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Young Firebug Charged With Arson At Two Bergen Schools Young Firebug Charged With Arson At Two Bergen Schools
Young Firebug Charged With Arson At Two Bergen Schools A middle school student set arson fires three weeks apart in River Edge and Oradell, authorities charged. The first began in a garbage receptacle at the Roosevelt Elementary School on Summit Avenue in River Edge shortly after 9:30 p.m. on June 20 and was out by the time firefighters arrived, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday. The second was much more damaging. It caused fire and heavy smoke damage after it was ignited in several spots in the field house at River Dell High School in Oradell just after 5:30 p.m. July 11, the prosecutor said. Members of Musella’s arson unit i…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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GOTCHA! Ex-Con's Facebook, Instagram Pages Lead To Arrest In Lodi, Elmwood Park Armed Robberies GOTCHA! Ex-Con's Facebook, Instagram Pages Lead To Arrest In Lodi, Elmwood Park Armed Robberies
Gotcha! Ex-Con's Facebook, Instagram Pages Lead To Arrest In Lodi, Elmwood Park Armed Robberies His social profiles helped investigators identify a convicted armed robber as the gunman who they said held up a convenience store in Lodi and pistol-whipped a Chinese restaurant worker during another robbery in Elmwood Park. Michael Stuart, 48, used a revolver to rob a 7-Eleven on Route 46 in Lodi shortly before 2:30 a.m. on April 26, authorities charged. Using the same gun, car and clothing, Stuart held up the Garden China Restaurant on Broadway in Elmwood Park on May 10, exactly two weeks later, a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says. Stuart, most recently of East Oran…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Suicide Bid By Gang Member Charged With Leonia Woman's Murder Locks Down Bergen County Jail Suicide Bid By Gang Member Charged With Leonia Woman's Murder Locks Down Bergen County Jail
Suicide Bid By Gang Member Charged With Leonia Woman's Murder Locks Down Bergen County Jail The Bergen County Jail was briefly locked down after a Paterson gang member charged with killing a Leonia woman tried to take his own life, responders said. Nile Diakos, 35, was taken in custody to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus after sheriff's officers stopped him from hanging himself around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, they said. Diakas was arrested on murder charges and jailed on March 30 for the stabbing death of Alicia Arnone in her Grand Avenue apartment several days earlier. Diakos was at the apartment with Arnone’s 13-year-old daughter when Leonia police responded to their 911 …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Authorities: Englewood Rape Victim Thought Family Friend Was Her Husband Authorities: Englewood Rape Victim Thought Family Friend Was Her Husband
Authorities: Englewood Rape Victim Thought Family Friend Was Her Husband A landscaper raped a sleeping Englewood woman after borrowing her husband’s car and using his keys to get into their home, authorities said. The victim told police she at first thought it was her husband who’d climbed into bed with her. She turned around after a few minutes and was horrified to find that she'd been penetrated by Ulises Ramirez Argueta, a 31-year-old El Salvador national known to the couple, they said. The husband told investigators he'd just gotten to work on Monday, April 11, when Argueta asked if he could borrow his car "to go buy some empanadas,” a complaint on file in …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Intruder Rapes Englewood Woman With Three Kids In Home, Authorities Charge Intruder Rapes Englewood Woman With Three Kids In Home, Authorities Charge
Intruder Rapes Englewood Woman With Three Kids In Home, Authorities Charge A landscaper raped a sleeping Englewood woman after borrowing her husband’s car and using his keys to get into their home, authorities said. The victim told police she at first thought it was her husband who’d climbed into bed with her. She turned around after a few minutes and was horrified to find that she'd been penetrated by Ulises Ramirez Argueta, a 31-year-old El Salvador national known to the couple, they said. The husband told investigators he'd just gotten to work on Monday, April 11, when Argueta asked if he could borrow his car "to go buy some empanadas,” a complaint on file in …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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FLAT LEAVERS: Quartet Caught After Abandoning Stolen Car On Route 208 FLAT LEAVERS: Quartet Caught After Abandoning Stolen Car On Route 208
Flat Leavers: Quartet Caught After Abandoning Stolen Car On Route 208 GOTCHA! The out-of-control auto theft epidemic has frustrated law enforcers throughout New Jersey, but sometimes the good guys catch a break. Just ask police in Wyckoff. It was late morning when a concerned citizen called to report four young occupants abandoning a stolen Mercedes Benz S550 sedan that blew a tire on Route 208. All four vanished into the neighborhood between Cedar Hill and Grandview avenues, the caller said. Instead of splitting up, though, they stuck together. A wave of police from Wyckoff, Midland Park and Hawthorne instantly converged on the area. Wyckoff Police Chief D…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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His Kids Feared Ex-Russian Military Dad ‘Booby-Trapped’ His Bergen County Home, Police Say His Kids Feared Ex-Russian Military Dad ‘Booby-Trapped’ His Bergen County Home, Police Say
