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'Fearful' NJ Attacker Sentenced In Golf Club Beatdown That Left PA Victim With Brain Injury 'Fearful' NJ Attacker Sentenced In Golf Club Beatdown That Left PA Victim With Brain Injury
'Fearful' NJ Attacker Sentenced In Golf Club Beatdown That Left PA Victim With Brain Injury A New Jersey man said he was acting out of fear when he attacked a Pennsylvania woman with a golf club leaving her with a traumatic brain injury, authorities said. Aiven Rosario, 26, of the 100 block of Park Avenue in East Orange, was sentenced to up to nine years in prison in connection with the March 6 attack in Lancaster County, PA, according to Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams. Rosario followed the woman into a parking lot in the 1400 block of Millport Road, West Lampeter Township around 9:52 p.m. on March 6, as detailed in the release from the Lancaster C…

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by Jillian Pikora
News
Stranger In Hazmat Suit Who Sprayed Merch At Bergen Florist Identified As NY State Resident Stranger In Hazmat Suit Who Sprayed Merch At Bergen Florist Identified As NY State Resident
Stranger In Hazmat Suit Who Sprayed Merch At Bergen Florist Identified As NY State Resident UPDATE: One person's prank is another's vandalism, as a New York State man learned when police in Glen Rock identified him as the stranger in a hazmat suit who sprayed plants and flowers at a local shop with an unknown substance. Robert X. Houston, 22, of Middletown, claimed that he pulled the stunt at Perry’s Florist & Gardens on Harristown Road in January as part of an effort to establish himself as a YouTube personality, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said. Houston told police there were no chemicals or other substances in the hand-held sprayer, but Ackermann said more than $750 wo…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Police Chief Eyes Reinstatement, Restitution After Judge Boots Funeral Escort Case NJ Police Chief Eyes Reinstatement, Restitution After Judge Boots Funeral Escort Case
NJ Police Chief Eyes Reinstatement, Restitution After Judge Boots Funeral Escort Case Suspended Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler is seeking reinstatement, and restitution, following a judge's ruling that he was wrongly being prosecuted for assigning police escorts to processions from his family-owned funeral home. And despite having waited 18 months for vindication, Kugler isn’t angry. “I’ve turned the page,” he told Daily Voice. “I’m moving forward and expect to proudly return to be chief of police once again and serve my community and the general public. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” State authorities wrongly applied a borough ordinance meant to keep police …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Woman Who Pulled $400,000 GoFundMe Scam With Homeless Vet, Ex-BF Gets Federal Prison Time NJ Woman Who Pulled $400,000 GoFundMe Scam With Homeless Vet, Ex-BF Gets Federal Prison Time
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 …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Ex-Newark Officer Who Took Payoffs To Protect Prostitutes Gets Nearly 4 Years In Fed Pen Ex-Newark Officer Who Took Payoffs To Protect Prostitutes Gets Nearly 4 Years In Fed Pen
Ex-Newark Officer Who Took Payoffs To Protect Prostitutes Gets Nearly 4 Years In Fed Pen A retired Newark police veteran who admitted pocketing tens of thousands of dollars to protect city whorehouses while he was on the beat was sentenced to a little under four years in federal prison. Julio I. Rivera, 52, of Old Bridge, not only looked the other way: He also promised to have fellow officers do the same and agreed to crack down on a paying brothel owner's competitor, authorities said. Rivera pulled down between $200 and $800 a week from the operators, according to a 14-count indictment on file in U.S. District Court in Newark. The indictment charged Rivera with several counts…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Prosecutor: Former Warren County Municipal Tax Collector, 50, Stole Payments Totaling $824K Prosecutor: Former Warren County Municipal Tax Collector, 50, Stole Payments Totaling $824K
Prosecutor: Former Warren County Municipal Tax Collector, 50, Stole Payments Totaling $824K A Warren County woman admitted stealing more than $800,000 in payments while working as a municipal tax collector for three townships, authorities said. Rachellyn Mosher, 50, misappropriated a total of $824,000 from taxpayers in White, Harmony and Lopatcong Township between 2013 and 2018, Prosecutor James L. Pfeiffer said in a joint release. Mosher, of Lopatcong, pleaded guilty to official misconduct in Hunterdon County Superior Court Wednesday, Pfeiffer said. She is required as per a plea agreement to spend five years in state prison with a four-year mandatory minimum before the poss…

