Crime

The driver of this car was seriously injured in an accident on Hamilton Street. (Photo: East Franklin Fire Department Facebook page.) Two people – including a township student – were injured and part of Hamilton Street was shut down early in the morning of October 21 in an accident involving a car and a school bus. Police said the accident …

One of the boxes of the guns that were bought by law enforcement during the Middlesex-Somerset county gun buyback program held at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens on October 23. A two-county gun buyback program located at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens proved very popular October 23, with the line of sellers wrapping around the Route 27 building. …

Matthew Rennie, left, and Ranait Griff were arrested on October 6. (Photos: Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.) Rutgers Preparatory School has launched a “thorough and independent investigation” into allegations against the two coaches arrested October 6 on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old woman. Matthew Rennie, 30 – who was the head coach of Middle School boys’ …

Police are investigating an October 2 shooting that left two people wounded. Neither of the unidentified victims – a township woman and an Edison man – suffered life-threatening injuries, according to a press release from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. Police were dispatched to the Fuller Street-Franklin Boulevard area at about 10:33 p.m. on a call of shots being fired, …

Fr. Douglas Haefner. (Photo: Marilyn Parente) The former senior pastor at St. Matthias Church was sentenced to seven years in state prison on August 4 for stealing more than $500,000 from church coffers. Fr. Douglas Haefner pleaded guilty to one count of 2nd Degree Theft in May for diverting $516,984.56 to his personal use. Fr. Haefner must report to the …

Two Alabama men are being held in the Somerset County Jail, Somerville, facing charges connected with the alleged armed robbery of a township man in a Worlds Fair Drive hotel room. The victim called police at about 5:41 a.m. July 13 and reported that two men, who he knew, robbed him at gunpoint of $450 in cash, a Bluetooth speaker …

The non-emergency phone system at the township Public Safety Building was knocked out for more than a day after the township communication tower was struck by lightning on July 17. The strike came during one of the severe thunderstorms that hit the area over the weekend. No emergency phone systems were affected, and the strike did not affect the radio …

FTPD Officers Malcolm Belvin, Ken Reid II, and Mathew Russo, members of the Community Relations Bureau’s bike squad. Belvin and Russo are holding two of the four new bikes donated by a Lebanon-based company. The Franklin Township Police Department’s bicycle unit just had its fleet increased by four bicycles, thanks to the generosity of a Hunterdon County based company. The …

Two New Brunswick men were arrested late last month on unrelated gun charges stemming from law enforcement “Quality of Life” efforts. The first arrest occurred at about 2:46 p.m. on May 17, when township police and members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force Street Crimes Unit were conducting teh Quality of Life investigation around …

Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting in the township that left a New Brunswick man wounded. Township police were dispatched to an area hospital at 10:26 p.m. on May 31 on a report of a man having been shot on Hamilton Street, near Matilda Avenue. The man was located by an unidentified person and taken to the hospital for …