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Mille Sauvan, 44, remained at Hackensack University Medical Center in police custody on Monday after responders said they found a crack pipe in the stolen Lexus following Saturday morning’s crash on the southbound highway.
Sauvan, currently of Norwood, was speeding when the Lexus, reported stolen out of Warwick, slammed into the rear of a MINI Cooper in front of the Starbucks between Linwood Avenue and Paramus Road shortly after 8:30 a.m., Ridgewood Police Chief Jacqueline Luthcke said Monday.
Firefighters had to extricate both Sauvan and her passenger, 47-year-old Gustavo Melendez of Spring Valley.
Melendez was taken to The Valley Hospital with head and leg injuries, Luthcke said.
Police also charged him with receiving stolen property – namely, the Lexus, the chief said. He has since been released from the hospital and from custody, she said.
The driver of the MINI Cooper --- a 79-year-old Ho-Ho-Kus man – was treated at Valley for cuts and bruises on his head, Luthcke said.
Sauvan’s injuries, although not life-threatening, were the most serious of the three, the chief said.
Besides assault by auto, she was charged with receiving stolen property, unlawful taking of a means of conveyance and possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia.
A Northvale native, Sauvan has a criminal history that authorities said includes an arrest on charges of bribing a witness in a Rockland County burglary case against her.
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ALSO SEE: A Hackensack car salesman from Elmwood Park who’d turned 21 just hours earlier was drunk when he struck and critically injured a pedestrian with a sedan right in front of borough police and then took off, authorities said.
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