Courier-Post from Camden, New Jersey • Page 17

Friday witli Dan Eisenhuth Where Do We Go From Here? Puzzle: If Commodore John Barry Bridge (below) sits ready to open but bulldozer (right) is still clearing bridge path through Flower Manor Apartments in Chester, where will cars go? Answer: When span opens next month, cars will use its small maintenance ramps and Chester's streets. Photo bv Bob Bortosi v.Ai:-" vf i oi; i TTr: 'vn Itf it' UwSHrS(Pi fcwve I t. I a is 1 4 1 4 fv 4 COURIER-POST FrontPage U. lit. lf71 ra2 17 Bill Would Kill Long Veterans Day Weekend ocrat James Florio, the bill was amended to make sure the long weekend holiday of Veteran's Day was abolished.

Florio said the bill is likely to be on the Assembly vole board Monday, especially since one of its co-sponsors is Assembly Speaker S. Howard Woodson, D-Mercer, who lists bills for votes. Among other measures released from Florio's state government committee was another Woodson bill aimed at designating Jan. 15 as "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" and providing that appropriate programs be held in the public schools.

Police Stale Of Mind rOLICE call them "routine vehicle checks." They probably happen thousands of times in South Jersey every year. Unless they turn up a knife or a gun. however, they go unnoticed by everyone except the harassed motorist involved. This particular incident would have pone unnoticed also if it hadn't in volved my brother. Iin is a hard-working 21-year-old a trotiblcshootcr for apartments com plexcs in Mount Laurel and Trenton whose closest brushes with the law were a speeding ticket and almost petting caupht drinking beer in the woods beJ fore he was 21.

He isn't a criminal. On a Wednesday night, shortly before Christmas, he traveled from his home in Mount Laurel to the Cherry Hill Medical Center to visit his girlfriend who was ill. It was dark when lie left the hospital. As he turned onto Kings Highway from Chapel Avenue, a Cherry Hill Township police car pulled up behind him. The cop at the wheel turned on his red flasher and blasted a spotlight through the back window, blinding him as it reflected off the rear-view mirror.

In stopped at the side of the road. The first patrol car stopped behind him. Another appeared from nowhere and blocked his car from the front. "You are a suspect in a hit-and-run in Cherry Hill," the cop told him. "The car involved is a blue Gremlin with mag wheels." In drives a blue Gremlin with mag wheels.

AS FAR AS LON knew, a "suspect" is someone who has been arrested for a crime. The police did not. arrest him. Neither did they ask where he was at the time of the accident. Only he knew he was innocent and he wasn't given the chance to provide an alibi.

Five policemen inspected his They found no damage. They opened the car door, which Iin had closed behind him, and searched the inside. Lon knew that police cannot, search a closed vehicle without sufficient cause (seeing a gun on the front seat for instance) without a warrant, but he was in no position to argue. "I was afraid," Iin said later. "I just, said 'Yes sir, no What else could I do?" They held him there for 40 minutes, then ordered hint back into his oar.

As one police car led and an- other followed, they escorted him to a housing development. They visited two homes. At the first, the resident looked at him through the passcngcr-side window. lie waited 15 minutes while police and the man talked. At the second house, he was dragged by the arm from the car and pushed toward the house, The resident on the.

front porch was smiling as he squinted at the "suspect" in the darkness. "The cops were looking at me as if I was a criminal. They made me stand against an outside wall. It was like a lineup except I was the only one there. I started smiling at the ridiculousness of the whole thing even though I was still afraid." "Why are you smiling?" snapped one of the cops.

THEY said something. Standing there in the glare of the porch he didn't hear. Instead of repeating what they had said, another cop grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. The witness wanted a profile view. "It was like a police state," Lon said later.

