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Authorities: Released Gun Offender Charged With Prostituting Girl, 16, At Trenton Hotel Authorities: Released Gun Offender Charged With Prostituting Girl, 16, At Trenton Hotel
Authorities: Released Gun Offender Charged With Prostituting Girl, 16, At Trenton Hotel A Trenton man who was released after he was caught with three handguns and a missing 16-year-old girl following a high-speed police chase and crash was charged with prostituting the underage teen at a local hotel, state authorities announced. Ronald D. Harris, 40, originally was arrested on weapons charges by Trenton police and New Jersey State Police in July, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Monday. Harris had fled a traffic stop, hitting an unmarked police vehicle with his car, running a red light and hitting speeds of up to 80 miles an hour before it slammed into a taxi,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint 'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint
'Rotten' Apple Pays NJ $3 Million To Settle iPhone Rip-Off Complaint New Jersey is getting more than $3 million from Apple as part of a settlement of charges that it hid and lied about a defect with million of iPhones that made customers buy new ones, authorities announced Wednesday. A multi-state investigation led to a complaint accusing the electronics giant of hiding unexpected power-offs (UPOs), battery health and performance issues, as well as software upgrades that slowed down or “throttled” performance, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Apple doesn't admit to any violations of the law under the $113 million settlement reached with 34 state…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
COVID-19: NJ's Top Lawman Quarantining At Home COVID-19: NJ's Top Lawman Quarantining At Home
Covid-19: NJ's Top Lawman Quarantining At Home New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal was quarantining at home following contact with a staff member who'd tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said Wednesday. Grewal, a former Bergen County and assistant federal prosecutor from Glen Rock, got a positive result in a rapid COVID-19 test but then tested negative in a follow-up, said Steven Barnes, his communications director. "The attorney general, who is asymptomatic, is closely following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New Jersey Department of Health guidance and is quarantining at home," Barnes said. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Sues Honeywell Over Contamination From Notorious Hudson River Superfund Site NJ Sues Honeywell Over Contamination From Notorious Hudson River Superfund Site
NJ Sues Honeywell Over Contamination From Notorious Hudson River Superfund Site Decades of toxic pollution continues to contaminate not just a notorious Superfund site along the Hudson River in Edgewater but also the surrounding area, New Jersey state officials charged in a lawsuit against Honeywell International. Found in the groundwater, surface water, soil, wetlands and “well outside the physical boundaries” of the 15-acre of the Quanta Resources site are "vast quantities of contaminants" that include arsenic, asbestos, benzene, chromium, lead, PCBs, total petroleum hydrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds, the state alleges in its suit against the multi-na…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Morris, Union County Used Car Dealer Pays $105,000 To Settle 'Lemon Law' Violations, State Says Morris, Union County Used Car Dealer Pays $105,000 To Settle 'Lemon Law' Violations, State Says
Morris, Union County Used Car Dealer Pays $105,000 To Settle 'Lemon Law' Violations, State Says A used car dealer with locations in Morris and Union counties is paying $105,000 to resolve alleged violations of state consumer protection laws, authorities said. State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Auto Holding Inc. was cited for: misrepresenting the condition of its used motor vehicles, telling at least one customer that vehicles were serviced and/or inspected prior to sale, when that was not the case; failing to disclose prior damage and rental history when such information was known or should have been known by the dealership; misrepresenting the prior history and use of its …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
VIDEO: Bodycams Show Moments Before Driver's Fatal Medical Episode Off Rt 80 VIDEO: Bodycams Show Moments Before Driver's Fatal Medical Episode Off Rt 80
Video: Bodycams Show Moments Before Driver's Fatal Medical Episode Off Rt 80 Body camera footage released Friday shows a diabetic Paterson driver who died following a traffic stop having a medical episode in the back of a State Police cruiser. Troopers handcuffed Sergio Rodriguez, 51, and led him to the marked SUV after finding heroin in his car during a June 27 stop outside their Totowa barracks on Minnisink Road, the footage released by state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal shows. Rodriguez tells the troopers that he’s low on insulin, so one asks him whether they should call EMS. Rodriguez says he doesn’t want his family finding out, but the trooper insists. “…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
KILLER HEROIN: Paterson Mills Raided, Gang Members Busted, 21,000 Heroin Folds, $110G Seized KILLER HEROIN: Paterson Mills Raided, Gang Members Busted, 21,000 Heroin Folds, $110G Seized
