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Police & Fire
Haledon Police Raid Clandestine Ecstasy Lab In Center Of Town, Seize Resident, 23 Haledon Police Raid Clandestine Ecstasy Lab In Center Of Town, Seize Resident, 23
Haledon Police Raid Clandestine Ecstasy Lab In Center Of Town, Seize Resident, 23 Haledon police busted a 23-year-old resident who they said mixed toxic and potentially fatal chemicals to produce homemade Ecstasy in the center of town. Acting on a reliable tip, investigators led by Detective Jeffrey Welsh obtained a search warrant and -- assisted by their department's Special Services Bureau -- hit the clandestine Haledon Avenue lab on Saturday, Feb. 10, Deputy Police Chief George Guzman said. They seized Santiago Zapata Palomeque after finding two five-gallon buckets of 3,4-Methylenedioxy​methamphetamine in his bedroom, the deputy chief said. They also found cocaine, …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Ridgewood Photographer Possessed Child Porn: Prosecutors Ridgewood Photographer Possessed Child Porn: Prosecutors
Ridgewood Photographer Possessed Child Porn: Prosecutors A 70-year-old Ridgewood medical photographer was arrested and charged on Thursday, Feb. 8 with using the internet to view child pornography, authorities said. Following a monthslong investigation, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Cyber Crimes Unit searched the residence of Rob Wolfson, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The investigation revealed Wolfson used the internet to watch, download and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children, Musella said.  Wolfson was charged with possession of child pornography and rem…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Cliffside Officer Nabs Passing Motorist With Loaded Gun, High-Capacity Mag: PD Cliffside Officer Nabs Passing Motorist With Loaded Gun, High-Capacity Mag: PD
Cliffside Officer Nabs Passing Motorist With Loaded Gun, High-Capacity Mag: PD When a Cliffside Park police officer asked a motorist he'd stopped for having bogus plates whether there was anything inside the car that he should be concerned about, he got a blunt answer. Namely: A loaded gun, authorities said. Melvin E. Chinchillalavandaverde, 24, "seemed nervous" when Officer Julio Perez-Tavera stopped his red 2007 Hyundai Tiburon near the corner of Riverview Place and Palisades Avenue shortly after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6, Deputy Police Chief Vincent Capano said. So the officer asked a natural question, then got Chinchillalavandaverde's consent to search the c…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
MRI Tech Terrorizes People By Posing As Them Online, Mailing Letter To One: Bergen Prosecutor MRI Tech Terrorizes People By Posing As Them Online, Mailing Letter To One: Bergen Prosecutor
MRI Tech Terrorizes People By Posing As Them Online, Mailing Letter To One: Bergen Prosecutor An MRI tech from Hudson County terrorized a number of people, including by mailing letters to one victim’s job in Bergenfield, said authorities who arrested him on Monday. Sarju Patel, 39, who lives at Half Moon Harbour on River Road in North Bergen, already had a criminal history that stretches back nearly two decades, records show. This time, the Bergenfield native created social media accounts that “used vanity names in the likeness of the victims, posted photographs of the victims [and] ‘checked-in’ online at various locations associated with the victims,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Route 17 Shopping Center Fires Set By Rockland Man: Bergen Prosecutor Route 17 Shopping Center Fires Set By Rockland Man: Bergen Prosecutor
Route 17 Shopping Center Fires Set By Rockland Man: Bergen Prosecutor Back-to-back fires behind two Ramsey shopping centers were deliberately set by an unemployed Rockland man, authorities charged. Nicholas Todaro, 37, of Orangeburg ignited the first one in a wooded area behind the Spring Street shopping center just off northbound Route 17 shortly after 6:30 p.m. Jan. 5, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Roughly 20 minutes later, he set a second fire in a wooded area behind the Interstate Shopping Center nearly a mile down the road on the highway’s southbound side, the prosecutor said. Ramsey firefighters quickly doused both blazes, Musella said. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Passaic Sheriff Berdnik's Death By Suicide 'Unfathomable Loss' For NJ, Attorney General Says Passaic Sheriff Berdnik's Death By Suicide 'Unfathomable Loss' For NJ, Attorney General Says
Passaic Sheriff Berdnik's Death By Suicide 'Unfathomable Loss' For NJ, Attorney General Says Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik died by his own hand on Tuesday in his hometown Clifton, in what the Garden State's attorney general called "an unfathomable loss for New Jersey." Emergency responders rushed to Toro's Turkish Restaurant on Hazel Street a few minutes after 3:30 p.m. Jan. 23. Berdnik had just taken his life in the men's room, the sudden gunshot through the heart startling staff and patrons alike, sources told Daily Voice. Not even 15 minutes earlier, the popular sheriff had posed for cellphone photos. Then he got a phone call with some very unsettling news, reliable so…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Franklin Lakes Massage Therapist Charged With Rubbing Client Wrong Way Franklin Lakes Massage Therapist Charged With Rubbing Client Wrong Way
