Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Mark Bellotti, the lawyer who fought for Avenel's Fancy Pups in consumer fraud lawsuits, got convicted of fraud himself.
The lawyer who represented an Avenel pet store in a slew of consumer fraud lawsuits has just gotten slammed by the law himself. Mark Bellotti, the attorney who defended Fancy Pups in Woodbridge Municipal Court, received five years in prison, a $50,000 fine, and had his license revoked in Monmouth County Superior Court today, Tuesday, September 18. Bellotti pleaded guilty in February to submitting fraudulent loan applications worth almost $2.7 million. “Lawyers take an oath to uphold the law, but this one repeatedly betrayed his oath and broke the law to turn a quick profit,” said Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa in a statement. “We’re aggressively investigating and prosecuting this type of mortgage fraud.” “This lawyer and his co-…
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Fancy Pups
1144 Saint Georges Ave, Avenel, NJ
/articles/fancy-pups-atty-gets-five-years-for-mortgage-fraud
1854012
/locations/7863847
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Doreen Longo wonders when Woodbridge will join them.
Last week, Brick Township's council joined Point Pleasant in passing an ordinance that prohibits the retail sale of dogs and cats inside their borders. Doreen Longo said she was glad to see that some towns in New Jersey are taking the controversial step to discourage live trafficking in companion animals, many of which are purchased from Pennsylvania 'puppy mills' and come to their new owners, sick and diseased. "But not Woodbridge," Longo said. "Woodbridge will never ban the sale of poor puppies and kittens. Longo should know. The dog lover, who hails from Toms River, has been in and out of court in Woodbridge and New Brunswick, the county seat, ever since she purchased a German Shepherd puppy last year from an Avenel pet store. The …
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Fancy Pups
1144 Saint Georges Ave, Avenel, NJ
/articles/brick-council-stop-retail-sale-of-companion-animals
1854012
/locations/7434706
Saturday, June 16, 2012
The owner of a sick puppy bought from the Avenel pet store won by default Friday.
Another chapter of the Fancy Pups saga came to an end Friday. Doreen Longo, the Toms River woman who purchased a German Shepherd puppy who died of parvovirus last December, won a battle instituted by Rocco Garruto, the owner of Fancy Pups, the Avenel store that sold her the sick dog. Garruto had accused Longo of lunging at him in the waiting room of Woodbridge Municipal Court earlier this year. He dragged her into court on criminal charges, saying that she threatened him and made bodily contact with him. Longo won by default, though, because once again, as he's done before, Garruto was a no-show. The judge dismissed the charges while Longo and her attorney waited for their case to be brought up. As far as Longo is concerned, though, the …
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
So far Doreen Longo has won the courtroom battles against Rocco Garruto of Fancy Pups. But she's paid a heavy price, which she says is what the Fancy Pups owner wants.
The customer who tried to bring a local pet store to task for selling her a sick puppy that died of a contagious disease has found that complaining has a price. A big price, said Doreen Longo. "Every time I turn around, it's something else." Since last December when she purchased Sasha, a German Shepherd puppy from Fancy Pups, an Avenel pet store, Longo said she's tried to get reimbursed for the puppy who died days later of parvovirus and for the costs of treating the animal. Her reward has been that the owner of the store, Rocco Garruto, and his various attorneys, have been dragging her into court in what Longo calls a series of slapback suits. "He's decided since I've been complaining that I'm the problem, not the sick and diseased …
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Fancy Pups
1144 Saint Georges Ave, Avenel, NJ
/articles/back-to-court-owner-of-dead-puppy-vows-to-keep-fighting-back-against-fancy-pups
1854012
/locations/7198645
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Rocco Garruto is dragging Doreen Longo and her lawyer into Middlesex County Superior Court today, charging her complaints about her dead puppy are putting him out of business
The case between the owner of an Avenel pet store and the buyer of a puppy from that store that died of a dreaded canine disease has just ratcheted up a few notches. Doreen Longo, whose German shepherd puppy passed away from parvovirus less than two weeks after she bought the dog from Fancy Pups, was served with papers to appear in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick today. Both Longo and her attorney, Edward Harrington Heyburn, are being ordered into court by Fancy Pups owner Rocco Garruto, who is seeking a restraining order against Longo for her Internet posts and her attorney for a video of Garruto he posted to his law firm's webpage and Youtube account. Garruto's attorney, Milton Bouhoutsos, Jr., accused Longo and Heyburn…
The owner of puppy that died of parvovirus is being hauled into court by the pet store owner she's complaining about. Should that be OK?
