Two New Jersey men were arrested in front of the Riverside Middle School in Springfield on Thursday afternoon in a car with a safe containing cash, cocaine, heroin, ammunition and a digital scale.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130330/NEWS02/703309939
New Jersey teens held on bail following
By ERIC FRANCIS
CORRESPONDENT | March 30,2013
Rutland Herald
Joseph Atkinson, left, and Richard Torruellas sit in court on Friday.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Two New Jersey men were arrested in front of the Riverside Middle School in Springfield on Thursday afternoon in a car with a safe containing cash, cocaine, heroin, ammunition and a digital scale.
Both men were ordered held for lack of bail following their arraignments on a slate of charges Friday.
Joseph “Black” Atkinson and Richard “Scoob” Torruellas, both 18, were ordered held for lack of $50,000 and $25,000 bail respectively following their arraignments Friday afternoon at the Windsor County Courthouse in downtown White River Junction.
A local woman told police that the men had come to her house Thursday because another woman had, unbeknownst to her, promised them that she would give them a gun, apparently as the result of a drug transaction. A Newport, N.H., woman, whom police described as a “known drug user,” wrote in her sworn statement to police that she gave the men her 9 mm handgun because she felt she had no other choice if she was going to avoid a violent encounter after a female friend of hers showed up and rapidly told her that she’d already promised the men a weapon.
The woman went on to say that the men then demanded she give them a ride in her car and it was during that ride that Springfield Police Sgt. William Daniels spotted Torruellas in her back seat and began following her car, according to court records.
In his affidavit, Daniels wrote that he had been on the lookout for Torruellas for over two weeks ever since he discovered that the teen had allegedly given him a false name during an encounter at the Springfield McDonald’s where Daniels impounded the car he was driving and gave him a series of traffic tickets.
The Newport woman later told officers that when Daniels began following her that the man she knew only as “Black” pointed the gun at her and demanded that she not stop. She said once Daniels flipped on his blue lights she decided it was safer to take her chances with the police and pulled over anyway in front of the school at which point she said Atkinson allegedly tossed the gun into her glove compartment and told her to say that he was her cousin’s.
Springfield Police Cpl. Chris Norton wrote in his report that a “visibly shaking” Atkinson would not make eye contact with police and initially identified himself as “Joseph Smith” but could not produce any identification or even recall the name of the city where he was born.
Norton said a pat-down search of Atkinson turned up a burned marijuana cigarette, just under $200 in cash, and the keys to a safe that was inside the car. After a police dog sniffed around the car and “alerted” to the presence of drugs, police seized the safe and applied for a search warrant.
Police found the loaded Ruger pistol in the glove compartment along with three baggies of crack cocaine rocks and a fourth baggie containing about 40 small packages of heroin.
Police said the two men had five cellphones between them and when a judge granted permission to search the safe it was found to contain nearly $3,600 in cash, two grams of marijuana, two ounces of crack, five more baggies of heroin, nearly 150 rounds of mixed ammunition, a silver necklace, a debit card and a digital scale.
Since Atkinson allegedly had the keys to the safe and was the one pointing the gun he received the most charges, pleading innocent to felony counts of first degree unlawful restraint, using a firearm to commit a crime and possession of heroin and cocaine along with accompanying misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and providing false information to police.
Torruellas pleaded innocent to felony counts of heroin and cocaine possession and a misdemeanor count of providing a false name to police.
During the teen’s court appearance Friday, newly installed Windsor County State’s Attorney Michael Kainen told Judge Robert Gerety that both men have extensive juvenile records in New Jersey for crimes ranging from drug possession to “making terroristic threats.”
Atkinson faces a maximum potential penalty of up to 37 years in prison if he were to be convicted of all the charges now pending against him.
We are watching Mr. Kainen.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe new look of Springfield.
ReplyDeleteTheir mothers must be so proud.
ReplyDeleteExcellent job by the Springfield Police. Too bad their bail amount wasn't 10x higher. $50,000 and $25,000 seems light.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! And the beat goes on and on in Springfield. In many ways a very scary place to live.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOur small town future.... Goodbye innocence.
ReplyDeleteThis was posted by my Evil Twin, who is obviously essaying a parody.
DeleteBe prepared for more to come, this is just the beginning. Keep aware and vigilant. Keep your families safe and educate your children. Do not hide it from them.
ReplyDeleteBeen spending most our life's livin in a gangstas paradise....unfortunately this is going to be the truth.