Franklin Lakes Massage Therapist Charged With Rubbing Client Wrong Way A Franklin Lakes massage therapist was charged with sexually assaulting a customer, authorities said. Kewin Sepulveda, 29, of Paterson “engaged in sexual activity with an individual while giving a massage” at the Hand and Stone Spa in the Franklin Crossing shopping center off Franklin Avenue, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The alleged victim went to Franklin Lakes police, who notified his office, the prosecutor said. An investigation by detectives from Musella’s Special Victims Unit and borough police led to the sexual assault charge, he said. Sepulveda, who had an unspecifie…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Disgraced NJ Judge’s Son Charged With Collecting Child Porn Disgraced NJ Judge’s Son Charged With Collecting Child Porn
Disgraced NJ Judge’s Son Charged With Collecting Child Porn BREAKING NEWS: The son of a former judge who was removed from the bench for misconduct was busted on child porn charges following a raid on the family home in Waldwick, authorities confirmed on Friday. George M. Silebi, 27, “used the Internet to view, download, and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Jan. 18. Detectives from Musella’s Cyber Crimes Unit raided the Sheridan Avenue home of former Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi exactly a week earlier. From there they traveled to N…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Hotel Heroin Dealer With Young Kids Had 'Brick' Of Smack: Rochelle Park PD Hotel Heroin Dealer With Young Kids Had 'Brick' Of Smack: Rochelle Park PD
Hotel Heroin Dealer With Young Kids Had 'Brick' Of Smack: Rochelle Park PD A convicted drug dealer had two young children with him when a pair of Rochelle Park detectives caught him selling heroin at a hotel just off the Garden State Parkway, authorities said. Detectives Sgt. Jared Shatkin and Nick Mercoun were joined by a team of officers as Ricardo Murdock, 31, of Paterson did business in the parking lot of the Ramada By Wyndham at the Route 160 exit off the northbound parkway, Capt. James DePreta said. They seized Murdock, who was carrying Ecstasy and drug proceeds, and a male buyer, the captain said. Murdock has a rap sheet, mostly involving drugs, that stret…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Freed Pedophile Produced Homemade Child Porn, Bergen Prosecutor Says Freed Pedophile Produced Homemade Child Porn, Bergen Prosecutor Says
Freed Pedophile Produced Homemade Child Porn, Bergen Prosecutor Says A computer tech from Dumont who'd been freed pending trial after authorities charged him with sexually assaulting an underage teen was rearrested after authorities said they found homemade child porn. Coswayne Donald, 44, “used his cellular phone to manufacture and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Wednesday, Jan. 10. Detectives from Musella’s Special Victims Unit originally arrested Donald on first-degree aggravated sexual assault charges last June. The prosecutor said at the time that the married defen…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Airport Tech From Hackensack Charged With Child Endangerment Airport Tech From Hackensack Charged With Child Endangerment
Airport Tech From Hackensack Charged With Child Endangerment A Hackensack man who works at Teterboro Airport was busted on child endangerment charges, authorities said. Reynaldo Ariel Tarquino was arrested on his 29th birthday last Friday, Jan. 5, after being reported to law enforcement authorities by the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Wednesday, June 10. The prosecutor said investigators from his office and Hackensack police found that Tarquino, a line service technician, “abused a child under the age of 13 in Hackensack and New Milford." He didn’t elaborate. Records show the allega…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
FASHION STATEMENT: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD FASHION STATEMENT: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD
Fashion Statement: Serial Porch Pirate Wore Same Jacket, Yellow Kicks Each Time: Garfield PD He wore a distinctive black jacket arrayed with NFL team patches, not to mention sneakers you couldn’t miss -- yellow. He also already had a lengthy arrest record. In the end, Jaquiece Shadeer Smith left Garfield police investigating eight different front-porch package thefts with a single suspect. To call the 35-year-old city resident “known to police” would be an understatement. Smith has a decade-long rap sheet, records show, and even was recently arrested for porch piracy in Hackensack. Garfield Detectives Sebastian Tyburski and Arkadiusz Dudek interviewed eyewitnesses and gather…

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by Jerry DeMarco