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Joseph M. Galli, 21, was brought before the judge in a courtroom at the Bergen County Jail yesterday after being transferred Wednesday from Onslow County, North Carolina, where he’d been held after military police at Camp LeJune took him into custody earlier this month.
“New Jersey drive,” Galli (right, with Norrell, left) posted on his Facebook page on Dec. 8
Galli is charged with participating with his cousin, 22-year-old Alexander Norrell — a former Marine from Ridgewood — in firing several high-caliber bullets from an assault rifle at the unoccupied Old Paramus Reformed Church, sending several rounds through a stained-glass window, on Nov. 16 and Dec. 26.
An estimated 30 or more shots apparently were fired overnight Christmas evening into the morning of Dec. 26 into the more than 200-year-old building. A church worker discovered the damage the next morning. This came after nearly a dozen shots were fired at the building on Nov. 16.
Alex Norrell
(MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
An investigation determined that no individual or group was targeted in the shootings. It was more a matter of the building being isolated and convenient, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.
The 5-foot-5-inch, 165-pound Galli, a lance corporal rifleman with the 1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment, was seized after police here arrested Norrell in connection with the estimated $50,000 worth of damage (SEE: U.S. Marine, cousin charged in shooting at Ridgewood church).
Authorities at the time seized at least two assault rifles and .223-caliber ammunition matching the kind used at the church.
Galli is charged by Ridgewood police with possessing and disposing of a sawed-off shotgun, possessing an assault firearm, illegal weapons possession and criminal mischief.
Joseph Galli
Norrell remains held in the county jail, as well, on charges of conspiracy, criminal mischief, illegal weapons possession and possession of a large-capacity ammunition magazine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. His bail is $105,000.
Several agencies joined village police in the investigation — among them, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification and the Bergen County Regional SWAT Team.
The Marines also played an active role and were conducting an investigation of their own.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
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