Mostly Cloudy 64°
Police & Fire
NJ Fugitive Captured In Indiana: Child Porn Charges Await 'Mountain' Man In Bergen County NJ Fugitive Captured In Indiana: Child Porn Charges Await 'Mountain' Man In Bergen County
NJ Fugitive Captured In Indiana: Child Porn Charges Await 'Mountain' Man In Bergen County A former Ridgewood resident who'd returned to his native Indiana while awaiting trial on child porn charges was zapped with a stun gun by state troopers who arrested him there on a fugitive warrant. Indiana State Police seized 70-year-old Robert "Mountain" Flynn after he tried to bolt out the back door of his current home in Anderson, IN, authorities said. The 6-foot, 190-pound fugitive apparently didn't require medical attention after resisting, authorities said. No troopers were reported injured. Flynn, who'd previously owned a sprinkler company in Waldwick and also worked as a local bo…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Arrest Made In Brazen Overnight Robbery On South Hackensack Street Arrest Made In Brazen Overnight Robbery On South Hackensack Street
Arrest Made In Brazen Overnight Robbery On South Hackensack Street Bergen County prosecutor's detectives captured a Passaic man who they said brandished a handgun during a brazen street robbery in South Hackensack. Using a Honda Insight that he'd rented, Bryan Tineo-Infante, 25, and an as-yet unidentified companion pulled in front of another vehicle with three occupants on Michael Street shortly after 4:30 a.m. last Aug. 20, authorities said. Tineo-Infante and the other robber were both clad all in black and brandishing handguns when they got out, they said. The robbers "pointed the handguns at all three victims while demanding their personal belongings,"…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
GOTCHA: Ex-BF Accused Of Swindling $71K From Local Realtor Lodged In Bergen County Jail GOTCHA: Ex-BF Accused Of Swindling $71K From Local Realtor Lodged In Bergen County Jail
Gotcha: Ex-BF Accused Of Swindling $71K From Local Realtor Lodged In Bergen County Jail Christina LaBarbiera says four months is way too long — but it's something. Last November, she filed a lawsuit accusing Robert D. Harris of swindling more than $71,000 from her in the months after they matched on the dating app Hinge. On Monday, March 18, LaBarbiera says she got the call from police she has been waiting for: Harris surrendered, she said. Records show 30-year-old Harris was lodged in the Bergen County Jail on March 18, and is facing two counts of credit card theft and one count of theft by unlawful taking/disposition moveable property. "I'm just looking forward to the just…

SHARE

by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
HEROES: Firefighters Free Trapped Driver After Tractor-Trailer, Pickup Collide On Route 17 HEROES: Firefighters Free Trapped Driver After Tractor-Trailer, Pickup Collide On Route 17
Heroes: Firefighters Free Trapped Driver After Tractor-Trailer, Pickup Collide On Route 17 Firefighters extricated a heavily trapped driver after a tractor-trailer and pickup truck collided on Route 17. Hasbrouck Heights firefighters were assisted by their Wood-Ridge colleagues in freeing the female pickup driver following the crash behind the Bendix Diner shortly before 9:30 p.m. Sunday, March 17. The driver was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center. Nick’s Towing removed the vehicles. Northbound Route 17 was temporarily closed at Franklin Avenue during the operation. Mutual aid was provided by, among others, firefighters from Carlstadt, Lodi, Rutherford and Wallingto…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
STANDOFF-ISH: Barricaded Hackensack Man, 21, Seized By SWAT For Second Time In 6 Weeks STANDOFF-ISH: Barricaded Hackensack Man, 21, Seized By SWAT For Second Time In 6 Weeks
Standoff-ish: Barricaded Hackensack Man, 21, Seized By SWAT For Second Time In 6 Weeks Wasting little time, members of a Bergen County Regional SWAT team burst through an apartment door and seized a Hackensack man who'd barricaded himself inside for the second time in six weeks. Fairview police had called their Hackensack colleagues seeking a welfare check at the Newman Street apartment in the Oratam Court development between Atlantic and Sussex streets around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, said Capt. Michael Antista, the officer in charge of the department. They'd been there the morning of Jan. 27 and, like before, had to call for tactical officers when the tenant refused…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Another Child, Another Sex Allegation Against Tri-County Educator From North Jersey Another Child, Another Sex Allegation Against Tri-County Educator From North Jersey
Another Child, Another Sex Allegation Against Tri-County Educator From North Jersey 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A veteran school administrator who was accused of having sexual contact with an underage student in Bergen County when he was a middle school band director there is now facing charges involving another underage teen in another county. Kurt Zimmerman, a 55-year-old married father of two, was working in the Morris Hills Regional District in Rockaway when he “engaged in sexual conduct with a juvenile student who was at least 16 years of age but under the age of 18,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Thursday, March 14. Zimmerman, currently of Rockaway, had worked in the di…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Lifestyle
'Not Just The Fat Best Friend:' Reality Show Judge Changes Her Mind About NJ Dancer 'Not Just The Fat Best Friend:' Reality Show Judge Changes Her Mind About NJ Dancer
'Not Just The Fat Best Friend:' Reality Show Judge Changes Her Mind About NJ Dancer "I'm here to show and prove to the world big girls are not just the fat best friend and they're also not just Lizzo's backup dancer." Arianna Santos of West New York is hoping to be an advocate for "all the women who look like [her]" on this season of "So You Think You Can Dance." Santos, 21, tells cameras from her New Jersey apartment that her mom was a dancer growing up, igniting her passion as a little girl. Her older sister is battling cancer and has been inspiring her to live life to the fullest, she says. Santos performed a hip-hop number with Flamenco fusion for judges&nbs…

