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Police & Fire
NJ Prison Officer Admits Looking Other Way While Inmates Were Beaten, Brutalized NJ Prison Officer Admits Looking Other Way While Inmates Were Beaten, Brutalized
NJ Prison Officer Admits Looking Other Way While Inmates Were Beaten, Brutalized 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Nine months after a former corrections officer at a New Jersey prison was sentenced to 2½ years behind bars for admitting that he brutalized inmates in what one victim called a “fight club," a second officer cut his own deal with federal prosecutors. Joshua Hand, 34, of Millville, admitted in federal court in Camden on Monday, Feb. 26, that he stood by while two prisoners were being assaulted by fellow inmates at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. Hand violated both inmates' civil rights by not stopping their assailants or reporting the in…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Neshaminy Kids Club Worker Showed 'Dark Web' Suicides To Boys He Assaulted: Affidavit Neshaminy Kids Club Worker Showed 'Dark Web' Suicides To Boys He Assaulted: Affidavit
Neshaminy Kids Club Worker Showed 'Dark Web' Suicides To Boys He Assaulted: Affidavit A popular after school program previously employed a man who has been charged with sexually assaulting at least half a dozen boys who attended while he worked there, authorities in Pennsylvania said on Thursday, Dec. 21. Gerald William Spoto was an obese, glasses-wearing, 20-year-old employee at Neshaminy Kids Club when he allegedly sexually assaulted at least six boys, "who were between 7 and 13 years old at the time of the assaults, between 2000 and 2004," the Buck County District Attorney's Office said. These included a lengthy series of assaults during "sleepovers" in New…

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by Jillian Pikora
Police & Fire
NJ Man Who Sent Child Sex Links To Investigator For $20 Admits To Files With 22,000 Images NJ Man Who Sent Child Sex Links To Investigator For $20 Admits To Files With 22,000 Images
NJ Man Who Sent Child Sex Links To Investigator For $20 Admits To Files With 22,000 Images A South Jersey man who authorities said sent links for child sex abuse sites to what turned out to be undercover federal agents admitted possessing files that they said contained more than 22,000 horrific images. Al-Fahim Medina, 24, of Willingboro, had images of "sadistic and masochistic conduct" and other depictions of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation of children under 12 on a tablet and mobile phones, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. Some were even infants and toddlers, the U.S. attorney said. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents arranged a sting af…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds Finally Get Justice In Re-Sentencings Of NJ Army Major, Wife Who Abused 5 Kids Feds Finally Get Justice In Re-Sentencings Of NJ Army Major, Wife Who Abused 5 Kids
Feds Finally Get Justice In Re-Sentencings Of NJ Army Major, Wife Who Abused 5 Kids UPDATE: It took federal authorities three tries over more than eight years, but they finally got to see the punishment fit the crimes when a judge sentenced a Morris County couple who severely abused their children to extended prison terms. The sentences imposed in federal court in Newark on Monday, Oct. 30, "hold Carolyn Jackson and John Jackson accountable for their horrific crimes, and bring a measure of justice for their victims,” said U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger (photo above, left). Carolyn Jackson, 46, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison. John E.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
'Lost A Good One:' Man Dies 2 Years After Harrowing Attack That Killed His Mom At NJ Home 'Lost A Good One:' Man Dies 2 Years After Harrowing Attack That Killed His Mom At NJ Home
'Lost A Good One:' Man Dies 2 Years After Harrowing Attack That Killed His Mom At NJ Home William "Bart" Trachin has died two years after an attack that left him seriously injured and his mother dead, according to his community. The Washington Borough man was 53 years old when he and his mother, 84-year-old Elaine Trachin, were attacked at their home in Washington Borough (Warren County), in 2021, as Daily Voice reported. Kyle Kaspereen, 24, of Easton, PA, is accused of carrying out the Nov. 30 attack. He has been charged with first-degree charges for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, and burglary, Warren County Prosecutor James L. Pfeiffer stated in a release foll…

