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City detectives had identified Roger Hernandez, 22, in March as the robber who grabbed separate victims on James Street and Depot Square Park (also known as Veterans Park) several weeks earlier.
One victim got away and the other was assaulted and had his cellphone taken, Detective Lt. Fred Pulice said.
Police arrested and charged Hernandez, then sent him to the Bergen County Jail – only to have a judge release him less than 24 hours later under New Jersey’s bail reform law.
A 40-year-old Fair Lawn man who works in Englewood paid for it, Pulice said.
Witnesses told police that Hernandez was “paralleling” the victim from across the street as he walked down Grand Avenue on his lunch break on May 24.
Without warning, the 6-foot-2-inch, 210-pound Hernandez suddenly rushed the man, tackling him against the wall of an apartment building and knocking him unconscious, the lieutenant said.
“It was completely unprovoked,” he said.
The victim, who was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, “suffered multiple breaks to his clavicle that required surgery, injuries to his back, elbow and ribs and contusions to his head,” Pulice added.
Detectives identified Hernandez as the attacker and arrested him on aggravated assault charges on May 26.
This time, he has remained held in the county jail.
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