DeleteSimple enough to cure the problem ,let our fine police force take care of the issue. They are maligned but they do take care of business when needed. I am sure a lot of those on our force don't want these rejects hanging around either. Turn the other way when they administer a little justice that is about the only thing these idiot druggies understand.
ReplyDeleteNo different than terrorists ,they think you are weak they will strike.
Stay strong Springfield ,support our local cops and they will support you.Let them do their job ,trust me they want them out of town also.
for those of you so inclined arm yourselves ,get good training and stay alert. Report these idots when you see them.
Lets take our town back.
Dude this isn't 'Nam settle down with the arm yourselves rhetoric.
DeleteI was never in "Nam" and I am armed almost every time I go out. It's my duty as a parent to be.
DeleteYes, I've seen Shaw's flooded with islamofascist, gay-promoting, flag-burning, latte-drinking, hollow-eyed, freedom-hating agitators who would like nothing better than to see my child get a good public education, tax-funded health care and a job with all the benefits I never got. That's why I always pack heat for him when I go grocery-shopping. Who knows when I might have to stand my ground at the checkout line?
DeleteWe would never expect you to protect yourself, your not that type. Your more the type that is expecting protection from someone else, make it someone elses resposibility. That way when something goes wrong you can blame them.
DeleteCops don't carry guns for your protection. They carry guns for thier protection.
You are = you're.
Delete12:00 a.m. "i am armed almost every time i go out. it's my duty as a parent to be."
DeleteSpringfield= 'Merica.
As usual, whichever "Chuck" it is commenting(it doesn't seem to matter which one)is sarcastic and really not comprehending what the subject is.
DeleteI hope they "all" grow up soon and become actual contributing members to the conversation.
The only thing I can say is that one of the "Chucks" at least isn't looking to me to pay my taxes so that Obamacare can take care of him.
Why is that?Fight fire with fire DUDE.
ReplyDeleteHow did that work out for George Zimmerman?
DeleteWe shall see how it works out wont we?
DeleteUnless you have found him guilty before his trial?
He will have his day in court, but how are his legal bills doing for a situation that easily could have been avoided had it left been to professional police officers.
DeleteIt is a tale of caution for the "arm yourselves" mentality.
I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by six...
DeleteChuck can you please cite your facts regarding this parody?
ReplyDeleteSince I don't believe it was me it must not be true.
DeleteSince I believe it was me, it must be true.
DeleteThe real Harry Byrd says, get your own id. I'm sure Chuckie and I can speak for ourselves. Plus Chuck knows I would never post anything that lame. Nice to see hat the twelve year olds have joined the blog.
ReplyDeleteActually, Harry, being shadowed by an impostor has benefits. For one, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery; doesn't it make you feel a little like Elvis? It does me! For another, it reduces our writing time by half, even if that particular half is irretrievably sorry. Third, we have the fun of seeing some cretin who's trying to dump on us dump instead on an impersonator, which ruins the vicious joy of a personal attack. Finally, since a would-be attacker is aware that there are imitators out there, he/she is much more likely to avoid the personality of the writer and address the content of what was written, which would definitely be a step up for the peasant faction on this blog.
DeleteMaybe we could franchise the operation....
Is it true Chuckles put up the bail for these two guys ?
DeleteKeep the up the fight! Put the plate reader to use, keep up on the patrols! Keep voting down the organizations like Turning Point and HCRS that don't do anything but keep the scum coming into town. And most of all, even though it was a shame this arrest took place at the entrance to our school, hopefully the kids can see that this behavior will get them a room at the jail! Great job SPD and VSP!!
ReplyDeleteWhat these two need is a long parole with plenty of counseling.
ReplyDeletereally?
DeleteThat is not the real Chuck.
DeleteTrue, not the real chuck but I do agree with him/her.
DeleteTed Dransen had it right-- that was my evil twin at 1:32 AND his doppelgänger at 3:37. Did I ever tell you I was from a large family?
DeleteAnyway, parole is a lot cheaper than incarceration, but in my opinion not indicated in this case. What these young men need is mothers who 20 years ago learned that they had the right, power and duty to have no more children than they wanted to.
Unfortunately, as with some of my other prescriptions, this one is too late to be of much good in the present circumstances.
From the looks of things this afternoon - Sunday - some more of their friends were invited behind bars. Several VSP cars on Wall Street at about 2 this afternoon and it looked like some people were being taken for a ride. Maybe another "suspicious" area of town being cleaned up? Who knows?
ReplyDeleteWhy does this element so frequently engage in behavior that only serves to reinforce negative stereotypes?
