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Retiree Charged With Setting Fire In Fort Lee Luxury High-Rise Retiree Charged With Setting Fire In Fort Lee Luxury High-Rise
Retiree Charged With Setting Fire In Fort Lee Luxury High-Rise A Fort Lee retiree deliberately set a fire in his luxury high-rise apartment overlooking Manhattan, authorities said. Jay Freedman, 60, was arrested following an investigation into the late-afternoon fire Tuesday in his eighth-floor apartment in the Charlton, a 20-story high rise off Bergen Boulevard, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Responders quickly doused it, Musella said. Freedman, meanwhile, was charged with a minor count of causing or risking widespread injury or damage, then was released pending a Feb. 11 first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensa…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: Hit Man From Philly Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire For NJ Political Operative Feds: Hit Man From Philly Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire For NJ Political Operative
Feds: Hit Man From Philly Admits Committing Murder-For-Hire For NJ Political Operative A Philadelphia resident admitted Wednesday that he was one of the two hit men paid by a onetime New Jersey political operative to kill a former associate. Bomani Africa, 61, who has a criminal history that includes convictions for robbery and drug-related crime, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for hire via videoconference with a federal judge in Newark, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger announced. People immediately began wondering who the hired killers were after Sean Caddle, 44, admitted on Tuesday that he paid them to whack Michael Galdieri, the son of forme…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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MURDER FOR HIRE: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate MURDER FOR HIRE: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate
Murder FOR Hire: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate A New Jersey-based political consultant admitted Tuesday that he hired two hitmen to kill a longtime associate from Hudson County who had worked for him on various election campaigns, federal authorities said. Sean Caddle, 44, a former aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) paid the killers -- one from Connecticut, the other from Pennsylvania -- to get rid of Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics. Galdieri, 52, was stabbed to death in May 2014 before his Jersey City apartmen…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Possible Arson Fire Investigated At Camden County Apartment Complex: Developing Possible Arson Fire Investigated At Camden County Apartment Complex: Developing
Possible Arson Fire Investigated At Camden County Apartment Complex: Developing Police in South Jersey were investigating a possible arson fire at an apartment complex, according to developing and unconfirmed reports. The fire broke out about 10 a.m. at the Penn Garden Apartments, 4601 High St. in Pennsauken Township, initial reports said. Something was thrown on a door that may have caused the fire, which was quickly extinguished, according to an unconfirmed report.  Pennsauken Township police were not immediately available for comment. CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Fire That Caused Traffic Nightmare On Parkway Was Arson: State Police Fire That Caused Traffic Nightmare On Parkway Was Arson: State Police
Fire That Caused Traffic Nightmare On Parkway Was Arson: State Police A brush fire that closed the Garden State Parkway for hours last night was caused by arsonists, New Jersey State Police say. Troopers responded to the fire near milepost 91 in Brick Township around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Officials believe the fire was started by several individuals, possibly juveniles, within a drainage culvert that runs underneath the Garden State Parkway from the 91 north entrance ramp to the 91 south exit ramp, police said. After starting the fire in the culvert opening on the south side, the suspects were seen running into the Evergreen Woods Park Apartment Complex, which r…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Disgruntled Ex-Employee Sets Fire To Former Central Jersey Workplace: Prosecutor Disgruntled Ex-Employee Sets Fire To Former Central Jersey Workplace: Prosecutor
Disgruntled Ex-Employee Sets Fire To Former Central Jersey Workplace: Prosecutor A 25-year-old Toms River man who'd recently been fired from his job set his former workplace on fire early Wednesday morning, authorities said. Jorge Euxaque-Ballesteros has been charged with aggravated arson and burglary following the fire on Cross Street in Lakewood around 2 a.m., Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. Lakewood police officers and firefighters responded to the building for a sprinkler system alarm, where they found the fire in the basement of the business. Firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze. Euxaque-Ballesteros had used an open flam…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Police Search For Arsonists Who Damaged Famous Key West Landmark Police Search For Arsonists Who Damaged Famous Key West Landmark
Police Search For Arsonists Who Damaged Famous Key West Landmark Police were searching for two arsonists who burned the iconic Southernmost Point buoy in Key West before dawn on New Year's Day. Video from a local marketing company shows the pair sitting next to the buoy, taking cellphone photos and then setting fire to a Christmas tree in front of the 4-ton cement monument that marks the southernmost point in the continental United States, 90 miles from Havana, Cuba, around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. The fire left an enormous burn mark on the red, yellow, black and white landmark. SEE: Southernmost Point Webcam Sure enough, tourists continued to take photos …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Trenton Arsonist Charged In Deadly Molotov Cocktail Christmas Fire Trenton Arsonist Charged In Deadly Molotov Cocktail Christmas Fire
Trenton Arsonist Charged In Deadly Molotov Cocktail Christmas Fire A Trenton man was charged with murder and arson in the Molotov cocktail fire that killed two people on Christmas morning, authorities announced. Ronal Ordonez-Lima, 28, is accused of setting fire to the front porch of 221 Rusling St. in Trenton shortly before 3:30 a.m., Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri said Monday. Six occupants were in the home during the fire, which spread to five other houses and several adjacent vehicles, Onofri said. Two men, identified as Selvin Lima and Dilman Canpos, were found deceased on the second floor of the home, authorities said. Ordonez-Lima is c…

