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A
public access television show entitled "Talking Politics,"
hosted by Jersey City resident Bob DuVal and produced by a trio of
Jersey City's most prominent political activists - Mia Scanga, Vito
Brunetti and Yvonne Balcer - was set to be videotaped at High Tech
High School in North Bergen last Tuesday evening.
The show, which had been taped at the location twice before last week,
was to feature current Hudson County Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons
and several other candidates running in the June 4 Democratic primary
for Freeholder, including Tom Murphy of Jersey City and Russell
Pascale of North Bergen, a known adversary of North Bergen Mayor
Nicholas Sacco.
The half-hour show was apparently going along smoothly for some 25
minutes, when DuVal apparently asked a question about politicians
holding multiple positions.
That's when Pascale began to mention Mayor Sacco and the litany of
positions that the mayor holds, including state senator and North
Bergen assistant superintendent of schools. Soon after, the mayhem
apparently began. Several Hudson County sheriff's officers, acting on
an apparent complaint call, arrived on the scene. The actual number of
officers differs depending on the witness. Some say as many as 15
sheriff's officers were there. Others say that there were five. But it
was definitely more than a handful.
North Bergen police also arrived on the scene as well. Again, the
numbers of actual officers differ, but police records distinctly show
that two officers were summoned to the site - and only after receiving
a call from Pascale's political ally and fellow Sacco foe, Edward
"Bo" Scannavino.
There were also reports that someone from the security department at
the school - apparently the lieutenant in charge of the school's
security and the law enforcement officer, Brian Guaschino -
confiscated the tape and kept it away from the producers of the
program. Guaschino steadfastly maintains he was strictly doing his
job.
So what is the true story of what happened? The entire scenario seems
bizarre.
What the heck happened?
Pascale believes that the whole fiasco is the work of Sacco, whom
Pascale believes ordered the apparent raid in an attempt to silence
him from speaking ill of him on television.
"Who else would have the ability to get seven officers there to
take that tape in the matter of five minutes?" Pascale said
during the public portion of the North Bergen Board of Commissioners'
meeting a week ago Wednesday, a day after the incident. "It was
you, Nick Sacco. How low can you stoop? It's vicious and unbelievable.
What about freedom of the press?"
Sacco never acknowledged Pascale during the meeting.
Pascale said that he is sure that Sacco was behind the incident.
"I'm saying that it's Sacco," Pascale said. "But this
is not about Russell Pascale or Nick Sacco or Thomas Liggio [the other
candidate for Freeholder, who did not participate in the forum]. This
is about freedom of speech and the freedoms that so many people gave
their lives for. To shut down a debate, then attack me in public, is
ridiculous. The fact how the whole thing was done is mind-boggling.
The show was geared to let people have a voice, but then this
happens."
Producer Mia Scanga, an accountant and resident of Jersey City, said
that the incident began within minutes of Pascale's mentioning of
Sacco's different positions.
"I'm telling you, it was within two minutes of the Sacco
comment," Scanga said. "At that point, Brian [Guaschino] is
at the door, saying that he has to shut us down because we didn't have
the proper forms. I said that we only had about three minutes left in
the show, so could we continue and then talk about it after, and he
was insistent to stop the taping right there. I was trying to whisper
because the taping was still going on. But everyone became very
animated in a hurry. And then the cops were there."
According to Guaschino, the taping was shut down because the producers
of the show did not have proper clearance to use the facilities.
An employee who works at High Tech set up the show's taping, but also
did not get approval from the Hudson County Schools of Technology's
Board of Education to use the facilities, Guaschino said. That person
apparently let the producers into the building.
"Whenever anybody has a function in the school, of any kind, it
has to be approved," Guaschino said. "This TV production was
never approved. They didn't have proper authorization to be there.
Since that was the case, I had to shut it down."
However, Scanga said that there were several other political public
access shows taped at the school in the past and nothing was ever said
before.
"I was involved with another show, 'Discerning Opinions,' that
was taped there at least five years ago," Scanga said. "We
already had shot two shows [one featuring Jersey Journal columnists
Earl Morgan and Peter Weiss and another featuring Jersey City
politicians Gerry McCann, Bill O'Dea and Eliu Rivera]. So this was not
the first time we were using the facilities for a taped political
forum. So it was nothing new."
Guaschino said that he denies Pascale's claim that he confiscated the
tape, then ran around with the tape while sheriff's officers chased
after him through the halls of the school.
"That is absolutely false," Guaschino said.
However, Scanga said that she saw Guaschino running through the halls
of the school with the tape in hand.
Guaschino was a track and field standout at both North Bergen High
School and the University of Tennessee and is a member of the Hudson
County Sports Hall of Fame.
Guaschino said that he was not the one who called the Hudson County
sheriff's officers. In fact, it has not been determined how the
officers arrived on the scene. Several phone calls were made to Hudson
County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, but those calls went unreturned.
"Normally, we have a sheriff's officer on duty that is paid by
the school to help with our security," Guaschino said.
"Maybe that officer called for help. I don't know."
Scannavino said that he called the North Bergen police after he saw
the sheriff's officers because the situation was getting out of hand.
Fitzgibbons witnessed the entire situation and couldn't believe what
he was seeing.
"I'm all for public access television," Fitzgibbons said.
"I'm a big supporter of it and always have been. When my
constituents ask me to appear, I'm going to do so. I also believe in
freedom of speech. I think an error was made that they didn't go
through the proper channels and get the necessary paperwork
beforehand. I was certainly caught by surprise by what happened and I
had never seen anything like it."
Scanga said that she was told by the sheriff's officers that if she
didn't leave, she was going to be arrested. Fitzgibbons apparently
stepped in and wouldn't allow that to happen. Eventually, calm was
restored, except for one thing. The tape was not returned to Scanga
and the producers. None of the tapes have ever aired.
Apparently, a school employee has them in her possession and will not
return them to Scanga.
"The whole thing was ridiculous," Scanga said. "It's
like something out of 'The Three Stooges.' It's like we conducted a
bank robbery, with all the police there. I was really concerned that I
was going to be arrested. Thankfully, we had Freeholder Fitzgibbons
there to witness the whole thing."
Added Scanga, "To me, the whole thing was dirty politics. I think
they were trying to slam dunk Russell Pascale. The first two times we
taped there, no one was interested. But because they know Pascale is
there, then this happens. Suddenly, we became trespassers. I think
they wanted to squash any information he had to say. As soon as they
saw Pascale, then that's what sent the message that something had to
be done."
Sacco refused to comment on the situation. Spokesman Paul Swibinski
claimed that it was just another incident involving Pascale to gain
attention.
"They say I don't have credibility," Pascale said.
"Well, then why were they there?"
It's a question that still remains to be fully answered.
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