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Police have named the female suspect wanted for a double shooting in Newark that killed an 18-year-old girl celebrating her high school graduation. Sujeidi Ocasio and another teen were shot at a graduation party outside 196 Lincoln Avenue just after 12:15 a.m. Ocasio was rushed to University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Authorities say the single bullet, allegedly fired by 18-year-old Nicole Guyette, went through Ocasio's neck and struck 15-year-old Jasmine Perez. Perez was treated and released from University Hospital in Newark, officials say. "She got shot for no reason," Perez said. "So the bullet went through her and...

VIDEO: Watch Fox 5's coverageA man being sought for shooting and killing his estranged wife to death while she watched one of their children swim at a Montclair YMCA had been ordered in October to have no contact with her. Kenneth A. Duckett was under a restraining order that specified no contact with Monica Paul, but allowed him to have visitation rights with their two children, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.  "Basically, it was like a curbside drop-off," Loriquet said. The couple had separated in August, but it was unclear when they had...

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James' defense team is conducting a public-opinion survey of potential jurors for his corruption case and may seek a change of venue to Trenton or Camden if they determine he can't get a fair trial in Newark. "The concern is, people have seen so much in the media. This is a trial where people may very well have an attitude towards Mr. James because of the charges or his politics," said Thomas Ashley, one of James's attorneys. James, 71, who served as mayor of the state's largest city for two decades, snip

The investigation into the execution-style murder of three college students took a shocking turn Friday afternoon with a report that two of the victims may have been sexually assaulted before they were killed. FOX 5 New York reported that a sexual attack may have occurred before college students Terrance Aeriel, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey were shot to death, and 19-year old Natasha Aerial was critically wounded. Authorities charged a third suspect with three counts of felony murder in the killings Friday evening, according to an Associated Press report. The suspect was described as a 15-year-old boy by Essex County...

Authorities hunting for suspects in the killings of three college students in a Newark schoolyard over the weekend taped a segment of the "America's Most Wanted" television show at the murder scene today in hopes of enlisting a national audience to help solve the killings.  As investigators continued to follow leads in the slayings, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow visited the Mount Vernon School where the victims were shot execution-style on Saturday night to tape an interview for the nationally syndicated television show. "They have been very successful at times in breaking cases by the nature of their national audience,"...

NEWARK, N.J. -- Three of the young people had been ordered to line up against a wall on the weedy steps behind an elementary school and were shot to death from close range. A fourth was found alive by police slumped near a set of bleachers about 30 feet away, with gunshot and knife wounds to her head. All were from Newark; and all would soon either start or resume their lives away from the violent city, at a college hundreds of miles away. Ofemi Hightower been accepted Thursday to Delaware State University after two years of rejection letters. Terrance...

NEWARK, N.J. — The yearbooks were finally printed and ready to be picked up by students at Newark's East Side High School — but not before some officials snapped open their correcting pens to edit out a picture of two males kissing. This was not art class, but staff afraid of parental backlash used markers to color over the picture, censoring it from every copy of the 2007 yearbook before distributing it, MyFoxNY.com reports. Described as "illicit" and provocative by Newark's superintendent of schools, Marion Bolden, the photograph depicts a kiss between 18-year-old Andre Jackson and David Escobales.

Federal officials investigating former Newark Mayor Sharpe James last week served a subpoena on City Hall, asking for the hard drives of computers used by James' executive assistants. There's just one problem: City officials don't know where they are. When Mayor Cory Booker and his staff took office on July 1, all of the dozen or so computers in the mayoral suite of offices were gone and new machines were being installed, according to Booker spokeswoman Desiree Peterkin Bell. Who removed them or where they ended up is unclear, said Peterkin Bell, adding that a desktop computer in the city's...

NORTH CALDWELL-A new church at 103 Gould Ave., calling itself "St. Anthony of Padua Church," is not recog­nized by the Archdiocese of Newark, archdiocesan officials announced Sept. 6. Citing the sign at the front of the church that reads "St. Anthony of Padua Church, Roman Catholic Traditional Latin Mass," Rev. Msgr. Robert E. Emery, J.C.L., vicar general and moderator of the Curia, stressed the church "is not connected or affiliated with Saint Anthony of Padua Chapel in West Orange." The West Orange chapel, earlier this month, celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation in the archdiocese accord­ing to the traditional pre-Vatican II...

In West Orange, a church divided Founder's death leaves traditional congregation in dispute over successor At the church founded by the late Rev. Paul Wickens, Mass is always said in Latin. Women still cover their heads, and people receive the host in their mouths from a priest, never touching it with their own hands. To say that St. Anthony of Padua, the church Wickens started nine years ago, is a haven for traditionalists is an understatement. And with his death this year, the search for just the right successor to the old founder has split the parishioners of this unusual...

