Celebrating My Son
As I head off today to help a family express their final goodbyes and their undying love for their second son, Aaron, in his Memorial Service here in town, which leaves me a bit overwhelmed emotionally, I want to take a minute and honor my own second son, Mark, who is 26 years old and lives in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Mark called me yesterday to inform me of some really great news, that he had won an unexpected award for his work as a staff writer for a medium size paper in Central New Jersey. Here is his description of the award:
Dad:
The New Jersey Press Association is a state nonprofit organization dating back more than 150 years that was formed to advance the interests of newspapers and to increase awareness in the benefits of readership. Every year it gives out third-, second-, and first-place awards through its "Better Newspaper Contest" for writing/editing, photography, advertising, etc. There are 20 types of writing/editing awards, and they honor people or groups in the categories of under 60,000 daily circulation (which includes my paper and most others in the state) and over 60,000 circulation (which only includes 5 papers).
I won first place in 2008 category D-06, which is titled "Reporting and Writing - News Writing Portfolio." Every paper in the state under 60,000 circulation (probably about 15-20) got to submit collections of three stories apiece from four different reporters, and one of my paper's collections was mine. The articles I selected for entry after just working on the news desk for four months were a story about an unsolved homicide of a 23-year-old who was about to get married two years ago and the scar left in his family, another about undercover police officers in Plainfield who dress up like illegal immigrants and act like they're drunk in order to catch robbery suspects in the act, and another about a family grieving the stabbing death of a 20-year-old guy.
The contest is judged by people they bring in from outside the NJPA. There's a whole bunch more info about it on the njpa's Web site, www.njpa.org, on one of the tab links on the left side of the page.
I'll send you the text of those three stories next!
Mark
This is so cool, to see his enthusiasm for his work. I just love that he is doing what he loves doing. And here are the three articles:
Search for suspect in 2007 slaying of Long Hill man gets national attention
Joseph Tremarco woke up the morning of March 29, 2007, four months away from being married to his high-school sweetheart, in the midst of furnishing and decorating a new home and eager to start another day of work at his own blossoming scrap-metal business.
His bride-to-be's wedding dress was delivered to her house that day. It was also the day the local resident with a disarming smile and seemingly bright future was beaten to death with a blunt instrument in the small back garage of a Plainfield salvage yard.
The killing shook both the Morris County hamlet and the Union County city to their cores, even more so when the key suspect, a then 21-year-old former Piscataway resident thought at that time to be in the country illegally, disappeared without a trace.
Today, Welder Morente Dubon remains at large, and nearly 500 days have passed since Tremarco's death, but the investigation continues. In recent weeks, the case has received regional and even national attention, as friends and family of Tremarco made an appearance of over an hour on the Trenton-based radio station New Jersey 101.5 and the Fox television show "America's Most Wanted" posted an account of the killing on its Web site.
Remembering an 'Old Salt'
For Tremarco's parents, the timing is poignant due to the fact that their son, 23 at the time of his death, would have been 25 in a little more than a week. "I called him an old salt, 'cause he really was one. He just wanted to work, get married and have children,'' recalled Debra Tremarco, Joseph's mother, at the kitchen table of the Long Hill home Joseph grew up in. "He was a jokester, but he was kind. He would do anything for someone; all you had to do was say, 'Joe, could you give me a hand,' and he'd be there in a minute.'' "When he was in second grade, he brought me a picture home that a teacher ... had him draw,'' said Joseph's father Anthony, who took over his own father's scrap-metal business in 1973. "It was a drawing of a scrap truck with scrap on it, and written on the door was 'Joe's Scrap.' ''
A fuzzy picture
Plainfield, Long Hill and Union County detectives cobbled together a picture of the events of the homicide in the days after it occurred, determining that Dubon was a worker at the salvage yard at 1652 S. Second St., Plainfield, that Tremarco frequented. Authorities believe that after the killing, Tremarco's body was dragged into his own pickup truck, which was found abandoned the next day less than a mile away over the Union/Somerset County border on a quiet North Plainfield street. But from there, the picture grows fuzzy. Not only did Dubon disappear, but a solid motive for the homicide never has been officially established. Initial published reports said authorities believed it stemmed from an argument, citing a large sum of money recovered from Tremarco's truck as evidence that robbery was not a motive. But Tremarco's parents both insist money was involved, saying investigators told them their son never had an opportunity to defend himself from the attack that took his life. Authorities initially said they believed Dubon had fled the area following the killing, and the Tremarco family said they were later told that investigators believed he had reached his homeland in Central America. Then, Anthony Tremarco said he was told by authorities the mere process of getting extradition paperwork in order — regardless of whether Dubon could be found — could take three to five years.
