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Retired Bank Exec Struck In DWI Hit-And-Run In Closter Dies, Charges Against Driver Upgraded

A 75-year-old retired bank vice president from Closter who authorities said was struck by a drunk hit-and-run driver as he walked down a local street has died.

Jesus T. Yunganaula Tenempaguay

Jesus T. Yunganaula Tenempaguay

Photo Credit: Jerry DeMarco / INSERT: BCJ

Charges have been upgraded as a result against the driver, Jesus T. Yunganaula Tenempaguay, a 36-year-old Ecuadorian national living in Hackensack.

Tenempaguay was intoxicated when his 2007 Honda CRV struck Alan Friedman on Durie Avenue near Legion Place at 3:25 p.m. Sunday, March 26, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.

Friedman, who'd worked for The Bank of New York Mellon for 35 years, was unresponsive but breathing, with multiple injuries, when he was taken by ambulance to Hackensack University Medical Center in critical condition.

He died of his injuries on Monday, Musella said.

Tenempaguay, who authorities said kept going, worked as a cook at Buon Gusto, a restaurant less than three blocks down on Durie Avenue, sources told Daily Voice.

Closter police quickly found his vehicle and took the father of four into custody.

Tenempagu has remained in the Bergen County Jail since Sunday now that the charges against him have been upgraded to vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death and hindering apprehension, among other counts.

He also received multiple motor-vehicle summonses for "violations related to driving while intoxicated and the hit-and-run crash," Musella said.

A detention hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday, March 31, in Superior Court in Hackensack.

Friedman will be laid to rest at 1 p.m. Thursday at Cedar Park Cemetery, 735 Forest Avenue in Paramus. Louis Suburban Chapel is handling the funeral.

https://www.louissuburbanchapel.com/alan-s-friedman/

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