ReplyDelete6:49, could you clarify what you mean by "this element"? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI believe he is referring to black people.
DeleteSpringfield = 'merica.
Chuck ,what are you trying to say?
DeleteThat you really didn't know that losers of any race are still losers?
Let me clue you in on one thing it doesn't matter what race idiots are they should be treated with the same rules .
As Herman Hill our former town band leader used to say " Man could live on one word alone and that word is respect".
This certain "element" that the person was referring to was treated with the respect they deserved.
Which was none.
re chuck gregory @7:57am
DeleteAre you really that clueless as to the term "element"?
The 4:09 commenter says, "Sunday - some more of their friends were invited behind bars. Several VSP cars on Wall Street at about 2 this afternoon..." No further information. The 6:49 commenter says, "Why does this element. . ." etc.
ReplyDeleteSo, who was taken into custody? Blacks, whites, Hispanics, Poles, Uzbekistanis, single parents, unemployed elderly, retired homeowners, fuddled drunks, ten-year-old delinquents, disliked mothers-in-law?
The question was about the "frequent engagement" of "this element." I am curious as to just how "frequent" the behavior is, but I need to know the "element" to which the commenter referred.
It helps to understand the roots of a problem. For example, we tend to despise the incarcerated 19-to-24-year-old prison population (as well we might), but if we who despise also know that 90% of them were born as low-birth-weight babies, we would be likely to think about preventing the criminality of this "element" by paying attention to the conditions that lead to low birth weight.
If we look at what constitutes the "this element" referred to above, we might start seeing some causes which have cures.
The "criminal element", now let it rest or add to the conversation.
DeleteYou mean the state troopers arrested Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankenfeld and Hank Paulson on Wall Street????? Good work, chaps!
DeleteOnce again, Vermont shows the Obama administration how to do things right!!!
@ chuck gregory 12:17pm
ReplyDeleteI was born at 5.3 pounds (officially labeled as "low birth weight") yet I've committed no criminal activity so your statement holds no water as per usual.
Yes, I forgot. People who are the center of the world exemplify exactly everybody else who shares one characteristic with them. You are right, and I am wrong.
DeleteI guess you should stop generalizing your posts chuck. BTW, the top two factors in relationship to low birthrate statistics are Genetics and Age. Per your post what is the "cure" you suggest for those?
DeleteWhere in the world did you get that information from? Fox News? Mine came from the Nelson textbook on Pediatrics, 19th edition.
DeleteGenetics is believed to play a role in IUGR, but IUGR babies are a fairly small subset of LBW babies, so genetics is not a "top" factor. Age is a factor, but only in the sense of: "Why is this fourteen-year-old pregnant?" Low birth weight is largely preventable, with implementation of these measures:
"At prenatal visits, the health of both mother and fetus can be checked.
"Because maternal nutrition and weight gain are linked with fetal weight gain and birthweight, eating a healthy diet and gaining the proper amount of weight in pregnancy are essential.
"Mothers should avoid alcohol, cigarettes and illicit drugs, which can contribute to poor fetal growth, among other complications.
So, the question is, to prevent low birthweight babies from becoming "the criminal element," what do we have to address? Not a pretty answer, I fear....
Chuck...You type a lot of words but you say nothing. If you weren't so arrogant and misinformed with your comments people would take you more seriously. I don't want to get in the middle of your argument but you both are correct.
DeleteBirth size is the result of fetal growth. The fetal experience is unique and influenced by parental, placental, and fetal factors. Furthermore, it is likely that there are complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors of parental, placental, and fetal origin.
Only 8.2% of babies born in the US have low birth weight (per the CDC in 2010).
Also per the March of Dimes:
What causes a baby to be born with low birthweight?
There are two main reasons why a baby may be born with low birthweight:
1)Premature birth. This is birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. About 7 of 10 low-birthweight babies are premature. The earlier a baby is born, the lower her birthweight may be. About 1 in 8 babies in the United States is born prematurely. Talk to your health provider about things you can do to help reduce your chances of having a premature baby.
2) Fetal growth restriction. This means a baby doesn’t gain the weight she should before birth. You may hear the terms “growth-restricted,” “small-for-gestational age” or “small-for-date” to describe these babies. They may have low birthweight simply because their parents are small. Others may have low birthweight because something slowed or stopped their growth in the womb. About 1 in 10 babies (10 percent) are growth-restricted. Your health care provider may think your baby isn’t growing normally if your uterus (womb) isn’t growing. He may use ultrasound and heart rate monitoring to check your baby’s growth. In some cases, a baby’s growth can be improved by treating health conditions in the mother, like high blood pressure.
