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Gotcha! Leonia Officer Quickly Finds Familiar Face Who Fled Traffic Stop: Police
A repeat offender who might’ve thought he’d given a Leonia police sergeant the slip would've been wrong.
It began when Leonia Police Sgt. Ray Forsdahl tried to stop a BMW with New York plates for a violation in the area of Broad and Lakeview avenues, Capt. Chris Garris said.
The driver kept going, though, getting onto southbound Route 95, the captain said on Friday, Dec. 1.
Forsdahl pursued him for a ways, then dropped back out of safety reasons, he said.
Besides, he knew who the driver was.
Didn’t take long to figure out where he laid his head, either.
To call Brandon Warren, 28,…
'Armed, Dangerous' Fugitive Wanted For Shooting GF In Texas Captured At GWB
An armed fugitive who fled Texas to New York City after shooting his girlfriend was captured by Bergen County detectives at the entrance to the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, authorities said.
Dwayne Kevin Sharlow, 55, was swiftly scooped up by Narcotic Task Force members who stopped his rented car at 1:52 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella confirmed Monday.
They were assisted by a Bergen County Regional SWAT Team, he said.
Sharlow, of Prosper, TX, had apparently come up Route 95, headed for New York City, authorities said.
The victim survived after …
NJ Woman Who Pulled $400,000 GoFundMe Scam With Homeless Vet, Ex-BF Gets Federal Prison Time
UPDATE: A New Jersey woman who helped pull a scam that conned 14,000 GoFundMe donors across the country out of $400,000 to purportedly benefit a homeless veteran is headed to federal prison.
Katelyn McClure, 32, of Bordentown got a far lighter sentence under the terms of her plea deal with the government than did her former boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, who concocted the cruel scheme.
McClure was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday to a plea-bargained year and a day in a federal penitentiary. D’Amico, the "mastermind," earlier this year got 27 months in a fed pen in exchange …
NJ Man Admits Hatching $400,000 Homeless GoFundMe Scam
The mastermind of a GoFundMe scheme that conned 14,000 donors across the country out of $400,000 to purportedly benefit a homeless veteran admitted in federal court in New Jersey on Monday that he and his ex-girlfriend pocketed most of the money.
Mark D’Amico, 42, formerly of Bordentown, admitted concocting a bogus feel-good story about the supposed victim coming to the rescue of Katelyn McClure after she ran out of gas on Route 95 on her way home to New Jersey from Philadelphia.
Both McClure and the homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., were in on the scheme, authorities said.
Together, D’Am…
Recognize Them? FBI Says Long-Haul Truckers Who Kidnapped Women May Have More Victims
Two long-haul truckers recently arrested for kidnapping women and demanding ransoms for their release may have also had victims in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, among other areas, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Brian T. Summerson, 25, of Dillon, South Carolina, was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida, assaulting, imprisoning and tampering with a victim, the FBI announced.
Pierre L. Washington, a 35-year-old trucking company owner (God Got Me LLC), was busted in Chicago, Illinois, where he lives, the bureau said.
Although the FBI couldn’t specify Washington’s routes, they noted…
Authorities: Drunk Long Island Driver Leads 10-Mile NJ Chase Toward GWB
A fashion sales manager from Long Island was drunk when she led New Jersey State Police troopers on a 10-mile chase from Saddle Brook to Leonia, authorities said.
A trooper tried to stop a weaving Nissan Rogue headed east on Route 80 in Saddle Brook shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, a State Police spokesman said.
Jan Kotowski, 45, of North Bellmore in Nassau County, kept going, however, NJSP Trooper Alejandro Goez said Friday.
The trooper was joined by another, both with lights and sirens activated, before Kotowski finally pulled over on Route 95, he said.
Kotowski was charged with eluding …
Prosecutor: Driver In Ridgefield Park I-95 Stop Had Crack, Heroin, Hollow-Nose Bullets
A traffic stop on Route 95 in Ridgefield Park turned up crack, heroin and hollow-point ammunition, authorities said.
Jose A. Bello, 22, of Camden was released pending a Nov. 14 first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack following his arrest Tuesday, Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo said.
Members of Calo's Narcotics Task Force found 51 vials of cocaine, several decks of heroin and $1,125 in suspected drug proceeds, along with the .45-caliber bullets, after they stopped Bello on the southbound highway, Calo said.
Bello was charged with illegal drug an…
Leonia PD: Ex-Englewood Driver Found With 4 Pounds Of Pot
LEONIA, N.J. -- A Leonia police officer who stopped a Pennsylvania driver found him carrying four pounds of pot, authorities said.
Kellem Pretlor, 34, also had $1,200 in suspected drug proceeds when Officer Raymond Forsdahl stopped his unregistered blue Nissan as it headed north on Broad Avenue near Route 95, Capt. Scott Tamagny said.
Fordahl immediately smelled the marijuana when he approached the car, Tamagny said.
It was found in four large vacuum-sealed plastic bags, he said.
Pretlor, a former Englewood resident whose family still lives there, was once employed as a food service handl…
