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40 Newly-Minted Sheriff's Officers To Hit Passaic County's Streets, Sheriff Says 40 Newly-Minted Sheriff's Officers To Hit Passaic County's Streets, Sheriff Says
40 Newly-Minted Sheriff's Officers To Hit Passaic County's Streets, Sheriff Says Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik is instantly adding 40 officers to the streets amid the closing of the county jail to new inmates. The group is made of corrections officers who otherwise would have been laid off, said Berdnik, who’d promised there’d be no job losses once the jail is closed. The sheriff plans to swear them to their new positions at his Wayne headquarters on Thursday, March 31. The move “expands the number of officers deployed throughout Passaic County,” he said. The officers will be on foot, in parks and in vehicles, targeting crime-prone “hot spots” in the count…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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ICE Puts Hold On MS-13 Member Captured After Escaping NJ Police Station In Handcuffs ICE Puts Hold On MS-13 Member Captured After Escaping NJ Police Station In Handcuffs
ICE Puts Hold On MS-13 Member Captured After Escaping NJ Police Station In Handcuffs Many figured New Jersey's bail reform law would free a purported MS-13 gang member who escaped from a local police station before being captured in Rhode Island. Before that could happen, however, federal immigration authorities issued a detainer on Adilson Estrada-Garcia, a 24-year-old Guatemalan national living in Cliffside Park. Estrada-Garcia was brought to the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack on Thursday. Before he even saw a judge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued the detainer. Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton has honored detainer requests for defendants who've be…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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ICE Puts Hold On Contractor Charged With Sexually Assaulting Pre-Teens In Hackensack, Westwood ICE Puts Hold On Contractor Charged With Sexually Assaulting Pre-Teens In Hackensack, Westwood
ICE Puts Hold On Contractor Charged With Sexually Assaulting Pre-Teens In Hackensack, Westwood A married contractor was charged with sexually assaulting two pre-teens in Hackensack and Westwood nearly five years ago. Francisco Barrera-Capistran, 36, who now lives in Homasassa, FL, was arrested in Westwood on Monday, Feb. 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. He remained held in the Bergen County Jail after ICE placed a detainer on him Tuesday amid questions about his immigration status. Jail records list him as a Mexican national. If a local judge orders his release for some reason -- say, bail reform -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has requested 48-hour …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Resumes COVID Early Inmate Release Program NJ Resumes COVID Early Inmate Release Program
NJ Resumes COVID Early Inmate Release Program As many as 1,200 New Jersey prison inmates and at least 10 sex offenders could be freed during another round of early pandemic releases, state corrections sources say. No public notice was given by Gov. Phil Murphy’s office of the latest releases, which corrections officials said resumed Thursday with 260 inmates freed. These come at a time when “violent crime me in some of our cities has gotten so bad” that “many urban mayors who supported bail reform are demanding a new law that would keep dangerous criminals in jail until trial,” state Sen. Anthony M. Bucco (R-25) said. An estimated 40%…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NYPD Getting Help Fighting Rising Gun Violence From NY State Troopers, Governor Promises NYPD Getting Help Fighting Rising Gun Violence From NY State Troopers, Governor Promises
Nypd Getting Help Fighting Rising Gun Violence From NY State Troopers, Governor Promises New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she's sending state troopers into New York City to fight the spike in gun violence that city police say has been fueled by bail reform. ****** NEWSBREAK: A 22-year-old rookie New York City police officer was killed and another officer critically wounded Friday night during what has become one of the most violent periods in the city's recent history. READ MORE.... ****** Mayor Eric Adams begged the governor for help after surveillance video was shared of an 11-month-old who was hospitalized after being shot in the face during a gun battle in the Bronx. Cri…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Wayne Police Nab Wanted NYC Man At Mall Eatery, Forced To Release Him Under Bail Reform Wayne Police Nab Wanted NYC Man At Mall Eatery, Forced To Release Him Under Bail Reform
Wayne Police Nab Wanted NYC Man At Mall Eatery, Forced To Release Him Under Bail Reform A Wayne police detective nabbed a wanted man from Brooklyn who was carrying phony credit cards after he tried using one of them, authorities said. Police booked him, then had to let him go under bail reform. It began when a group of officers responded to the Dave and Buster’s at the Willowbrook Mall last week on a report of a group trying to use a bogus credit card. A manager told the responders that the same group “was in the establishment the week before attempting to use multiple credit cards that were declined,” Detective Capt. Dan Daly said. The group had returned and were trying to u…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Fort Lee Police Nab Accused Overnight Vehicle Prowler, Urge Owners To Lock Cars, Take Keys Fort Lee Police Nab Accused Overnight Vehicle Prowler, Urge Owners To Lock Cars, Take Keys
