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Asbury Park Press :: Monmouth Edition

WEDNESDAY 02.18.15

Fleeing from flames

Neighbor helps Brick couple escape
STORY, A8
fire before home collapses

RISKY
RESCUE
RUSS ZIMMER/STAFF PHOTO

A 14-year-old girl who fell into the icy water of Sandy Hook Bay was rescued Tuesday. She was taken to a hospital for treatment of possible hypothermia and is expected to recover.

Its not over yet!

Sub-zero temps,
more snow await

Middletown first responders charge

into frigid waters to save teenage girl
RUSS ZIMMER @RUSSZIMMER
MIDDLETOWN Quick actions by first responders
quite possibly saved the life of a 14-year-old girl who
plunged into the icy waters of the Sandy Hook Bay
Tuesday afternoon for about 20 minutes before her
dramatic rescue.
Two teenage girls wandered out on an outflow pipe
the length of a football field that empties into the bay at
the end of Leonard Drive in the Leonardo section of the
township. They were nearly at the end of the culvert
when youthful exploration turned into a life-and-death
situation.
The 14-year-old girl had fallen into the frigid waters,
up above her waist, officials said. She had slipped off
the pipe and was soaking in seawater that was 30.2
degrees, as measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The incident was initially called in as somebody

STEPH SOLIS @STEPHMSOLIS

PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA BIFULCO

Members of a water rescue team prepare for the rescue on

Sandy Hook Bay Tuesday.

See RESCUE, Page A8

For videos, photo galleries and more from the rescue

and weather scenes around the Shore, visit

APP.com

The arctic weather that brutalized New Jersey last

weekend is returning with a vengeance, as temperatures are expected to drop below zero Thursday
night.
Another arctic cold front is expected to roll in tonight, bringing snow squalls and frigid chills, according to a weather briefing from the National Weather
Service.
The cold front likely will bring light snow today,
but the temperatures will fall to near or even below
zero in parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties on
Thursday.
While the winds will not be strong, wind chill values will fall to below zero once again.
Its going to be brutal, said Kristine Kline, a meteorologist on duty at the weather service. It's going
to be fairly similar to Sunday night into Monday just
earlier this week.
In Monmouth County, the weather service is predicting lows of minus 1degree in Holmdel and minus 2
See WEATHER, Page A8

Prosecutors drop objection to mans DNA test

KATHLEEN HOPKINS @KHOPKINSAPP
FREEHOLD The validity of a Long Branch mans
decades-old claim that he was wrongfully convicted of
a1988 rape could be revealed in as little as a month, now
that the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office has
dropped its objection to testing DNA evidence in the
case, the mans attorney said Monday.
Some of the DNA evidence collected in the rape that
Dion Harrell was convicted of in 1992 will first be tested

at the State Police laboratory to determine if it excludes

him as the person who committed the crime, said Vanessa Potkin, an attorney for the Manhattan-based Innocence Project, who is representing Harrell in his bid
for exoneration.
If the testing at the State Police laboratory is inconclusive, the Innocence Project will have the remaining
portion of DNA evidence analyzed at a private laboratory that has the capability of performing more advanced
testing, Potkin said.

We may know in as soon as a month or two, whether Harrell is innocent of the crime he was convicted of,
she said.
Potkin was set to go to court Feb. 27 to ask Superior
Court Judge Ronald L. Reisner to order testing on the
DNA evidence collected from the rape of a 17-year-old
girl in Long Branch on Sept. 18, 1988, when Harrell was
22.
See HARRELL, Page A7

OBAMA VOWS APPEAL OF DECISION THAT BLOCKS IMMIGRATION ACTIONS PAGE 1B

Sweet and savory

ways to welcome the
Chinese New Year

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