Summit ... Summit's only, * • retd newspaper VOLUME_98NO.30 , March 9,1985 (Price: 25' DeBanico sues city ByPAIGETUNSTALL reserve, the jury found, and suit, Harold Kessler, schools SUMMIT-Donald DeBanico, made police even more business administrator, said the principal of the junior high suspicious. board was not. school, is suing the city, the An independent investigation William Rosen, president of police department, the mayor, by the Board of Education, in- the Board of Education, said, the the high school principal, the volving three interviews, found board is not currently funding police chief, and two police that Geddis had acted against DeBanico's suit, nor is it now detectives. school policy in communicating funding Geddis' defense. DeBanico is alleging malicious to the degree he did with police However, Rosen said, "It's not untruths were circulated about about drug abuse. The board has a matter of free will here--the law him by those parties in reference now changed its policy to include spells out what can and can't be to drug abuse at his school and more frequent communication done," regarding funding, of about his own conduct with with police. legal fees for personnel. regard to reporting drug abuse. According to DeBancio's suit, Asked when he found out These untruths, DeBanico malicious untruths propagated by about the suit, Rosen said, "I on- claims, were circulated in various the defendants have1 exposed ly saw the document a couple of ways, including police reports DeBanico "...to the loss of good days ago, but I knew the docu- and newspapers articles referring will and the confidence of his ment was around as did the main to those reports. associates in the Summit School people for about two weeks." DeBanico's suit comes a year System, and has tended to injure "We knew it was imminent," Plantiff, DeBanico, in his trade Rosen continued, "But it was not after police executed search war- 1 rants in the junior high school. and profession.' yet a fact." Police had asked Judge Russell The suit has been filed in "This is presumeably what he Hulsizer for warrants in the belief United States District Court in did to vindicate his name," that DeBanico was not telling Newark. DeBanico is seeking Rosen said of DeBanico's suit, them about drug incidents both compensatory and punitive "and I can understand that. I in the school. damages. think a lot of people in Summit The warrants were deemed un- The suit claims violation of will feel very strongly about it constitutional, and files seized statutes, constititution, and com- both ways." from the junior high returned. A mon law of New Jersey and of "Why he would chose to do Special Grand Jury investigating the United States. whatever he did, 1 wouldn't GOING, GOING—Committee members of the GFWC Summit Jr. Fortnightly Club look over the variety of trips offered at the circumstances surrounding Asked whether the Board.of know," added Rosen, "I'm not this year's travel auction at Oak Knoll School Mar. 9, 7:30 pm. From left are Linda Taylor, Janet Keating, Judy the warrants found all parties had Education is funding DeBanico's privy to that." Walwyn, Patty Seip, JannBowne, Debbie Schmidt, and Emily Wexler. acted in good faith, and noted a breakdown in communications between police and school of- ficials as one of the principal Legal maladies plague medical group application reasons for the error. Police had heard accounts of a SUMM1T--The Zoning Board the legal doctrine of res ad- 229 parking spaces if its applica- ing with the buildings already ex- would be non-conforming." drug overdose at the junior high, shouldn't even be hearing the judicata (a matter that's already tion were granted. isting in the neighborhood, since All but one of the buildings in and became suspicious when Summit Medical Group's request been judged), and cannot be The board also found Di those are already in violation. "If the MFT zone were built before DeBanico did not respond to for expansion, according to John heard. Lallo's application would "essen- anything, the expansio would the current zoning code went into their questions about the rumor. Lombardi, because a similar re- The group's case has been tially change the character of the make it more conforming," effect in 1973. Buildings stan- The grand jury found that quest was already rejected in under consideration by the board neighborhood." Pfaltz said. ding before a zoning law is passed Donald Geddis, principal of the 1979. for nine months. Neighborhood already non- Expansion as now proposed by fall under a grandfather clause senior high school, maintained "What we have here is exactly Attorney Hugo Pfaltz said the conforming Medical Realty would require 12 whereby they arc exempt from open communications with the the same application for exactly res adjudicata rule doesn't per- Pfaltz believes