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Verona council candidate has history of arrests, bankruptcy

  • May 12, 2023

A candidate for a Verona Township Council seat has a history of legal and financial difficulties, including multiple arrests on assault charges, that have not yet been raised before the May 9 non-partisan municipal election.

Christian Strumolo has faced a string of arrests and criminal charges over the last two decades, including a 2002 arrest for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer that was later negotiated down to a guilty plea on a simple assault charge.

Over the years, Strumolo has pled guilty to impersonating a public servant or law enforcement officer, obstructing the administration of a government function, loitering while intoxicated, and assault.

Four years ago, Strumolo was arrested for drunk driving on Bloomfield Avenue in Verona within 1,000 feet of a school.  That was his second DUI conviction: the first came in 2008 while driving on Pompton Avenue in Cedar Grove, again within proximity of a school and with a refusal to take a breathalyzer test.

He filed for bankruptcy in 2015 after accumulating over $600,000 in debt and assets of roughly $6,000.  Between 2009 and 2018, the Internal Revenue Service and the New Jersey Division of Taxation filed about $500,000 in liens against Strumolo, according to filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.  He also owed $8,500 to Caldwell College for unpaid tuition for his minor child.

That happened while claiming monthly take-home pay of $8,250 from a cleaning company he owned.

“Voters can’t make informed decisions unless they’re informed.  If you asked any self-respecting constituent of George Santos, they’d tell you they wish they knew then what they know now,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University.  “Voter diligence is the most bedrock, necessary principle of casting an informed vote.  It will do Verona zero good

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Attorneys spar in Kristin Smart murder trial opening, 25 years in the making

  • August 25, 2022

A murder trial in California digs at the question of how much physical evidence is needed to prove a murder occurred despite many years and no body.

SALINAS, Calif. (CN) — More than a quarter of a century since Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart disappeared, California prosecutors face two juries in a courtroom in the small Monterey County city of Salinas to answer how much evidence is needed to prove a murder occurred .

Their job is to prove to a jury that Paul Flores, now 45, was responsible for killing Smart — a California Polytechnic University student missing since 1996 — and, to another jury, that his father, Ruben Flores, now 81, helped him hide Smart’s body. The investigation in San Luis Obispo County has never gone completely cold, given a complaint filed by District Attorney Dan Dow led to the arrest of the Floreses. Dow believes Paul Flores killed Smart while trying to rape her after an off-campus fraternity party. Smart has not been seen since the party despite extensive searches conducted throughout the county between 1996 and 2007.

The case has spanned 26 years, during which time local law enforcement worked with the FBI to try to collect evidence or a confession from Flores, using informants and wiretapping. Smart’s disappearance in state legislation, including the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act, passed unanimously and signed into law by then-Governor Pete Wilson. It requires all publicly funded educational institutions in California to have security services make agreements with local police departments regarding cases possibly involving violence against students.

Until now, little physical evidence in the case has been released to the public — a fact on which Flores’ defense attorney Robert Sanger has focused. But prosecutors say they will release new evidence and witnesses in a

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Three days after being put on leave, principal of Uvalde’s Robb Elementary is back on the job | San Antonio News | San Antonio

  • August 20, 2022

click to enlarge Members of <a href=law enforcement lay flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School. – Joseph Guillen” width=”660″ height=”471″/

Joseph Guillen

Members of law enforcement lay flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School.

Well, that didn’t last long.

A mere three days after being placed on paid administrative leave, Mandy Gutierrez — the principal of Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School — is back on the job, according to a letter her attorney shared with TV station KSAT.

The letter from Uvalde Superintendent Hal Harrell said Gutierrez was allowed to return to work Thursday after offering new information to a Texas House committee investigating the May 24 massacre at Robb, the worst school shooting in state history.

Gutierrez’s return comes after she publicly pushed back at findings in the House committee’s report detailing purported security shortcomings at the Robb campus. Those include allegations that she never announced a lockdown over the school’s PA system and failed to fix a lock on a door used by the gunman.

in a letter to the committee obtained by the Texas Tribune, Gutierrez disputed claims that she created a lax security environment at Robb. Further, she argued that she wasn’t trained to use the PA system and that the door in question had a functioning lock.

Gutierrez is the second Uvalde school district employee put on leave in the wake of the shooting, which claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.

The district’s board placed Police Chief Pete Arredondo on leave last month amid widespread criticism of his handling of the law-enforcement response to the shooting.

The board was expected to vote last Saturday whether to fire Arredondo, but opted to push back its meeting at the request of the chief’s attorney.

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State attorney general, Hawaii counties reviewing firearm laws in wake of SCOTUS decision

  • July 7, 2022

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South Dakota Senate convicts and removes state attorney general in impeachment trial after he killed pedestrian in 2020

  • July 5, 2022

The Senate needed approval from two-thirds of the Republican-controlled, 35-member chamber to convict and remove Ravnsborg. The vote was 24-9 in favor of conviction and removal on the first article, committing a crime that caused the death of a person. The vote was 31-2 on the second article, malfeasance in office.

The Senate also voted to disqualify him from “holding any office of trust or profit under the state” in the future.

In a daylong trial on Tuesday — the first impeachment trial in the state’s history — prosecutors sought to paint Ravnsborg as a distracted driver who lied to try and cover up his knowledge of striking Joe Boever on September 12, 2020. Ravnsborg called 911 after the incident that night and said he had “no idea” what smashed his front windshield, saying it could have been a deer.

A local sheriff soon arrived at the scene and neither of the two men reported seeing a human body. Ravnsborg returned the next morning with an aid and found human remains at the scene, then drove to the sheriff to report the body.

“Wherever his attention was, it was not on the road,” prosecuting attorney Mark Vargo said during the trial on Tuesday.

Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Ravnsborg would go on to tell several lies, including how often he was using his cell phone on the drive that night, how fast he was driving, where he was when he hit Boever (he initially said he was still in the driving lane but it was later determined he was in the shoulder), and whether he saw the body on the night of the incident.

“I don’t think I really need to cite chapter and verse to a bunch of people from South Dakota about integrity and honesty — and why

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2 law enforcement officers shot during a July Fourth festival in Philadelphia

  • July 5, 2022

Two police officers were shot during a July Fourth celebration in Philadelphia, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation told CNN. A Philadelphia Highway Patrol officer suffered a graze wound to the head and a Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder , the source said. Both were taken to Jefferson University Hospital in stable condition and were evaluated in the emergency room, a hospital spokesperson told CNN. Social media video of the incident shows large crowds of people running along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A July Fourth concert and fireworks celebrations were taking place at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, according to the city’s official website. It’s unclear if police have apprehended anyone involved in the incident, but Philadelphia Police are advising people who are looking to reunite with loved ones on the parkway to meet at the Free Library of Philadelphia. All others were asked to avoid the area. This is a developing story and will be updated.

Two police officers were shot during a July Fourth celebration in Philadelphia, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

A Philadelphia Highway Patrol officer suffered a graze wound to the head and a Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder, the source said.

Both were taken to Jefferson University Hospital in stable condition and were evaluated in the emergency room, a hospital spokesperson told CNN.

Social media video of the incident shows large crowds of people running along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. A July Fourth concert and fireworks celebrations were taking place at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, according to the city’s official website.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find

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