Your sophomoric quip about Fox news did little to lend you any credence.
7:07 PM-- and what causes premature birth? According to all credible medical texts, the main factors are: malnutrition, substance abuse (including alcohol) and smoking. Proper prenatal care addresses those-- IF the mother wants to and is permitted to by her family. The March of Dimes literature is accurate as far as it goes, and if it went farther, it would risk turning off at-risk women, so it deliberately underplays the risks-- how many high-risk pregnant women would see an ob/gyn if they knew they'd be asked about drinking, drugging and dealing? So, premature birth is NOT the cause; it is the effect. And now you know. As you point out, fetal growth restriction is something else. It only accounts for about 2.6% of neonates, or about one-third of the lbw population.
ReplyDeleteNow, knowing what causes lbw babies and what sort of outcomes they are going to face (18% of the school population, but 50% of the school failures, 90% of the 19-24 prison population), we can decide how important it is to do what it takes to keep them from becoming members of "this element."
Finally, anybody who accuses me of "generalizing" my posts probably does watch Fox News. I will be more than happy to entertain evidence to the contrary in his/her next argument.
Small babies become criminals??? HAHAHAHA chucky.... you're killin' me here!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMr Gregory,
ReplyDeleteCan you honestly tell us if you were a low weight baby ?
I am thinking that maybe the brain in your skull didn't develop fully. To continue giving excuse after excuse for the poor decisions the criminal "element" make again and again tells me you might be slipping a little as you get older.
Age old sayin pardner......don't do the crime if you cant do the time.
Chuck ,I have a question for you.
Would you want these low baby weight poor excuses for human beings hanging around your family?
I say let the cops do their jobs ,which is arresting them for crimes and generally making them unable to continue to exist in this town.
These morons don't deserve coddling.
You keep talking about how you want the best town in the best state .
What do you consider the best town in the state now?
I bet what ever town or city you deem the best right now doesnt coddle the criminals and I also bet they do a little profiling.
12:26 AM-- Thank you for self-identifying your classification in the Ted Turner groups of “lead, follow or get out of the way.”
ReplyDeleteI do not want “these low baby weight poor excuses for human beings hanging around.” I want them saved from a predestined misery. They don’t have to be low birthweight, and they don’t have to grow up to spend their entire life as deadweight in Springfield or any other town. We can make a difference in their lives, and by doing that, we can make Springfield a better town. However, it calls for an attitude adjustment on the part of the three commenters here who produce 100% of the atrocious commentary, and it requires that everybody in town remember two things about raising children:
Almost all parents-- say, 99.99%-- want to do well by their child.
Every family has its own definition of “normal,” and some of them need to re-define it.
So, you start with the parents. If they are overstressed themselves-- with drugs, lousy relatives, bad housing situation, low income-- show them opportunities to get what they want, be it clean and sober (and finally free from hassles with the cop), mother-in-law to butt out or a better job and a better place to live, and they’ll more likely than not go for it. When they express frustration with parenting, introduce them to the resources that give them more power-- parenting classes, day care, play groups, the PTA or PTO.
Look at any child who grew up to be a menace to society and you will see dozens of points at which the parents would have been happy to change, but nobody ever was there for them. If you take care of the parents, they will take care of the child.
Springfield has the resources already to be a training center for the nation in parenting practices, but it doesn’t have the willpower to make it happen. That could be because too many people just focus on the problem of “coddling the criminals” rather than thinking about preventing them from becoming criminals.
I don’t care which is the best town at present in Vermont; I want Springfield to be the best town. Lead, follow or get out of the way!
Spoken like a true socialist chuck..THANK YOU!!!
DeleteI thought caring for others was a Christian trait. Am I wrong?
DeleteFrom a personal level it's Christian, From a government level it's socialism. When you say "Springfield has the resources already to be a training center for the nation in parenting practices" that's a government level.
DeleteIn a democracy, people set the tone for the government. If we feel we should care for others, then we should be willing to authorize our government to do so.
