Crime News

A township woman was killed Aug. 6 after she was involved in an automobile crash on Cottontail Lane, near Weston Canal Road. Police said that Adejoke Sanusi, 53, of Somerset, was pronounced dead at the scene after she was extracted from her Toyota Rav 4. Sansusi was driving a Toyota Rav 4 on Cottontail Lane around 12:30 p.m. when it was …

The Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries said July 21 that he will call for a federal investigation of whether a Franklin man’s civil rights were violated when he was killed in a shootout with township police. Several hours later, unrelated to Soaries’ statement, the Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter took to the streets in New Brunswick, marching and chanting …

A Middlesex man was killed early in the morning of July 18, after his car hit a patch of trees and overturned along Easton Avenue. Police said 61-year-old Pedro Vazquez was entrapped in his Toyota Rav 4 after the 3:45 a.m. crash, and was unconscious and unresponsive when he was extracted. Vazquez was taken to an area hospital, where he was …

Several dozen members of the township’s Sierra Leonian community gathered at Hempstead Gardens July 16 to remember one of their own killed there last year. Francis Vandy was found by police June 30, 2015 lying in a parking lot at the apartment complex off Route 27, the victim of a gunshot wound to his head. Vandy was pronounced dead at …

The Class of 2016 of the Franklin Township Police Youth Academy graduated July 15 in a ceremony held at Franklin Middle School. The nearly three dozen students spent the previous five days drilling, exercising and receiving instruction on a variety of topics, just as they would if they were in the real police academy. Included in the week’s instruction were visits from …

A township man and New Brunswick resident were arrested July 7 on weapons and drugs charges. Corey McDaniel, 33, and Cecil Kalawa, 38, of New Brunswick, were arrested at McDaniel’s home after township police and detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force executed searches. A loaded Tanfoglio Giuseppe .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun, approximately one …

A township man remains lodged in Somerset County Jail after he was arrested for allegedly molesting a child for two years. Efren Merino-Hernandez, 23, was arrested at the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office in Somerville, where he voluntarily reported after being located by police in Edison, according to a release from the prosecutor’s office. On July 7, detectives from the prosecutor’s office Sex …

Authorities are looking for the public’s help in catching a township man charged with molesting two children. Daniel Serrano-Urbina, 57, of Somerset Street, was charged July 6 with two counts of 1st Degree Aggravated Sexual Assault, two counts of 2nd Degree Sexual Assault, and two counts of 3rd Degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child, according to a press release …

A township doctor with a practice in Jamesburg was sentenced to one year in federal prison June 8 for his role in a kickback scheme involving a Morris County diagnostics company. Dr. Paresh Patel, 55, will also have to pay a $6,000 fine and had to forfeit more than $174,000 he received in bribes during the four-year scheme, according to …

A township man was not injured May 22 after his car struck a tree on Berger Street. Police received a 9-1-1 call at about 10:13 p.m., stating that a motorcycle had crashed on the street, according to a press release from township police. Upon arrival, police found the auto, a 1996 GMC Jimmy, crashed into a tree. The car’s driver, …