January 17, 2024-Updated
TRENTON, NJ (MERCER)–City firefighters braved frigid weather to battle a three-alarm blaze that destroyed four vacant rowhouses and damaged two other occupied attached buildings Wednesday evening (Jan. 17, 2024).
It was just after 8:35 p.m. Wednesday when multiple calls flooded the city’s 911 communications center reporting a fire in the area of Dye and South Broad streets. Additional calls, alternately reporting anywhere from one to three houses on fire, gave the location as Dye and Genesee streets. Due to the volume of 911 calls being received, a full first alarm was transmitted, sending Engines 3, 7, 10 and 6, Ladders 2 and 4, Rescue 1, Special Services 1, and both on-duty battalion chiefs were dispatched.
Firefighters quickly arrived to find heavy fire and smoke showing from the upper floors of the row of four vacant structures stretching from 115 to 121 Dye Street. Multiple hoselines were immediately put in service. Burning overhead power lines briefly hampered firefighting operations.
A second alarm was sounded at 8:45 p.m., sending Engine 9 to the scene. The third alarm was struck a little before 9:10 p.m., bringing in all remaining on-duty city fire companies (Engines 1 and 8 and Ladder 1) to the scene. At the height of the fire, the incident commander reported that firefighters had nine hoselines stretched and one aerial master stream flowing water on the flames from overhead. Police cordoned off several area streets as large diameter hoselines were laid from several different fire hydrants to supply all the water needed.
The extreme cold weather – about 10 degrees Fahrenheit with the wind chill factored in – caused water running off from hoselines, hydrants and fire apparatus to create icy conditions. Multiple crews from Trenton Emergency Medical Service were on scene in case anyone was hurt. While some firefighters were seen to slip on the ice, there were no immediate reports of any injuries.
Mutual aid firefighters from Hamilton, Lawrence and Ewing townships responded to man empty Trenton firehouses and provide coverage to the city. Those mutual aid cover companies responded to several other emergencies throughout the evening, including an accident in which a vehicle flipped over on Route 29 near Calhoun Street. Hamilton Fire Department’s Truck 10-1 was also called as a precaution to standby at the Roebling Market, a block from the fire scene on Dye Street, after one of the city’s ladder truck developed a mechanical fault.
Signal 22, the city’s volunteer fire and police canteen unit, was on scene serving hot chocolate and coffee to firefighters and police officers.
The blaze was officially declared under control at 10:24 p.m. In addition to the four rowhouses ravaged by the flames, the occupied home at 123 Dye Street was damaged by smoke and fire, while the upper floors of the last attached property in the row – an apartment at 125 Dye Street, located above a first-floor restaurant at the corner of Dye Street and South Clinton Avenue – reportedly sustained smoke damage.
Wednesday’s blaze occurred just a stone’s throw from where a large commercial building at the corner of Dye and South Broad streets was destroyed by another three-alarm blaze on Oct. 13, 2021.
Investigators from the Trenton Fire Department, city police, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and other agencies were on scene.
January 17, 2024
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, NJ (MERCER)–Police say that on January 16, 2024, at approximately 10:48 p.m., Hamilton Police officers were detailed to El Mexicano Restaurant, located at 1633 Hamilton Avenue, for a robbery that just occurred. Responding officers met with employees of the business who advised that a black male entered the business and forcefully took money from one of the employees at the business’s cash register, then fled on foot. The employee sustained a minor injury to her hand but refused medical attention on scene. Employees of the business followed the suspect to the area of Greenwood Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue, where Officer Piotrowski and Officer Doan located the suspect and took him into custody. The suspect was identified as Jamar Hutchinson, 25, of Hamilton, NJ.
Hutchinson was charged with robbery and transported to the Mercer County Correctional Center pending a detention hearing.
Anyone with additional information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Nicholas Schulte at (609) 689-5825 or [email protected]. The public can also leave a message on the Hamilton Police Crime Tip Hotline at (609) 581-4008.
Every defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
January 17, 2024
TRENTON, N.J. – The deputy mayor of Willingboro Township, New Jersey, and one of his business associates were charged with conducting a scheme to discharge the deputy mayor’s mortgage obligation on his property through a fraudulent short sale, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Nathaniel Anderson, 56, a town councilman and the deputy mayor of Willingboro in Burlington County, New Jersey, and his business associate Chrisone D. Anderson, 56, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, are charged by complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of making false statements on a loan application. Additionally, Chrisone D. Anderson is charged with two counts of making false statements to a federal agent. Nathaniel Anderson and Chrisone D. Anderson made their initial appearances today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne J. Bongiovanni in Trenton federal court and were released on $50,000 each unsecured bond.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:
From March 2015 through June 2017, Nathaniel Anderson and Chrisone D. Anderson conspired and agreed with one another to orchestrate a fraudulent short sale of a property in Willingboro from Nathaniel Anderson to Chrisone D. Anderson.
As part of the conspiracy to defraud a government sponsored enterprise to discharge a mortgage obligation on Nathaniel Anderson’s property in Willingboro and to induce a mortgage lending business to issue a new mortgage on the property, Chrisone D. Anderson executed – and Nathaniel D. Anderson aided and abetted the execution of – mortgage documents containing materially false representations. These included that the short sale was an arm’s length transaction, that Chrisone D. Anderson did not have a prior business relationship with Nathaniel Anderson, that Nathaniel Anderson would not continue to occupy the property as his residence following the short sale, and that Chrisone D. Anderson would occupy the property as her primary residence.
As a result of the fraudulent short sale, the government sponsored enterprise discharged Nathaniel Anderson’s mortgage obligation and suffered a loss of over $120,000, and the victim lender issued a new mortgage on the property. During a May 2022 interview, Chrisone D. Anderson made false statements to an agent of the FBI concerning the short sale.
The charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, bank fraud, and making false statements on a loan application are each punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of up to $1 million. The charges of making false statements to a federal agent are each punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum fine of up to $250,000.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, Newark Division, Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark; and special agents of the Northeast Region of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Robert Manchak, with the investigation leading to the charges.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander E. Ramey of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton, working in conjunction with the Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
24-020
Defense counsel:Nathaniel Anderson: Daniel M. Rosenberg Esq., Mount Holly, New Jersey
Chrisone D. Anderson: Troy A. Archie Esq., Cinnaminson, New Jersey
Anderson.ComplaintDownload 
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January 17, 2024
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP, NJ (BURLINGTON)–The New Jersey State Police reported that Troopers responded to a motor vehicle accident at 1:24 p.m. on the New Jersey Turnpike south, milepost 53.2 in Bordentown Twp., Burlington County. Based on the preliminary investigation, a Freightliner tractor trailer and an International tractor trailer were traveling southbound on the New Jersey Turnpike outer lanes. In the area of milepost 53.2, the two tractor-trailers collided. The drivers sustained minor injuries and were transported to an area hospital. The accident remains under investigation and there is no additional information available.
Bordentown Township and Robbinsville Fire Departments responded to the scene for an extrication of a driver of one of the tractor trailers. EMS and Paramedics also responded.
