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It was just before 1 a.m. when Garfield Police Officers Mariggi Lopez and Daniei Duleski responded to the area and found that someone had smashed a glass door at the Lanza Avenue diner before an inside lock kept him out, Capt. Darren Sucorowski told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.
Five minutes earlier, Officer Michael Hawroniak saw Gianni Iacovo walking on Bergen Street and then Banta Avenue.
Hawroniak said he tried to stop the 5-foot-8, 270-pound suspect but that he continued walking and threw something down. It turned out to be a claw hammer, Sucorowski said.
The officer finally stopped Iacovo and found him carrying a screwdriver, flashlight, and a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine, the captain said.
After interviewing him at headquarters, Detectives Thomas LaMantia and Michael Latona charged him with seven counts of burglary and several counts of unlawful weapons possession — including for having a pellet gun that police said was used to break a glass door in one of the burglaries.
Iacaovo, 37, was being held on $70,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail.
Iacovo was promised probation after pleading guilty two years ago to promoting gambling. As part of his plea, he agreed to fully cooperate with prosecutors in Morris County by providing sworn statements “detailing his actions, those of his co-conspirators and those of other individuals who may have factual information or knowledge of the illegal activities covered by this agreement.”
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