The search continues
It was only through the efforts of New Jersey Rep. Robert E. Andrews, Anthony Tremarco said, that the process was streamlined. Bill Caruso, Andrews' chief of staff, said that upon receiving a letter from Debra Tremarco, the congressman helped the Union County Prosecutor's Office and the Department of Justice coordinate their efforts and clear a number of legal hurdles that potentially could have hindered extradition should Dubon be located. "Congressman Andrews is tremendously sorry that the Tremarco family has to go through this horrendous experience,'' Caruso said. "We are continuing to work with (authorities) so that when this suspect is located, we can finalize his extradition back to the U.S.'' Union County Prosecutor spokesman John Holl, who declined extensive comment due to the continuing investigation, said the killing remains a focal point for his office. "We're certainly very much involved with the situation,'' Holl said. "We're doing whatever we can to get Mr. Dubon in a courtroom to face these charges.''
Undercover efforts by Plainfield police making strong dent in certain crimes
A man dressed in a cowboy hat and boots stumbled out of a downtown bar alone late at night and started shuffling slowly down West Front Street. He didn't get far before stopping to lean groggily against a fence, head down, a half-empty bottle of Corona in hand. A crumpled $20 bill peeked out of the lip of the wallet hanging off a chain on his belt. No police officers or patrol cars were in sight.
To some, it looked like the perfect crime. In reality, it was the perfect trap.
The man, an undercover officer with the Narcotics Bureau of the Plainfield Police Department, was under surveillance by two backup teams, one composed of fellow undercover officers standing just 20-30 feet away, another hidden in a nearby unmarked police car. The trap, always set a little differently, worked to the tune of 17 arrests, including 14 in just three days spread over a span of two weeks in September.
Combined with a similar motor vehicle detail that resulted in eight arrests in two days in August, city Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig said the bureau's attention to detail — not to mention its convincing acting skills — have paid dividends reflected by noticeable falloffs in two key crime categories across the city.
"I once worked undercover for three years for a very elite unit, and we had nothing on these guys," said Hellwig, whose career in law enforcement spans 40 years. "They get the job done."
Identifying the problem
Earlier this year, Hellwig said, the city started experiencing a rash of motor vehicle break-ins and thefts, compounded by a lesser number of home break-ins magnified by the high-profile August case of an 82-year-old city resident being bound, stabbed and tortured during a home invasion and robbery. Another problem area was a string of late-night street robberies, with many of the victims attacked while walking home after leaving restaurants or bars.
With most of his regular patrol units regularly tied up responding to calls, Hellwig turned to the Narcotics Bureau — or, as he put it, the fire division of the police department.
"In a city like Plainfield, you have to put out fires all the time. Sometimes, issues ... seem to just spike at various points in time," Hellwig said. "Patrol is going from call to call to call, they're busy all day, so it's very difficult for them to address a problem like this. So I have this unit to really serve as my enforcement arm ... I say, "This is the problem, can you take care of it?' and they take care of it."
The street robberies turned out to be an easy problem to target, with the crimes bunched in a narrow corridor near West Front Street. The motor-vehicle thefts were another story, as evidenced by a map of the city drawn up by the department to illustrate incident locations.
"It was like someone took a shotgun with birdshot and fired," Hellwig said. "It was all over — there was no pattern."
Setting the stage
The robbery detail requires, above all, an ability for undercover officers to blend in, according to Brian Newman, a lieutenant assigned to the Narcotics Bureau.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," Newman said. "When you're in downtown Plainfield, you dress and act like everybody else."
Coordinating the undercover surveillance team involves little more than asking them to loiter, according to Newman, but the "bait' has to employ some acting.
"In almost every instance, what we did is had the officers act as if they were intoxicated, or slightly intoxicated," he said. "We'd have them stumble up and down the street, lean against a fence, sit down in front of a warehouse."
Every person who then approaches the "bait' gets a play-by-play radio call over NEXTEL phones, Newman said, with constant communication between the surveillance group on the street and the other in a car.
When the moment of truth arrives, speed is of the essence.
