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45°
Saturday, apr 27
Tag:
Child Endangerment
Police & Fire
Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week
Federal immigration agents seized a 49-year-old Mexican national who local authorities said sexually assaulted a pre-teen in Englewood. Abel Garcia Landeros became the second undocumented immigrant living in the city who was charged with a child sex crime this week. SEE: Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood Landeros was charged with sexual assault and child endangerment by Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella’s Special Victims Unit after city police arrested him in Englewood. He'd just been booked into the Bergen County Jail on Thursday, April 25 whe…
Police & Fire
Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood
A 21-year-old Guatemalan national seized by federal authorities has been charged with raping a pre-teen in Englewood last summer. Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel, who's been living in an apartment over a Colombian restaurant on West Palisade Avenue, remained in federal custody at the Elizabeth detention center on Friday, April 26, records show. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday that members of his Special Victims Unit charged Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment for forcibly having intercourse with the victim. They then served him with a c…
Police & Fire
Former NJ Middle School Teacher Sexually Assaulted Student: Prosecutor
A 32-year-old former teacher from North Bergen has been charged with sexually assaulting a student at Carteret Middle School, authorities said. Jeffrey Munguia was also charged on Wednesday, April 24 with endangering the welfare of a child, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Carterest Police Chief Dennis McFadden. The investigation revealed that Munguia was the victim’s teacher at Carteret Middle School when the incident occurred in 2022, they said. He was arrested without incident on Wednesday. The investigation is active and continuing. An…
Police & Fire
Pre-Teen Sexually Assaulted In Fairview, Cliffside Over Few Years, Authorities Charge
A 37-year-old man sexually assaulted a pre-teenage girl both in Fairview and Cliffside Park over the past few years, authorities charged. Arturo Velazco, a Dominican national living on 3rd Street off Anderson Avenue in Fairview, sexually assaulted the youngster multiple times between November 2021 and November 2022, authorities charged. She was under 13 at the time and still was when she was sexually assaulted again between June and November last year, they said. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Velazco was charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endanger…
Police & Fire
Local NJ Police Sergeant Took Child Porn Images From Investigation For Himself: AG
A local South Jersey police sergeant cherry-picked child porn images for himself from a case that his department was investigating, a grand jury indictment charges. Suspended Vineland Police Officer Christopher Ortiz, 39, of Estell Manor "requested from a subordinate and obtained via email" at least 17 images from a child pornography investigation for unauthorized use, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said. All told, investigators found that Ortiz "possessed, viewed, or had under his control at least 100 items depicting the sexual exploitation or abuse of children," the attorney …
Police & Fire
North Bergen Man Charged With Collecting Child Porn: Prosecutor
A 25-year-old North Bergen man was caught collecting pornographic images of children, authorities said. Nicholas Sanchez, 25, was taken into custody by members of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force following an investigation, they said. He's charged with child endangerment through the possession of sex abuse material, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. A tip last December led task force members to an account controlled by the defendant on an online server that Suarez said contained “child sex abuse material.” She didn't say whether …
Police & Fire
Bayonne Man, 38, Charged With Sexually Assaulting Four Underage Girls
A 38-year-old Bayonne man was charged with sexually assaulting four underage girls. Anthony Lashley, 38, assaulted the teens “on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2024 in Jersey City and Bayonne,” Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said on Tuesday, April 16. All four were under 18 at the time, the prosecutor said. Authorities arrested Lashley this past Feb. 22 in connection with two alleged victims, Suarez said. An investigation turned up two more, she said, for which he was charged on April 9. Suarez didn’t say why she waited a week to announce it. Lashley, meanwhile, remained he…
Police & Fire
Young Teen Sexually Assaulted In New Milford By Elderly Man, Middle-Aged Companion: Prosecutor
An underage teen was sexually assaulted in New Milford by two men – one of them 67, the other 59 -- said authorities who reported finding one of them with a date rape drug. The older man, Eliezer Kopelowitz of Englewood, and Wayne Bambling of River Edge, were both arrested in New Milford late last week, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Monday, April 8. Kopelowitz was charged with second-degree sexual assault of the child, who the prosecutor said was between 13 and 17. He was also charged with child endangerment, criminal sexual contact and possession of both GHB and drug parap…