Every Sunday, the Rev. Moacir Weirich asks the group of Brazilian immigrants attending church services in Newark to say a few words about what they're praying for. For Weirich's first three years as pastor, they prayed mostly over the trials of everyday life. "My sister Maria is sick," Weirich recalls a typical petition. Or, "I can't find a job." About five years ago, he says, things began to change. One man asked God to help his friend, who was locked in a house in Mexico until he could pay off the smugglers he had hired to take him to the...

Priest rescues woman in attack Tuesday, July 8, 2003 By ASHANTI M. ALVAREZ STAFF WRITER CLIFTON - Police are seeking the identity of a priest whom a young woman credits with saving her from being kidnapped by a lewd attacker Monday afternoon, police said. The woman told police she had been walking along Route 3 to her first day of work at a Clifton Commons business when a man pulled over, fondled her, and tried to force her into his car. But the priest drove up at just the right time, police said. The attacker sped away without the woman,...

Tom D'Alessio is a generous guy. Two months after he was released from federal prison after serving time for political corruption charges in 1998, the former Essex County Executive set up a charitable foundation. D'Alessio called it the Evergreen Fund and has bankrolled it with more than $1.8 million of the nearly $2 million that was left in his campaign fund. Last year, the foundation reported it gave out $37,750 in contributions of $500 or so to dozens of organizations like the March of Dimes, the United Way and the Boy Scouts. It also paid D'Alessio an $81,708 salary as...

NEWARK, N.J. -- Federal and state authorities are trying to determine how armed officers raided the wrong house, smashing doors and frightening residents earlier this week, a state police spokesman said Thursday. We are investigating what went wrong," said Sgt. Gerald Lewis Jr. "For some reason, whether it was erroneous information or supervision, we actually hit the wrong house." He said the address on the state search warrant was correct, but that the team of state police SWAT officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents went to the wrong street and raided a home with the same number on Tuesday. An...

OPINION THE RECORD Education, politics and a tasteless display Wednesday, April 6, 2005 By JAMES AHEARN AS PLANNED, the party for John Petillo's inauguration as president of the state University of Medicine and Dentistry was going to set a New Jersey record for vulgar extravagance. Bear in mind that the university is a public institution, supported by taxes. Bear in mind that the State House is struggling to fill a $4 billion hole in the budget for next year. Against that background, consider that the university was going to spend $20,000 to rent the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in...

Teacher, cop charged with gun trafficking Friday, February 18, 2005 NEWARK - A schoolteacher and his wife, who is a police officer, were arrested Thursday as part of an undercover operation to crack a gun trafficking ring that included the teacher's brother-in-law, authorities said. Five rifles were sold for $9,200 over the course of the investigation, according to court papers. FBI agents found a 9mm handgun in the coat pocket of the teacher, William Mayes, as he was preparing to leave home for his ninth-grade class at Success Academy, part of West Side High School in Newark, Special Agent Steve...

A Republican in the blue state of New Jersey is bucking what some decry as a national trend to eradicate all traces of religion in public places. Steve Lonegan, who is running for the Republican nomination for New Jersey governor, is defying a school-district edict that bans religious music from holiday-season celebrations this year. Mr. Lonegan has asked local residents of all religions to join him at 5 p.m. tomorrow "to sing and listen to" songs such as George Frederick Handel's "Messiah" and "Silent Night," which have been banned from schools, even in instrumental form, by the South Orange/Maplewood School...

NEWARK, N.J. -- Two rival street gangs long associated with violence have signed a peace agreement, garnering praise from city officials but skepticism from law enforcement. Members of the Crips and Bloods said the level of violence had become even too much for them. "The problem is us. The only way to fix this is us," a member of the Bloods faction called Pirus -- an acronym for Powerful, Intellectual, Radical, Universal Soldiers -- told The Star-Ledger of Newark. "I think this is a first step to calm some of this down," said Deputy Mayor Ras Baraka, one of the...

<p>WASHINGTON -- New Jersey's U.S. attorney told Congress yesterday that violent street gangs represent a growing public threat and must be attacked with the same force and methods used against traditional organized crime families.</p> <p>Christopher Christie's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee came as his office in Newark announced charges against an East Orange man they said helped provide firearms to gang members in Newark and other parts of Essex County.</p>

NEWARK, N.J. Oct. 28 — Essex County's top elected official, who dropped out of the U.S. Senate race this year amid a federal investigation, was arrested by FBI agents Monday on corruption charges. The charges against County Executive James Treffinger include extortion, mail fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry A. Carbone. Extortion carries the heaviest penalty, up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Treffinger will plead not guilty, said his lawyer, Henry Klingeman. Full story see source