Doreen Longo, the owner of a German Shepherd puppy that died less than two weeks after she bought it, has been vehement about accusing the pet store owner of selling sick animals. Rocco Garruto, the owner of the Avenel store, Fancy Pups, pleaded guilty in court in February to two counts of fraud in other pet purchase cases. Now he's trying to get a restraining order against Longo to get her to shut up because her complaints have killed his puppy business, he said. Do you think a customer has the right to complain on the Internet about a business she finds unsatisfactory? Is enough enough? Or is it not enough if the customer is trying to warn other shoppers about a bad experience? Take the poll and post your thoughts!
Friday, April 13, 2012
Rocco Garruto, the owner of Fancy Pups, has accused one of the customers who bought a sick dog from him with trying to attack him.
Doreen Longo has been to Woodbridge Municipal Court several times in the last few months, as she follows the legal wranglings of the pet store owner whom she says sold her and others sick and dying puppies. This time, though, the legal woes are hers. Longo is being sued by Rocco Garruto, the owner of Fancy Pups in Avenel, for attempted assault charges. In a summons she received, Longo is being accused of trying to physically harm Garruto while they were in a waiting room outside Woodbridge Municipal Court earlier this year. Longo, a Toms River resident, said she was speechless when she received the summons, which was filed on March 29 and requires her to be in court today. "[Garruto] is simply unbelievable," she said. The summons accuses…
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Fancy Pups
1144 Saint Georges Ave, Avenel, NJ
/articles/puppy-store-owner-presses-assault-charges-against-customer
1854012
/locations/6792951
40.555569
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Woodbridge Township Municipal Offices
1 Main St, Woodbridge, NJ
/articles/puppy-store-owner-presses-assault-charges-against-customer
750707
/locations/6792952
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The comes two months after an Ocean County store that sold puppies was shut down.
A group of Ocean County lawmakers have introduced a bill they say will eliminate the sale of dogs and cats in New Jersey from so-called "puppy mills." The proposal comes just over two months after Puppies Galore, a pet store in Brick, was shut down by authorities after 26 of the 39 dogs being held there were found to be sick. Woodbridge has had its own issues with sick animals. Fancy Pups in Avenel has been hauled into court numerous times, and faces further charges this month, about puppies who have been sold with parvovirus and later died. Senator Jim Holzapfel and Assemblymen Dave Wolfe and Greg McGuckin (all R-Ocean) have introduced the "Healthy Puppies and Kittens Assurance Act" which the group said in a joint statement Monday will …
What do you think? Should puppies and kittens be sold in retail stores in New Jersey?
Pet stores are making headlines for selling sick and dying animals, or for keeping puppies and kittens in unsanitary conditions that amount to pet abuse. A Brick pet store was shut down for animal abuse, and locally, the owner of Fancy Pups has been in court, accused of selling sick animals. Two Ocean County legislators have introduced the "Healthy Puppies and Kittens Assurance Act," which would require strict regulations on monitoring the health of animals sold in pet stores. Take the poll and tell us what you think.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Doreen Longo launched a lawsuit on behalf of Sasha, the dead puppy she bought from Fancy Pups. Now store owner Rocco Garruto is suing back.
The owner of the Avenel puppy store accused of selling sick animals said in a legal brief that the negative publicity has caused his store sales to plummet 60 percent. Rocco Garruto, owner of Fancy Pups, filed a countersuit against Doreen Longo, who bought a German Shepherd puppy from Garruto in December that died of a deadly contagious canine disease 10 days after she bought the dog. In the legal papers, Garruto accused Longo of "waging an all out war" against him that included posting pictures "of a dead puppy" on the Internet and costing him tons of business. He also accused her of libel and slander, and of making defamatory statements, such as calling Garruto a "puppy killer" - all of which he claimed has caused customers who had put…
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Fancy Pups
1144 Saint Georges Ave, Avenel, NJ
/articles/complaints-have-cost-avenel-puppy-store-60-percent-of-its-customers
1854012
/locations/6717068
Tom Maras
8:00 am on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
At the September 18 Woodbridge Town Council meeting the mayor, his business administrator and the Director of the Woodbridge Health Department, Mr. Green, were asked why Fancy Pups was allowed to remain in business when they had been cited for health code violation and had been operating on expired township business license on several occasions. The response from the "Three" was more doodoo, than… more ›