Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police
Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police A 27-year-old Newark man was arrested on Friday, April 26 for flashing his genitals to passing vehicles in Hackettstown, authorities said. On Tuesday, March 5 at 10:37 a.m., Jared Aponte flashed his genitals to vehicles at Valentine Street and Jefferson Street, Hackettstown police said. On Saturday, April 20, at 12:35 p.m., police responded to Hackettstown High School after a woman said Aponte made a sexual comment to her while she was sitting in her car in the junior parking lot, police said. The woman began to yell and scream and fled the area, police said. Aponte was charged with lewdne…
Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn
Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn UPDATE: A now-former Hudson County grammar school teacher from Morris County admitted in federal court that he trafficked child porn. Anselmo Girimonte, 53, of Wharton, had taught Italian in grades 3 through 8 in the Kearny School District since 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. Girimonte, previously of Madison and Bloomfield, was taken into federal custody in March 2022 after undercover investigators collected several shared video files that U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said contained "multiple visual depictions of prepubescent children being sexually abused by adu…
Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work
Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work UPDATE: An electrical supervisor from Bergen County admitted soaking the Hudson Bergen Light Rail for nearly a half-million dollars worth of no-show work, including while he was vacationing in Florida, federal authorities said. Joseph Ferrara, 56, of North Arlington, "submitted claims for compensation covering hundreds of hours relating to work allegedly performed during regular, overtime and double time hours" that was, in fact, never done, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger said. Ferrara, who worked as an electrical supervisor for a subcontractor hired by the light rail system,…
Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77 Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77
Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77 Paul Auster, who won numerous literary awards and published "The New York Trilogy" died on Tuesday, April 30, at the age of 77, his literary representatives announced. Born in Newark, Auster was raised in South Orange before graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood. He initially garnered attention after publishing his memoir "The Invention of Solitude," which discussed his father's death. Auster's most acclaimed work came next: "The New York Trilogy," a series of three novels including "City of Glass," "Ghosts" and "The Locked Room," mixing post modernism with detective fiction. Th…
Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE
Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE Federal authorities have moved to take custody of a 25-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who was charged with raping a woman in Fairview with a child present. Bylly Xilox Aquino, 25, remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday, May 1, on a detainer filed by ICE. Aquino, who's married, has been on Anderson Avenue just off Kamena Street, records show. Fairview police seized him after a woman said he held her down on a bed, then raped and sodomized her in the presence of a child, according to a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack. The woman required medical attention after…
Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!' Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!'
Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!' Nearly a dozen football players from the Garden State heard their names called during the 2024 NFL Draft. Eleven players with New Jersey ties were selected in the draft from Thursday, Apr. 25 to Saturday, Apr. 27 in Detroit. The top Jersey draft pick was Max Melton, a Mays Landing native who played cornerback at Rutgers. Melton was taken in the second round with the 43rd overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals. He's the highest-drafted Scarlet Knight since defensive end Kemoko Turay was selected by the Indianapolis Colts with the 52nd overall pick in 2018. According to his NFL.com draft…
Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week
Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week Federal immigration agents seized a 49-year-old Mexican national who local authorities said sexually assaulted a pre-teen in Englewood. Abel Garcia Landeros became the second undocumented immigrant living in the city who was charged with a child sex crime this week. SEE: Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood Landeros was charged with sexual assault and child endangerment by Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella’s Special Victims Unit after city police arrested him in Englewood. He'd just been booked into the Bergen County Jail on Thursday, April 25 whe…
Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood
Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood A 21-year-old Guatemalan national seized by federal authorities has been charged with raping a pre-teen in Englewood last summer. Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel, who's been living in an apartment over a Colombian restaurant on West Palisade Avenue, remained in federal custody at the Elizabeth detention center on Friday, April 26, records show. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday that members of his Special Victims Unit charged Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment for forcibly having intercourse with the victim. They then served him with a c…
NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More
NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More A convicted NJ child porn collector had only just been released from federal prison when investigators said he tried buying kids’ shoes on Facebook Marketplace.  And that wasn’t all they said that Andrew Chu, 33, of Edison was up to. Authorities who examined Chu’s laptop and cellphone reported finding more than 100 pornographic images of naked underage girls. They also found live chats that Chu had with naked underage minors while masturbating, a complaint filed in federal court in Newark by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations says. One of them was only 11 years old, agents sa…
Congressman Donald Payne Dead At 65 Congressman Donald Payne Dead At 65
Congressman Donald Payne Dead At 65 Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) died on Wednesday, April 24 at the age of 65, weeks after suffering a cardiac episode. Payne, a Newark native, had served in Congress, representing New Jersey's 10th district since 2012, when he won a special election to fill the seat left vacant when his father, Donald Payne, Sr. died.  A graduate of Kean University, he previously served on the Essex County Board of Freeholders and the Newark Municipal Council and was known for his signature bowtie.  Earlier this month, Payne's office said he suffered a cardiac episode based on complications from di…
NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds
NJ Teacher Who Posed As Woman To Lure 70 Boys Into Sending Him Nudes Gets 17½ Years: Feds UPDATE: It's a measure of how despicably and disgustingly a former Union County grade-school teacher and youth soccer coach from Morristown abused dozens of boys he'd met online that a plea bargain got him "only" 17½ years in federal prison. Steven Brooks, 37, must serve at least 85% of the negotiated sentence handed down in federal court in Newark on Thursday, April 18, for posing as a woman to lure at least 70 underage boys into sending him nude photos and videos. That means he'll be in his early 50s before he'll be eligible to experience freedom again. FBI agents who investigated Brooks…
Feds: NJ Longshoreman Gets 2½ Years For Ducking Taxes On $2.5M Of Income Feds: NJ Longshoreman Gets 2½ Years For Ducking Taxes On $2.5M Of Income
Feds: NJ Longshoreman Gets 2½ Years For Ducking Taxes On $2.5M Of Income A Port Newark mechanic who was convicted of ducking taxes on $2.5 million of income was sentenced to nearly 2½ years in federal prison. Jonathan Michael, 55, of Springfield had filed returns and paid his taxes without fail for decades, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release. In 2014, however, he gave his employer in the machine shop at the Port Newark Container Terminal a bogus W-4 form, claiming that he was exempt from any federal income tax withholding from his pay, federal authorities said. The IRS notified Michael in 2016 that he wasn't entitled to exempt status, but he wrote…