Breaking: Housing Authority cites drug arrest record of ‘friend’ helping veteran

NORTH BERGEN AND BEYOND – Eviction proceedings brought by the Housing Authority against a disabled Desert Storm veteran and his wife that were scheduled for landlord-tenant court next week have been postponed pending the results of additional investigation into the matter, announced town officials today.
On Wednesday afternoon, a local newspaper told the tale of Page Vassallo and her husband Sean, a former Marine and veteran of Desert Storm who was paralyzed in a car accident. The couple was facing eviction from their North Bergen Housing Authority apartment. Soon other news media, including CBS News, picked up the story.
The authority began eviction proceedings claiming that Page’s friend, Gary Danchise, who slept over a few days a week to help Sean, was living illegally in the apartment, since he was not on the lease.
Today a spokesman for the town, Paul Swibinski, said that Danchise has an arrest record, including a stint in the Hudson County Corrections Facility.
According to the New Jersey Department of Corrections’ website, Gary Danchise, 55, was incarcerated in the Hudson County Corrections Facility from Jan. 14 to Aug. 10, 2005 for one count of conspiracy and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.
“This man should not be anywhere near [public] housing,” said Swibinski.
For more information on this story, read this week’s North Bergen Reporter. – Tricia Tirella

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