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Man Who Lives Near Closter Grade School Charged With Collecting, Sharing Child Porn Man Who Lives Near Closter Grade School Charged With Collecting, Sharing Child Porn
Man Who Lives Near Closter Grade School Charged With Collecting, Sharing Child Porn A 26-year-old college student who lives around the corner from a Closter grade school was caught trafficking child porn, authorities said. John S. Soh was charged following a warranted raid at his home just off Houmans Avenue near the PK-4 Hillside Elementary School late last week, authorities said. Soh had “used the Internet to view, download, possess, and distribute items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Members of Musella’s Cyber Crimes Unit charged Soh with possession and distribution of child porn…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Former Bergen Man Gets Federal Prison Time For Assisting Massage Parlor Prostitution Former Bergen Man Gets Federal Prison Time For Assisting Massage Parlor Prostitution
Former Bergen Man Gets Federal Prison Time For Assisting Massage Parlor Prostitution A former Bergen County resident must spend nearly three years in federal prison for producing bogus training certificates for massage parlors that sold sex. Naresh Rane, 68, gave 10 of those certificates to a former local councilman who was later found dead of suicide along with his wife, authorities said. Rane, formerly of Closter, owned and operated the now-defunct Axiom Healthcare Academy on Kennedy Boulevard in North Bergen, which touted itself as a provider of massage therapy training. Anyone who didn't want to go through the training could pay Rane anywhere from $1,000 to $2,600 for …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Notorious NJ Serial Killer Charged With Murder Of Dance Teacher At Popular Long Island Mall Notorious NJ Serial Killer Charged With Murder Of Dance Teacher At Popular Long Island Mall
Notorious NJ Serial Killer Charged With Murder Of Dance Teacher At Popular Long Island Mall Another female victim has been added to the list of imprisoned 75-year-old New Jersey serial killer Richard Cottingham, thanks to advances in DNA technology. Cottingham was arraigned on Long Island via videoconference Wednesday from South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton for the 1968 slaying of a New Hyde Park woman in the parking lot of the popular Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream. He entered a not-guilty plea to murder charges in the death of Diane Cusick, a 23-year-old divorced single mom who worked as a dance instructor. Cottingham, a married father of three who’d lived in Lodi and wor…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Firefighters Douse Overnight Closter Blaze Firefighters Douse Overnight Closter Blaze
Firefighters Douse Overnight Closter Blaze Closter firefighters doused an overnight house blaze. They were met by heavy fire coming from the attack of the 2½ -story wood-frame home on Jason Woods Road, just off Homans Avenue, shortly before 2 a.m. Monday. Mutual aid responders included firefighters from Demarest. All fire companies were released shortly after 4 a.m. No injuries were reported. Fire officials were trying to determine the cause. Building officials were also inspecting the structure, which apparently had been undergoing renovation. PHOTOS: John Young (FACEBOOK)

