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As a result, Rafael Vasquez — also known as “King Lucifer” — spent only three months behind bars before being released last Nov. 20, records show.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew C. Fried (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
A Passaic County grand jury indicted Vasquez, 25, on attempted murder in January 2011. That was merged with a second attempted murder charge a week later — which boosted his bail to $1 million from $350,000, records show.
The 5-foot-5-inch, 140-pound Vasquez — also known as Rafael Vasquez-Pina and Gustavo Canga — pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in exchange for a three-year term. But records show he was soon back on the street, having received credit for time spent behind bars.
Records show the New York City-born ex-con already had a lengthy record before the more serious charges.
These include:
• obstruction and resisting arrest — to which Vasquez pleaded and for which he was sentenced to 364 days in jail in — September 2010;
• charged with robbery brought Vasquez parole in 2009 after a year in prison — again, thanks to credit for time served;
• pleas in 2007 to joy riding and criminal trespassing.
Vasquez remained St. Joseph’s Medical Hospital in police custody following surgery for gunshot wounds he received from backup officers yesterday after he shot the Paramus detective twice in the Walmart parking complex outside the Marshals store off Passaic Street.
He’s charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, illegal weapons possession and illegal gun possession as a convicted felon. His bail is $2 million.
The officer, who was on loan to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Narcotic Task Force, was “resting comfortably” at Hackensack University Medical Center, where he underwent surgery yesterday after being shot in the right hip and left lower leg, Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.
Although additional surgery is required, Ehrenberg said the officer is expected to make a “100% recovery.”
Garfield Marshals/Walmart
Ehrenberg’s remarks came during an impromptu news conference outside the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack after two other men involved in the shooting were brought before a judge.
“To avoid coming through on an illegal drug transaction, you committed a robbery of an undercover officer,” Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian told Melvin Guzman of Garfield, 18, and 21-year-old Patrick Morel of Clifton.
Deputy Attorney General Andrew C. Fried formally read the charges, whic are identical for both: aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon and two weapons possession charges — one for its use against a law enforcement officer.
Morel kept his head lowered during most of the proceeding, while Guzman faced the judge.
The more than 100 people who attending the packed hearing included several local and county police officeres, as well as Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino, along with Undersheriffs Steve Librie and Brian Smith, victim witness advocates, assistant prosecutors and investigators.
“This showing of force is just to let everybody know that when a law enforcement officer is injured, the law enforcement community is going to band together,” Ehrenberg, the Paramus chief, said later (STORY CONTINUES BELOW).
STORY/PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Guzman and Morel were returned to the county jail on $750,000 bail each.
The officer was sitting in the driver’s seat of a county undercover vehicle with Guzman for what was supposed to be a $400 pot buy in the Garfield parking lot yesterday when Vasquez walked up to the car window and pointed a gun at him.
“Give me everything you have,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said he told the officer.
Vasquez then fired into the car twice, hitting the officer in the right hip and the lower left leg, the prosecutor said during a news conference in the HUMC lobby late yesterday afternoon.
Seven backup officers then converged on the car, shooting Vasquez in the arm and leg.
The nine-year Paramus PD veteran sustained two lower leg fractures, among other injuries. He was expected to recover fully, Dr. Joseph Feldman, the director of the HUMC trauma unit said during the news conference.
Molinelli said he believes the trio set up the officer, who they thought was a local pot dealer, when Guzman got into his car just before 1:45 p.m. outside the Marshals.
“It was an average street drug buy,” the prosecutor said. “Narcotics, even in this county, is a dangerous practice.
“The officers were prepared, and when things fell apart they came in and did their jobs,” the prosecutor said. “It was done perfectly, with both backup teams. No one ever goes in alone to make a drug buy.”
Following the shooting, Morel backed out of the lot in the car that brought Guzman there, then drove south on the Garden State Parkway, Molinelli said.
New Jersey State Police troopers stopped and arrested him near the Essex tolls.
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