Police & Fire
Englewood Man Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen
An underage teenager was sexually abused by a 24-year-old Englewood man multiple times over the past year, city police charged. Jowel G. Pinnock remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Tuesday, April 2, following his arrest the day before, records show. Pinnock had been "engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a nonconsenting [teenage] female," Englewood Detective Lt. Fred Pulice said. "The acts occurred over the past year, beginning when the victim was 16 years of age," the lieutenant said. Pinnock is charged with three counts of aggravated sexual contact and one of child e…
Police & Fire
Toddler Hospitalized With Serious Burns, PalPark Private Day Care Worker Jailed
A toddler was hospitalized with serious burns that authorities said were sustained at a home that operates as a daycare center in Palisades Park. Ann Zheng, 24, was jailed on child endangerment charges after the toddler was burned at Dearest Angel Child Care, which operates out of a private home on Glen Avenue off East Edsall Boulevard, on Thursday, March 28. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said his Special Victims Unit was contacted by Palisades Park police. They learned, he said, that Zheng, “while having an assumed responsibility for the child, neglected the child, resulting in th…
Police & Fire
Police Detail Suicide Note Penned By NJ Dad Before Killing 9-Year-Old Son: Affidavit
The death of a 9-year-old boy at the hands of his father in Sayreville was intended to be a murder-suicide, according to police paperwork obtained by Daily Voice. Manuel Rivera, 43, recorded an apology video following a marital dispute he’d been having with a “witness” just before leaving an Eisenhower Drive home with the 9-year-old boy Thursday, March 28, according to an affidavit for probable cause obtained by Daily Voice. “We spoke to a witness who indicated that her and Mr. Rivera were having marital issues and that he sent her a video to her phone,” Sayreville Police Det…
Police & Fire
NJ Tri-County Takedown Nets 12,100 Heroin Folds, 9½ Ounces Of Crack, $107,089 Cash, Loaded Gun
A law enforcement supergroup seized 12,100 folds of heroin mixed with fentanyl, 9½ ounces of crack, $107,089 in suspected drug money and a loaded gun while busting a drug-dealing North Haledon couple, authorities said. Armed with search warrants, investigators hit 10 locations in Passaic, Bergen, and Sussex counties, leading to the arrests of Demoy Woolley and Qa’Lasia Williams. The couple became the focus of an investigation by Wayne police last November, said Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Wayne Police Department Chief Jack McNiff. Participating in the investigation…
Police & Fire
Hackensack Grade School Custodian, 76, Charged With Sexually Assaulting 9-Year-Old Girl
A 76-year-old custodian at a grade school in Hackensack was charged with sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl. Phillip A. Porter of Hackensack is accused of rubbing the child’s breasts and vagina and putting his penis in her mouth, according to a complaint filed in Superior Court. Special Victims Unit detectives arrested Porter on Monday, March 25, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. He remained held Tuesday in the Bergen County Jail. Porter is charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault by contact and child endangerment. The 6-foot-3-inch, 165-pound Porter, formerly …
Police & Fire
Man, 31, Charged With Sexually Assaulting Pre-Teen In Pal Park
A 31-year-old man living in Palisades Park was charged with sexually assaulting a pre-teen. Jorge Orrego-Garcia “sexually assaulted a juvenile under the age of 13 in Palisades Park…in the past,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Monday, March 25. Records show that Orrego-Garcia is accused of a pair of alleged sexual assaults in 2021. Detectives from Musella’s Special Victims Unit arrested Orrego-Garcia on Friday. He remained held Monday in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts each of sexual assault on a pre-teen and child endangerment through sexual conduct. Althou…
Police & Fire
Parents Formerly Of Hudson Charged In 2-Year-Daughter's Tragic Death
The parents of a 2-year-old girl who died of traumatic injuries after being rushed to the hospital from what had been their North Bergen home were indicted by a grand jury in connection with the child’s death. Tracy Ruiz, 31, and Luis Larios, 35 – who both now live in the Somerset County town of Green Brook are each charged with child endangerment. Ruiz alone is charged with aggravated assault, however. Larios was arrested on Feb. 29 following the release of the grand jury indictment in Jersey Cit, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. Ruiz was arrested on March 7, the prosecutor s…
Police & Fire
Kearny Man, 18, Charged With Having Backyard Sex In Harrison With Underage Girl He Met Online
An 18-year-old Kearny man was charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Angel Aparicio De La Cruz and the girl had sex in the backyard of a Harrison home last July 11 after meeting on social media, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said. Whether the girl consented or not is irrelevant under the law. Statutory rape occurs in New Jersey when one of the partners is between 13 and 16 and the other is at least four years older. Those adults who claim “she/he looked 18″ — or that the victim showed a fake ID — have no defense, under what is known as the standard of strict l…
