Police Van

Edgar Rosenberg, husband of comedian Joan Rivers, was discovered dead yesterday morning in a guest room of the posh Four Seasons Hotel in an apparent suicide from an overdose of Valium, police said. Rosenberg, 63, was known to millions by his first name only - as the butt of his wife's jokes on television. He was in Philadelphia alone on business, according to a spokesman for Rivers. The couple have millions of dollars in real estate holdings in the area. Detectives said that Rosenberg was found dead about 10:30 a.m. on the floor beside the bed in Room 425 of the hotel at 18th Street and the Parkway.

A handcuffed prisoner who bolted from a police van Wednesday evening at Broad and Vine Streets was recaptured Thursday, police said. Jose Vasquez, 21, who had been arrested on drug-dealing charges, was in a Warrant Unit van when he ran away about 6:40 p.m. A police burglary detail in Kensington spotted his vehicle in the 100 block of East Indiana Avenue and set up surveillance. Vasquez returned to his vehicle and was arrested without incident. There was no immediate explanation for what had happened to the handcuffs.

A Philadelphia police van transporting five prisoners was involved in a collision this morning on the Schuylkill Expressway. Police said the crash occurred about 10:38 a.m. when the transport van was struck from behind by a white, work truck near the South Street ramp. Medics were called to the scene. The five prisoners complained of and were taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, police said. A female officer also complained of pain. None of them appeared to have sustained life-threatening injuries.

Plymouth's only police van, with a history of fuel tank, fuel line and carburetor problems, burst into flames last week, causing bullets stored in it to explode. No one was injured, but the van and $5,000 worth of equipment inside were destroyed. The 1987 Ford Econoline van, purchased new last year, had been returned to the McDonald H & M Ford dealership in Conshohocken "numerous" times for repairs. "It had a history," said Lt. Joseph Cross, who is the acting township police chief while Chief John Volpe is on vacation.

It took a thrown coffee pot, two police bullets, a car crash and a few revolutions in the back of a police van to make a coat tree-swinging man forget his demand to see a South Philadelphia dentist yesterday afternoon. Amazingly, police said, Francis Quimpo was calmly sitting up in the back of the wrecked police wagon when a rescuing sergeant reached him. Though he suffered a serious gunshot wound, Quimpo appeared none the worse for the crash that flipped the wagon into two other cars.

It was no coincidence the police van that carried mortally wounded Officer Charles Knox to the hospital in August took the man accused of killing him to jail yesterday. Before dawn, "103 Wagon," the First District vehicle from South Philadelphia in which Knox had usually worked, pulled up to the Kingsessing Avenue house where police arrested Tucker Ginn. At a news conference, police officials played down the appearance of the van. But police on the street said it was intentional.

Federal marshals joined the manhunt on Sunday for an accused murderer who bolted from a Philadelphia police van as he was being transported to prison. At least a half-dozen marshals were working with police and other investigators to find Omar Roane, 22, according to John Patrignani, the acting U.S. marshal in Philadelphia. The assistance is provided through the U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force, an initiative that works with local police to hunt down suspects. Patrignani was reluctant to make any predictions about capturing Roane or to speculate about whether he was still in the area.

You've heard of the perfect crime? How about the perfect form of police brutality? There are no witnesses. No screams to be heard by passersby. And no need to personally employ one's billy club or boot to inflict the pain. All that's needed is a van - a police van with no windows, no seat belts, no wall padding and only a thin bench for seating. Throw a suspect in there - hands cuffed behind the back - then rev the van up to 30 or 40 miles per hour. Then hit the brakes hard.

Seven suspected black guerrillas were killed by South African police yesterday during a fierce gun battle outside Cape Town, and official reports said the African National Congress had sent the group to attack black policemen. The clash was the latest evidence that the African National Congress is stepping up its armed campaign in urban areas. The congress is the main guerrilla group trying to overthrow the white-minority government. Gen. Johan Coetzee, the national police commissioner, said that his men, acting on a tip, had thwarted a planned attack by congress members on a dozen black police officers.