Fort Lee Police Nab Accused Overnight Vehicle Prowler, Urge Owners To Lock Cars, Take Keys A bandit seen on home security video burglarizing cars overnight was nabbed by Fort Lee police, authorities said. Officers responding to a resident’s call on Arcadian Way found Anthony Lewis, 31, of Springfield, MA walking along Palisade Avenue near Route 5, Capt. Edward Young said. They quickly confirmed not only that he was the bandit captured on video, Young said: Lewis had committed or tried to commit several other vehicle burglaries. He was charged with two counts each of burglary and criminal attempt and was released pending court action under New Jersey’s bail reform law of 2017. Y…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Bail Reform Fuels Deal For Bergen County Jail To House Passaic County Inmates Bail Reform Fuels Deal For Bergen County Jail To House Passaic County Inmates
Bail Reform Fuels Deal For Bergen County Jail To House Passaic County Inmates UPDATE: Bail reform is one of the key reasons why the half-empty Passaic County Jail will close its doors for good and send all of its current and future inmates to Bergen County's lockup, officials said. Bergen County officials say they’ll receive a minimum $18.9 million the first year and somewhere in the neighborhood of $195.5 million over the course of the 10-year deal. Their counterparts in Passaic County say they won’t have to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on a new jail to replace the decrepit 164-year-old lockup on Marshall Street, which has remained half empty for some time now…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Hackensack Man, 18, Charged With Paterson Murder Hackensack Man, 18, Charged With Paterson Murder
Hackensack Man, 18, Charged With Paterson Murder An 18-year-old Hackensack man became the second defendant charged in the cold-blooded killing of a 20-year-old Paterson resident on a Silk City street corner. Jaheem Glaze was captured without incident in East Orange early Friday by a strike team composed of Paterson police, Passaic County prosecutor’s detectives and members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, authorities said. Glaze was sent to the Passaic County Jail, where Rasheed Thomas, 19, has also been held in connection with the killing following his arrest last month. Both are charged with murder and weapons offenses, Pass…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Relentless Offender Caught Snorting Heroin At Police HQ, Fair Lawn PD Says Relentless Offender Caught Snorting Heroin At Police HQ, Fair Lawn PD Says
Relentless Offender Caught Snorting Heroin At Police HQ, Fair Lawn PD Says A relentless repeat offender who's been caught and released a half-dozen or so times in Bergen and Passaic counties this fall pulled out a hidden fold of heroin and began snorting it while in custody at Fair Lawn police headquarters, authorities said. Judges and police alike in Bergen and Passaic counties have been forced to release Michael Benedek, 26, of Paterson under bail reform multiple times following recent arrests for burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and shoplifting, records show. Benedek dropped a power buffer he'd just stolen from an auto body shop when Hawthorne police …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Catalytic Converter Thief From Paterson Caught Covered In Dirt, Leaves, Garfield PD Says Catalytic Converter Thief From Paterson Caught Covered In Dirt, Leaves, Garfield PD Says
Catalytic Converter Thief From Paterson Caught Covered In Dirt, Leaves, Garfield PD Says Garfield police caught a catalytic converter thief red-handed, authorities said. A Monroe Street resident heard a noise and found Louis G. Cadet Jr., 35, of Paterson doing something under a parked vehicle shortly before midnight Wednesday, Capt. Richard Uram said. Cadet, who was carrying a tool bag, quickly fled as the resident approached him, he said. Sgt. Michael Bocco and Officer Joseph Kopacz found Cadet in the area of Midland Avenue and Commerce Street moments later “covered in dirt and leaves as if he had been laying on the ground,” Uram said. Cadet “gave a false name and denied bei…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Dealer Caught With More Than 28 Pounds Of Coke Worth $720,500 In Passaic, Authorities Charge Dealer Caught With More Than 28 Pounds Of Coke Worth $720,500 In Passaic, Authorities Charge
Dealer Caught With More Than 28 Pounds Of Coke Worth $720,500 In Passaic, Authorities Charge A Paterson man was busted with more than 28 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $720,500 during a fugitive roundup, authorities announced Thursday. Tydel Clark, 31, was arrested following a warranted search of a Passaic city residence and his vehicle, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey Juan Mattos Jr. said. The news came amid a joint announcement by both of an operation that they said produced 133 arrests and the seizure of guns and drugs. Authorities targeted active warrants and fugitive cases, most of them in Paterson, Valdes …

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by Jerry DeMarco