most of the variances to pass. the law unless their owners wish police and was in frequent con- the same reasons," said Lombar- tain. "This is such a different ap- buildings in the MFT zone violate Martin Egan, witness for the to make a change in use or struc- tact with (hem relevant to drug di, attorney for objectors to the plication," Pfaltz maintained. zoning standards. The medical objectors, said under cross- ture. abuse. Geddis' openness stood in group's expansion. The case, he Res adjudicata does not per- group's proposed expansion examination by Pfaltz, "The The only structure built there sharp contrast with DeBanico's contended, therefore falls under tain if the application differs would, he suggested, be in keep- large number (of building there) (continued on page 9) significantly from the previous one, nor does it pertain if the neighborhood has changed. \ , I**.-- Police officers talk to Pfaltz believes the applications Susan-Qiasejoins county's are significantly different because "This application gives a much greater benefit to the community fifth graders about jobs than his (Di Lallo's) would nuclear free zone effort have." ByPAIGETUNSTALL Both attorneys agree the reached a responsible age before SUMMIT--The city has joined can or should be established, but the state and federal governments SUMMIT-Laws are designed granting certain freedoms, Lucid neighborhood has not changed in the past six years. a county wide effort to keep the both believe the subject deserves with reference to transport to make the punishment fit the added. area free from dangers of nuclear examination and that the city through our borders of crime, local police officers told If a juvenile commits a status Di Lallo denied material of all kinds. should be represented in the dangerous nuclear materials," shcoolchildren last week. offense, he or she comes under Lombardi cited the board's denial of an application by Dr. Local resident Susan Chase has county's deliberations. said DeFilippo. Under the direction of Juvenile the care of J.I.N.S., Juveniles in been appointed by Mayor Robert "Until we find out exactly "If we can make the federal Office John McCandless, police Need of Supervision. Joseph Di Lallo in 1979. Di Lallo had requested expansion of his Hartlaub to represent the city on what the ordinance would say, we government as accountable to the officers recently conducted their Officers Joe Laspina and Paul a county committee examining should have someone there as the county as we are to the federal annual education program for Kelley explained for Jefferson offices, which are across the street from the Summit Medical the possibilities of establishing a eyes and ears of Summit," said governement, it would go a long fifth graders in local schools. fifth graders the difference nuclear free zone. Hartlaub. way to making policies more sen- Officers outlined their role in between violations and crimes, Group. "The nature of Dr. Di Lallo's "I think the free zone is a way the community, focusing par- and how the law differentiates to get people thinking on a local ticularly on how the juvenile between offenses that hurt others application is identical to the ap- plication this board is considering level about the problems involved justice system works, how and and offenses that only hurt the in nuclear weapons and waste," why it differs from the systems individual committing them. today on a much smaller scale," said Lombardi. said Chase. designed for adults. Jefferson students also got Over 1,600 free zones have "Are there things you're not Di Lallo wanted more space, demonstrations of different kinds "Because my present offices are been established by cities and allowed to do because of your of searches, and heard what counties worldwide. Each free age?" Officer Robert Lucid asked very inefficient and I can service criteria are necessary for an of- my patients much better" with zone enacts its own specific rules fifth graders at Brayton. ficer to instigate different kinds to protect its citizens from threats Students quickly came up with expanded facilities, the doctor of searches. testified in 1979. posed by nuclear waste and several age-related laws, in- weapons. cluding driving, drinking, school Officers showed what a search According to Lombardi, that's and frisk, is, and explained that the same reason the medical Union County is considering a attendance, voting, and running milder ordinance than many free away from home. an officer can only make a more group has offered for expansion. thorough search-of the person's The Zoning Board found Di zones follow. Some free zones "If you break one of those have gone as far as banning com- rules, that's considered a status pockets, for instance-if an of- Lallo's expansion would cause "substantial detriment" to the panies that contract with the offense.