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by Valerie Musson
News
Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen
Ex-AC Mayor Who Spent $86,000 In Youth Sports Donations On Himself Gets 30 Days In Fed Pen UPDATE: Former Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam was sentenced Thursday to a plea-bargained 30 days in federal prison, 11 months of house arrest and 200 hours of community for scamming donors out of $86,000 that he told them was going to a youth basketball team. Frank Gilliam, 49, used the money on fancy clothes, expensive meals, and trips that were “completely unrelated to the operation of a youth basketball team,” Acting U.S. Attorney Rachel A. Honig said. “I stand before this court a fractured human being,” Gilliam told U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez via videoconference in Camde…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Newark Grocery Store Father, Son Sentenced In $3.49M Federal SNAP Benefits Fraud Newark Grocery Store Father, Son Sentenced In $3.49M Federal SNAP Benefits Fraud
Newark Grocery Store Father, Son Sentenced In $3.49M Federal SNAP Benefits Fraud A Newark man was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and his son to 15 months of home detention Thursday for blatantly exchanging federal food benefits for $3.49 million in cash. Juan Perdomo ran M&R Supermarket in Newark, which accepted Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments through government-issued debit cards issued to families in need. The federally funded program, formerly known as food stamps, allows users to purchase food, but the benefit cannot be exchanged for cash. Authorities say Perdomo, along with his son, Jose, and wife, Maria Rodrigue…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Newark Man Who Illegally Dumped Piles Under Three NJ Highways Gets Probation, Community Service Newark Man Who Illegally Dumped Piles Under Three NJ Highways Gets Probation, Community Service
Newark Man Who Illegally Dumped Piles Under Three NJ Highways Gets Probation, Community Service A Newark man was sentenced to probation and 300 hours of community service Monday for illegally dumping construction material, medical waste, lead paint and other items from his rubbish removal business beneath a trio of highways. Superior Court Judge Mayra V. Tarantino declined the state Attorney General’s Office request that Abdullah S. Bryant, 41, spend 364 days in the county jail for his guilty plea to criminal mischief and opted for three years of probation and the community service. Bryant -- who did business under various names, including International Rubbish Removal – admitted last…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NY Driver, 16, Caught Tearing Up School Fields In Bergen NY Driver, 16, Caught Tearing Up School Fields In Bergen
NY Driver, 16, Caught Tearing Up School Fields In Bergen A 16-year-old driver from Warwick, NY tore up fields at schools in Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes, causing thousands of dollars in damage, authorities said. Damage to the field at Eisenhower Middle School in Wyckoff alone was estimated at $2,500, Lt. Joseph Soto said Tuesday. Investigating Detective Sgt. Michael Ragucci discovered that the boy also vandalized the field at Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes with the SUV, Soto said. The boy was taken into custody and given what is known as a stationhouse adjustment, under which police can release first-time juvenile offenders involved in petty…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Elizabeth Property Manager Sentenced For Stealing Thousands From Elderly Tenant, Now Deceased Elizabeth Property Manager Sentenced For Stealing Thousands From Elderly Tenant, Now Deceased
Elizabeth Property Manager Sentenced For Stealing Thousands From Elderly Tenant, Now Deceased An Elizabeth property manager was ordered to serve five years of probation and pay $75,000 in restitution to the estate of the 89-year-old victim whom she stole thousands from, authorities said. Natalia Calderon-Diaz, 33, admitted to siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from the tenant's bank account over the course of about a year and a half, acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo said. The victim, who lived alone in Linden Arms apartments on Linden Avenue, died several weeks ago and left behind no immediate family. She will be laid to rest next to her…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Newark Store Owner Gets 3 Years For Pocketing $750,000 In Food Vouchers Newark Store Owner Gets 3 Years For Pocketing $750,000 In Food Vouchers
