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Carlos Camacho (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Carlos Camacho, who ignited the chain of events when he broke into a Paramus house, is getting three years in prison and could be released in nine months. He also has a trial set to begin Jan. 12 on armed robbery charges in Essex County, which were brought while he was out on bail for the Bergen County incident.
Meanwhile, getaway driver Franceso Piserchia, who’s been serving state prison time for other convictions since February 2012 — and comes up for parole in exactly a week — agreed to a 10-year stretch.
Piserchia admitted in court in Hackensack last week that he waited in the car while Camacho burglarized the house on Aug. 12, 2010.
Although police were chasing him, he said, he wasn’t going to stop — adding that “maybe” he was under the influence of cocaine — and struck three other cars, injuring four people.
“To be honest with you, I knew there was one [police vehicle] behind me pretty steady,” Piserchia said, answering questions from his attorney. “I don’t know how many.”
Tied in with the case were Piserchia’s guilty pleas to assaulting his girlfriend.
“She was my fiance,” he said. “We were on the eve of being married, and I found out she was sleeping with one of my friends.
“After 17 years in prison, I don’t handle things very well. I put a belt to her throat and choked her.”
At the insistence of prosecutors, both men’s pleas were contingent upon one another.
The chase that followed the burglary led to a shooting in which no one was struck and the acquittal of two Bergen County Police Department officers who were tried on charges of covering it up.
BCPD Officers Jeffrey Roberts, Saheed Baksh (FILE PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
It began when a Forest Avenue resident returned home that afternoon and found a black SUV parked in her driveway with Piserchia behind the wheel. Suddenly, Camacho emerged from her house and got in.
The woman called Paramus police, who immediately responded and broadcast a description of the vehicle with a partial license plate. An hour later, a Paramus officer began chasing the SUV, broadcasting its location over the State Police Emergency Network (SPEN).
BCPD Officer Saheed Baksh joined the chase headed east on Route 4. Heavy traffic, combined with rain and the SUV’s “high speed and erratic driving conditions,” quickly made him the lead pursuer as the getaway vehicle exited off the highway into Teaneck.
In Bogota, the SUV was struck by a truck driven by a civilian. The SUV spun and collided with Baksh’s patrol car before continuing down Chestnut Avenue toward West Shore Avenue, authorities said.
At the bottom of the hill, where Chestnut intersects with West Shore, Piserchia turned left and pulled the SUV onto a grassy berm near some woods.
“Baksh continued straight and then onto the berm,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli later said.
Both well then bailed out and ran toward the woods, he said.
Baksh got out, as well, pulled his Glock service weapon and fired two shots, the prosecutor said.
Franceso Piserchia (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
BCPD Officer Jeffrey Roberts, who also heard the SPEN transmission and joined the pursuit, was directly behind Baksh as he drove down Chestnut Avenue, Molinelli wrote in court papers. He quickly joined the chase, along with other officers who were converging on the area.
Piserchia and Camacho were quickly caught. They complained of “medical issues” and were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.
Prosecutors later brought a case against the two county officers. In what was considered an unusual move, Molinelli himself testified during their trial.
SEE: Bergen County Police officers not guilty of lying, concealing evidence in shooting
Both returned to duty after their acquittals and their department handled the matter administratively.
“I would just like to take this time to apologize to you for my behavior during this whole thing,” Piserchia told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi in Hackensack last week.
“There were times I felt like I was fighting for my life,” he said. “And because of everything that happened, I got counseling that I probably needed my whole life.”
The judge set sentencing for both men for Jan. 30.
Franceso Piserchia, Carlos Camacho (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
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