Fair 63°
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
UPDATE: Six Injured In Overnight Route 4 Crash, Impaired Wrong-Way Driver Charged UPDATE: Six Injured In Overnight Route 4 Crash, Impaired Wrong-Way Driver Charged
Update: Six Injured In Overnight Route 4 Crash, Impaired Wrong-Way Driver Charged 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: An impaired driver from Westchester was headed the wrong way on westbound Route 4 in Paramus when his SUV slammed head-on into another over the weekend, sending five people as well as himself to the hospital, authorities said. Whigmer J. Villanueva, 56, of Harrison was "operating his vehicle recklessly and under the influence of drugs and or alcohol" when his eastbound 2008 Toyota rammed an unidentified vehicle shortly near Paramus Road before 2:30 a.m. Saturday, March 23, a criminal complaint says. "Two passengers in the defendant's vehicle were injured as a result of the accident …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Judge Keeps South Hackensack Ex-Con Jailed Following Threats Judge Keeps South Hackensack Ex-Con Jailed Following Threats
Judge Keeps South Hackensack Ex-Con Jailed Following Threats A judge ordered that an ex-con from South Hackensack who was seized in a SWAT team raid remain in custody after he told a police officer that he "should've killed y'all mother f*ckers as soon as you came in the door." Township police got a tip that Robert Jackson had a handgun in his home even though a drug conviction from nearly a decade ago prevents him from legally possessing one, Detective Sgt. James Donatello said. Jackson had spent nearly seven years in state prison in two separate stretches since 2012. He was on parole for a previous conviction when he sold $10,000 worth of heroi…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Food Delivery Driver From Hackensack Charged With Collecting Child Porn Food Delivery Driver From Hackensack Charged With Collecting Child Porn
Food Delivery Driver From Hackensack Charged With Collecting Child Porn A food delivery driver from Hackensack was arrested Thursday and charged with collecting child pornography, authorities said. Michael Sapuppo, 38, “used the Internet to view, download and possess items depicting nude and/or sexually explicit prepubescent and pubescent children,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said following the March 21 arrest. Members of Musella’s Cyber Crimes Unit collected evidence while executing a search warrant at Sapuppo’s garden apartment right off Route 80, the prosecutor said. Sapuppo was charged with possessing child sexual abuse material and sent to the…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Four Caught, One Sought In Brutal Stabbing Death Outside Garfield Bar Four Caught, One Sought In Brutal Stabbing Death Outside Garfield Bar
Four Caught, One Sought In Brutal Stabbing Death Outside Garfield Bar Authorities who’ve charged four men with the brutal murder of a man outside a Garfield bar last month turned to the public for help finding a fugitive gang member from Pennsylvania who sources said repeatedly stabbed the victim in the chest. Ricky “Angel” Vargas, 35, of East Stroudsburg, PA, and his four companions confronted Richard Franceschi, 31, of Hawthorne outside JoJo's Bar & Grill on Monroe Street before dawn this past Feb. 4, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Vargas had a knife and co-defendant Jayson William Rivera, 23, also of East Stroudsburg, had a handgun, the pr…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Bergenfield Widower, 94, Charged In Hit-And-Run Death Of Beloved Teacher From Dumont Bergenfield Widower, 94, Charged In Hit-And-Run Death Of Beloved Teacher From Dumont
Bergenfield Widower, 94, Charged In Hit-And-Run Death Of Beloved Teacher From Dumont UPDATE: A 94-year-old widower from Bergenfield was charged with the hit-and-run death of a teacher from Dumont, authorities confirmed on Friday. Ernest F. Hofmann was driving a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup that struck Elizabeth Feliciano-Rosa, 54, as she crossed Madison Avenue at Washington Avenue at 5:19 p.m. Thursday, March 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The victim was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Hofmann kept going, the prosecutor said. CPR was being conducted on the 44-year-old victim after she was struck at Washington &a…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Compassionate, Committed, Adored: Englewood Teacher From Dumont ID'd As Fatal Hit-Run Victim Compassionate, Committed, Adored: Englewood Teacher From Dumont ID'd As Fatal Hit-Run Victim
Compassionate, Committed, Adored: Englewood Teacher From Dumont ID'd As Fatal Hit-Run Victim 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A shocked silence that gripped a downtown intersection was pierced by the anguished scream of a woman whose mother -- a popular school teacher in Englewood -- had just been struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver less than a mile from her Dumont home. A lifeless Elizabeth Rosa lay off the corner of Washington and West Madison avenues as the driver who hit her stopped and got out, according to a witness. He just as quickly got back into the red pickup truck and sped off, the witness said. ****** 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A 94-year-old widower from Bergenfield was charged with the hit-and-run …

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
Police & Fire
Imprisoned Sex Offender From Hackensack Gathered 42,000 Child Porn Files While Free: Prosecutor Imprisoned Sex Offender From Hackensack Gathered 42,000 Child Porn Files While Free: Prosecutor
Imprisoned Sex Offender From Hackensack Gathered 42,000 Child Porn Files While Free: Prosecutor A registered sex offender from Hackensack who was returned to prison last year is expected to spend much more time there following what authorities said was the discovery of more than 42,000 child porn images. Rahvae Richards, 32, served 3½ years of a five-year state prison sentence for trying to sexually assault a young city boy nearly a decade ago, records show. He’d also been downloading child pornography at the time, prosecutors said. Richards was paroled in October 2021, a year and a half short of what originally was supposed to be a five-year mandatory hitch. Sixteen months later, st…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Convicted Child Porn Collector From Teaneck Imprisoned After Doing It Again: Prosecutor Convicted Child Porn Collector From Teaneck Imprisoned After Doing It Again: Prosecutor
Convicted Child Porn Collector From Teaneck Imprisoned After Doing It Again: Prosecutor A 66-year-old parole violator from Teaneck who spent several months behind bars for collecting child porn probably won’t be released very soon. Leonard Liebman initially avoided state prison and got off with time served – a little over 10 months in the Bergen County Jail – following a 2018 conviction for possession of child pornography, records show. State parole officers took Liebman into custody again in Teaneck this past Nov. 28 after finding proof that he was at it again, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. After a week in the county lockup, he was sent to Southwoods State Pris…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
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
Only Two Arrests Made At Trouble-Free Israeli Real Estate Protest In Teaneck, Police Chief Says Only Two Arrests Made At Trouble-Free Israeli Real Estate Protest In Teaneck, Police Chief Says
Only Two Arrests Made At Trouble-Free Israeli Real Estate Protest In Teaneck, Police Chief Says Two out-of-towners were arrested after they threw liquid on protestors near the end of a controversial Israeli real estate showcase at a Teaneck synagogue, authorities said. The two assaults were the only incidents after what had been several hours of orderly demonstrations on Sunday, March 10, that drew thousands of participants and onlookers. The ongoing Israel-Hamas war stoked concerns over staging such an event, which reportedly involved information on some properties in West Bank settlements that the United States has considered illegal. The protests weren't only two-sided. Boyd A…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco