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“$500,000 for a third-degree charge? Are you kidding me?” Jerelle Bordeaux asked Superior Court Judge Patrick Roma.
Unfazed, the judge said he already cut Bordeaux’s original $750,000 bail by a third in connection with an Oct. 25 sweep in which members of a multi-jurisdictional task force busted into a garage near the King Gardens apartment complex in Englewood and arrested Bordeaux and Boone – who to that point had been a fugitive – along with three alleged accomplices as they tried to crack open a stolen safe.
“This is not the time for this kind of action,” Roma told Bordeaux today. “If we considered requests like these during an arraignment calendar, we’d have night court.”
He then told Bordeaux’s attorney to apply for a bail hearing.
Defense attorney Donna Dorgan said she believed Bordeaux was being treated “differently than the other defendants” because of the bail.
So did her client.
Bordeaux, who was acquitted by a jury in Hackensack in 2009 of the point-blank shooting death of a 24-year-old friend three years earlier, said Roma had “broken the law” with the amount.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Natalie Candela agreed with Roma, saying that Bordeaux “has to file a bail motion.”
Eventually, Roma had enough. Because Bordeaux’s original bail was set by Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana De-Avila Silebi, he said, she’ll have to be the one to consider any further reduction.
“Now remove the defendant,” the judge told Bergen County Sheriff’s court officers.
Standing quietly next to Bordeaux in the Hackensack courtroom today was Akeem “Light” Boone, who authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT is the last of the James Bond ringleaders. He continues to be held on more than $1 million bail following the October raid.
He and Bordeaux both pleaded not guilty this morning to charges stemming from the arrests – along with co-defendants Jamelle Singletary, Robert Hastu, and Marc Rainey.
Another man charged in connection with the crimes, Renando Sheffield, is set for a later court date.
Rainey was out on bail following his arrest for a Wyckoff burglary last year; Singletary was implicated in an Englewood shooting committed by another man; and Hastu owned the garage – and wasn’t a member of the loosely-knit crew, police said.
Charges against all but him include receiving stolen property, possession of burglar tools and obstructing justice. Hastu is charged with maintaining a nuisance, receiving stolen property and possession of burglar tools.
Other charges are expected as the defendants separately seek plea deals, law enforcement sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Boone wasn’t around when police found 20 grams of crack cocaine and a loaded handgun reported stolen during the burglary of a North Carolina sporting goods store in his Hackensack apartment last September. A manhunt ensued.
A month later, authorities from Morris County, Connecticut and Englewood joined forces for the 10:20 p.m. garage raid that put him back behind bars.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT broke the story: Authorities nab Englewood fugitive
That night, Morris County detectives followed a vehicle thought to be operated by the crew, which police said tried to emulate the Bond Gang. Once an extremely active criminal organization in several North Jersey and New York counties, the group has devolved into a random collection of assorted wannabes and hardcore criminals such as Boone.
The trail led investigators to Greenwich, CT, where the latest incarnation of the crew committed a burglary. They then headed back to Englewood’s 4th Ward, Englewood Detective Lt. Tim Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Detectives from Englewood, Teaneck and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Squad soon joined in the tail.
As they watched, crew members pulled in behind a row of multi-family homes on William Street and began “pounding, prying and pulling on this safe trying to get it open,” Torell said.
After calling in uniformed officers from Englewood and Teaneck, the task force members burst in.
Communicating with their counterparts in Greenwich, CT, they confirmed that the safe was taken from an upscale neighborhood there.
At 27, Boone has a lengthy rap sheet, including convictions for weapons possession and drug dealing that sent him to prison for two years from 2007-2009.
His right arm was damaged several years ago when he was shot in Washington Heights. He was nearly hit again in March 2003 when a gunman came up to a car he was sitting in at the Rock Creek Terrace apartments in Englewood and began shooting.
The driver survived bullets in the head and neck, while Boone – who wasn’t struck — was arrested for carrying crack.
Boone was barely out of state prison two years when he was arrested in 2011, along with his brother, Aasim (“Sean”) and former pro basketball bust Sean Banks of Englewood, following a high-speed chase that ended when their SUV flipped. Another Bond gang associate, Jerry Montgomery of Teaneck, also was with them.
Authorities said the quartet had $20,000 in jewelry and other booty with them from burglarized homes in Sparta and Jefferson Township.
Montgomery was out on bail when he was arrested again — in Sparta — last week.
Despite being described in some media accounts as the “new” James Bond Gang ringleader, Montgomery is actually known to have no more than ties to some of the original gang leaders.
“You could say he was grandfathered in,” a law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “But he’s no leader.”
SEE: Teaneck burglar not ‘ringleader’ of James Bond Gang
- ABOVE: Jerelle Bordeaux (left, obscured) in court with Akeem “Light” Boone ….STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter (No re-use without watermark and hotlink)
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