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by Valerie Musson
Police & Fire
Florida Woman Burns Down NJ Psych Ward Turned Mansion Causing $3.5M In Damages: Police Florida Woman Burns Down NJ Psych Ward Turned Mansion Causing $3.5M In Damages: Police
Florida Woman Burns Down NJ Psych Ward Turned Mansion Causing $3.5M In Damages: Police A woman from Florida was charged with arson in the fire that destroyed a historic mansion and former psychiatric hospital in New Jersey, authorities said. Evelyn V. Alvino, 20, of Pinellas Park, FL, was charged with aggravated arson, burglary, criminal trespassing, and criminal mischief after an 18-month investigation into the fire, NJ State Police said. On May 30, 2020, detectives began investigating a fire at the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center. The former psychiatric hospital was closed in 2005 due to complaints about the conditions there, and it has since been abandoned, accord…

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by Nicole Acosta
News
Fatality Confirmed In Multi-Alarm Paterson Blaze That Destroys One Home, Threatens Others Fatality Confirmed In Multi-Alarm Paterson Blaze That Destroys One Home, Threatens Others
Fatality Confirmed In Multi-Alarm Paterson Blaze That Destroys One Home, Threatens Others UPDATE: Authorities on Saturday confirmed the death of a resident in a late-night Paterson house fire that responders said could have been much worse. Firefighters moved quickly to keep the four-alarm Lafayette Street blaze from spreading, snuffing the threat such a fire posed to the neighborhood of tightly bunched wood-frame houses barely two blocks from the Passaic River. Paterson's bravest responded to a call of a fire with people possibly trapped at 103 Lafayette Street shortly after 11 p.m., Deputy Fire Chief William Henderson said. Firefighters found heavy flames on the second floor,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Manchester Fire Was 'Intentionally Set': Prosecutor Manchester Fire Was 'Intentionally Set': Prosecutor
Manchester Fire Was 'Intentionally Set': Prosecutor A fire in a vacant structure earlier this week was intentionally set, authorities said. On Tuesday, Manchester police and Manchester Fire Department were dispatched on a report of a fire at a vacant structure on Ridgeway Road. Once the fire was extinguished, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Unit, Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office, Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, and Manchester Township Detective Bureau, were requested to respond to the scene and conduct an examination into the origin and cause of the fire.  The result of the…

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by Jon Craig
News
Browns Mills Man Found Guilty Of Setting House Fire That Killed His Mother, 92; Her Companion Browns Mills Man Found Guilty Of Setting House Fire That Killed His Mother, 92; Her Companion
Browns Mills Man Found Guilty Of Setting House Fire That Killed His Mother, 92; Her Companion A 62-year-old man from South Jersey has been found guilty of igniting a house fire that claimed two lives, authorities said. Kurt Smith, who lived at the residence in the 500 block of Willow Boulevard in Browns Mills was convicted for causing the death of his elderly mother and her companion, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina. The house fire happened in October 2018 in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township, he said. Smith was convicted of two counts of second-degree reckless manslaughter, Coffina said.    Smith was accused of igniting flammabl…

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by Jon Craig