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Police & Fire
NJ Jail Officer Admits Bringing Inmate To 'Blind Spot' For Beating By Colleagues NJ Jail Officer Admits Bringing Inmate To 'Blind Spot' For Beating By Colleagues
NJ Jail Officer Admits Bringing Inmate To 'Blind Spot' For Beating By Colleagues 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A Passaic County correctional officer admitted that he brought an inmate to a "blind spot" at the county jail so two colleagues could beat him for squirting one of them with urine. Officer Lorenzo Bowden, 39, initially agreed with Sgt. Jose Gonzalez and Sgt. Donald Vinales not to talk after they'd received federal grand jury subpoenas two years ago this month, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said. Bowden eventually had a change of heart. The pretrial detainee was "transported through an area of the PCJ that does not have a video surveillance camera, which correctional officers …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Wife Had Husband Sell Jewelry She Stole From Residents Of NJ Senior Living Facility: Prosecutor Wife Had Husband Sell Jewelry She Stole From Residents Of NJ Senior Living Facility: Prosecutor
Wife Had Husband Sell Jewelry She Stole From Residents Of NJ Senior Living Facility: Prosecutor A husband and wife have been arrested for stealing and selling jewelry from the senior living facility she worked at, authorities announced. Ana Rios, 40, of Piscataway, would swipe pieces of jewelry from residents of a Bridgewater senior living facility where she worked as a housekeeper, then turned them over to her 43-year-old husband, Ezequiel Rios, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said. Rios then sold two of the pieces, which McDonald said held a street value estimated at $45,000. Ana is believed to have stolen the jewelry between May 2023 and February 2024. P…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds
NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds UPDATE: It's a measure of how despicably and disgustingly a former Union County grade-school teacher and youth soccer coach from Morristown abused dozens of boys he'd met online that a plea bargain got him "only" 17½ years in federal prison. Steven Brooks, 37, must serve at least 85% of the negotiated sentence handed down in federal court in Newark on Thursday, April 18, for posing as a woman to lure at least 70 underage boys into sending him nude photos and videos. That means he'll be in his early 50s before he'll be eligible to experience freedom again. FBI agents who investigated Brooks…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
6-Car Crash Kills 41-Year-Old On Garden State Parkway In Irvington: State Police 6-Car Crash Kills 41-Year-Old On Garden State Parkway In Irvington: State Police
6-Car Crash Kills 41-Year-Old On Garden State Parkway In Irvington: State Police A 41-year-old North Carolina man was killed in a multi-car crash on the Garden State Parkway in Essex County early Wednesday, April 17, authorities said. Tarron Francis was heading north in a Nissan SUV when he was struck by a Dodge passenger vehicle around 12:45 a.m. in Irvington, said Jeffrey Lebron, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police. The impact caused a chain reaction crash involving four other vehicles, two Toyota SUVs, a GMC SUV and a Kia passenger vehicle, Lebron said. Francis died as a result of the crash, and the driver of the Dodge sustained moderate injuries and was tak…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
NJ HS Teacher Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Student Freed From Jail Until Trial NJ HS Teacher Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Student Freed From Jail Until Trial
NJ HS Teacher Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Student Freed From Jail Until Trial A Mercer County high school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student several times at a Monmouth County wildlife preserve was released from jail to await her trial, authorities said. A judge denied a request on Wednesday, Apr. 17 to keep 37-year-old Jessica Sawicki of Point Pleasant Beach in jail through her trial, a Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office spokesperson said. She was charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault and five counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Sawicki was arrested on Monday, Apr. 8, according to an affidavit obtai…

