Durham Woods assault suspects arrested

BY CHRIS GAETANO

Staff Writer

EDISON - Investigations into a series of assaults in the Durham Woods apartment complex, on Reading Road, have yielded two arrests in connection with the incidents.

The attacks, which reportedly started in June, involved residents of Asian Indian heritage and had sparked concerns that the community was being singled out. During the Oct. 17 press conference announcing the arrests, Edison Mayor Jun Choi said that no evidence was found to support this idea. He also said that there has been no evidence that the attacks were gang-related.

The arrests, he said, show that a great deal of progress has been made on the stillongoing case, despite facing challenges in convincing witnesses and victims to report these crimes to police.

"This obviously was a series of unfortunate incidents, and what made it more challenging from a law enforcement perspective was that we were working with a group of new Americans who are not quite understanding the legal process and the law enforcement process," said Choi.

The mayor said that meetings were held with the police, township and Durham Woods residents to further discuss the incidents, which Choi said helped convince five witnesses to come forward regarding nine incidents. Information from these people was the turning point in the investigation, which is being headed up by Detective Tom Lombardo.

"What prompted the move to arrest was the cooperation we received from all the victims," said Choi. He also praised Lombardo's efforts in the investigation. "His detective work was effective and responsive. … Also, his ability to communicate and build bridges was a key part of this."

Of the people apprehended, all were minors as well as residents of the Durham Woods apartment complex. According to Lt. Joseph Shannon, a spokesperson with the Edison Police Department, two were arrested and charged with two counts of "simple assault" and three others were brought in for "station house adjustments," which is not technically an arrest and more like a probationary program.

Shannon said that the underreporting of incidents has come to the department's attention and that police have been doing what they can to dispel the notion that one should be hesitant to contact authorities in the event of a crime. He noted that if people don't contact them, the police cannot do their jobs.

"I would like to think we've sent a clear message to the community that they have no reason to have inhibitions, that they should be contacting us. To best serve them in our capacity, we need to understand what is happening in these neighborhoods, and if they don't, the only people benefiting are the felons, and we don't want that situation to occur," said Shannon.

Pradip "Peter" Kothari, president of the Indo-American Religious and Cultural Center, said that cultural divides and distrust of police can make some members of Edison's Asian Indian community more hesitant to turn to the police in the event of a crime. Kothari said the police department, as well as other authorities in Middlesex County, are not representative of the burgeoning Indian Asian population in the area, and that fear of being singled out by police can be a major factor in a person's willingness to report a crime, even when the crime is perpetrated against that person. With this in mind, he said, it is especially important for the police to have the proper sensitivity training to better learn how to cooperate with the community, and to display goodwill in general.

"It is how the police officer, when the first information is first received, responds … he will not look at race, nationality or color. If that person is clear in his mind regarding this important factor, the people who are afraid, assaulted, will definitely come forward," said Kothari, who also stressed the importance of following up.

Kothari noted that due to underreporting from the community, the number of incidents could be much, much higher than the official figures. He praised the police work that went into the arrests, though he was saddened that the incidents happened in the first place.

Relations between the Edison Police Department and the Asian Indian community reached a low point in the summer of 2006, over the arrest and alleged assault either by or of a resident over an illegally parked car, which sparked a firestorm of controversy, especially when the resident in question was suddenly deported back to India a few months after the July 4 incident.

"They have to make immigrants aware … that if they are a victim or witness to a crime, not only is it appropriate policy not to be reported [to immigration], but there are avenues to documentation for those that come forward and testify against criminals," said Goldstein.

To this end, he said, police departments must perform significant outreach to immigrant communities in order to build up a positive relationship between them based on trust. He said this might be difficult, since immigration becomes a hot-button issue in many communities. He noted that the state Attorney General's Office is offering training in relationships with immigrants and that the office should make Edison a priority, based on its size and diversity.

Edison police have been engaged in a number of outreach and community policing efforts, especially in response to the incidents at Durham Woods. Shannon said that police have sat in on meetings with Durham Woods residents and have offered their assistance in forming a neighborhood watch program that will better coordinate efforts between the people who live there and police. The department has also deployed community resource officers throughout the township, who communicate with the public and give them a better idea of what the police do and why. This is part of an effort to form better relationships at the neighborhood level.

"This would be a perfect example of that, as far as the police and community working together, trying to resolve issues in the neighborhoods," said Shannon.

Police have also stepped up patrols in Durham Woods and are working with a private security firm that patrols the neighborhood. The firm was hired in 1994 after a rent strike by tenants who were concerned at what they saw was an increasing level of crime in the area.

Shannon said that residents should not hesitate to contact the police regarding crime, saying that the police cannot act if no one tells them what's going on.

"All I can say from a police standpoint is we can only investigate what is reported. We don't deal with rumors too often, we deal with factual reporting," said Shannon.