Sex Assault Charges Downgraded
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathleen McGinn Spring and Barbara Fox were prepared for the February 26, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
Let the upgrades begin! Patriot Media and Communications
finalized its purchase of RCN’s New Jersey cable services on Wednesday,
February 19, according to company spokesman John Gdovin. The new company
is reported to have paid $3,100 for each of RCN’s 80,000 subscribers
in central New Jersey. Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, and
Montgomery are among the towns served by Patriot. Trade magazine CableWorld
has reported that the company will spend $44 million to upgrade the
system.
Patriot was formed by Steve Simmons, who sold 350,000-subscriber cable
system Simmons Communications about 10 years ago, and by Spectrum
Equity Partners. In addition to his business experience, Simmons served
as associate director of domestic policy in Jimmy Carter’s administration.
Simmons is also an author. His children’s picture books include Alice
and Greta, a tale of two witches, one good, one not so good. The book
has received five out of five stars by everyone who has reviewed it
on Amazon.com Long-suffering former RCN cable subscribers can hope
to give Patriot as high a rating.
RCN, focused on building its subscriber base from among apartment
dwellers in big cities, never really wanted the Princeton-area cable
franchise, which it took over from C-TEC. Promised improvements are
less than 20 percent complete, and residents have complained about
poor service and high prices. Under a deal with the state Board of
Public Utilities, to which local towns have taken their complaints,
Patriot will provide increased bandwidth for two-way, high-speed cable
modem service, high-quality cable channels, and compact disc quality
music channels by the end of next year.
Cable subscribers in Patriot territory, Princeton up through Somerset
and Hunterdon, can hope that Patriot will emulate Alice, the good
witch, and bring their system up to the standards of nearby communities.
— Kathleen McGinn Spring
Patriot Media and Communications, 378 South BranchRoad, Suite 104-107, Hillsborough 08844. Jim Holanda, president. 908-371-9700;fax, 908-371-2179.Top Of PageSex Assault Charges DowngradedParag Pruthi, founder of Niksun Inc. on Cornwall Drive,is scheduled to appear in South Brunswick Municipal Court on Thursday,March 6, as a result of downgraded charges resulting from a sex assaultallegation by a female employee.When Pruthi was arrested on November 30, 2001, he was charged withcriminal sexual contact, criminal restraint, and lewdness. The chargeshave since been downgraded to disorderly persons by the COunty Prosecutor’sOffice.Whether by chance or by someone’s planning, on the day of the arrest,a camera crew was parked in front of Pruthi’s Cornwall Road office,to do an interview about how his company had just made the top 100list at Computerworld magazine. Instead, the crew filmed Pruthi’sarrest.Detective James Ryan of the South Brunswick Police investigated thecomplaint by the 32-year-old employee.Representing Pruthi, Joseph Benedict, of Benedict and Arnold on LivingstonAvenue in New Brunswick, emphasizes how the charges were downgraded.”It was not a case the county prosecutor wanted to pursue,”says Benedict. “We have a very good defense.”The complainant’s original statement, according to Detective Ryan,was that “she was restrained and he made unwanted contact withparts of her body. She questioned whether anyone would follow throughon her complaints.”But after extensive investigation Benedict believes he can prove thatneither the party was in the building on the weekend day that theoffense allegedly occurred. Nor were they in the building on the weekendsbefore or after that day. “The building has an access code andneither shows up as having worked that day,” says Pruthi’s attorney.”We interviewed everyone who was there, and they are sure thecomplainant was not there. We checked phone records and we have Pruthi’scell phone showing that he was checking the office.”Benedict also reports that the complainant had recorded a stalkingincident involving someone from her former place of employment. “Mysurmise is that she was probably setting somebody up and found a bettertarget here. She has filed a civil suit and made an outrageous demand,$2 million.”Founded in 1997, the 60-person firm offers non-intrusive network monitoring,performance and security enhancement, equipment provider for IP networks.It also has offices at 111 North Center Drive.