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Paramus Firefighters To The Rescue, But It Wasn't A Cat Caught In A Tree This Time Paramus Firefighters To The Rescue, But It Wasn't A Cat Caught In A Tree This Time
Paramus Firefighters To The Rescue, But It Wasn't A Cat Caught In A Tree This Time It's ordinarily a cat whom firefighters are asked to rescue from a tree. On Tuesday it was a Paramus homeowner. The 48-year-old East Midland Avenue resident found himself stuck about 45 feet in the air while trimming a tree around 5 p.m., Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said from the scene. A small limb apparently had given way, witnesses said. Members of Paramus Fire Co. 1 got the man down without incident, said Ehrenberg, who's also a firefighter. East Midland Avenue, ParamusBoyd A. Loving He was tended to by Paramus Emergency Medical Services and released at the scene, the c…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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UPDATE: Tree Worker Dies On Job In Closter, Brought Down By Firefighters UPDATE: Tree Worker Dies On Job In Closter, Brought Down By Firefighters
Update: Tree Worker Dies On Job In Closter, Brought Down By Firefighters Authorities were trying to determine how long a tree worker who died on the job in Closter had been suspended in the air. The worker was tethered in a harness nearly 40 feet up, supported by climbing ropes attached to several parts of the tree, when he apparently suffered a medical emergency outside a home on Anderson Avenue on Saturday, Police Lt. Vincent Aiello said. The homeowner, who'd dialed 911 around noon, didn't know how long he'd been up there, Aiello said. Responding police officers shouted but couldn't revive the worker from the ground, the lieutenant said. He was lowered to a…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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UPDATE: Tree Worker Recovered By Firefighters In Closter Pronounced Dead At Scene UPDATE: Tree Worker Recovered By Firefighters In Closter Pronounced Dead At Scene
Update: Tree Worker Recovered By Firefighters In Closter Pronounced Dead At Scene UPDATE: Authorities were trying to determine how long a tree worker who died on the job in Closter had been suspended in the air. The worker was tethered in a harness nearly 40 feet up, supported by climbing ropes attached to several parts of the tree, when he apparently suffered a medical emergency outside a home on Anderson Avenue on Saturday, Police Lt. Vincent Aiello said. The homeowner, who'd dialed 911 around noon, didn't know how long he'd been up there, Aiello said. Responding police officers shouted but couldn't revive the worker from the ground, the lieutenant said. He was …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NO LIE: Career Bergen Burglar Caught Breaking Into, Of All Places, An Alarm Business: Police NO LIE: Career Bergen Burglar Caught Breaking Into, Of All Places, An Alarm Business: Police
NO LIE: Career Bergen Burglar Caught Breaking Into, Of All Places, An Alarm Business: Police A career criminal from Bergenfield who’s been busted well over a dozen times the past two decades was caught breaking into an alarm business, Maywood police said. Myles Gerard Shanahan, 61, has a long history of arrests in several towns – Bergenfield, Closter and Tenafly, among them -- mostly for burglary, theft and shoplifting but also for assault and DWI, records show. He'd been released a few weeks earlier following an arrest for a burglary in Bergenfield when officers in Maywood responded to a late-night alarm at Chief Security Systems on Spring Valley Road on March 29, Police Chief Ter…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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UPDATE: Two Airlifted After Minivan Slams Into Garbage Truck In Closter UPDATE: Two Airlifted After Minivan Slams Into Garbage Truck In Closter
Update: Two Airlifted After Minivan Slams Into Garbage Truck In Closter Two victims were airlifted by separate medical choppers after a minivan slammed into a tractor-trailer hauling garbage in what responders and witnesses said was a horrific crash in Closter. Firefighters had to extricate both of them from their Toyota Sienna after the crash with an Interstate Waste Disposal rig at Closter Dock Road and High Street around 10:15 a.m. Tuesday, March 22, responders said. Both were conscious and alert when taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, Closter Police Detective Lt. Vincent Aiello said. The minivan was traveling east on High Street, which is cont…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Parolee Wearing Monitoring Bracelet Nabbed In NJ Consignment Shop Burglary Spree, Police Say Parolee Wearing Monitoring Bracelet Nabbed In NJ Consignment Shop Burglary Spree, Police Say
Parolee Wearing Monitoring Bracelet Nabbed In NJ Consignment Shop Burglary Spree, Police Say GOTCHA! A parolee from Montclair burglarized a Closter consignment shop -- among others -- and later stole a resident’s vehicle while wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet, authorities said. Quamir S. Hodges, 24, was also linked to burglaries in at least three other New Jersey towns during a joint investigation that included a special State Police unit, Detective Lt. Vincent Aiello said. Surveillance video at the consignment shop on Closter Dock Road shows Hodges ransacking the store, snatching several high-end bags, after pulling up with an accomplice in a silver Dodge Charger on Aug. 8, 2021,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Overnight Fire Severely Damages Norwood Home Overnight Fire Severely Damages Norwood Home
Overnight Fire Severely Damages Norwood Home Flames blew through the roof of a Norwood home near the Rockland County border. Firefighters battled extreme cold and slippery conditions to douse the upper-floor bedroom blaze, which broke out on Broadway just off Piermont Road around 2 a.m. Sunday. No serious injuries were immediately reported. Mutual aid responders either at the scene or in coverage included firefighters from Harrington Park, Closter, Demarest, Northvale and Old Tappan. Firefighters battled extreme cold and icy conditions in the overnight Norwood blaze.Closter FD

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by Jerry DeMarco
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How Much Snow Did You Get? These Are Totals By Town In New Jersey How Much Snow Did You Get? These Are Totals By Town In New Jersey
How Much Snow Did You Get? These Are Totals By Town In New Jersey New Jerseyans on Friday woke up to several inches of snow on the ground in the first major storm for some and second for others this week. Most of the state got somewhere between four and six inches, according to the National Weather Service. Areas in Sussex County got the last amount of snow, average between 1.8 and 3 inches. The most amount of snow seems to have landed in parts of Bergen and Gloucester counties: 6 to 7.3 inches. Here are the averages across New Jersey from north to south, according to the National Weather Service's legend: Newton: 3 inches Lake Hopatcong: 3.6 Jefferson…

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by Cecilia Levine