DeleteFor example, who would not want for their family a health care system that:
1. Allowed them to choose their doctors, dentists and other practitioners
2. Freed those practitioners from the judgmental interference of bureaucrats who looked only at the bottom line of the profit and loss statement
3. Allowed their providers to handle their health care issues over the phone, rather than making a mandatory office visit
4. Never barred them from coverage for a pre-existing condition
5. Never nailed them by rescinding an already-paid fee to their provider
6. Never hiked rates without their knowledge and consent
7. Never dropped them for being too sick or too poor to pay the premium
8. Always had an affordable co-pay for all services and medications?
Now, as an individual, no Christian can provide that for anyone else, unless his name happens to be Bill Gates or such. But when a majority of Christians (accompanied by Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, theists, etc) direct their government to do for themselves and everyone else, even though you call it socialism, I think it's still an act of deepest Christianity. Of course, I could be wrong.
If we want Springfield to be the best town in the best state in the nation, maybe we should think about being more "Christian."
Chuck,
DeleteYou do not have to be christian to care about others.
I am an atheist and I care about other people. Caring has nothing to do with religion.
Anon 7:11pm
DeleteOne thing you'll need to realize about chuck, he's a MAJOR bleeding heart liberal and loves to brag about that fact.
7:11, I'm just doing a Christianity check. I happen to be an Orthodox Druid myself, always looking for the next 16-year-old virgin pine. As I've pointed out before, Bill Lee said the atheistic Communists should have embraced Christianity, while the capitalists should have chosen atheism.
Delete5:52, I have NOT "wandered way off topic." At 6:49 on 4/1, you wrote, "Why does this element so frequently engage in behavior that only serves to reinforce negative stereotypes?" Everything I've written since then has been addressing precisely that point and the questions it raised.
Chuck, you took the comment about "criminal element" and wandered off to low weight births and Christianity. Please try to stay on topic. Your posts always see to bring your leftist extreme political views into play when they're never invited.
DeleteChuck , So if "I" take care of the parents they will take care of their kids?
DeleteIm gut laughing right now.Thank you for making my day.
You have proved my point. We take care of a lot of parents right now that dont take care of their children.
Plus you havent answered my question .Do you want these losers that were arrested hanging around your family? Maybe you could pay their bail,then take them in and rehab them .
Let me know how that works out for you......
Thanks again for the laughs
So, do you want to work hard or do you want to work smart, 11:12?
DeleteConsider that "taking care" means something different than you imagine. You don't take care of anybody by supporting a voluntary dysfunction. The parents who suffer an alcoholic child to live untreated with them are doing the child no favor; they take care of him by saying, "When you're clean and sober, you can live here.
It's the same with parents: You take care of them first by giving them the opportunity to distinguish between wants and needs when they deal with problems. If the problem in my family is that I can't afford to feed my kids and I happen to be a pack a day smoker, it would be to my benefit to deal with the fact that while I want to smoke, quitting would provide all the money (and more) that I need for food.
When you take care of parents by showing them how they can dump their wants for their needs, you start saving their kids from risking life in the "criminal element."
If you decide not to take care of the parents, you wind up taking care of the kids, often at $28,000 each per year on the Hill.
JL Machinist, how do you propose we prevent the nurture of a "criminal element" in Springfield children if not by addressing the causes? Focus, focus, focus!
Delete"we" already take care of the parents and their "needs", how's it working out for you chuck? Once again you seem to be lost in your liberal world of rainbows and unicorns and not in the world of human nature.
DeleteCharles Gregory,
DeleteI will ask you again.
Do you want to bail them out of jail and take them under your wing/rehab them ?
Laura B: Please describe for me how ' "we" already take care of the parents and their "needs." ' Give me numbers of families, numbers of parents and children served, dollars spent and the programs thus made available and utilized by the parents. I think you'll find its not unicorns and rainbows.
Delete5:23: It's a lot harder to rehabilitate a delinquent than it is to nurture a child properly. It's just that it's more difficult to see that proper nurture is the easier course, because it's so low-profile we rarely think about it. I am not professionally trained or emotionally equipped to deal with someone whose most likely response would be "f**k you," but I have seen little kids shown a whole different way of living and thinking-- and it's changed their lives.
10:41 Still havent answered the question.
DeleteIt's called Welfare Chuck. Something you know very well.
DeleteNO, 7:48, I want from you the specifics of how many families and children are being cared for and in what ways by the programs that are supporting them. "Welfare" doesn't do it. Exxon gets "welfare" to the tune of $500 billion per year and paid no taxes in 2011-- or so I've heard. Let's get really specific about what's being done to give families a chance to change their circumstances and their lives. Let's show the public that you speak from knowledge and not from stereotype or prejudice.
DeleteStill havent answered the question Chuck
DeleteGive it a rest chuck. You've already wandered way off topic as usual.
ReplyDelete