A passerby had called police after seeing Jamar Jones, 40, assault the woman on Grand Avenue near Route 46 on April 6, Detective Alex Monteleone said.
Monteleone said he obtained surveillance video that showed Jones snatching a satchel from the woman's shoulder as the two argued, taking something out of it and then leaving.
Police found an envelope at the scene from the nearby Days Inn on the highway, where the 42-year-old victim has been living, he said.
Monteleone interviewed her and also gave the hotel manager his card before leaving. He also asked his colleagues in Paterson to keep an eye out for Jones.
This past Friday night he got a call that Jones was at the hotel.
Monteleone arrested Jones without incident and sent him to the Bergen County Jail on charges of robbery, assault and theft.
Soon after, a judge ordered him released under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law, with conditions, following a detention hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, records show.
The law requires Superior Court judges to decide whether to release or hold defendants based on a number of factors that include the risk of flight, the risk to the safety of the community, witnesses, and victims, and/or the risk that defendant will somehow obstruct his or her prosecution.
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