New Jersey Nightly News; 12/04/1979

The state's organized crime tape start rolling in a Somerville courtroom. In sports Rutgers opens its basketball season with an overtime win and Tom Kane and Dick Lee all look at the Democratic race for the White House. Larry. Good evening. State prosecutors began playing tape recordings today which they say will prove that organized crime is involved in extortion and murder in New Jersey. Detail I was at those proceedings in Somerville today. Here's his report. Eight men were indicted last May for conspiracy extortion and murder. The defendants include Ridge Erie o'boy Arto also known as Richie the boot who prosecutors say is linked to the Genovese crime family. None of the defendants was in court today is the first of about 50 hours of recorded conversations was played. Today's tapes were actually pretty mild with no obvious

incriminating statements. A police informant had been rigged with a hidden tape recorder and then he talked to people to whom he owed money. In one conversation played in court today we heard another man say this to the informant. If you can't meet these obligations meaning the debts I don't want to see nothing happen to you if you can't make these obligations forget about it. I can't help you. Now that statement could be interpreted as a threat but somebody else like a defense lawyer could also call it friendly advice. Prosecutor Michael Brown said the statement was made by Anthony little pussy Russo who was killed in a gangland style shooting earlier this year. Brown hopes to prove that some of the defendants who worked for Russo committed illegal acts. The state says the tapes yet to be played will show that an organized crime network involved in loan sharking gambling and murder operates in New Jersey for the third day in a row Defense lawyers argued strongly that the tapes should not be played with news reporters present. They say such an open

display of prosecution material will make it harder for the defendant to get a fair trial. So far superior court judge Michael in reality has overruled those objections. But the defense lawyers say they haven't given up yet and the eight men are not on trial yet. The tape claims are part of a pretrial hearing which should last several weeks. The trial itself will probably begin in March. I'm Steve Taylor. An organized crime may also come up at tomorrow's Casino Control Commission hearing the bally corporation will present its case for a temporary permit to open its two hundred twenty five million dollar casino hotel Atlantic City Ballet's chairman William O'Donnell is expected to step down during those hearings at least until the State Division of Gaming Enforcement finishes its investigation into O'Donnell at his company. The heart of that investigation reportedly focuses on O'Donnell's alleged dealings with organized crime figures. Valley would like to open its casino by the first of the year. New York's airport the first regular charter service to Cuba it was delayed and moved after threats from an

anti-Castro terrorist group. But the aviation which was to provide a ground service for Monday's Newark to Havana flight allegedly received threats from Omega 7. That group has reportedly claimed responsibility for at least 13 bombings during the past five years and most recently the murder of a Union City man known to have negotiated deals with Fidel Castro. The Cuban charter finally did take off from JFK airport seven hours later. An act of vandalism that kind of lawn high school last month has led to a dispute over civil liberties in that Morris County town. There were new developments today in that dispute that Sandra King reports. More than fifteen thousand dollars worth of damage was done to this school building and police say they have the fingerprints of the culprits believed to be studious. The problem is matching those prints to the right students. And police say the logical approach is to fingerprint the entire student body reaction of the school is mixed. I don't care I didn't do it so it's up to Phillips then.

Well I feel like my rights are being invaded and I feel like I'm being put on the spot for something I know I didn't do. Actually I think it's a violation of our civil rights because are they going to if they're going to investigate our fingers they might as well investigate our houses and our lockers in our cars. I think they should do it because the kids who did you get in trouble. Yeah they Ruto school but the county's prosecutor today said the wholesale printing would be going too far and he's asking the local police to narrow their number of suspects before he'll seek a court order. Ultimately I can see us coming to a resolution when the employees have completed their. Further work on this file. I'm going to quit to ask for a limited number of students to be subjected to fingerprint process. There is a president for fingerprinting groups of students about six years ago in Elizabeth a class ring from a New York elementary school was found at the scene of a murder more than 20 students were fingerprinted but only with the provision that the prints would later be destroyed. And Monaghan says if there is anything or printing done in kana

lawn that provision will hold here too and get a lawn. I'm Sandra King South Jersey Congressman William Hughes is concerned about the state's gas supplies and he's asking the U.S. Energy Department for help. The second district Democrat is worried about a possible fuel crunch due to the Iranian oil embargo and he wants the Department of Energy to keep a tighter rein on its gas allocation program. Hughes says New Jersey suffered more than other states during last summer's gas shortage because of inequities in current allocation policy. And after an eight month delay the Salem one nuclear power plant is expected to start generating electricity again on Saturday. The plant was shut down last April for routine refueling. But just as officials tried to get it back on line a series of small problems kept cropping cropping up to keep the plant closed when the plant does reopen However there were recent changes brought about by the accident at Three Mile Island. A new alarm system changes in meters and a countdown clock have all been added. All for the safety of the plant operators will now watch only one emergency

