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Driver Arrested In 2023 Fatal Hit & Run

by | Apr 10, 2024 8:51 pm | Comments (4)

Chief Jacobson (right) alongside Rodriguez's family.

Contributed photo

The late José Rodríguez.

Amidst a ​“cloud of smoke” and doubled-parked cars, a 19-year-old driver named Dajon Marques Morris struck and fatally injured a 41-year-old motorcyclist named José Rodríguez in Fair Haven.

Morris then ​“panicked” and, ​“fearing for his life,” fled the scene — only to be arrested by city cops roughly 10 months later.

Continue reading ‘Driver Arrested In 2023 Fatal Hit & Run’

Before Plea, Refugee Made New Haven Home

by | Mar 27, 2024 3:46 pm | Comments (13)

Paul Bass File Photo

Former IRIS chief Chris George (right): Kamash was "generous, community-minded, kind, law-abiding, and upstanding."

A 33-year-old New Havener and Iraqi refugee named Mohamed Najm Kamash admitted this week to lying about his brothers’ affiliation with a terrorist group during his application for U.S. citizenship, and now faces up to five years in prison for the offense.

Kamash himself had no terrorism involvement — and in fact, court records reveal, he had become a volunteer interpreter and mentor for new arrivals, a ​“responsible, reliable, friendly” city resident who put down a decade of roots in New Haven’s refugee community.

Continue reading ‘Before Plea, Refugee Made New Haven Home’

Cops Seek "Health & Wellness" Supervisor

by | Mar 25, 2024 2:29 pm | Comments (18)

Paul Bass Photo

Chief Jacobson: "We see what happens if our officers aren't well."

Sometimes police respond over and over again to the same address for mental health calls that would best be served by an agency like Clifford Beers or COMPASS or the Veterans Affairs medical center. 

So the city’s police department wants to add a new lieutenant position focused on making sure those connections take place — for the betterment of community and officer ​“health and wellness” alike.

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1-Time $2M Covers Cop OT Budget Bump

by | Mar 22, 2024 4:00 pm | Comments (29)

Paul Bass Photo

On OT: at a 2021 murder scene.

The Elicker administration plans to use $2 million in soon-to-expire federal pandemic-relief funds to cover the entirety of a proposed increase to the police department’s overtime budget.

And what will happen when those one-time Covid dollars from D.C. run out next fiscal year? The city plans to lean on unspent salary from a recurring abundance of unfilled police officer positions to help close the extra-duty-expenditures gap.

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Mom Seeks Answers About Daughter's Death

by | Mar 21, 2024 2:17 pm | Comments (1)

Thomas Breen Photo

Cousin Yolanda Ragland at Thursday's protest outside police HQ.

Aseelah Mohammed liked to get her nails done. She had a warm smile and frequently called her mom and cousin and siblings just to check in, even when her own life in New Haven was less than stable.

Mohammed died on George Street — leading family and friends to pressure police to treat the case like a murder, not just an overdose. 

City cops, meanwhile, have arrested a 62-year-old for illegal disposal of Mohammed’s body, but have declined to charge anyone with murder after a state medical examiner’s report listed Mohammed’s cause of death as ​“undetermined.”

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Local Landlords, Unite! vs. Eviction Bill

by | Mar 14, 2024 4:03 pm | Comments (40)

File photos

Local landlords Shmuel Aizenberg (top left) and Mendy Edelkopf (bottom left), 2 of 20 signatories of form letter opposing state bill; tenant advocates Sinclair Williams (top right) and Sarah Giovanniello (bottom right, with Amy Eppler-Epstein), in support of bill.

“I am a part of a group of landlords in the area who help each other out by discussing issues and providing support and guidance to each other,” wrote Ocean Management’s Shmuel Aizenberg. 

Mandy Management’s Adir Chen wrote that too. So did Julian Cardona and Menahem Edelkopf and Alejandro Soriano and Menahem Lebenhartz and more than a dozen fellow New Haven-area landlords and property managers. 

Each ​“wrote” those same words in individually signed form letters seeking to persuade state legislators to protect their right to evict rent-paying tenants whose leases have expired.

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Judges Reject Greer's New Trial Appeal

by | Mar 6, 2024 12:50 pm | Comments (3)

Judge Westbrook: "New evidence" would likely not change outcome.

A panel of appellate court judges has rejected incarcerated sex offender Rabbi Daniel Greer’s bid for a new trial, affirming a lower court’s ruling that ​“purported new evidence” introduced by the convicted predator lacked credibility — and was unlikely to change a jury’s verdict.

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Suit: Cops Failed To Stop Domestic Homicide

by | Feb 12, 2024 1:43 pm | Comments (29)

Contributed Photo

Sheila Harris: A "social butterfly" whom her daughter believes the police could have saved.

Sheila Harris was murdered by her domestic abuser minutes after five police officers left her home, and hours after she arrived, scratched up, at police headquarters to report a stolen gun.

Now Harris’ daughter Mercedes Harris is suing the city and 13 officers, arguing the police should have done more to protect her mom on the night of Aug. 19, 2023.

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Driver Gives Rideshare Rights A Lyft

by | Feb 9, 2024 4:51 pm | Comments (2)

Jesenia Rodriguez en route to Capitol: Putting in policy miles to protect future rideshare workers.

“It’s been a journey getting here,” Uber driver Jesenia Rodriguez said as she parked her boyfriend’s stoplight red Toyota across from the state Capitol building.

She was running late. First she had to drop her grandkids off at Jepson School. Then she missed three exits on her way into Hartford while fielding phone calls from fellow rideshare and delivery drivers.

But now she had arrived, with a message to deliver.

Continue reading ‘Driver Gives Rideshare Rights A Lyft’