Firefighters found the blaze strongest at the northwest corner of the house, as seen from a neighboring backyard, above, and from Hudson Avenue, below. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Two Red Bank families escaped safely as a predawn fire tore through a Hudson Avenue house Thursday.

One half of the structure, at 46-48 Hudson, was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after 3 a.m., said fire Chief Josh Sanders.

Police patrol units, which were already there, reported that the occupants had escaped safely, he said.

Volunteer firefighters train water on the northwest corner, as seen from Clay Street. (Click to enlarge)

Four adults, two children and three dogs were in the house at the time of the fire, said one of the occupants, Ryan Howard, who was asleep in a second-floor bedroom wen the fire broke out.

“I heard the kids next door screaming as they were running out of the house,” said Howard, who lived in the southern half of the two-story structure, at number 48. “Then I saw orange light.”

Ryan said he, his wife and their two dogs were easily able to exit. The couple next door, their two boys and a dog also exited safely, he said.

Firefighters described the blaze as one of the fastest-moving they’d seen in years, though they managed to largely confine it to the northern half the structure at number 46. Northwesterly winds pushed heavy smoke to the ground for blocks around.

The mid-block house is owned by Ray Rapcavage, who also owns several other rental properties on the street.

By JOHN T. WARD

Without explaining the reason for its haste, the Red Bank Council introduced an ordinance change Thursday night to ban retail businesses from remaining open between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The law, an amendment to the town’s noise ordinance, would not apply to any business that now operates at those hours, said Mayor Pasquale Menna. Nor would it affect bars and restaurants.

Not a word was said, however, about its potential impact on the East Front Street Welsh Farms convenience store, which is in the midst of planning board hearings over cosmetic changes as it prepares to convert to a 7-Eleven and remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The measure was prompted, Menna said, by a neighborhood brouhaha over Best Liquors, a West Side packaged goods store that attracted so many complaints and legal run-ins that the council revoked its liquor license five years ago.

A recent review of police and code enforcement data by police Chief Steve McCarthy led to a recommendation that the town adopt a noise ordinance barring the operation of any business within 100 feet of a residential zone, excepting bars and restaurants, Menna said.

If any council members harbored any reservations about the amendment, they did not speak Thursday night. Councilman Mike DuPont called it “a very creative way to protect our neighborhoods. I think it’s a wonderful initiative.” Councilman Ed Zipprich said it offered “a good opportunity to protect the quality of life, to protect [neighbors] from a change, a dramatic change.”

“This is just a little bit of tweaking to that helps out our residents,” said Councilman Art Murphy.

The proposed change was not listed on the council’s agenda for the meeting, and no copies of its language, which Menna paraphrased, were available.

Afterward, Menna said there was no advance notice of the introduction because the language was still being drafted shortly before the meeting. Asked what the rush was, he replied, “Get it done now.”

Reminded that Best Liquors wasn’t open all night, Menna replied, “Yes, but it was open late.”

Pressed to address the impact on Welsh Farms, Menna said that if the store changes its hours to all-night before the law goes into effect, “they will be fine.”

He also acknowledged, as the store’s attorney maintains, that town officials did not limit the store’s hours of operation when they approved it as a convenience store and filling station in 1975.

The store has never operated all night, and now closes at 10 p.m.

A public hearing and vote on whether to adopt the amendment was scheduled for May 9. The planning board next meets on May 7, but it could not be immediately learned if the Welsh Farms hearings would resume that night.

By JOHN T. WARD

An intensive manhunt for two suspected burglars in Little Silver ended early Wednesday afternoon with no evidence of a crime or suspects, police Chief Dan Shaffery tells redbankgreen.

Having swarmed the area with cops and search dogs from half a dozen jurisdictions, police called off the search at 12:50 p.m., less than two hours after a nearby resident reported a suspicious male in a neighbor’s backyard, Shaffery said.

Shaffery said the incident began with an  11 a.m. call to police by a resident of Queens Drive South, who reported seeing a man in dark clothes and a hooded sweatshirt in the rear yard of a neighboring property fronting on Prospect Avenue.