"A lot of times they'll just commit a theft, but sometimes they'll try to hit the undercover, who has no idea when he's being robbed, (looking down) or having a hat over their eyes. Their lives are completely in the backups' hands," Newman said. "I have three guys that do it, and they're brave guys. They go above and beyond."
The risk comes with high reward. Not only does the undercover work take criminals off the streets, but it also serves as a deterrent when word spreads, according to Newman.
"It'll make the next person think twice," he said, "That they may be trying to rob a cop."
Coordinating the motor-vehicle detail was easier, officials said, only requiring the right items being left in the right car at the right time. An undercover officer would pull into a parking spot on a city street and simply walk away, "forgetting' to lock his vehicle, with such items as cell phones, radar detectors, GPS systems or laptops — plucked with care from the department's evidence lockers — sitting in plain sight.
"And we didn't have to do anything else — the stage was set," Newman said. "We threw the bait out, and just waited for them to come."
End results
Of the two undercover operations' 25 arrests, racked up in seven four-hour shifts spread out over a little more than a month, "almost all" of the people rounded up were repeat offenders, according to Capt. Edward Santiago.
Officials said all indications now point to the city's motor-vehicle thefts and robberies waning. But another undercover detail is in the process of being established, according to Hellwig, and the work is far from being over.
With a dent made in the number of incidents, officials said a key initiative now becomes prevention. The department is delivering fliers with personal safety tips to city restaurants and bars and to a growing group of day laborers who gather downtown most mornings.
The fliers are printed in English and Spanish, according to Hellwig, who said the city's Hispanic population represents a target in many robberies — a claim supported by Flor Gonzalez, president of the city's Latin American Coalition, a prominent Hispanic-rights organization.
"I have been able to speak with a few people who have been beaten very badly," Gonzalez said, adding that she has worked with no fewer than 10 Hispanic city residents who were the victims of violent crime during the past several months. "I feel that we need to encourage the whole Hispanic community to unite with us to fight against violence, discrimination and robberies. If we don't do it as a family, we're not going to survive."
Hellwig said he was confident his department's work would ensure the safety of Plainfield's Hispanic population.
"We want to make people aware of how they should not be victimized," he said. "I think bringing this all together helps."
Santiago added that another key preventive measure the department will be looking into is leaning hard on city liquor distributors to be more responsible with their sales.
"It's a significant dynamic to these robberies that some liquor establishments serve people way beyond the point of intoxication," he said. "The owners of some of these bars, they got their money, but they don't care what happens when that person goes out the door."
Jay Bsogad, a manager at Fenrose Wine and Liquor at 431 W. Front St., said he personally ensures that his establishment does not sell alcohol to customers who appear to be inebriated.
"If we think a guy's no good, we don't let them inside," Bsogad said. "And if they're already inside, we just kick them out."
Bsogad said while he was aware of problems with crime around the area, he has not had one incident in his shop since taking over the business in April.
Officials agreed that the preventive measures, coupled with the work already done by the undercover details, have already made some of the city's more dangerous streets a bit safer, something Newman said represents a point of pride for the department.
"It's gratifying to know that we've taken criminals off the street," he said. "When you do something like this ... that gives people a good night's sleep, it's very satisfying."
Family, friends mourn man fatally stabbed in Plainfield
Dozens of people gathered in the city Thursday evening and Friday morning to mourn Dennis Gaitan, the recent Plainfield High School graduate who was stabbed to death during the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 7.
But while the tones of his viewing and subsequent funeral were somber, those in attendance were united in sharing overwhelmingly positive memories of a young man described as friendly, helpful and above all, happy. Loved ones were greeted to a roller-coaster of emotions Friday, as the Union County Prosecutor's Office announced mere hours after the funeral that the prime suspect in his killing had been arrested by U.S. Marshals in Puerto Rico.
"I believe Dennis died happy. And it's better to die happy than to live, then die miserable," said Yader Gaitan, Dennis's 23-year-old brother. "Dennis was never miserable."
THE TEACHER-TO-BE
The depth of Gaitan's network of loved ones quickly became evident less than two days after his killing, as a curbside memorial arranged at the site of his death blossomed throughout the week. Dozens of candles, several flower bouquets and balloons, two framed photos and countless other mementos dotted the site, along with a large, white sign wrapped around a nearby light pole with nearly 100 signatures on it. When the weather turned ugly on Wednesday, Dec. 10, a makeshift wooden tent covered in plastic was erected, and by late Thursday afternoon, Dec. 11, just prior to his viewing, several candles still burned despite strong winds and driving rains.