The man told police they had the wrong "suspect." "Sorry 'bout that," one of them said. There was no other apology. lie was told to be on his way. "They treated me like I was guiity until proven innocent, but I'd act the same way again if it happened yes sir, no sir." Lon Isn't sure whether it was his collar-length hair, his moustache, or the oversize tires on his car that caused it. He is sure that if he was older, "more respectable," it wouldn't have happened.

He was absolved, but the delay, the rough treatment, and the general discourtesy of the police left a bitter taste in his mouth. In our family, we were brought up to believe that a policeman is a friend in times of trouble. Lon isn't too sure anymore. Florio's committee meeting was typical of the 12 meetings held by the Assembly yesterday open to public, press and lobbyists. Florio, like education chairman Albert Burstein, D-Ber-gen, and commerce chairman Byron M.

Baer, D-Bergen, told committee members normal policy will be "to let the public make comments at our meetings until it becomes disruptive." Burstein had told his colleagues he would permit the public to particpate in the discussion of pending legislation, "But I want some order no cross conversation." chairman to conduct business in private only if the subject matter concerned a committee staff member or other "sensitive" area. At the same time there were reports that several Assembly members would press for an "executive session" clause permitting closed doors at the discretion of the committee chairman. The consrnsus was that the rules committee would eventually adopt the most sweeping written openness doctrine in state history containing at the very least a requirement that all votes on bills must be taken in full public view. By CHIP STAPLETON Courier-Post Bureau TRENTON ierseyans could lose a long holiday weekend under the terms of one of the first bills released yesterday from Assembly committees operating under a new, extensive openness policy. The bill is designed to return the traditional Armistice Day legal holiday to Nov.

11 each year. Under current law, Veteran's Day replaced Armistice Day and is cleebrated on the Fourth Monday in October providing a long weekend. According to Camden Dem Public Advocate Our Byrne Nominee Calls Job so that it would be difficult for a committee chairman to hold private bill-discussing sessions. As the rules committee met late yesterday to discuss a draft of "openness" guidelines, it was learned the proposal contained few loopholes under which the doors could be closed. One source said a draft he saw would permit chairman to conduct business in private only if the subert matter concerned a committee staff member or other "sensitive" area.

One source said a draft he saw would permit committee Cabinet Affects Every Citizen' et recess in February." Byrne indicated Van Ness, whose salary' now is $35,700, will be paid about H0.C00. In a remark that typifir-d Van Ness, the governor added with a grin: "Stan hasn't even asked me for any money!" Florio said such controversial measures as public nancing of gubernatorial campaigns and a measure establishing the office of lieutenant governor probably would generate the kind of disruption he wants to avoid. But he pledged all meetings would be open, regardless of the subjects discussed. Baer, a staunch advocate of the open committee system, plans to introduce a comprehensive statewide open meetings bill next week. He said he favors action by the Assembly rules committee to clearly spell out an open meeting policy in writing Man in STANLEY C.

VAN NESS Byrne, who visualizes Van Ness rs an "ombudsman" type, expects the bill creating his new department will be drafted within a week or 10 days and that "it will be passed by the legislature and Van Ness will be confirmed before the Legislature's budg I fit fy Hearing Feb. 8 for Erridielti TRENTON Camden Mayor Ancrlo J. Frrichetti is to enter a plea Feb. 2 in Superior Court in Mercer County on charge stemming from an indictment handed up by the stale grand jury Dec. 18.

Four persons indicted with him and a fifth named in a separate, but related indictment, also are scheduled to enter pleas at 9 a.m. on the same day before Judge George Y. Schoch. The other defendants are: Renaldo Taffoni, 48, an inspector in the city's public works department. Charles J.

DiBartoIomeo, 53, superintendent of the city's water department. Gary Oarramone, 42, a self-employed businessman, formerly of Philadelphia and now a resident of Las Vegas. Michael Oarramone, Gary's father and a former Internal Revenue Service employe who lives in Las Vet'as. Gerald R. Smith, 38, a former member of the Gloucester County Board of Elections.

