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Authorities said Jory Powell (above, left) and parolee Isiah Freeman (above, right) broke into the house in August 2013, pointed a .38-caliber handgun at an elderly woman and assaulted her after pretending to be PSE&G workers checking a gas leak. They then fled with $75,000 in cash and jewelry, police said.
Although she declined medical attention at first, the woman went to an area hospital with pain in her shoulder, they said.
The robbers took off in two vehicles — one a white Infiniti and the other a rented black Dodge sedan — as police pulled into the dead-end street after being summoned by a neighbor. Officers chased the sedan on side streets into Fort Lee and then onto Route 4 as the Infiniti disappeared.
“At one point, it hit a car on a Fort Lee street, then ran off the road and onto a lawn,” Englewood Police Chief Michael Cioffi told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time. “It just missed hitting a wall.”
The pursuit continued onto the highway, where the getaway driver tried to pull off at the South Van Brunt Street entrance to the 4 West Diner. But the vehicle hit a curb and blew two tires, the chief said.
All three occupants then bailed out.
An Englewood police officer caught one trying to hide in a nearby factory after seeing him go in, the source said. The second was grabbed by Englewood Cliffs Sgt. James Tracy near the Gym at The Brownstones nearby.
The third man apparently kept running through the fitness center lot.
Police credited several patrons and workers at the diner who pointed out where the bandits were headed.
“It was really the equivalent of, ‘They went that way’,” one officer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
Dozens of officers from Englewood Cliffs, Englewood, Leonia and Fort Lee converged on the scene to assist in the manhunt. The Van Brunt Street exit off Route 4 was closed.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Maria Rockfol told Superior Court Judge Susan J. Steele that she needed more time to form plea offers.
Rockfol told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that she had discussions with defense attorney “in the first-degree range.”
“When all the evidence is in, I still believe my client will be exonerated,” defense attorney Paul Brenner told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Powell, 26, and Freeman, 27, remained held on $750,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
STORY / PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
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