent electronically,” said Dalton. “And when something gets mislaid, we are easily able to retrieve it.”

The digitization program, including the purchasing of scanners and software for records administrators and laptops and training for all GCPO assistant prosecutors, was funded by a state Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant included in New Jersey’s 2004-05 budget. The PARIS program was itself funded by a document filing fee collected by county clerks.

This was a project that our former First Assistant Prosecutor, Steve Sand, spearheaded with Jannan Salvati of the Prosecutor’s Office and Michelle Everly of the county Information technology Department,” said Dalton. “Their commitment was critical, especially when it came to teaching people a new way of doing their job, which is never easy.”

“I started with three major municipalities,” said Salvati, who manages Infoshare within the GCPO. “It was West Deptford, Mantua and Glassboro.”

“The scanners were all set up. I taught them how to do the scanning, everything they had to do to get the reports up to us. We stayed with that to work out all the bugs for probably about eight months. Then we slowly started adding new municipalities until about a year ago.”

Assisting the GCPO and other county prosecutor’s offices statewide was CSI Technology Group, of Keasbey NJ. The 20-year-old firm specializes in criminal investigation and prosecution technology. CSI support managers for South Jersey offices are James Mannion and Richard Norcross.

All 22 Gloucester County police departments- two have merged since the program began- and the Rowan University Security Department now transmit documents needed for prosecutions with the tap of a keyboard.

Today, “the only way reports come into our office is through the Infoshare system, saving the municipalities postage,” Salvati said. Previously, reports were mailed, hand-carried and sometimes faxed to the GCPO “if they weren’t too bulky,” she said.

When the PARIS program was initiated in 2005, then New Jersey Secretary of State Regina L. Thomas compared it to the state’s first records preservation law in 1760. PARIS represents “an advancement as important today as the construction of the first fireproof vaults to protect New Jersey’s colonial archives was nearly 250 years ago,” Thomas said in an article published by a Web site that reports developments in government technology.

Documents related to criminal cases must still be copied onto paper to be shared with defense attorneys in the pre-trial “discovery” process, but “the next phase is to put all the discovery onto a disc and send it out,” said Prosecutor Dalton.

GCPO assistant prosecutors appreciate the efficiency of the Infoshare system. While ushering in “an era of digitized discovery,” Infoshare eliminates the time-consuming steps of copying, packaging and mailing documents, said AP Joseph Brook, who prosecutes computer crimes.

“It has been said that justice delayed is justice denied,” said Brook. “The Infoshare system brings more immediacy and fights unnecessary delay as the Prosecutor’s Office continues its mission to administer justice for its constituency.”

On the document-generating side- the municipal police departments- Infoshare saves paper-transfer time that is better spent on the street, said West Deptford Chief Craig Mangano. “Even for the smallest of cases, there can be a considerable amount of documents,” said Chief Mangano. Infoshare “streamlines the process of document transfer for our criminal cases.”

DUI defendant loses appeal;claimed he wasn't driving

PRESS RELEASE
November 16, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld- PIO

A state appeals court today (11/16) affirmed the drunk-driving conviction of a Gibbstown NJ man who claimed he wasn’t driving his car when it crashed into another vehicle in Deptford NJ, even though he was found on foot near the collision with his car’s keys in his pocket.

But if he was the driver, Desmond M. Clayton (DOB 5/5/80) contended, he wasn’t drunk at the time of the crash, even though his blood-alcohol level tested at .18 a short time later.

The guilty finding in the 11/22/09 crash earned Clayton a six-month jail sentence and a 10-year driver’s license suspension because of prior DUI convictions. The municipal court conviction was upheld by Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. and Clayton then filed the appeal decided today.

The appeals court supported Judge Marshall’s findings based on “strong circumstantial evidence.” Clayton “smelled of alcohol, His eyes were bloodshot and watery. He had possession of his car keys,” said an appeal brief by Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Margaret Cipparrone.

Suspect arrested in fatal 11/10 Wash. Twp. stabbing

PRESS RELEASE

November 11, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bernie Weisenfeld-PIO

Officers with the Gloucester County Prosecutor's fugitive unit, assisted by local police and K-9 teams, at about 10 a.m. this morning (11/11) arrested 42-year-old Mark Holloway, no known address, as a suspect in the fatal stabbing of 43-year-old Kim Barnum about 8 p.m. Friday night in the victim's apartment on Fries Mill Road in the Birches section of Washington Township, Gloucester County NJ.

Charges of first-degree murder and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose were signed this aftenoon and bail was set at $1 million. Holloway, who initially was held on other outstanding arrest warrants, has been placed in the Gloucester County Jail, Woodbury NJ. A Search warant will be requested for a location where it is believed the weapon used in the attack on Barnum can be found.

Sgt. Barry Johnson, supervisor of the GCPO fugitive unit, took Holloway into custody without incident in an abandoned trailer in the Colonial Estates mobile home park off the Black Horse Pikein Monroe Township, Gloucester County NJ. Johnson was working with officers from Monroe and K-9 teams from Monroe and the Gloucester County Sheriff's Department.

Investigators believe Holloway fled from his mother's car last night after she drove him drom Barnum's apartment enroute to deliver him to police. Along with New Jersey State Police and police from surrounding districts and a K-9 unit on the ground, the search in a wooded are of Monroe township last night included a Philadelphia Police helicopter with thermal imaging equipment. This morning, members of the GCPO fugitive unit focused on places where Holloway frequented, including Colonial Estates.

Holloway was transported to the Gloucester County Justice Complex in Woodbury for booking and possible questioning. He and Barnum, who lived alone in her apartment unit, had a history of domestic violence. An sutopsy on the victim by the Gloucester County Medical Examiner this morning determined there were multiple stab wounds consistent with a long, thin knife blade. The two most significant wounds were to a lung and the aorta.

Washington and Monroe townships have handled previous domestic violence incidents involving Holloway and Barnum, the most recent in April, with injuries to both. At that time, Barnum declined to have a temporary restraining order issued against Holloway.

"This offense underscores the importance for all victims of domestic violence to seek assistance," Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean F. Dalton said of the county's second homicide this year, both the result of domestic violence. "We are pleased at the quick apprehension as a result of the work of our fugitive unit, working with the New Jersey State Police, teh US Marshal's Fugitive Task Force in Camden as well as local police departments." The GCPO crime scene and major crimes units also responded to the murder scene.