Lakewood Hatzolah Volunteer Gets Ticketed at Scene of Accident

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lakewood-hatzolahReb Daniel Engelson, veteran Hatzolah member of Lakewood Hatzolah, was ticketed today by a Lakewood Police Officer upon arriving at the scene of an accident in the late afternoon at the corner of Seventh Street and Clifton Avenue where a pedestrian had been hit. The officer, Patrolman John Wilson, was aboard one of the Township’s newly acquired police bikes when he stopped Rabbi Engelson, and ticketed him for not adhering to the officer’s instructions to move his car. Reb Daniel, an expert paramedic who hails from Flatbush, Brooklyn, had driven up in his own vehicle, with his blue roof-top siren on, when the officer alleged that the Hatzolah volunteer had pulled too far into the intersection.

Matzav.com spoke with a local volunteer paramedic who says that the ticket will be disputed and that the police should have used better judgment in administering a summons to a Hatzolah volunteer responding to a call.

Officer Wilson radioed in the violation and was accompanied shortly thereafter by another officer. Reb Daniel was accompanied by veteran Hatzolah member Avi Braude who also responded to the call.

Despite the strange turn of events, Reb Daniel was calm and collected, acted with utmost respect, and accepted the summons from the officer.

Matzav.com is told that an investigation will be conducted into the incident.

 {Matzav.com Newscenter, with reporting by M. Rubin}


28 COMMENTS

  1. I passed by just as the whole thing happened. the officer made the Hatzolah guy get into his car to move it before even letting him go to the person who was hit to treat him! I couldn’t believe it. whoever was there, said what?! what are you nuts? cause the guy is an inch over the line?
    this cop should be fired.

  2. rabbi engelson gave me the health test in Chemed when Bikur Cholim had their free health screening. He is a true mentch. what a shame this is.

  3. More on Menck and Wilson (an older story):

    It appears that Patrolman Erik Menck is in trouble once again. This time he has been accused by Nichole Robinson, a resident of Coventry Square, of assaulting her. At about 2:20 p.m. on Sunday, November 20th, Menck responded to a call of a disorderly person at a beauty supply store in the Shoprite Plaza. That led him to Robinson’s home on Williamsburg Lane in Coventry Square.

    Back in June, the same officer was involved in an altercation that ensued after he pulled over the niece of Rav Yosef Bursztyn to issue her a ticket.

    This past Monday night, Robinson and her family met with some members of the Lakewood community to share details of the incident.

    Robinson recounts that she went to a beauty supply store located in the Shoprite Plaza to return an item she had purchased. The clerk in the store refused to refund the item. Robinson threw the item on the counter, which inadvertently knocked over some items. The clerk was visibly upset and threatened to call the police. Robinson left the store and headed home.

    Shortly after arriving at her home, Robinson heard strong banging on her door. Her father, Horace Cody, answered the door. Officer John Wilson of the Lakewood Police Department was standing there. When asked why he was banging so noisily on the door, Wilson apologized and said that it was his partner who had banged on the door. Officer Erik Menck then entered the home and asked Robinson and her father why no one was answering the door. Robinson responded that she was in the bathroom and everyone was upstairs, and asked the officer if he can please keep the noise down because she didn’t want to startle her children.

    Menck then asked Robinson to go put on her shoes so that he can get a statement from her.
    “I agreed to do so,” says Robinson. “As I turned to go get my shoes, Officer Menck grabbed my left arm, bending it to the point where it snapped. He then punched me in the back of the neck causing me to fall on my mother’s table.

    “Officer Menck continued to assault me excessively,” continued Robinson.
    Her father began to yell at the other officer to help, but Robinson said “he just stood there as Officer Menck brutally attacked me.”

    According to Robinson, her father then asked for the phone and said he was going to report this. Menck slammed his elbow into the back of Robinson’s neck, thereby breaking her mother’s table. “I could hear my children crying at the time,” Robinson recounted.

    This went on for 15-20 minutes, according to Robinson. She was having trouble breathing and asked the officers if she could take her medication. “She’s not getting anything,” responded Menck, according to Robinson’s report.

    Menck again became hostile, smacking Robinson’s face into her glass screen door. “I was near passing out and vomiting,” said Robinson.

    Robinson said at the meeting Monday night that she was never read her rights nor was she told why the officers had come to her home.

    Once she was brought outside the house, Robinson’s neighbors rushed to her aid, yelling at the officer and pleading with him to call an ambulance. According to Robinson, both officers refused to call for medical help. Another neighbor, Zakia Miller, came out of her house and started to call an ambulance, and that is when Officer Wilson said that he would call for medical help. He then told Miller to “mind her own business.”

    According to Robinson, Zakia Miller accompanied her to the hospital and heard Menck making threats and verbally abusing Robinson.

    When they arrived at Kimball Medical Center, Robinson said that Menck continued to threaten her, saying that if she gets a lawyer he was going to “put enough charges on her” so that she will “go into jail and not get out.” Robinson begged the Emergency Room nurses not to leave her alone with the officer.
    After being taken to the radiology department, Robinson says that Menck continued to embarrass and abuse her.

    Robinson said she has damage to her eye, as well as swelling in her rib cage area, for which she is taking medication. “The doctor saw a cervical mass in my back and small fractures in my rib cage,” she said, adding that she will need surgery on her mouth as a result of the incident, in addition to multiple medical complications that have resulted.