The indictment charges Er-richetti, Taffoni, DiBartoIomeo, and both Garramones with conspiracy to obstruct state and city bidding laws. The mayor also faces charges of misconduct in office and perjury in testimony before the grand jury. Smith, named in the separate indictment, is charged with conspiracy and forgery. Ernchetti said yesterday he is not planning to make a personal appearance in court on Feb. 8.

He indicated his attorneys will file a plea of innocent with the judge prior to the date. a Challenge a governor. He set another landmark when he became public defender in 1968, by Hughes, appointment. A scholar with a ready smile and a quick wit, Van Ness quickly demonstrated an ability to role with the problems of defending the poor, in the face of wide skepticism, and even resentment, among his legal colleagues. He remained as public defender through the Republican regime of former Gov.

William T. Cahill. Widening Goal The man who has been directing New Jersey's largest law office for the state's poorest people, envisions a "widening goal" now as a public advocate. "Up to now," he said, "I wasn't able to give the complete service that the people in need of it deserved but now I expect to try to give all people the same even break whenever they can't get it themselves." Van Ness' reputation as a scholar began at Rutgers, where he made the dean's list as an undergraduate and a graduate student and at Rutgers Law School, where he won jurisprudence prizes in constitutional law, equity, social legislation, trusts and wills. In 1963, he was the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity's "man of the year." Visit to Judge One of his first efforts, he said, will be to visit with federal Judge Vincent Biunno, who established under Cahill the first system of apportioning public rate counsel assignments among young lawyers.

Biunno took these often lucrative appointments "almost completely out of the area of pure political patronage," Van Ness said. time will come, perhaps soon, when someone else will have to take on that post." Meantime, Van Ness visualizes his new public advocate task as "pretty much a logical expansion of the work I have been doing, although it will require rate counsel work and other duties that were never in the public defender's domain." The reason he views this widening of his work range as logical, he says, is because "most of the very same problems that affect poor people really affect every citizen of the state." RaU Cases While Byrne said Van Ness' assignment means he will "represent the public interest in a variety of areas," including rate cases before the Public Utilities Commission as well as Blue Cross, Blue Shield and other insurance rate hike applicants, Van Ness said the "boundaries" are still being evaluated. His first duties as public advocate even before officially wearing that title. Van Ness said, will be to review with Attorney General William F. Hyland and Lewis Kaden, Byrne's special counsel, drafts of the enabling legislation that will define the boundaries of the department.

Van Ness, who Is proud of becoming the first black in Byrne's cabinet if not the first black department head in state history, has set many other records in college and in public service since he left Somerville's public school system. He was born in Som-erville on Feb. 28, 1934. Chief Counsel As former Democratic Gov, Richard J. Hughes' lawyer, he was the first Negro ever to serve as chief counsel to By JOHN 0.

DAVIES Courier-Post Bureau TRENTON Husky, six-foot i Stanley C. Van Ness, who soon will become New Jersey's first "public advocate" sees his new role as a "challenging" expansion of his present position as state public de- fender. In fact, he says the challenge he's relishing "is facing me today" even before he assumes command of a new department of State government that probably won't become official until next month. "It's an exciting concept," Van Ness said yesterday after Gov. Brendan T.

Byrne announced the new cabinet post, but its dimensions have not yet been fully formulated but that's also part of the ex- citement." Time Due In fact, while Byrne said 1 Van Ness would continue as head of the state public de-; fender division, which repre-j sents litigants unable to afford I trial counsel, the incoming public advocate believes "the Gas Unlimited At Many Stations i HARRISBURG (UPI) -i TTin Pennsylvania AAA Fed eration yesterday said 64 per cent of 253 gas stations surveyed were selling customers all the gasoline they wanted. The federation said 18 per cent of the stations were limiting the dollar amount of purchase, and 13 per cent were limiting the quantity purchased. The poll showed 6 per cent of the stations are open 24 hours a day. 1 ir.r r- -ii-t ai.