indicator instead of two which was one of the things that caused confusion at Three Mile Island when the two meters had different readings. The countdown clock will let operators know just how much time they have from the time something minor goes wrong until a dangerous condition will exist. The federal government adopted a new air pollution monitoring policy today a policy developed right here in New Jersey pollution standards had been based on individual sources such as smoke stacks or vents. But this is a first of a current plan gives pollution producers a choice how to meet standards that Manhattan has more nuclear policy is called the bubble concept you have to use your imagination to understand how the state will implement the program to measure air pollution standards and industrial plants will be viewed as a single smokestack enclosed in an imaginary bubble. The plant will be able to use whatever combination of controls they choose inside the bubble to check emissions as long as air quality standards are maintained.

We have a 100 mile train stations throughout the state for air pollution and Bruce systems will be in addition to that. In other words it will do an on site monitoring system that each factory. Puts up right there on site so that it's in many ways a self monitoring process which then of course we follow our regular air pollution monitoring which goes on 24 hours a day in the state. The new program will become effective on December 17th and is said to be part of a policy of flexibility that government regulators are hoping to achieve. Did officials concede that all too often the directives of regulatory agencies are generalizations that do not apply in all cases. The bubble concept will give industry in New Jersey the chance to come up with their own plans to control air pollution as long as the basic guidelines are satisfied. In Trenton I'm can't mount ahead and state environmental officials also came up with some proposed rules to days for dumping in the Meadowlands. The new regulations would ban

several counties from dumping solid right waste in that area and force them to take them to Middlesex County where landfill space is available. The proposals will also direct several North Jersey and Jersey counties to come up with an agreement on terms for long range waste disposal planning. Such an agreement is currently being discussed in the state's major liquor wholesalers have been accused of having an illegal monopoly on the liquor industry. That charge came today in a civil suit filed by liquor retailers namely the wine and spirits retailers of New Jersey in that suit the 800 retailers claim the 26 wholesalers regularly meet to decide what the price of alcohol should be. And in fact artificially inflate that price. In any event a consumer prices should not be as affected by alleged price fixing since retail prices are set by manufacturers. A new office building was dedicated in New York today the first major complex to open in that downtown area since 1972. A 26 story Park Plaza building will be the corporate headquarters for the public service electric and

gas the country's third largest public utility BSE and you will also lease 85 percent of the building which will be ready for occupancy by the end of this month. This morning ceremonies included placing a time capsule in the building's cornerstone that according to officials of Rockefeller Center Incorporated which owns the new building of Park Plaza will be a source of pride for its tenets its owners and the host city. It's sort of a landmark It stands out when you drive ingenuity and when the beautiful big park gets finished in front where the president took PSEG building as I think you have a downtown amenity which will be which will just be as good as any city in the in the room the old PSTN g building will be torn down late in one thousand eighty leaving a landscape the plaza opposite military part. 2 million New Jersey drivers will soon have a new kind of family automobile policy. State insurance officials say the standard policy is being rewritten to make it more readable. It will be renamed the personal auto policy and will take effect next year. The new

policy will include a provision letting policyholders choose a limit of thirty five thousand dollars for liability coverage for one or more persons or for property damage. Road treatment. Long lines and a lot of frustration. That's the experience that many people have at New Jersey's local motor vehicle agencies. Today the attorney general committed his department to changing that by announcing the gradual state takeover of the privately run agencies. Mary Amor also has more under the attorney general's plan the state will take over operation of 10 to 12 of the privately run local agencies clokes will be given courses in courtesy and state driving laws. Nasty agents will be weeded out and there will be some attempt to set time limits so customers aren't left waiting in lines for hours. I think a 15 minute waiting time is. Is Over. As in outside. A desirable. Limit. Whether we can achieve that in the first year or not I'm not prepared to commit.

At the end of the year the state will compare the local agencies it runs with the private ones and of its own are more efficient and more economical. It will begin to take over the other 40 private agencies the private Agents Association says its reluctant lease supports the partial takeover but doesn't think the state can do it any cheaper. Theydon said part of the problem was that the local motor vehicles agent's job has become a political plum and many agents worked at it part time collecting their commissions but not really managing the clerks who work for them. Damon says he doesn't care whether the job remains political patronage but he wants the agents on the job full time. DEGGANS announcement is already having political repercussions assembly speaker Chris Jackman wants the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether descants got the authority to change the system in Trenton. I Merriam Rosso Pascal Valley Hospital nurses are back at work today ending their two month strike. Nearly 200 nurses at the Bergen County facility

walked off a job in late September demanding more money. The nurses have approved and new a 33 month contract which includes a 9 percent pay hike the first year. The State Board of Education is meeting tomorrow to consider a controversy a plan to rate each of the state's schools under the plan proposed by education commissioner Fred Burke. Schools will be labeled labeled either approved approved with conditions or are approved schools not approved would have to set up community councils to oversee changes in their districts. But opponents say the plan could create lasting stigmas for districts which might also affect students applying to colleges. And now here is the weather forecast for the state. Tonight will have clear skies in North Jersey. Not so clear skies in South Jersey. Low temperatures will be in the upper 20s to low 30s throughout the state. Tomorrow it will be partly sunny and breezy temperatures will range in the mid 40s to near 50 and the outlook for Thursday Partly Cloudy With A Chance of showers. And now today's sports here's Bill Canary.