"Bros till the end — you're still here in spirit," one signature read. "Siempre estaras en nuestras corazones," another said: Spanish for "You will always be in our hearts."
But those closest to Gaitan said not everyone he knew was aware of his greatest ambition: to become a teacher. After recently working in a city day care center, the son of immigrant parents from Puerto Rico and Nicaragua started a contracting job with Verizon, at times working as many as seven days a week in order to save money, Yader said.
"He said, "Yo, Yader, I got my job now, so I'm about to save money and go to school — I want to do this teaching thing.' I said, "Go ahead and pursue it, man,"' recalled Yader, who worked alongside his brother at Verizon, of a recent conversation. "He loved kids."
That was perhaps most evident through a relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Aneesha Rosado, whose 5-year-old son Joel came to know Gaitan as "daddy," a title that stuck even after the couple split up.
"He loved to spend time with my son. He liked to go out to Chuck E. Cheese with him, to go to the movies with him," Rosado said. "He was a very good dad."
Breaking the news to Joel, Rosado said, was heartbreaking.
"I told him that daddy had an accident and he won't be able to wake up," she said. "He started crying, and said, "I want to see Daddy. I want to go with him to heaven."'
"I just told him, "It's not your time,"' Rosado said, "and that your daddy wants to see you be happy and be strong."
A SENSELESS CRIME
Little is known about the circumstances of Gaitan's killing other than the fact that a little after 2 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, moments after closing time at Chez Maree, a nightclub on the 100 block of Watchung Avenue, a North Plainfield police officer responded to hearing sounds of screaming, only to find Gaitan covered in blood in a parking lot across the street from the establishment. Gaitan, who lived several blocks away on the 900 block of Watchung Avenue, died at the scene, officials said. His death is the city's fifth homicide of the year.
Gaitan's friends and family described the violent nature of his death as shocking, characterizing him as someone who traditionally had little trouble getting along with others.
"You want to ask anybody, they're going to tell you nothing bad about my son. Nothing," said Gaitan's father, German Porrata, while wiping away tears. "If you found someone who would say something bad about my son, I'd give you a million dollars."
"He was a true angel," said Monique Freeman, 27, a friend of Gaitan who met him through Rosado. "And he was a very laid-back kind of guy."
It's for that reason, Yader said, that he continues struggling to come to terms with the circumstances of his brother's death. One signature included in Gaitan's curbside memorial, written by someone identifying themselves as a former classmate, even read, "I remember you keeping me out of trouble."
"I'll tell you what — my brother was a better person than me. He was a person who knew how to control his composure," Yader said. "A lot of people got along with him, because he was the type of person you could get along with, or have fun with. He wasn't the type of person to go out there looking for trouble."
The only good news for Gaitan's family immediately following the killing was the fact that authorities identified a suspect mere hours after the fact: Juan Jimenez, a 24-year-old Manville resident. And thanks to some swift work by the Union County Prosecutor's Office, Plainfield Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service, Jimenez was behind bars five days later, awaiting extradition from Puerto Rico.
Of Jimenez, Yader said he was simply unable to comprehend someone taking his brother's life.
"Some people," he said slowly, "are just going to do the devil's work."
When asked what he might say to Jimenez, Gaitan's brother thought for a while, but an answer never came.
"I don't know. I don't know," he said. "And I don't even want to think about it, to be honest with you."
I really love to experience Mark this way, in the context of what he loves. And it's ironic to me that if he lived in this area, he probably would have been the writer chosen to cover Aaron's story, which was such a horrible human tragedy. Mark covers tragedy well. He understands human nature. He has seen the best and worst of humanity and life, and he's seen everything in between. He has seen that full range in me over his lifetime. Oh, the articles he could write! I love him very dearly and feel so much bursting excitement for this wonderful honoring of my son. If you have a moment, please join me in congratulating him: Mark Spivey can be reached at mspivey@mycentraljersey.com or 908-707-3144.
I can't think of a better way to start off the day of Aaron's memorial service, helping Steve & Pam honor their second's son's life, than to honor and love my second son with all my heart. I wish he were here to hold me through this. And I am thrilled to be there with him in spirit holding him in his moment of recognition.
Labels: celebration