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by Cecilia Levine
Police & Fire
Judge Dismisses Child Sex Charges Against 'Chopped' Kosher Chef From Teaneck Judge Dismisses Child Sex Charges Against 'Chopped' Kosher Chef From Teaneck
Judge Dismisses Child Sex Charges Against 'Chopped' Kosher Chef From Teaneck A judge in Hackensack dismissed child sex assault charges against a kosher chef from Teaneck who appeared on the Food Network show "Chopped.” Shalom Yehudiel, 41, had his rights violated by the FBI when federal authorities failed to surrender a video tied directly to the case, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Christopher Kazlau ruled on Monday, Aug. 7. The judge dismissed the charges without prejudice, which allows prosecutors to reinstate the case if any new evidence comes to light. Yehudiel had owned and operated The Humble Toast, a kosher eatery on Queen Anne Road, for several years …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
ICE Puts Hold On Inmate Charged With String Of Sex Assaults In Bergen, Hudson ICE Puts Hold On Inmate Charged With String Of Sex Assaults In Bergen, Hudson
ICE Puts Hold On Inmate Charged With String Of Sex Assaults In Bergen, Hudson An accused North Jersey serial sex offender isn't going anywhere now. ICE has placed a detainer on Fokam Ngongang Parfait, a former Montclair High School football star who's accused in a series of sexual assaults at hotels in Saddle Brook and Secaucus. The 25-year-old repeat offender has been held in the Bergen County Jail since his arrest by detectives from the county prosecutor's office on March 31. Parfait was initially charged with kidnapping, raping and robbing a victim at gunpoint in Saddle Brook on March 24. Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said investigators from his Special …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
BETRAYER OF THE BADGE: NJ Officer Admits Using Authority On Duty To Pressure Women Into Sex BETRAYER OF THE BADGE: NJ Officer Admits Using Authority On Duty To Pressure Women Into Sex
Betrayer OF THE Badge: NJ Officer Admits Using Authority On Duty To Pressure Women Into Sex UPDATE: A Vernon Township police officer who was accused of groping a Bergen County woman during a domestic violence call admitted abusing his authority on duty to force women to submit to his sexual advances. Emanuel Rivera, 38, acknowledged the “imbalance of power” between him and the women he was hitting on, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Acting Sussex County Prosecutor Annmarie Taggart said in a joint statement. This left them unable to consent, he admitted, because of the “coercive, intimidating nature of such requests” coming from a uniformed police officer," the s…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Wanaque Man Gets 3½ Years, No Parole, For Assaulting Sister, Having Assault Weapon, Pipe Bomb Wanaque Man Gets 3½ Years, No Parole, For Assaulting Sister, Having Assault Weapon, Pipe Bomb
Wanaque Man Gets 3½ Years, No Parole, For Assaulting Sister, Having Assault Weapon, Pipe Bomb UPDATE: A Wanaque man must serve at least 3½ years in state prison before he'll be eligible for attacking his sister in their home and having an assault rifle and pipe bomb in his possession. Michael Wierciszewski, 25, was arrested by borough police after the victim told them that he lunged at her with a knife while trying to kill her at the family’s Jackson Street residence on Nov. 24, 2021. A search of the home turned up the improvised device, along with a Century Arms RAS 47 rifle that had been modified to remove the stock and accommodate a silencer, authorities said at the time. The vi…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Hudson Man, 24, Gets Mandatory 2½ Years In Prison In Hit-Run Death Of Fairview Dad Hudson Man, 24, Gets Mandatory 2½ Years In Prison In Hit-Run Death Of Fairview Dad
Hudson Man, 24, Gets Mandatory 2½ Years In Prison In Hit-Run Death Of Fairview Dad An unlicensed Jersey City driver must spend at least 2½ years in state prison for fleeing a pedestrian crash that killed a Fairview man. Danny Maiker Vasquez, 24, abandoned his father's minivan at the scene of the overnight crash on Broad Avenue near the North Bergen border that killed 39-year-old father of two Julius Smith shortly after 3:30 a.m. July 5, 2021. Smith was walking toward the 7-Eleven on Fairview Avenue along a stretch of road known locally as "Dead Man's Curve" when the 2008 Toyota Sienna mounted the sidewalk and struck him, authorities said at the time. Vasquez initially ke…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Treasurer Of Mahwah Grade School Parents Group Charged With Theft Treasurer Of Mahwah Grade School Parents Group Charged With Theft
Treasurer Of Mahwah Grade School Parents Group Charged With Theft The now-former treasurer of a Mahwah grade school parents group is accused of pocketing funds raised by the organization. Kerry Stumbo, 50, is charged with theft by unlawful taking from the Lenape Meadows Elementary School's Home School Organization (HSO) while she was treasurer. Stumbo "used the organization's debit card...for personal expenses (Verizon, Gas Stations, Starbucks. ACME, ShopRite, and CVS)," a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack alleges. "Additionally the suspect wrote a check to herself from the organization in the amount of $1,500," it says. Neither the comp…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Pittsburgh Driver Charged With Killing Two Victims During H2Oi Event In Wildwood Pittsburgh Driver Charged With Killing Two Victims During H2Oi Event In Wildwood
Pittsburgh Driver Charged With Killing Two Victims During H2Oi Event In Wildwood A Pittsburg driver has been charged will killing two people and trying to flee during the H2oi car meetup Saturday, Sept. 24 in Wildwood, authorities announced. Gerald J. White, 37,  was behind the wheel of a 2003 Infinity when he struck a 2014 Honda Civic near Burk and Atlantic avenues, and then two pedestrians around 9:35 p.m., Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey H. Sutherland and Wildwood Police Chief Robert Regalbuto said.  The 18-year-old pedestrian, Lindsay Weakland, of Carlisle, PA, was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the Civic, Timothy Ogden, 34, of Clayton, NJ…

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by Cecilia Levine