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by Chris Spiker
Police & Fire
Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault
Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault A Midland Park man was charged with sexually assaulting a pre-teen in Wyckoff in 2010. Donato Avolio, now 35, was in his early 20s when he sexually assaulted the youngster, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Wyckoff police notified his Special Victims Unit of the allegation on March 27, Musella said. An arrest warrant was drawn up the following day charging Avolio with second-degree sexual assault of a victim under 13, he said. A manhunt that lasted nearly three weeks ended with the single, Italian-born Avolio’s arrest in Clifton on Tuesday, April 16, the prosecutor said. He has…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
License Permanently Stripped From NJ Doc Who Let 20-Year-Old ER Patient Die License Permanently Stripped From NJ Doc Who Let 20-Year-Old ER Patient Die
License Permanently Stripped From NJ Doc Who Let 20-Year-Old ER Patient Die UPDATE: An ER doctor had her medical license permanently revoked by the state of New Jersey for allowing a 20-year-old patient to die on her watch and then trying to cover it up, authorities said. Shar Kennett, 66, of Wayne was on duty in the emergency room at Overlook Medical Center in Summit when the patient was brought in with urgent "respiratory distress" on June 29, 2017, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said. Kennett failed to examine him and didn't order any diagnostics, "despite his parents' urgent requests for assistance," Platkin said on Thursday, April 18. The patient died in…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Six Displaced, One Injured In Jersey City Fire: Authorities Six Displaced, One Injured In Jersey City Fire: Authorities
Six Displaced, One Injured In Jersey City Fire: Authorities One person was injured and six people were displaced following an apartment fire in Jersey City on the afternoon of Monday, April 15, authorities said. Firefighters arrived at 290 Webster Ave and found a working fire in an apartment on the third floor, which caused extensive damage, Kimberly Wallace-Scalfione, a spokeswoman for the mayor's office said. Six adults were relocated by the Red Cross, Wallace-Scalfione said. One woman in a basement apartment was treated and transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation, Wallace-Scalfione said. Two cats were removed and revived by firefighters, …

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Duo In Stolen Car Busted With Drugs After Traffic Stop: Fairfield PD Duo In Stolen Car Busted With Drugs After Traffic Stop: Fairfield PD
Duo In Stolen Car Busted With Drugs After Traffic Stop: Fairfield PD Two people were arrested and charged with stealing a car following a motor vehicle stop in Fairfield on the early morning of Sunday, April 14, authorities said. At 2:36 a.m., officers observed a dark colored BMW exit onto Route 46 West from behind a closed business commit several motor vehicle violations, Fairfield officers said in a release. A motor vehicle stop was conducted in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn, police said. When officers approached the vehicle, occupied by Dina Santiago-Caraballo, a 35-year-old West New York resident and Karl Diaz, a 45-year-old Union City resident, th…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
2 Complete Strangers Sexually Assaulted By Man In Irvington At Knifepoint: Prosecutor 2 Complete Strangers Sexually Assaulted By Man In Irvington At Knifepoint: Prosecutor
2 Complete Strangers Sexually Assaulted By Man In Irvington At Knifepoint: Prosecutor A 31-year-old Irvington man was arrested on Wednesday, April 10 and charged with sexually assaulting two women at knifepoint, authorities said. Marquise Jones assaulted the first victim, a stranger, at 25 Park Pl. Tuesday, March 26, Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II and Irvington Public Safety Director Tracy Bowers said. The woman had been taken to St. Michael's Hospital, where she told police a struggle had ensued for Jones' knife, at which point he cut her hands, police said. On April 10, a second victim reported being sexually assaulted at knifepoint by a m…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester
Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: The broad-daylight holdup of an Edgewater shopper last fall was committed by an armed robbery crew that included a Bronx man who was arrested this week in Westchester, authorities said. Jose A. Santana Torres, 22, and his partners followed the victim from Hudson County to an unidentified shopping center on River Road in last Oct. 24, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Two of them approached the victim and stole a watch at gunpoint while a third member of the crew served as lookout. The robbers then hopped into getaway vehicles driven by companions. The mid-afternoon holdu…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: NJ Longshoreman Gets 2½ Years For Ducking Taxes On $2.5M Of Income Feds: NJ Longshoreman Gets 2½ Years For Ducking Taxes On $2.5M Of Income
Port Newark Longshoreman Tax Evasion IRS Plainfield A Port Newark mechanic who was convicted of ducking taxes on $2.5 million of income was sentenced to nearly 2½ years in federal prison. Jonathan Michael, 55, of Springfield had filed returns and paid his taxes without fail for decades, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release. In 2014, however, he gave his employer in the machine shop at the Port Newark Container Terminal a bogus W-4 form, claiming that he was exempt from any federal income tax withholding from his pay, federal authorities said. The IRS notified Michael in 2016 that he wasn't entitled to exempt status, but he wrote…

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by Jerry DeMarco