Two police officers were hurt today when their police van was rammed by a car at an intersection in Northeast Philadelphia and flipped over. The officers were taken to Aria Health's Torresdale hospital complaining of neck and back pain, police said. Their injuries are not considered life threatening. The female driver of the Toyota that rammed the van was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center for observation. Police said the van was northbound on Harbison Avenue with its sirens on and lights flashing about 8:45 a.m. when Toyota, which was eastbound on East Cheltenham Avenue., slammed into the driver's side of the van. The van flipped and landed on the hood of the Toyota.

A Philadelphia police van transporting five prisoners was involved in a collision this morning on the Schuylkill Expressway. Police said the crash occurred about 10:38 a.m. when the transport van was struck from behind by a white, work truck near the South Street ramp. Medics were called to the scene. The five prisoners complained of and were taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, police said. A female officer also complained of pain. None of them appeared to have sustained life-threatening injuries.

A FEW MINUTES before the city's 9 o'clock curfew went into effect last night, 16-year-old Ryan Stanton was pretty sure he wouldn't be arrested for violating it on South Street. "They shouldn't be able to violate my rights," said Stanton, who came from Mount Laurel to hang out with friends. "If the cops ask me, I'm going to explain why I have the right to assemble peacefully. " That didn't work out too well for him. By 9:15 p.m., Stanton was in a police van at 5th and South streets waiting to go to the 3rd District station at 11th and Wharton so his parents could pick him up. "We're going to take this very seriously," said police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers as officers did paperwork for Stanton and a few other kids.

A handcuffed prisoner who bolted from a police van Wednesday evening at Broad and Vine Streets was recaptured Thursday, police said. Jose Vasquez, 21, who had been arrested on drug-dealing charges, was in a Warrant Unit van when he ran away about 6:40 p.m. A police burglary detail in Kensington spotted his vehicle in the 100 block of East Indiana Avenue and set up surveillance. Vasquez returned to his vehicle and was arrested without incident. There was no immediate explanation for what had happened to the handcuffs.

WHERE IS Lawrence Bernard? Is the mentally ill man OK? Those questions have gnawed at Theodora Landgren since Sept. 25, when she witnessed what she says was the "brutal" treatment that Bernard suffered at the hands of Philly cops. "I saw it from beginning to end - I hope I never see anything like that again," says Landgren, who has filed a complaint with the police Internal Affairs Bureau about the incident. Bernard, 47, a homeless denizen of the Rittenhouse Square area, is "clearly mentally ill - a 2-year-old could see that," says Landgren, 65, who lives in the Rittenhouse Plaza, at 19th and Walnut streets, where she's on the co-op's board of directors.

Grief-stricken residents in Whitman Park were already coping with the loss of a slain neighbor when many of them awoke yesterday, the day of Anthony DeMarco's funeral, to find that their cars had been vandalized. Fifty-six vehicles on Jackson and Wolf streets between 2nd and 3rd in the South Philadelphia neighborhood were doused with a chemical, possibly acetone or paint thinner, police said. Police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers said the vandalism occurred at 2:50 a.m. and appeared to be a random act not related to Friday's homicide.

Police are looking for two men who drove through a South Philadelphia neighborhood and threw a corrosive chemical onto the parked cars they passed, leaving more than 45 cars with flaking, peeling paint. The men tossed some type of liquid onto cars parked on both sides of several streets early Tuesday morning, police said. Authorities have not determined what the substance was, but said it could have been paint thinner or some type of acid. Philadelphia Lt. Ray Evers said the men were driving a four-door car, but police have not released a detailed description.

Police-van escapee captured Omar Roane, 22, who has been on the lam since busting out of a police van while being taken to prison last Saturday, was arrested late last night in Harrisburg, police said. Roane and two other inmates were being taken to the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility in the back of a police van. When the van stopped at Frankford and Cottman avenues last week, the men forced open the doors and ran, cops said. The two other inmates were caught immediately, but Roane remained on the loose until last night, police said.

IF YOU believe that three black men, supposedly locked and handcuffed in a police van, were able to force open the back door and escape, then I have some really nice swampland down in Florida that I'd like to sell you. Audrey Robb Pick the worst of the following choices: 1. A child has no book to read. 2. A child has no pool to swim in on a hot day. 3. A child dies in a fire. Close the libraries if you have to. Close the pools. But do not cut the fire department.