— Barbara FoxTop Of PageOne Firm to FourFirms founded by four people who used to work at VandalProof Products now share an office, and the office has moved fromCrossroads Drive to Kuser Road.Two years ago Ron Keppel, the owner of Vandal Proof Products, soldthe company to Electronic Microsystems, which has a parent company,the Halma Group, based in the United Kingdom. Ron Keppel started anothercompany, Emcom Systems to do technology integration in the communicationsarea.Emcom Systems, 2450 Kuser Road, Suite E, Hamilton08690. Ron Keppel, owner. 609-584-7817; fax, 609-584-7723.Les Slater of Slater Associates covers the marketing arrangementsfor VandalProof as well as for two other companies. “I hire manufacturersreps and set up their national marketing plans, functioning for somecompanies as the outsourced vice president of marketing. My companyreaches the telecommunications and security industries,” saysSlater. A 1960 graduate of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota,Class of 1960, he had worked at Viking Electronics in Wisconsin. Whathe represents: vandal resistant telephones (Vandal Proof Products),small office/home office phone systems (for TMC Corporation, basedin Cranbury), and door entry (DoorBell Fone).Vandal Proof phones are used by the Port Authority of New York/NewJersey, the Baltimore Mass Transit Association, and Amtrak for theHudson River Tunnel, where the steel-encased unbreakable phones areused by train personnel for emergencies and maintenance purposes.Slater Associates, 2450 Kuser Road, Suite E, Hamilton08690. Les Slater, regional manager. 609-584-7790; fax, 609-584-7723.Home page: www.slater-associates.comJon Zeier has a marketing business.Zeier Associates, 2450 Kuser Road, Suite E, Hamilton08690. Jon Zeier 609-587-8240; fax, 609-584-7723.Richard Mextras programmed the embedded systems for the Vandal Proofproducts. A Dartmouth graduate, Class of 1969, he did graduate workat Princeton in music composition, particularly focused on computermusic with Jim Randall. “I was the first of the composers to endup as a computer professional,” says Mextras. He founded his consultingfirm in 1979 and has a home office in Hopewell. In addition to embeddedsystems, he works on real-time financial news distribution.Mextras Associates, 2450 Kuser Road, Hamilton Square08690. Richard Mextras. 609-818-9143; fax, 609-584-7723.Top Of PageExpansionsAdventures in Advertising/The Printing Company,525 Milltown Road, North Brunswick 08902. Al DeLuca, president. 732-846-4200;fax, 732-846-0456. Home page: www.advinadv.comThe DeLucas expanded their printing and advertising firm from 2070Route 1 in North Brunswick to Milltown Road in the same township,and it has a new phone and fax. The move took place December 30.Al DeLuca majored in economics at Boston University ’82 and sold printingand computer supplies on Wall Street for Wallace Computer Services,then worked for a small private firm before starting his own business.He and his wife have four children, and his mother, Beverly, andhis brother, Michael, are also in the business.”Our new space has more room for storage,” says Beverly DeLuca,”which we need since we took on a franchise, Adventures in Advertising,for promotional items.”The DeLucas does printing — letterheads, parking programs, invitations— for the New York Yankees, and bags and hats for the Yankees’DS Networks. “They have a package for executives for spring training,and we are doing bathrobes with logos,” she says, and phone cards.Phone cards are the next hot, inexpensive promotional item. Otherclients are JFK Medical Center, Coors Light, and medical companies— magazines to promote new drugs.Top Of PageName ChangesDow Chemical Company, 295 Princeton HightstownRoad, Suite 11361, West Windsor 08550. Joseph Marasco. 609-275-6861;fax, 609-275-1458. Home page: www.dow.comJoseph Marasco’s company, Chirotech, was bought by Dow Chemical lastyear and the United States office moved from the Carnegie Center.A developer of key chemical intermediates, Chirotech was headquarteredin Cambridge, England.Top Of PageDeathsJames A. Bulvanoski, 57, on February 13. He founded SPTElectrical Supply Company.John W. Gaston Jr., 56, on February 17. He had been executivedirector of Stony Brook Regional Sewer Authority.Jack O’Leary, 77, on February 19. Formerly vice presidentof public relations at Gillespie Associates, he was a consultant tothe Princeton Chamber, Princeton University, and Bovis Lend Lease,among others.Joseph Lahovich Sr., 60, on February 20. He worked atFMC Corporation.Barbara Sipos Arrison, 46, on February 20. She had worked atDow Jones on Route 1 North and as a bookkeeper at Mercer Street Friends.Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
