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Career criminal Gregory Calvo, 53, is the very embodiment of the phrase “known to police.”
He's been convicted nearly two dozen times in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Morris and Essex counties since 1989 – for offenses that include robbery, theft, burglary, drug dealing, domestic violence and aggravated assault -- and has been in and out of state prison and county jails since that time only to be arrested once again.
Calvo was serving one of those sentences in the Hudson County Jail when authorities said he threatened to shoot a food service worker in the head.
Three years ago, witnesses said Cavlo got into a fighting stance when officers confronted him in an Acme Supermarket at the Edgewater Commons along the Hudson River.
He'd just stolen hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from the Marshalls, Old Navy and TJ Maxx in the shopping center, authorities said.
“I’m not going to be arrested today,” Calvo announced before kicking, elbowing and spitting on the officers, who ultimately Tasered him and took him into custody.
SEE: Hudson Ex-Con Tasered After Fighting, Spitting On Police
Calvo ended up serving a little over 10 months in state prison and was only just released this past August.
Records show he was arrested again a week later after again brawling with police, then was freed by a Superior Court judge in Newark the very next day, apparently under New Jersey’s bail reform law.
He's rarely ever gone quietly, records show, and this latest arrest was no different.
Officers were responding to a call of a shoplifter who’d just fled security at the Kohl’s in the Mill Creek Mall last Friday, Feb. 23, when Calvo drove past them in a 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer that had been reported stolen out of Union City that morning, Secaucus Police Chief Dennis Miller said.
Heading the wrong way up a one-way street, Calvo drove onto westbound Route 3, the chief said.
Officer Salvatore Manente Jr. positioned up ahead and tried to stop Calvo, who hit the gas over the Hackensack River Bridge, Miller said.
The officer pulled back out of concerns for public safety and was turning around near MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford when he found the Mitsubishi disabled after hitting a guardrail beneath the Berry’s Creek Bridge.
Inside the Mitsubishi were stolen items and burglary tools, Miller said.
Calvo climbed out and ran, ignoring commands to stop, the chief said.
He then jumped into the creek.
A Secaucus police drone hovered above as Calvo drifted in water whose temperatures rarely tops 40 degrees this time of year.
New Jersey State Police troopers arrived and helped pull him from the water about 15 minutes later, the chief said.
Calvo was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center before being sent to Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearny. Secaucus police charged him with resisting arrest, eluding, obstruction and receiving stolen property, among other offenses.
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