Bill thank you Karen when the rector's football team went down to play Tennessee this year the people in Knoxville wanted to know what's a rector's last night the rector's basketball team opened up and it would have been understandable to ask what's the Drexel Well rector's almost found out that the small Philadelphia school was capable of the big upset Tom Young will take the W because a wins a win but this from a night out this struggle all the way before winning in overtime 69 60 to a seven point spread equal director's biggest lead of the game Drexel actually led by 1 at the half. This is your only second half action when Rutgers had its best part of the night to go up by seven thirty seven thirty with sixteen thirty seven left. Dallas Brooklyn number 24 led the Knights during a sprint to the game Strickland at a game high 22 points. Roy Hansen number 32 the player Tom Young spoke so highly of last night had only one shot in one bucket last night the 6 9 freshman was invisible most of the way but it went to overtime because records with a chance to win showed zero poise right here with the ball hitting the clock a spec on how to force a shot at the buzzer no way. So it was 56 All the end of the regulation in the OT records hit their free throws

11 of 13. Their only field goal came off the Strickland deal and missed the follow by Kelvin Troy So Rutgers gets themselves a hard earned victory next the jersey classic Friday and Saturday night at the Athletic Center in Piscataway tonight in college basketball holy crosses at St. Peter's and you can see that one on NJT They Live 8 in a women's game tonight records plays a fairly Dickinson the pretty garden state ball publicity mill started churning today as you know it will be Temple in California a week from Saturday December 15 at the Giants Stadium in Garden State Ball number two today was Temple day at a Giants Stadium press conference. Hours coach Wayne Harden told the assembled media that California had the first class program Pac 10 and all that. And Temple was just a product of Eastern football inferior in the eyes of the rest of the nation. But how about this coach listening to you today. Temple against California Pac 10 big time football team. However temple is the team that is favored actually but you want to have a point so what's your reaction to what the

odds makers have to say. Well I doubt if they've seen the football team play. More than likely but California is a good football game. They haven't asked any quarterback an outstanding defense a good kicking game and we think that our team is not bad and finish a season nine and two they finish the six in five and I think it will only be natural if we were stall as a slight favorite game time I think you'll find it. Maybe it will go the other way or even be even eastern inferiority if you will against Western powerhouse football. What effect does that have on your kids right now. Well I think it gives them a Motivation motivation always helps so does talent. We continue tonight with more high school football because we have so many games the highlights from the past weekend of state title games will be shown you selected games the next three nights Dan Noonan has the report on Toms River North 15 to 14 victory over brook for the south jersey group for champions. Rick opened the scoring on fullback Bob on a Beatles four yard run and came back on their next possession it was gonna be two again this time a 40 yard run on third and ninth. Nobody

touched him it was just under nine minutes to play in the first year. Rick led 14 nothing. Kind of you know ran for a hundred twenty four yards on the day added the extra point. Toms River New It went 88 yards on the next series highlighted by this 10 yard run by Bob Baker a 15 yard scramble by quarterback Bob mangle for a first down mangle ran for 89 yards on the day and on the very next play a 27 yard touchdown pass to Kevin Cassidy who was left unattended and put Toms River on the board for the first time after school or third period. Al Schwartz recovered a fumble for Toms River. He picked it up on the brick 16 yard line. And it took Toms River five players to score. After a penalty mangled pass to Geiger Marino who was run out of bounds inside the 1. And on the next plane my uncle went up the middle himself with a score that made it 14 13 in favor of brick home for one for the two point conversion to win with pitching to Green No. Just got in the corner for the game winner. The final score again

Toms River North 15 14. I'm Dan Newman. Oh way to go then that's over. Thanks Bill. Savings and loan associations got a boot from the state Senate yesterday a boast from the state Senate yesterday the Senate approved a bill that would allow savings and loans to offer noncommercial checking accounts. Backers say the bill encourages people to increase their savings and thus the associations of businesses by offering customers one stop services savings and loans. The building I was back in the Assembly for consideration of Senate amendments and I'm sure you can rest a little more easy tonight knowing the bluefish withstood a strong fight in the Senate yesterday and still came out the winner as the state's official fish. There was a strong challenge however from those who favor the gefilte fish those senators fought hard saying the blue face is not native to New Jersey and is even cannibalistic the gefilte fish they claim is a big industry on the shore and once it arrives in the state it stays felt by the way is a Jewish delicacy and not a real fish. So by a vote of 36

to one the Senate made the bluefish of the state's pride and joy. The measure now goes to the assembly. If it seems as though talk of the 1980 presidential election is a bit premature remember that some candidates have been in the running for several months now the election and the Democrats chances of winning are the topics tonight for add a few commentators. Tom Kane and Dick