Killer Heroin: Paterson Mills Raided, Gang Members Busted, 21,000 Heroin Folds, $110G Seized A dozen members of a violent gang that put 50,000 doses of lethal heroin and over two pounds of crack a week on the streets of Paterson were arrested by city and state authorities in a major takedown, authorities said Thursday. The leaders, members and associates of the "42-50" subset were slinging heroin connected to eight overdose deaths and 14 nonfatal ODs at open-air drug markets where shootings were common before last week’s roundup, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Among them was accused ringleader Marvin Goodman, 29, who was wounded in a drive-by shooting at the corner o…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Retired NJ Corrections Officer, Couple Charged In Sex Trafficking Of Girl, 14 Retired NJ Corrections Officer, Couple Charged In Sex Trafficking Of Girl, 14
Retired NJ Corrections Officer, Couple Charged In Sex Trafficking Of Girl, 14 A retired New Jersey corrections officer paid a couple for sex with a 14-year-old girl who was trafficked at an Atlantic City casino hotel, authorities charged. The girl was rescued when she showed up at the hotel after undercover State Police detectives responded to an online escort ad, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said Wednesday. Authorities later that day arrested Derrick V. Ross, 27, of Atlantic City, who Grewal said brought the girl to the hotel to have sex for money – and often sexually assaulted her himself. Also arrested was Tiffany N. Davis, 39, of Egg Harbor Township, …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
GOTCHA! Fair Lawn Teens Who Left Anti-Transgender Graffiti On Glen Rock Cafe Return To Scene GOTCHA! Fair Lawn Teens Who Left Anti-Transgender Graffiti On Glen Rock Cafe Return To Scene
Gotcha! Fair Lawn Teens Who Left Anti-Transgender Graffiti On Glen Rock Cafe Return To Scene Two Fair Lawn teens scrawled anti-transgender graffiti outside a Glen Rock café, said police who took both into custody following an investigation helped in large part by area surveillance video. Juvenile complaints were signed against the 17-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy who left the LGBQT+ graffiti outside Nectar Café in a Rock Road shopping complex earlier this month, Police Chief Dean Ackermann said Wednesday. The vandalism, discovered when the owner opened for the day on Oct. 7, was “a random act,” Ackermann said. “No specific individual, person, or business was targeted,” the chi…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
LAWSUIT: Student Loan Giant Crippled NJ Borrowers, State Authorities Charge LAWSUIT: Student Loan Giant Crippled NJ Borrowers, State Authorities Charge
Lawsuit: Student Loan Giant Crippled NJ Borrowers, State Authorities Charge One of the nation’s largest student loan servicers has screwed young borrowers in New Jersey, state authorities charged Tuesday in a blockbuster lawsuit against Navient. This includes deliberately fooling some of them into paying back more money than was due at the time by lying about the amounts, they said. “Higher education should be a pathway to success, not a road to financial ruin,” Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in announcing the suit's filing. “Even before the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, too many New Jerseyans were struggling to pay off their student loans,…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Mercer Man Who Had 3,000 Child Sex Abuse Images Gets 2½-Year State Prison Minimum Mercer Man Who Had 3,000 Child Sex Abuse Images Gets 2½-Year State Prison Minimum
Mercer Man Who Had 3,000 Child Sex Abuse Images Gets 2½-Year State Prison Minimum A Mercer County man must spend the next 2½ years in state prison before he’ll be eligible for parole for sharing images of child sex abuse. Herbert Bell, 58, of Ewing, was targeted by authorities after a State Police detective found 14 files of child sex abuse images shared from an IP address traced to him, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said. Detectives with the New Jersey State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, assisted by other members of the New Jersey Regional ICAC Task Force took Bell into custody during a search of his home in August 2018. A search of a computer…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Former NJ Catholic School Chaplain Charged With Endangering Welfare Of Students Former NJ Catholic School Chaplain Charged With Endangering Welfare Of Students
Former NJ Catholic School Chaplain Charged With Endangering Welfare Of Students A priest and former chaplain of a North Jersey Catholic school was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of six students, authorities announced Thursday. Salvatore DiStefano, 61, who most recently resided at Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church New Providence, is charged with engaging in a pattern of behavior that threatened the welfare of six Oratory Preparatory School students, acting Union County Prosecutor Lyndsay V. Ruotolo said. DiStefano -- known to students as "Father Sal" -- was placed on leave last January pending an investigation.  He is the fourth …

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by Cecilia Levine