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It began when a witness at the Sunoco station on Locust Avenue pointed Officer Szymon Popek toward a rental car with heavy front-end damage, Capt. Shawn Kudlacik said.
The driver, identified as Jasmine Fletcher, 27, of Newark, got out of the vehicle after Popek stopped her moments later, Kudlacik said.
She had her hands up, telling him and backup officers to arrest her, the captain said.
Fletcher “appeared incoherent, saying that she was robbed, that it wasn’t her car and other unintelligible comments,” he said.
The officers arrested her after learning that the vehicle had been stolen and seeing a crack pipe in plain view inside, Kudlacik said.
Back at headquarters, Fletcher became combative, scratching and punching Popek and another officer, he said.
Police charged her with two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, receiving stolen property and drug possession.
They sent Fletcher to the Bergen County Jail, only to have a judge order her released pending further court action less than 24 hours later.
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