Englewood couple held in beating of 8-year-old

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Englewood couple were jailed on $75,000 bail each in the alleged beating of an 8-year-old child.

Photo Credit: *Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR*

Jerry DeMarco

10/15/2014 10:05 p.m.

A school social worker spotted the youngster’s bruises and notified authorities, who arrested Erika Luna, 31, and 29-year-old Israel Diaz-Garcia of the 100 block of Liberty Road yesterday, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said late this afternoon.

Molinelli said the couple “repeatedly struck [the child] causing face and leg bruises.

“A social worker at the child’s school learned of the incident and contacted the Englewood Police Department, who then notified the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, as well as the Division of Child Protection and Permanency,” the prosecutor said.

During an interview with a detective from Molinelli’s Special Victims Unit at the Audrey Hepburn Children’s House in Hackensack, the child “provided specific details regarding being struck” by Luna, a dry cleaner, and Diaz-Garcia, a construction worker, he said.

Each is charged with child endangerment. An arraignment is scheduled for next Wednesday.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

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