Guatemalan National From North Bergen Charged With Sexually Assaulting Fairview Child Years Ago

An unemployed Guatemalan national living in North Bergen molested a young Fairview child at least four times going back more than a decade, authorities charged.

Jerry DeMarco

11/23/2022 10:27 a.m.

Eddy Chocoj, 34, has remained in the Bergen County Jail since his arrest on Monday, Nov. 21, records show.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also placed a detainer on Chocoj on Tuesday. Such detainers are sought whenever local authorities jail immigrants who are suspected of illegally living in the United States.

Chocoj is charged in Superior Court in Hackensack with multiple counts of sexual assault, along with one of child endangerment, records show.

The child was between 4 and 11 years old at the time, with the incidents dating back as recently as February 2013, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.

Detectives with the prosecutor's Special Victims Unit investigated, arrested and charged Chocoj after being alerted by Fairview police, Musella said Wednesday.

Chocoj is awaiting a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.

If a judge orders his release from jail for some reason -- say, bail reform – ICE will have 48 hours to take custody of Chocoj. A federal judge will then hold a hearing in U.S. District Court in Newark to determine whether he’ll be deported.

This could come either before or after a trial and any subsequent sentencing.

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