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Police & Fire
Paramus Murder: Man Stabbed Dad Dead, Left Him In Home Two Days, Sources Say Paramus Murder: Man Stabbed Dad Dead, Left Him In Home Two Days, Sources Say
Paramus Murder: Man Stabbed Dad Dead, Left Him In Home Two Days, Sources Say UPDATE: A Paramus man who’d just stabbed his father to death dragged the body to a bathroom and tried to set it on fire last week as part of an attempt to conceal what he’d done, authorities said. Melvin Thomas repeatedly stabbed his father, 61-year-old Manuel Thomas, in the chest with a kitchen knife on Valentine’s Day, a criminal complaint says. He then dragged the bloody corpse to a bathroom where he tried igniting it with a lighter, according to the complaint filed by Paramus Police Detective Justin Sicari. “This attempt failed,” the detective wrote. Melvin Thomas wiped off the b…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
WILD CHASE: Career Offender, 62, In Multi-Town Police Pursuit Caught After Blowing Two Tires WILD CHASE: Career Offender, 62, In Multi-Town Police Pursuit Caught After Blowing Two Tires
Wild Chase: Career Offender, 62, In Multi-Town Police Pursuit Caught After Blowing Two Tires A wild police pursuit through several Bergen County towns ended with the arrest of a 62-year-old former repeat offender from Fair Lawn who authorities said stole the car from Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Daniel McKay at one point tried fleeing on two flat tires before the stolen sedan broke down and he was arrested on Franklin Turnpike in Allendale, witnesses said. Upper Saddle River Detective Capt. Edward Kane said the Valentine's Day pursuit began after McKay pulled over on Lake Street and asked officers out on another call for directions shortly before noon. One of the officer…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
GOTCHA! Band Of Bandits Charged In Back-To-Back Route 46 Gas Station Holdups: Bergen Prosecutor GOTCHA! Band Of Bandits Charged In Back-To-Back Route 46 Gas Station Holdups: Bergen Prosecutor
Gotcha! Band Of Bandits Charged In Back-To-Back Route 46 Gas Station Holdups: Bergen Prosecutor A quartet of disguised New Yorkers tied to holdups on their side of the Hudson committed back-to-back gunpoint robberies of gas station convenience stores just minutes from the George Washington Bridge, authorities charged. The total take: five grand. Rahquan Brooks, 20, and Kevin Ulysses, 19, of the Bronx had two juveniles with them when they drove up to the Exxon station on eastbound Route 46 just before the Overpeck Creek bridge in Ridgefield Park shortly before 4:30 a.m. July 24, 2022, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The silver sedan had been carjacked out of Brooklyn thre…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Woman Deliberately Set Rutherford Garden Apartment Fire, Authorities Charge Woman Deliberately Set Rutherford Garden Apartment Fire, Authorities Charge
Woman Deliberately Set Rutherford Garden Apartment Fire, Authorities Charge A woman remained held Tuesday after authorities charged her with deliberately igniting a fire in the kitchen of a garden apartment in the Rutherford complex where she lives. Mary Anne Hampl, 62, was arrested shortly after 7 p.m. last Thursday, Feb. 8, after borough firefighters doused the Hastings Avenue blaze, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Hampl, who Musella said is unemployed, is accused of intentionally creating a fire and smoke condition with items purposefully placed on a stove. The prosecutor didn't suggest a possible motive. Detectives from his Arson Squad charged Ham…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Hackensack Tenant Charged With Slashing Woman Less Than Half Her Age Hackensack Tenant Charged With Slashing Woman Less Than Half Her Age
Hackensack Tenant Charged With Slashing Woman Less Than Half Her Age A 24-year-old Hackensack resident was hospitalized after she was attacked with a razor by a 52-year-old city woman in a local apartment building, authorities said. The victim was expected to survive a leg laceration after being taken to Hackensack University Medical Center around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11. Jenny Cabrera De Jimenez, who responders said lives at the scene of the stabbing in the Cambridge Arms on Polifly Road, a few blocks from westbound Route 80, was arrested a short time later. The married De Jimenez, who's employed as a gym maintenance worker, was charged with aggravated …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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