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Split verdict in South Hackensack standoff trial

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A South Hackensack man who held a SWAT team at bay for 5½-hours after beating his wife was cleared today of the most serious charges against him but found guilty of four other counts.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot File Photo

Spalnick sat motionless as the verdicts were read in Hackensack today.

The jurors convicted Steven Spalnick of aggravated assault, two weapons possession charges and resisting arrest after several hours of deliberations today and last Thursday.

The jury also cleared Spalnick of attempted infliction of serious bodily injury and endangering the welfare of his infant son.

Superior Court Judge James J. Guida allowed Spalnick — who lives in Pennsylvania with his parents — to remain free on $70,000 bail until a July 26 sentencing but ordered him to report to the Bergen County Probation Department weekly for monitoring.

Spalnick testified during the week-long trial that he remembered almost nothing from the night of the indicent beyond what he said was spending a congenial evening with his wife after she returned from a Christmas get-together with her sister.

He said he also recalled her moving the baby out of harm’s way, and asking police to “get my wife and child out of here.”

Spalnick didn’t dispute that he committed the assaults, or that he told police he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, brandishing two 10” kitchen knives and then barricading himself in a bedroom for an hours-long standoff.

During a prolonged assault on his wife, prosecutors said, Spalnick removed doorknobs and hinges from three separate doors to get at the petite woman — all in the presence of their 5-month old son.

She sustained a concussion, a broken nose, and black eyes, among other injuries before locking herself and her baby in a bathroom.

During the standoff in the apartment, she and her baby were rescued out a third-story bathroom window by firefighters using a 30-foot ladder.

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