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Police & Fire
Probe Of Bergen Girl's Beating Uncovers 5-Year String Of Sex Assaults On Another: Prosecutor Probe Of Bergen Girl's Beating Uncovers 5-Year String Of Sex Assaults On Another: Prosecutor
Probe Of Bergen Girl's Beating Uncovers 5-Year String Of Sex Assaults On Another: Prosecutor Detectives who arrested a man for beating a 7-year-old child in Rochelle Park with a belt discovered that he'd sexually abused another youngster over a five-year period beginning when she was 8, authorities said. The New Jersey Division of Child Protection & Permanency pointed them toward Milton Guallpa-Guaman, a 45-year-old Ecuadorian national, following the alleged April beating, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. The Special Victims Unit detectives were investigating the accusations when they also learned of "a disclosure made by an additional juvenile alleging sexual assau…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
PARENTAL ABDUCTION: Woman Caught In Stolen Car In Lodi With Child Taken From Bogota: Prosecutor PARENTAL ABDUCTION: Woman Caught In Stolen Car In Lodi With Child Taken From Bogota: Prosecutor
Parental Abduction: Woman Caught In Stolen Car In Lodi With Child Taken From Bogota: Prosecutor A Jersey City woman was nabbed in a stolen car in Lodi after abducting her child a day earlier from a home in nearby Bogota, authorities said. Jahlea Jones, 28, was charged with child endangerment, interfering with custody, contempt of court and receiving stolen property, among other offenses, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Jones had taken the child on Wednesday, April 24, knowing that she was not privileged to do so," the prosecutor said. Members of Musella's Child Abduction Response Team worked with police in Bogota and Lodi to find them on Thursday and return the child safe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Tenant Accused Of Letting Cliffside Apartment Fire Burn Is Identified (UPDATE) Tenant Accused Of Letting Cliffside Apartment Fire Burn Is Identified (UPDATE)
Tenant Accused Of Letting Cliffside Apartment Fire Burn Is Identified (Update) UPDATE: Authorities have identified an emotionally troubled tenant who they said deliberately left a fire burning in his Cliffside Park apartment. Authorities arrested Christopher J. Perez, 40, at his sister's home after the two-alarm blaze was doused in a top-floor unit in the three-story brick building on Palisade Avenue shortly after 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 28, sources told Daily Voice. He was charged with endangering the lives of others and failing to put out or control a fire, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Monday. Perez also was charged with possession of crack t…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Troubled Resident With Crack Leaves Fire Burning In Cliffside Apartment: Prosecutor Troubled Resident With Crack Leaves Fire Burning In Cliffside Apartment: Prosecutor
Troubled Resident With Crack Leaves Fire Burning In Cliffside Apartment: Prosecutor 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Authorities have identified an emotionally troubled tenant who they said deliberately left a fire burning in his Cliffside Park apartment. Authorities arrested Christopher J. Perez, 40, at his sister's home after the two-alarm blaze was doused in a top-floor unit in the three-story brick building on Palisade Avenue shortly after 10:30 a.m. Sunday, April 28, sources told Daily Voice. He was charged with endangering the lives of others and failing to put out or control a fire, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said on Monday. Perez also was charged with possession of crack that t…

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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
Pre-Teen Sexually Assaulted In Fairview, Cliffside Over Few Years, Authorities Charge Pre-Teen Sexually Assaulted In Fairview, Cliffside Over Few Years, Authorities Charge
Pre-Teen Sexually Assaulted In Fairview, Cliffside Over Few Years, Authorities Charge A 37-year-old man sexually assaulted a pre-teenage girl both in Fairview and Cliffside Park over the past few years, authorities charged. Arturo Velazco, a Dominican national living on 3rd Street off Anderson Avenue in Fairview, sexually assaulted the youngster multiple times between November 2021 and November 2022, authorities charged. She was under 13 at the time and still was when she was sexually assaulted again between June and November last year, they said. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Velazco was charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endanger…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Threatening Bathroom Graffiti Temporarily Closes Private Englewood School (UPDATE) Threatening Bathroom Graffiti Temporarily Closes Private Englewood School (UPDATE)
Threatening Bathroom Graffiti Temporarily Closes Private Englewood School (Update) 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Police were reviewing security video to determine who's responsible for a threat specifically mentioning Blacks and Hispanics that was found scrawled on a bathroom wall at Dwight-Englewood School. The K-12 school was closed on Wednesday, April 24, following the discovery earlier in the week of a message that investigators said threatens to "get even." The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office was alerted and police in Englewood are working the case, assisted by the county sheriff's forensics team, which collected evidence. "There's concern right now considering what just recently trans…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: Quartet Flees Following Botched Maywood Jewelry Store Robbery UPDATE: Quartet Flees Following Botched Maywood Jewelry Store Robbery
Update: Quartet Flees Following Botched Maywood Jewelry Store Robbery Authorities are investigating the failed robbery of a Maywood jewelry store. The female owner and a male customer were in Diamond Fantasy on West Pleasant Avenue when two gunmen entered around 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, April 23, authorities said. Two others outside apparently acted as lookouts, they said. All left empty-handed, although at the moment it's unclear why.  No one was injured and no arrests had been made as of early Wednesday. Police recovered a moped, detained and interviewed potential suspects and collected statements and video from in and around the scene. A local resident…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault
Bergen Man Charged With 2010 Pre-Teen Sex Assault A Midland Park man was charged with sexually assaulting a pre-teen in Wyckoff in 2010. Donato Avolio, now 35, was in his early 20s when he sexually assaulted the youngster, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Wyckoff police notified his Special Victims Unit of the allegation on March 27, Musella said. An arrest warrant was drawn up the following day charging Avolio with second-degree sexual assault of a victim under 13, he said. A manhunt that lasted nearly three weeks ended with the single, Italian-born Avolio’s arrest in Clifton on Tuesday, April 16, the prosecutor said. He has…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester
Sixth Defendant Charged In Armed Edgewater Robbery Being Held In Westchester 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: The broad-daylight holdup of an Edgewater shopper last fall was committed by an armed robbery crew that included a Bronx man who was arrested this week in Westchester, authorities said. Jose A. Santana Torres, 22, and his partners followed the victim from Hudson County to an unidentified shopping center on River Road in last Oct. 24, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Two of them approached the victim and stole a watch at gunpoint while a third member of the crew served as lookout. The robbers then hopped into getaway vehicles driven by companions. The mid-afternoon holdu…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
'Vibrant Spirit': Death Of Ridgefield Girl, 15, Leaves 'Profound Void' In 2 Communities 'Vibrant Spirit': Death Of Ridgefield Girl, 15, Leaves 'Profound Void' In 2 Communities
'Vibrant Spirit': Death Of Ridgefield Girl, 15, Leaves 'Profound Void' In 2 Communities UPDATE: The death of a 15-year-old Ridgefield girl who was struck while riding a scooter near her home leaves a "profound void," said the schools chief in Clifton, where her father works. Serenity Law was struck at the intersection of Shaler Boulevard and Edgewater Avenue in Ridgefield shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. She was pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center a short time later, the prosecutor said. Although Musella referred to the incident as a "pedestrian death," law enforcement sources confirmed that the teen was…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Girl, 15, Killed In Ridgefield Crash Girl, 15, Killed In Ridgefield Crash
Girl, 15, Killed In Ridgefield Crash UPDATE: The death of a 15-year-old Ridgefield girl who was struck while riding a scooter near her home leaves a "profound void," said the schools chief in Clifton, where her father works. Serenity Law was struck at the intersection of Shaler Boulevard and Edgewater Avenue in Ridgefield shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. She was pronounced dead at Hackensack University Medical Center a short time later, the prosecutor said. Although Musella referred to the incident as a "pedestrian death," law enforcement sources confirmed that the tee…

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by Jerry DeMarco