RADIO UNSCRIPTED!
by helpdesk1
Clarkstown’s swearing-in ceremony is tonight. Supervisor George Hoehmann says he’ll give a state-of-the-town address during tonight’s meeting…
Orangetown’s ceremony is also tonight at 7:30 at the Town Board meeting, where Teresa Kenny, the first woman to be elected supervisor in any Rockland town, will take the oath of office. Ramapo’s is scheduled for tomorrow.
by helpdesk1
The National Guard and Homeland Security are in West Nyack for a free disaster preparedness class at Palisades Center tomorrow morning. Carlos Martinez heads up BRIDGES, formerly known as the Rockland Independent Living Center, and he says everyone, particularly people with disabilities, can never be too prepared when disaster strikes…
The free event is open to anyone, but registration is strongly encouraged. Call Regina Diorio at 845-624-1366 ext. 133.
by helpdesk1
Rocklanders were among the thousands who marched over the Brooklyn bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn for the No Hate, No Fear Solidarity March yesterday, several from a group called “Hasidic Peace International” stood along New Hempstead Road in New City Friday morning to denounce political activism by Orthodox Jews, and pictures purporting to be of Orthodox men arming themselves with high-powered weapons made their way around the internet. Fears are running high in the wake of several incidents in the area of late, capped by the Hanukkah attack in Monsey over a week ago. A Rockland grand jury late Friday indicted 37-year-old Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake on six counts of attempted murder, three counts first-degree assault, three counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of burglary in the first degree for the Monsey attack. He pleaded not guilty, but he also faces federal hate crime charges. Ramapo police chief Brad Weidel says there’s a lot at stake in these cases, and it has to be done right…
Ramapo supervisor Michael Specht says the town is trying to get about $2 million in funding together to set up a stationary plate-reading system like the one the NYPD used to nab Thomas just hours after the incident occurred…
The town is also working to re-start the Ramapo Council of United Americans. Chief of Staff Mona Montal says it’s an inter-faith, inter-cultural forum that lets residents share concerns over tensions in the area…
The group could start holding meetings later this month or in early February.
by helpdesk1
The 27 year-old Haverstraw man accused in the fatal hit-and-run incident Christmas Eve in Stony Point has been arrested by ICE. Jorge Flores-Villalba is accused of leaving the scene after striking 35-year-old Marie Rose Osai, who was killed crossing the intersection of Route 9W and Filors Lane almost two weeks ago. He was reportedly in the country illegally, didn’t have a driver’s license, and was released without bail thanks to the new criminal justice reform laws that took effect Wednesday. Stony Point and Orange County Assemblyman Colin Schmitt says were it not for the New York State criminal justice reforms, the ICE action wouldn’t have been necessary…
Flores-Villalba had been scheduled to return to Stony Point Court this Thursday.
by helpdesk1
Ramapo Police are looking at Saturday’s stabbing suspect as possibly being involved with another recent stabbing in the area last November. Ramapo’s Police chief said at a news conference yesterday that a car belonging to the suspect’s mother may have also been used in that incident, and police spoke to her and her son about it then, but there wasn’t enough evidence to connect anything to him at the time. Chief Brad Weidel said once the NYPD caught him just hours after the Hanukkah stabbing on Forshay Road, a door opened up for the earlier case…
Weidel says the car is being examined by his officers and the FBI, but nothing yet has been found to connect 37 year-old Grafton Thomas to the earlier incident. Rockland’s new district attorney Tom Walsh said the Hanukkah case is being presented to a grand jury this morning…
Victim Josef Neumann reportedly remains hospitalized in a coma in critical condition. 37 year-old Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake faces five federal hate crime charges and each count carries a potential life sentence. Locally he faces five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. His attorney and family have claimed Thomas suffers from mental illness, has never been convicted of a crime and doesn’t belong to any hate groups.