    Shortly thereafter, Robinson was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer and spent the night in Ocean County Jail. Horace Cody was charged with interfering with an arrest during the incident.
    “I never threatened Officer Menck,” Robinson said. “I did not assault him and I did not cause any problems.”

    Menck’s report states differently, however, claiming that Robinson “committed aggravated assault by attempting to cause bodily injury….specifically by punching this officer several times in the face with a closed fist.”

    Witnesses completely refute the officer’s account of the story.

    Interestingly, Robinson said, this week she visited an orthopedist to assess her injuries. When she repeated the details of the incident to the doctor, he responded that Officer Menck is actually a patient of his, and, considering the fact that he is scheduled for surgery to repair a herniated disc, it was surprising to hear that he was out on duty for the police force.

    On November 23, Sergeant Peter T. Mills, of the Professional Responsibility Oversight Unit at the Office of the Prosecutor of Ocean County, submitted a letter to Al Peters, Director of the Lakewood Township Police Department advising him of Robinson’s complaints regarding Officer Menck and the various charges she has filed against him.

    The incident is currently under investigation.

  4. Good for Reb Daniel. He acted with “calm…and respect,” rather than shouting abuse at the officer and behaving like an idiot.

    This is a small kiddush HaShem that shows that frum people have derech eretz even when provoked.

    He also avoided further trouble for himself and Hatzalah. I’ll be very surprised if the court doesn’t void the ticket.

  5. Now that you have a badge number,whats next?Call and make death threats.Demand that he be fired.why not just go to court and dispute the ticket.and do things the right way.If it was goy would you really carehow or why he got the ticket.

  6. Although we are in Galus, this is an issue of Pikuach Nefashos and it is time that we put our foot down and draw a line in the sand…. We must use our strength not only to get variances and stadiums for the local Tutzach’s… I, for one am not impressed with seeing the police chief wearing his Yarmulkah at every Hachnosas Sefer torah and dancing with the local politician at a Chasunah… Let him be at every Hatzoloh call and teach his officers some decency

  7. Everybody posting here just better be careful what they say. Think what you want in the confines of your own head…but whatever you type here is for the rest of the world to read and make assumptions about the frum community. Just remember that.
    It appears as though the hatzola member handled the situation exactly right: he acted like a mentch and not like this town belongs to him!
    Being in the right does not validate chilul hashem. Thank you.

  8. I would not worry about this menck creep whoever he is. My friends always say what goes around comes around. One day a jerk like this will pull over someone and he will provoke a guy who is armed and he will get three bullets in the head and all this will be over.

    Don’t worry it’s just a matter of time before he steps on the wrong guy and he will get his own beatings and taste of his own meeicine.

  9. Rabbi ENgelson, you are a true tzaddik and a real mentch! Thank you for making a kiddush Hashem by the way you acted. We are proud of you!

  10. Please correct the post. Mr. Engelson is an EMT- not a paramedic.
    Also regardless of the incident with R’ Burztyn, please do not confuse Officer Menck with Oficer Wilson. Eric Menck is an aggresive cop & is always willing to jump in and assist hatzolah members on a call. He is the type of cop who likes to get down and dirty. I doubt if he would tie himself up worrying how hatzolah members park their cars. Wilson on the other hand stands around wondering why we need so many jews with flashing lights showing up. As far as he’s concerned throw the patient in back of the rig & let’s clear up traffic.

  11. the cop should be charchrd and arested
    for 2nd degree man killing
    and 1st degree endangering a humans life
    this police man is pure wicked

  12. The venerable Rav of Yerushalayim, Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt”l wrote: “Now I understand the words of Musaf for Yom Tov: ‘Because of our sins were we exiled from our country and distanced from our Land.’ This we have done VOLUNTARILY. (Moriah, p. 191) Many times have I directed that the religious Jews in the diaspora be instructed that anyone who has the ability to come to Eretz Yisroel and doesn’t, will have to account for his FAILURE in HaOlam HaBa.” (Ha’ish Al Hachoma, vol. II, p. 149)

    Yidden in America are too comfortable in, and even enamored with, this golus. As per Rav Yosef Chaim, we stay in golus VOLUNTARILY and our refusal to make aliyah en mass is the greatest FAILURE of our generation. The Ribbono Shel Olam has started to make things increasingly difficult for us here, in order to get the message across that it’s time to leave. Time to leave Lakewood, leave Boro Park, leave Flatbush, leave Monsey, leave the 5 Towns, leave Baltimore — and go home to Eretz Yisrael.

    The only question is: how bad must things get here before we finally realize the truth…and finally say goodbye to America. Stop building new subdivisions in Lakewood and start building them in Eretz Yisrael instead!

  13. While the Hatzolah member is a true mentch the
    way he behaved. It was truly very cruel of
    officer williams to withold seconds or minutes of
    treatment for the accident victim.
    I think Lakewood should make sure it never happens again

  14. Maybe someone should call the Police Station and get their side of the story. I did, and it is very different from the story that is written here. I dont know who is right. However, I believe that the lakewood PD does not realize how precious a commodity Hatzoloh is to us, or perhaps they don’t care.

  15. to #26 what do you think the police are going to say? i spoke to someone who was there and it was exactly how it happened. the officer told him to move his car as it was blocking the intersection. he answered something like but what about the patient and the cop said dont worry just move your car which he did. after he finished treating the victem the officer issued him a sommons for disobeying a police officer. even the other policemen there coudnt believe it. this is whst happened whether you want to believe it or not

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