SHARE

by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Westwood Man Charged With Killing High Schooler From Park Ridge With Fentanyl-Laced Pill Westwood Man Charged With Killing High Schooler From Park Ridge With Fentanyl-Laced Pill
Westwood Man Charged With Killing High Schooler From Park Ridge With Fentanyl-Laced Pill 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A 17-year-old Park Ridge boy was killed by a single imitation painkiller laced with fentanyl that was given to him by a Westwood man who's been charged with causing his death. The boy thought he was taking an Oxycontin pill before he overdosed last Sept. 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Officers who responded to the emergency call administered Narcan, among other life-saving measures, the prosecutor said. The high school senior was pronounced dead a short time later. Detectives from the prosecutor’s Narcotic Task Force determined during a six-month investigatio…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
GUILTY: ‘Bling Bishop’ From Bergen Convicted Of Swindling NJ Parishioner's Mom, More GUILTY: ‘Bling Bishop’ From Bergen Convicted Of Swindling NJ Parishioner's Mom, More
Guilty: ‘Bling Bishop’ From Bergen Convicted Of Swindling NJ Parishioner's Mom, More 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A flashy Brooklyn bishop who lives in Bergen County – and was infamously robbed at gunpoint during a live-streamed church service – was convicted in lower Manhattan of swindling the elderly mom of a parishioner out of her life savings, among other counts. Lamor Whitehead, 45, promised to put the $90,000 toward buying her a home, federal prosecutors told jurors in the Southern U.S. District of New York who found him guilty of all charges after only three hours of deliberations on Monday, March 11. Instead, the infamous "Bling Bishop" blew the money on BMW payments and luxury purchase…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: SWAT Standoff In Mahwah Ends Quickly, Peacefully UPDATE: SWAT Standoff In Mahwah Ends Quickly, Peacefully
Update: SWAT Standoff In Mahwah Ends Quickly, Peacefully 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘 (𝘄/𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗢𝗦): A brief standoff in Mahwah ended peacefully when a barricaded man emerged from his home and surrendered to police. The immediate neighborhood had been cleared and streets closed off Campgaw Road near Campgaw Mountain and Darlington County Park after tactical officers and other law enforcers converged on the area early Friday afternoon, March 8. A Bergen County Regional SWAT team and negotiators joined Mahwah officers and their police colleagues from surrounding towns who established a perimeter around the house. A colleague from one of the retired resident's former jobs …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Schools
'Deeply Offensive:' 30 Dwight-Englewood 7th Graders Were On Racist Text Chain, Admin Says 'Deeply Offensive:' 30 Dwight-Englewood 7th Graders Were On Racist Text Chain, Admin Says
'Deeply Offensive:' 30 Dwight-Englewood 7th Graders Were On Racist Text Chain, Admin Says The Dwight-Englewood school, a private school in Bergen County, said more than 30 7th grade boys were involved in a text chain that featured racist language. In a letter sent to parents, Jeremy Gregersen, the head of school, said the texts contained highly-charged language and anti-Black, racist memes. "My stomach dropped even further as I found that my son was included in the text chain," Gregersen said. Gregersen said the boys on the text chain have various degrees of culpability. Some simply said nothing, others laughed and egged it on while others posted offensive comments and memes, G…

SHARE

by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
'BUST OUT': Dual US, Greek Citizen Living In Bergen Charged With $2.8M Bank Fraud 'BUST OUT': Dual US, Greek Citizen Living In Bergen Charged With $2.8M Bank Fraud
'Bust OUT': Dual US, Greek Citizen Living In Bergen Charged With $2.8M Bank Fraud A dual U.S. and Greek national with a home in Bergen County orchestrated a classic debit card "bust out" scheme that fleeced a half-dozen banks out of $2.8 million, federal authorities charged. Dino Koutsogiannis, 57, of Fairview, and some unidentified cronies played the long game, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. They began by opening bank accounts for two bogus companies that Koutsogiannis created in Florida -- called Vegan Vacation and Orlando Dinos -- according to a federal complaint filed in Newark. Koutsogiannis was the only officer or director of the shell comp…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco