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Retired Cop Dad Killed, Another Victim Severely Burned In NJ Home Explosion (UPDATE) Retired Cop Dad Killed, Another Victim Severely Burned In NJ Home Explosion (UPDATE)
Retired Cop Dad Killed, Another Victim Severely Burned In NJ Home Explosion (Update) A retired Newark police officer died and another victim was severely burned in a South River home explosion, officials tell Daily Voice. Kevin Gilbert, a 26-year veteran of the Newark Police Department, died in the mysterious explosion around 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2, South River Mayor Peter Guindi tells Daily Voice.  Gilbert was pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim suffered burns over 90 percent of his body and was transferred from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital to St. Barnabas Hospital, according to Guindi. Guidni said it wasn't immediately clear how the two v…

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by Jon Craig & Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Feds: Nine Sex, Money, Murder Members Nabbed With Fentanyl, Coke, More At Open-Air Drug Market Feds: Nine Sex, Money, Murder Members Nabbed With Fentanyl, Coke, More At Open-Air Drug Market
Feds: Nine Sex, Money, Murder Members Nabbed With Fentanyl, Coke, More At Open-Air Drug Market Nine reputed members and associates of the Sex, Money, Murder street gang were charged by Homeland Security agents in New Jersey with peddling fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine at an open-air drug market. Working with local law enforcers, agents with HSI Investigations Newark homed in on a neighborhood on West 3rd Street in Plainfield where the subset of the Bloods controlled the drug trade, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said. For months, they witnessed and recorded sales, conducted undercover buys -- some by confidential informants -- and analyzed phone records, the U.S. attorney said. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Woman, 77, Embezzles $1M In Benefits Intended For Aunt Who Died In 1998: Indictment NJ Woman, 77, Embezzles $1M In Benefits Intended For Aunt Who Died In 1998: Indictment
NJ Woman, 77, Embezzles $1M In Benefits Intended For Aunt Who Died In 1998: Indictment 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A New Jersey woman was indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing more than $1 million of benefits meant for an aunt who died 25 years ago, authorities said. Janis Miller, 77, of South Orange even went as far as trying to impersonate her aunt in a phone conversation with a Social Security worker, according to the indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Newark. However, she couldn’t come up with her aunt’s exact birthdate – just an approximation, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Unaware of Miller’s aunt’s death in 1998, the federal Social Security Administration…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police
Newark Man Flashes Passing Cars In Hackettstown: Police A 27-year-old Newark man was arrested on Friday, April 26 for flashing his genitals to passing vehicles in Hackettstown, authorities said. On Tuesday, March 5 at 10:37 a.m., Jared Aponte flashed his genitals to vehicles at Valentine Street and Jefferson Street, Hackettstown police said. On Saturday, April 20, at 12:35 p.m., police responded to Hackettstown High School after a woman said Aponte made a sexual comment to her while she was sitting in her car in the junior parking lot, police said. The woman began to yell and scream and fled the area, police said. Aponte was charged with lewdne…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn
Hudson Grade School Teacher From Morris Admits Trafficking Child Porn UPDATE: A now-former Hudson County grammar school teacher from Morris County admitted in federal court that he trafficked child porn. Anselmo Girimonte, 53, of Wharton, had taught Italian in grades 3 through 8 in the Kearny School District since 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. Girimonte, previously of Madison and Bloomfield, was taken into federal custody in March 2022 after undercover investigators collected several shared video files that U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said contained "multiple visual depictions of prepubescent children being sexually abused by adu…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work
Contractor Admits Stiffing Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Nearly $500G For No-Show Work UPDATE: An electrical supervisor from Bergen County admitted soaking the Hudson Bergen Light Rail for nearly a half-million dollars worth of no-show work, including while he was vacationing in Florida, federal authorities said. Joseph Ferrara, 56, of North Arlington, "submitted claims for compensation covering hundreds of hours relating to work allegedly performed during regular, overtime and double time hours" that was, in fact, never done, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger said. Ferrara, who worked as an electrical supervisor for a subcontractor hired by the light rail system,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Obituaries
Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77 Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77
Paul Auster, Acclaimed Author, North Jersey Native, Dead At 77 Paul Auster, who won numerous literary awards and published "The New York Trilogy" died on Tuesday, April 30, at the age of 77, his literary representatives announced. Born in Newark, Auster was raised in South Orange before graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood. He initially garnered attention after publishing his memoir "The Invention of Solitude," which discussed his father's death. Auster's most acclaimed work came next: "The New York Trilogy," a series of three novels including "City of Glass," "Ghosts" and "The Locked Room," mixing post modernism with detective fiction. Th…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE
Woman Raped With Child Present In Fairview, Guatemalan National Jailed, Held For ICE Federal authorities have moved to take custody of a 25-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who was charged with raping a woman in Fairview with a child present. Bylly Xilox Aquino, 25, remained held in the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday, May 1, on a detainer filed by ICE. Aquino, who's married, has been on Anderson Avenue just off Kamena Street, records show. Fairview police seized him after a woman said he held her down on a bed, then raped and sodomized her in the presence of a child, according to a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack. The woman required medical attention after…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Sports
Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!' Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!'
Eleven New Jersey Natives Selected In 2024 NFL Draft: 'I Hear That Smile!' Nearly a dozen football players from the Garden State heard their names called during the 2024 NFL Draft. Eleven players with New Jersey ties were selected in the draft from Thursday, Apr. 25 to Saturday, Apr. 27 in Detroit. The top Jersey draft pick was Max Melton, a Mays Landing native who played cornerback at Rutgers. Melton was taken in the second round with the 43rd overall pick by the Arizona Cardinals. He's the highest-drafted Scarlet Knight since defensive end Kemoko Turay was selected by the Indianapolis Colts with the 52nd overall pick in 2018. According to his NFL.com draft…

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by Chris Spiker
Police & Fire
Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week
Undocumented Englewood Resident Becomes Second Charged With Child Sex Assault This Week Federal immigration agents seized a 49-year-old Mexican national who local authorities said sexually assaulted a pre-teen in Englewood. Abel Garcia Landeros became the second undocumented immigrant living in the city who was charged with a child sex crime this week. SEE: Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood Landeros was charged with sexual assault and child endangerment by Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella’s Special Victims Unit after city police arrested him in Englewood. He'd just been booked into the Bergen County Jail on Thursday, April 25 whe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood
Guatemalan National Held By Feds Charged With Raping Pre-Teen In Englewood A 21-year-old Guatemalan national seized by federal authorities has been charged with raping a pre-teen in Englewood last summer. Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel, who's been living in an apartment over a Colombian restaurant on West Palisade Avenue, remained in federal custody at the Elizabeth detention center on Friday, April 26, records show. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Friday that members of his Special Victims Unit charged Melvin Zacarias-Esquivel with aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment for forcibly having intercourse with the victim. They then served him with a c…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More
NJ Feds: Repeat Child Porn Collector Satisfied 'Deviant Desires' With Chats, More A convicted NJ child porn collector had only just been released from federal prison when investigators said he tried buying kids’ shoes on Facebook Marketplace.  And that wasn’t all they said that Andrew Chu, 33, of Edison was up to. Authorities who examined Chu’s laptop and cellphone reported finding more than 100 pornographic images of naked underage girls. They also found live chats that Chu had with naked underage minors while masturbating, a complaint filed in federal court in Newark by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations says. One of them was only 11 years old, agents sa…

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by Jerry DeMarco