His Kids Feared Ex-Russian Military Dad ‘Booby-Trapped’ His Bergen County Home, Police Say Two children of a former Russian military member feared their suicidal father had booby-trapped their Bergen County home after losing $400,000 in the stock market, investigators said. Anatoly Zaytsev, 67, remained held in the county jail in Hackensack on Wednesday, March 23, more than two weeks after members of the county Bomb Squad and other responders converged on his Oakland home and seized rifles, high-capacity magazines and silencers. The incident reportedly began when Zaytsev’s son told borough police that his father surrendered five guns to him.  The son also told them the Ukra…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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UPDATE: Food Network Kosher Chef From Teaneck Charged With Teen Sex Assaults UPDATE: Food Network Kosher Chef From Teaneck Charged With Teen Sex Assaults
Update: Food Network Kosher Chef From Teaneck Charged With Teen Sex Assaults An accomplished kosher chef from Teaneck who appeared on the Food Network show "Chopped" was jailed on child sex assault charges. Shalom Yehudiel, 40, of Surfside, FL, remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Thursday, March 17, following his arrest the day before, records show. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella issued a statement that said, in part:  "On Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, the FBI contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit regarding the alleged sexual assault of a child. A months-long investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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ICE Seeks Hold On Maywood Resident Charged With Sexually Assaulting PalPark Pre-Teens ICE Seeks Hold On Maywood Resident Charged With Sexually Assaulting PalPark Pre-Teens
ICE Seeks Hold On Maywood Resident Charged With Sexually Assaulting PalPark Pre-Teens A Guatemalan national living in Maywood was charged with sexually assaulting two Palisade Park pre-teens. Jaime Ottoniel Roca, 41, fondled one of the victims over the course of two years while committing more invasive acts on another, a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says. Both were under the age of 12 at the time and were sexually assaulted at least five times each, an investigation by borough detectives and investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Special Victims Unit. Roca told one of them that he touched the first victim's inner thigh and private area "in a …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Detectives: Elmwood Park Man Charged With Stabbing Mom On NY Eve Intended To Kill Her Detectives: Elmwood Park Man Charged With Stabbing Mom On NY Eve Intended To Kill Her
Detectives: Elmwood Park Man Charged With Stabbing Mom On NY Eve Intended To Kill Her UPDATE: An Elmwood Park man who stabbed his mother in the back with a kitchen knife on New Year's Eve told detectives that he intended to kill her -- and actually thought she was dead when he left the house, authorities said. Emiliano Domi, 25, told investigators he'd confronted the victim in the family's Martha Avenue home because she laughed at him when he complained about her moving a jacket of his from a living-room couch, an affidavit filed in Superior Court in Hackensack alleges. After pushing her down, Domi said, he grabbed a 6-inch kitchen knife and angrily stabbed the victim in the…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Police: Armed Rockland Ex-Con Ditches Crashed Car On Bergen Resident's Lawn, Calls Mom For Ride Police: Armed Rockland Ex-Con Ditches Crashed Car On Bergen Resident's Lawn, Calls Mom For Ride
Police: Armed Rockland Ex-Con Ditches Crashed Car On Bergen Resident's Lawn, Calls Mom For Ride A convicted robber from Rockland who was armed with a loaded gun crashed his car on a Bergen County resident's lawn, left it there and was waiting for his mother to pick him up when a local police officer captured him, authorities said. Hakeem Gentles, 26, of Spring Valley was intoxicated when his car struck another in a Montvale driveway over the weekend, according to a police report. Responding Police Officer Russell DiLauri found the heavily damaged vehicle unoccupied on the Magnolia Avenue victim's lawn. The resident pointed him toward to a gas station on North Kinderkamack Road, where…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Transit Police Nab Man Wanted For Assaulting Conductor In Bergen NJ Transit Police Nab Man Wanted For Assaulting Conductor In Bergen
NJ Transit Police Nab Man Wanted For Assaulting Conductor In Bergen Authorities captured a Waldwick man wanted for assaulting a conductor at a local train station. New Jersey Transit police tracked down DeVaugn K. Dudley, 23, and took him into custody assisted by Waldwick police, said Emma Wright, NJT's senior public information officer. They charged him with aggravated assault and interfering with transportation in connection with a Nov. 23 incident at the Waldwick station, Wright said. No sooner was Dudley booked into the Bergen County Jail than a Superior Court judge in Hackensack released him Tuesday, pending further court action, under New Jersey's 2…

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by Jerry DeMarco