Police & Fire
Another Child, Another Sex Allegation Against Tri-County Educator From North Jersey
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A veteran school administrator who was accused of having sexual contact with an underage student in Bergen County when he was a middle school band director there is now facing charges involving another underage teen in another county. Kurt Zimmerman, a 55-year-old married father of two, was working in the Morris Hills Regional District in Rockaway when he “engaged in sexual conduct with a juvenile student who was at least 16 years of age but under the age of 18,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Thursday, March 14. Zimmerman, currently of Rockaway, had worked in the di…
Police & Fire
NJ Man Throws Toddler While Walking On Dead Woman As Infant Sits In Feces: PA State Police
A family was discovered to have been living in "deplorable" conditions when a trooper came to assist at a call of a woman in cardiac arrest in the home, Pennsylvania State Police in Gettysburg announced on Wednesday, March 6. Trooper Brandon Black arrived at 2747 Chambersburg Road, Franklin Township, Biglerville, the home of 35-year-old Darryl Kevin Carter II at 1:35 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, he detailed in the release. The New Jersey native's home was so stuffed, that the trooper, along with EMS, had to "force entry into the residence" which is when they found the woman dead, as stated in…
Police & Fire
Mahwah Man Charged With Physically Abusing Pre-Teen
A medical assistant who lives in Mahwah was jailed after authorities said he physically abused a preteen. Martino Desir, 37, was arrested on Monday, March 4, following a call from the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency that he “physically abused a child under the age of 13,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The prosecutor didn’t elaborate. Desir was charged with child endangerment and sent to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained on Tuesday pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack. Desir -- who's listed in jail records as …
Police & Fire
Coach From Lyndhurst Charged With Sexually Assaulting Second Bergen Child
𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A North Jersey youth strength and conditioning coach who’s already awaiting trial first for a double-fatal car crash in Lodi and then for repeated sex assaults of a child is back in jail. Donald Kumar Davis, 33, of Lyndhurst was charged by detectives with sexually assaulting a second child, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced on Monday, March, 4. Davis -- formerly of Nutley -- was previously accused of killing a retired Albanian police chief and a Garfield Walmart manager when he slammed his 2015 Dodge Charger into their car as the immigrant couple as they emerged from t…
Police & Fire
Stock Clerk Charged With Sexually Assaulting Underage Teen In Elmwood Park
A stock clerk already awaiting trial on an aggravated assault charge out of Passaic County was arrested by detectives who said he sexually assaulted an underage juvenile multiple times in Elmwood Park. Jaden Vargas, 21, of Paterson allegedly victimized someone who Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said was between 13 and 16 years old at the time. Musella didn't specify a time period and said only that the alleged incidents occurred "in the past." Vargas was arrested in Elmwood Park last Friday, March 1, following a two-week investigation and has remained held in the Bergen Co…
Police & Fire
NJ High School Teacher, 68, Punched Female Student In Head: Prosecutor
A 68-year-old Bayonne High School teacher was arrested after punching a female student in the head, authorities said. Joseph Mingoia, who lives in Bayonne, has been on administrative leave since the Jan. 22 incident, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said on Monday, March 4. That day, “two students were involved in an altercation on school property,” the prosecutor said. “After multiple staff members intervened, Mingoia struck a female juvenile in the head with a closed hand.” Mingoia was arrested last Friday, March 1, following an investigation by members of her Special Victims Unit …
Police & Fire
Teaneck Mom Jailed For Not Reporting Child Sex Crimes: Prosecutor
A Teaneck woman was jailed for not reporting sexual assaults against two different children, records show. Shanasia Taylor, a 32-year-old warehouse worker, “acted in a manner that would endanger the welfare of a child, specifically by not reporting an act of sexual assault against children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Monday, March 4. Criminal records put the time frame of the alleged crimes at May 2022. Taylor, a Paterson native and mother of two, was arrested on Friday and charged by Teaneck police with child endangerment involving sexual conduct. Members of the prosec…
Police & Fire
'Entertainer' Who's Worked With Kids Charged With Sex Crimes In Bergen, Rockland
