Crime

A Perth Amboy woman was arrested Aug. 17 on a charge that she cheated a township business out of more than $89,000. Veronica Cardozo-Cabrera, 37, was charged with 2nd Degree Theft by Deception in the scheme, in which authorities said she fraudulently credited the credit cards of relatives and friends while working at Forever Collectibles on Cottontail Lane. Also charged with 2nd Degree …

8/10 Sometime in the overnight hours an unknown actor entered an unlocked vehicle on Runyon Ave and took an iPod valued at $125. Sometime in the overnight hours an unknown actor entered an unlocked vehicle on Pine Grove Avenue and took a cell phone charger valued at $20. Following a motor vehicle stop on Ray Street and Matilda, Patrice Athanazie, …

A 34-year-old Somerset man was one of eight people in the state indicted Aug. 16 and charged with running a “pill mill” that distributed “tens of thousands” of high-dose pills of oxycodone. Donn Rush was indicted with six other people from Somerset, Middlesex and Burlington counties and a Warren-based doctor in what the state Attorney general’s Office has dubbed “Operation Busted Script.” …

Three people were injured and Cedar Grove Lane as closed for about one hour during the evening of Aug. 14 after a three-car collision. Police said that at shortly after 5 p.m., a 2001 Nissan Altima driven by Jeffrey Georgiana, 55, of Somerset was traveling north on Cedar Grove Lane when it collided with a 2007 Honda Odyssey, driven by George …

Aug. 3 During the daytime hours a residence on Church Street was burglarized by an unknown actor. There were no signs of forced entry. Approximately $3000 in electronics and other property was taken. During the morning hours an unknown actor broke the window of a vehicle parked on Easton Avenue. The approximate value of the window was $250 Sometime during …

  Up to 300 township youths who are spotted doing good deeds by Franklin Township police will be rewarded with a free Slurpee drink. The FTPD is participating in the 21st annual Operation Chill by 7-Eleven, a national community service program. The coupons are used to “enhance relations with the young people of their cities by rewarding them for good …

The Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter Aug. 9 launched an online petition demanding that the names of the officers involved in the April 9 Diahlo Grant shooting be made public. “Black Lives Matter Rutgers and the Grant family demand that the Andrew Carey, the Middlesex County prosecutor, release the names of the officers,” reads the petition, which is …

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 …

A Franklin Township success story received a nod earlier this month  from an unlikely source: the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In an interview by NPR’s Steve Instep, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that the communications model used by township police and Franklin’s African-American community is successful and should be replicated in other parts of the country. The comment came …

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 …