Leone. Certainly not the one to talk about Democratic presidential candidates and their effect I don't even know much about the delegate process. How many delegates Oh there I only think New Jersey is going to have a big delegation to the Democratic convention about 100 in three and they've made a lot of changes in recent years to things that are especially important. They have proportional representation now not only in the statewide delegates but even a congressional district that means if. If five people are running in a district and one candidate's delegates all get 80 percent of the vote and the other people only get 20 percent they still get a delegate. So there's proportional representation regardless of the split and the other thing is that they now have a national rule. The delegation has to come out 50/50 men and women matter what the results are they have to in other words make adjustments and knock off people who won even if necessary replace them with whatever's necessary another woman another man. So the rules that change the game a little bit it really means that if it's at all closed and there are two major candidates say they all come out with a pretty large delegation from New Jersey.

Interesting how close is it at this point helicopter and Kennedy doing it is Brown a factor at all. Well the Eagleton poll shows Kennedy well ahead but I think that it's a little out of date. My hunch is that it's fairly close. And that Brown is not a factor at this stage most of the people who were sort of talking Jerry Brown six months ago were doing that in a world in which they thought Ted Kennedy would not be a candidate now that he's come forward. He's picked up really two kinds of people sort of anti anti burned people because frankly one fact of life in New Jersey is that Brendan Byrne is for Jimmy Carter and people have aligned themselves along those lines. And he's picked up people who were just attracted to him want to change or are caught up in the Kennedy mystique so this is the third time. They can any organization in since 1960 has come into this state and put together a campaign. Basically without having the governor because a minor was against them in 60 and Hughes was against Robert Kennedy in 68 and now Burnaby for Carter in

1980. It's an interesting parallel to what's going to happen to Brendan Byrne Izzy and for that matter Ken Gibson some of the other big name Democrats what's this effect going to have of being all for Jimmy Coto when you've got a strong candidate. Like Kennedy I think there are a couple of possibilities you know. People say that Carter on and is in a position to help an incumbent governor like Bernie they can gives in as the mayor of Newark. Has to be for Carter because he needs the federal aid. I think it goes deeper than that I think Bernie genuinely believes that Carter Rick can win and he believes in loyalty and he's been through an experience in south of being written off and yet coming back. He will hold a lot of people for Carter who otherwise would leave. I think that's just true. On the other hand with a few exceptions presidential primaries don't lend themselves very well to a vote that is controlled or organized. The people make up their own minds about presidential candidates because of how they look on national television what they read about. And in past years and we found that. And

particularly in the Democratic primaries that the organizations have sometimes been a handicap. So I think this thing is is it's hard to read at this stage we don't know what kind of a candidate will be we don't know what kind of recovery Carter can make. I think Brendan Burns going to be in the middle of it. But I think ultimately that the real contest will be between Carter and Kennedy maybe somebody else. And they burn in anyone who whose name is out front at this stage because it has to be will be a minor factor in the outcome. And it's interesting because with the last primaries in New Jersey is that going to have any effect of people holding off and waiting for that. Well it depends you know there are some big primaries early Illinois and New York as on March 25th and the thing could get resolved although the previous theory that if Kennedy got in he would carry all before him has has faded a little bit in popularity and now it looks like there may be somewhat of a contest if that happens. The late primaries New Jersey California Ohio at the end will clearly be necessary resolve the thing so this could be crucial if it's

close and or irrelevant if if it's not. Well we've got some time to go and I'm sure New Jersey is always one of the most fascinating States politically and we'll just have to wait and see. Once again our top stories tonight. State prosecutors began playing tape recordings in a Somerville courtroom today tapes they say that will show organized crime is involved in murder and extortion in New Jersey. The state is gradually going to take over New Jersey's local motor vehicle agencies. State officials say that should make the system more efficient. And that's the new Bill Perry. I'm Karen. Good night for the New Jersey slightly new. Did you see the nightly news is a joint presentation of New Jersey Public Television and

w o any t 13. The program is broadcast weeknights at 6:30 pm on Channel 13 added 7:30 p.m. on New Jersey Public Television. There was a repeat broadcast at 10:00 p.m. on New Jersey Public Television. And at 7:00 the following morning on Channel 13 Washington's pre recorded. Phone.