Newark Store Owner Gets 3 Years For Pocketing $750,000 In Food Vouchers A Newark store owner from Teaneck who was captured after fleeing the country was sentenced Thursday to 37 months in federal prison for scamming the government out of more than $750,000 in a food voucher scam. U.S. District Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti also sentenced Jamil Bader, 60, to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $754,424. Bader put a small grocery store that he owned on Clinton Avenue in Newark in another person’s name because he’d been banned from participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) because of similar wrongdo…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Saga Of NJ Scrap Metal Company That Conned Customers Out Of Millions Closes Saga Of NJ Scrap Metal Company That Conned Customers Out Of Millions Closes
Saga Of NJ Scrap Metal Company That Conned Customers Out Of Millions Closes After two years, four guilty pleas and several years worth of combined sentences, a massive federal case ended quietly Wednesday against a North Jersey scrap metal company that conned customers of several million dollars over nearly two decades. David Bartek, 55, of Wood Ridge, became the only convict to not get any federal prison time when he was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newark to eight months home confinement and five years of supervised release. The government’s case against Cinelli Iron & Metal Co. (CIMCO) publicly began when with Bartek, the company’s former CF…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Jersey City Fugitive Sentenced To 7 Years For Huge Shipping Scam Jersey City Fugitive Sentenced To 7 Years For Huge Shipping Scam
Jersey City Fugitive Sentenced To 7 Years For Huge Shipping Scam A 62-year-old Jersey City man who disappeared after he was indicted for massive fraud eight years ago and came back to the United States was sentenced to seven years in prison, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement.  Rajendra Patel, who was indicted in 2011 for defrauding five freight brokers out of a combined $2.6 million, was also ordered to make full restitution. He pleaded guilty in August.  The brokers, who serve as intermediaries between shippers and freight carriers, typically extend credit to shippers. Patel took advantage of this practice by building up a …

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by Paul Milo
Police & Fire
Feds: Morris County Assisted Living Manager Who Stole $237K From Elderly Patient Sentenced Feds: Morris County Assisted Living Manager Who Stole $237K From Elderly Patient Sentenced
Feds: Morris County Assisted Living Manager Who Stole $237K From Elderly Patient Sentenced The business manager of a Morris County assisted living facility who admit to stealing $237,000 from an elderly patient and used it to buy fine clothing, jewelry, cars and more was sentenced to prison Tuesday, authorities said. Marcella Drakeford, 46, most recently of Fort Pierce, Fla., was sentenced to 27 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. Drakeford -- formerly of Hackensack and Englewood -- got limited access to the victim’s checking account after agreeing in December 2016 to manage her financial affairs and pay for her care, the U.S. attorney said. What neither t…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
VIDEO: Boy Who Flattened Bergen Family's Inflatable Easter Duck Apologizes VIDEO: Boy Who Flattened Bergen Family's Inflatable Easter Duck Apologizes
Video: Boy Who Flattened Bergen Family's Inflatable Easter Duck Apologizes In an era of home surveillance cameras and social media, a boy knocking over an inflatable Easter duck on a Mahwah homeowner’s lawn in broad daylight was bound to end in a conviction. Jonathan Marcus posted a video of the boy who broke away from the group he was with, rushed the duck and flattened it around 6:15 p.m. Thursday. At least one of the boys was wearing a Don Bosco jacket, said Marcus, who lives at the corner of Forest Road and Brook Court – across from Wilkes Deli in the township’s Fardale section – and decorates his property for several holidays each year. “The one who destroy…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Husband, Wife From E. Orange Sentenced In Large Bank Fraud Husband, Wife From E. Orange Sentenced In Large Bank Fraud
Husband, Wife From E. Orange Sentenced In Large Bank Fraud A married couple from East Orange have both been sentenced for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from customers of the bank where the wife worked, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced.  Seconey Brown, 26,  and Antoinette Mitchell-Brown, 42, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Brown has been sentenced to 27 months in prison and Micthell-Brown received a sentence of 366 days, the U.S. Attorney said Wednesday.  For a few months beginning in September 2016, Mitchell-Brown stole account information from clients of the bank where…

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by Paul Milo