Kidnapping charges returned against man who police said broke broomstick over Garfield woman’s head

Elvis Valerio, 35, kicked open the 23-year-old victim’s dead-bolted Orchard Street door and threatened to kill her younger sister if she called police, Garfield Police Lt. Richard Uram told CLIFFVIEW PILOT following his arrest.

Area surveillance images show Valerio walking toward the apartment with the broom in his hand and several minutes later pulling the victim along by the wrist with the broken stick in his hand, Uram said.

Using a neighbor’s phone, the 17-year-old sibling called her mother, who alerted Garfield police.

They, in turn, called their Passaic colleagues, who took rescued the victim and took Valerio into custody.

He remained held today in the Bergen County Jail on $300,000 bail, down from an original $1 million.

The indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack charges Valerio with:

illegally entering the victim’s home and “purposely, knowingly or recklessly inflicting bodily injury on [her]”;

causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon;

removing the victim from her home “to inflict bodily injury on or to terrorize [her] or another,” and failing to release her;

threatening to kill her;

threatening to kill her sister;

obstructing his arrest by intimidating the sister;

two illegal weapons possession counts, for the stick.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy GARFIELD PD

Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.