A deejay from Rockland County who’s worked with children in a number of Bergen County towns is facing sex assault charges in both states, Daily Voice has learned. Andrew Villafuerte – aka “Droovy” – 33, of Airmont, NY, is charged with three separate instances of aggravated criminal sexual contact, as well as child endangerment, out of New Milford, NJ, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Friday, March 1. Musella, who described the defendant as an entertainer, said an investigation by his Special Victims Unit and New Milford police found that Villafuerte "had sexually assaulted a ch…
Police & Fire
Rockland Cook Charged With Sexually Assaulting Child In Bergen
A cook from Rockland was arrested this week on charges of sexually assaulting a pre-teen in Bergen County several years ago, authorities said. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said John Mark Dillon, 60, who currently lives in Piermont, sexually assaulted the youngster at least twice in Northvale, where records show he’d previously lived. The prosecutor didn’t provide dates. Dillon remained held in the Rockland County Correctional Center in New City, pending extradition to New Jersey, following his arrest in Orangeburg on Monday, Feb. 26. He's charged with two counts of aggravated sex…
Police & Fire
Ex-Middle School Band Director In Bergen Charged With Sexual Touching
A Sussex County high school administrator had sexual contact multiple times with an underage student in Bergen County when he was a middle school band director there, authorities charged. Kurt Zimmerman, a 55-year-old married father of two, “engaged in sexual conduct” with a student between 13 and 17 years old both at Westwood Regional Middle School in Westwood and at Westwood Regional High School in Washington Township, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Zimmerman, of Rockaway, has worked since 2013 at Hopatcong High School, first as a band director for 10 years and then as coo…
Police & Fire
Shocker
: NJ Teacher Had Sex With Student Starting At 15 In School, Car, House: Authorities
A married teacher had intercourse as part of a years-long sexual relationship with a former Garfield Middle School student beginning when the youngster was 15, including several times in a car -- and even at the school, authorities charged. Amy Impero D'Ovidio, a 46-year-old Bergen County native, had worked for the Garfield Board of Education when the alleged encounters began, they said. She was 35 at the time. Locations included “within the Garfield Middle School, at a private residence in Cedar Grove, as well as within a vehicle at unknown locations in Bergen, Essex, and Passaic counties…
Police & Fire
Update
: Lyft Driver Gets 7 Years For Fondling Pre-Teen Prospect Park Passenger Separate Times
A former U.S. military member from Morris County who was convicted of sexually assaulting a Passaic County pre-teen while working as a Lyft driver was sentenced to seven years in state prison. Julio Mejia, 43, of Wharton also must register as a sex offender and remain under lifetime parole supervision, under the sentence handed down by Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Portelli in Paterson. Mejia rejected a plea deal after investigators said the underage Prospect Park girl told them he had sex with her after she took a Lyft ride in August 2019 and then again after several weeks of texting. He…
Police & Fire
Seen
HIM? Retired Jersey Shore Corrections Officer In Child Sex Trafficking Case Now A Fugitive
New Jersey authorities turned to the public for help Tuesday finding a retired New Jersey corrections officer who fled before he was stand to trial on charges of paying for sex with a trafficked minor. Kurt Young, 56, of South Dennis Township, was briefly jailed before being released following his arrest on Jan. 28, 2020, records show. Two co-defendants took pleas and got 15 to 20 years in state prison in exchange. Meanwhile, Young -- who investigators said was positively identified by the 14-year-old victim -- skipped out during jury selection for his trial in Cape May County las…
Police & Fire
Infant Ingests Cocaine At Bergenfield Home, Couple Arrested
A couple were arrested after an infant ingested cocaine at the man’s Bergenfield home and had to be rushed to the hospital, authorities said. The child was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center following a call for help from Seminary Court, a cul-de-sac behind Our Lady of Angels Cemetery, on Monday, Jan. 29. It was quickly determined that the infant had ingested cocaine, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Prosecutor’s detectives and Bergenfield police seized Raymond Sylvester, 55, a physical therapist who lives at the home, and Leshawnda Nixon, 33, who’s listed in criminal…
Police & Fire
Baby Boy Rushed To Hospital After Eating Cannabis Gummy At Hotel Off Route 3
A 1-year-old child was reported to be alert and responsive after eating a cannabis gummy at a hotel just off Route 3 where authorities said his teen mother and her adult boyfriend were staying. Secaucus police were called after the infant apparently lost consciousness at the Extended Stay America on Meadowlands Parkway around mid-morning on Thursday, Jan. 18, responders said. The infant was rushed to nearby Hudson Regional Hospital before being transferred to Hackensack University Medical Center, Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller said. The child's 17-year-old mother was detained and issu…
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