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Authorities said 21-year-old Norman Girdley Jr. broke windows, emptied filing cabinets and defecated in an office before taking a swim in the pool the morning of the Garfield organization’s prom. He also destroyed decorations and ate some of the food for the June 14 event, geared to children ages 6-13 and their parents, they said.
Club members rallied and cleaned things up so that the prom wouldn’t be postponed.
A worker at the club alerted Garfield police after arriving at 5:45 that morning to find Girdley running through the hallway, Capt. Darren Sucorowski told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. The responding officers set up a perimeter around the building and were quickly joined by their colleagues from Lodi and a Bergen County Police Department K-9 unit.
They were doing a room-by-room search when Girdley bolted out the back door of the swimming pool and was grabbed by city Police Sgt. John Demko and Officer David Coniglio, the captain said.
Girdley, who was arrested in 2010 for firing a cap gun outside Garfield Middle School, was released on $10,000 bail after spending a month in the Bergen County Jail following the Boys & Girls Club incident.
The indictment returned against him by a grand jury in Hackensack this week charges Girdley with breaking into the facility and “purposely or knowingly” causing more than $2,000 in damage.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
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