“He called it in, and rightfully so,” said Shaffery, who has been trumpeting the importance of residents reporting suspicious activities in the wake of a recent string of burglaries.

Police officers, who arrived on the scene within four minutes, found no suspects, but in canvasing the area, came upon a contractor who reported the possible presence of two suspicious males, Shaffery said.

That set off the hunt, which brought in help from Red Bank, Shrewsbury, Fair Haven, Long Branch and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s office, the last two of which loaned search dogs for the effort.

Because the homes in the area abut swamp and woodlands, police dove into the thicket, hoping to find the man or men. Two Little Silver officers in particular ended up “full of mud” from the effort, Shaffery said.

Police also checked nearby homes and ran every license plate of unexplained vehicles parked in the area, he said.

But the police and dogs found no evidence of a getaway or of a crime, he said.

“I’m sure there was somebody there,” Shaffery said of the initial report, “but we haven’t been unable to uncover any evidence of criminal activity.”

Shaffery said residents should not take the result to mean they should not call in on suspicions.

“Better safe than sorry,” he said. “I would never discourage anyone from calling.”

By JOHN T. WARD

An explosive scandal alleging that New Jersey State Police led a high-speed caravan of luxury cars down the Garden State Parkway to Atlantic City last month took a twist Monday with the revelation of another such excursion in 2010.

That one, according to a report Monday by the Star-Ledger,  involved a caravan of hot cars headed to a Ferrari car show in downtown Red Bank.

From NJ.com, the website of the Star-Ledger:

State officials have reacted with dismay to allegations that the New Jersey State Police led a high-speed caravan of sports carsto Atlantic City last month without regard for the safety of other drivers.

But it apparently it wasn’t the first time it has happened.

The State Police escorted another caravan of luxury sports cars down the Garden State Parkway in 2010 at speeds reportedly up to 120 mph, and it was all captured by two young men who happened upon the procession and then posted a harrowing video to YouTube.

“Get the camera out. They’re being escorted by the New Jersey State Police!” one of the men, whose identities are unknown, said as they encountered the caravan. “We’re being escorted by State Police. Oh my god. Timing is perfect … The State Police are cruising!”

The caravan, captured in five videos posted to the website June 28, 2010, was led by marked State Police cruiser #193 with its emergency lights flashing. Many of the cars in the caravan can be heard revving their engines and seen bursting forward at high speeds in and out and heavy traffic.

A spokesman for the State Police, Lt. Stephen Jones, did not immediately return a call and e-mail seeking comment on the escort and whether or not it was authorized.

The video ends with the videographer’s car running a red light past at State Police escort at exit 109 onto Newman Springs Road in Lincroft.

On Sunday, the Sledger reported that the State Police

are investigating complaints that two troopers escorted a caravan of luxury sports cars at speeds in excess of 100 mph down the Garden State Parkway to Atlantic City last month. The occupants included former Giants running back and sports car enthusiast Brandon Jacobs, according to a source with knowledge of the trip.

In the complaints, obtained by The Star-Ledger, witnesses said that in the early afternoon March 30, they saw two State Police patrol cars with their emergency lights flashing driving in front of and behind the southbound caravan, which included dozens of Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris and other vehicles, all with their license plates covered with tape.

One witness, Wayne Gantt, dubbed the escort “Death Race 2012.”

Red Bank Public Defender Kevin Wigenton was censured by the New Jersey Supreme Court Monday, ending a decade-old disciplinary case that might have resulted in his disbarment as a lawyer.

The court ruled 5-1 that shoddy bookkeeping by Wigenton in his solo practice hadn’t harmed any clients or third parties, rejecting a call by the Office of Attorney Ethics that he be disbarred.

One justice, Judge Dorothea Wefing, who is on temporary assignment to the court from the appellate division, dissented. She wrote that “a short period of suspension” was required “in order to preserve public confidence in the bar.”

Wigenton, who lives in the borough, is the husband of federal District Court Judge Susan Wigenton. The case was unrelated to Wigenton’s work as public defender.

The case centered on allegations arising from an audit that Wigenton himself commissioned, which found a $42,000 shortfall in realty escrow accounts. Wigenton immediately made up the deficit, but an ensuing review by a special master recommended that Wigenton be suspended for four months.

