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A co-worker came to the victim’s rescue after David Sivertsen, 47, of Hackettstown began choking her, Detective Capt. Dan Daly said.
Police had responded to the Route 23 fast-food joint earlier Saturday after Sivertsen argued with employees about wearing a mask, Daly said.
He was gone when they got there, the captain said.
Surveillance video shows Sivertsen returning shortly after 4 p.m.
He grabbed an employee – whom he outweighed by a 80 pounds –put his hands around her neck and began choking her, Daly said.
A co-worker scared him off, the captain said.
The victim refused hospitalization as officers searched for her attacker.
An alert patrol officer found a drunken Sivertsen seated in a driveway on Newark-Pompton Turnpike.
“You got me,” Sivertsen told the officer, Daly said.
He “appeared agitated and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol,” the captain said.
It didn’t end there, he said.
At headquarters, Sivertsen “intentionally slammed his head into the steel bench to which he was handcuffed,” Daly said.
He was taken to a local hospital and, after being medically cleared, booked into the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson on aggravated assault charges.
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