Last year, a disciplinary review board earlier this year ruled that Wigenton should be censured. Both found the misappropriation “negligent, not knowing.”

But the Office of Attorney Ethics, the court’s lawyer-oversight arm, argued before the state’s highest court last November  that Wigenton should lose his license to practice law.

“This case represents more than recordkeeping violations and shortcomings,” said OAE attorney Maureen Bauman. Wigenton, she claimed, “took great liberties with funds that should have remained inviolate in his trust account.”

The Supreme Court, though, found Wigenton had engaged in negligent, rather than knowing misappropriation of funds, a lapse that he quickly corrected.

The court also cited Wigenton’s behavior over the course of the disciplinary reviews:

Respondent was cooperative during the investigation, contrite, and did not attempt to conceal his errant recordkeeping practices. Rather, respondent underwent educational programs and correction of his business and accounting practices such that no errors have been found since.

Wigenton could not be reached for immediate comment.

Here’s the full text of the decision: Wigenton 040312

By JOHN T. WARD

A Middletown man was charged with trying to kill a township police officer Sunday after an tussle in which the officer was dragged by the suspect’s car, police said.

Corporal Daniel Murdoch remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries five hours after the 11:12 a.m. incident, which also involved a motor vehicle chase of about three miles that ended with the suspect crashing his car several blocks away, said department spokesman Lieutenant Steven Dollinger.

According to Dollinger, Murdoch was attempting to arrest Gregory Canova, 37, at his Stephenville Boulevard home on warrants from Sea Girt and Wall Township , where he was wanted on charges of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

On his second or third visit to the home, Murdoch found the suspect and was attempting to take him into custody when a struggle ensued, Dollinger said.

Canova “was able to break away” and get into his car, Dollinger said. Murdoch, he said, “was half-in and half-out of the car, fighting with the suspect when Canova struck Murdoch with the vehicle and dragged him a short distance.

During the arrest attempt, Murdoch was calling for backup, and witnesses to the struggle also called police for help, Dollinger said.

One of the responding officers, Sergeant Charles Terefenko, saw Canova fleeing the scene and gave pursuit, during which the suspect rammed rammed Terefenko’s patrol car, Dollinger said.

Canova was apprehended when he crashed his car on a residential lawn on Courtney Way, a nearby cul-de-sac, Dollinger said.

The start and end locations are about three miles apart, but Dollinger said he did not immediately have information on the path followed during the chase.

Judge Leslie Justus of the Monmouth County Superior Court ordered Canova held on $882,500 bail, with no ten-percent option. He was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, two counts of  aggravated assault on police officers, eluding police, resisting arrest, two counts of criminal mischief, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, Dollinger said.

He was also charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and violation of a court order by Sea Girt police and two counts of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child by Wall Township police, he said

Murdoch and Sergeant Terefenko were being treated at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank for injuries sustained during the arrest, Dollinger said.

By JOHN T. WARD

Two adults escaped unhurt as fire tore through the second story of the Rumson home in which they were living Tuesday night, officials said.

The blaze, reported at 8:15 p.m., caused extensive damage to the upstairs portion of the house at 31 Park Avenue. The was no immediate determination of a cause, authorities said.

The identities of the occupants, said by police to be about 27 and 22 years old, were not immediately released, and the owner of the home was not present at the time of the fire. The house is listed in property records as belonging to Patricia Dalton.

Police Sergeant Bob Boyer, who was the first to arrive on the scene, said flames were shooting out of the front, second-story window just beneath a peaked roof. He found the front door locked, went around the to unlocked back door, and made his way through heavy smoke to the front door, which he unlocked for firefighters, he said.

By then, the two occupants had already departed the house, he said.

“They did a real nice job stopping it from making its way down to the first floor,” Boyer said of the firefighters.

As of 9 p.m., Rumson volunteer firefighters, backstopped by counterparts from Sea Bright and Fair Haven, were putting out the last signs of fire and awaiting the arrival of a JCP&L crew to cut power to a live electrical wire downed in the incident.