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Repeat offender Jordan David Dufont, 23, was wanted in Westwood on charges of harassment and witness tampering when officers from the borough and Emerson tried to stop his car around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, June 28, they said.
He sped off, however.
An alert was issued for the 2016 Audi that the former Paramus Catholic High School shooting guard was driving, Paramus Police Chief Robert M. Guidetti said, but he ended up ditching the car in the parking lot of a Route 17 Wendy’s.
His girlfriend apparently picked him up, Guidetti said.
Paramus Police Officer Nicholas Tanelli found Dufont's car, then spotted the girlfriend's Nissan Altima exiting southbound Route 17 onto Ridgewood Avenue just before 3 a.m., Guidetti said.
Tanelli and Officer Michael Mordaga pulled the vehicle over and ordered the 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound Dufont out, the chief said.
Dufont, in turn, “became aggressive and refused commands by the officers,” Guidetti said. “While they were attempting to remove Mr. Dufont from the vehicle, he assaulted the officers by kicking them.”
Tanelli and Mordaga subdued Dufont and brought him to headquarters. They charged him with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, then sent him to the Bergen County Jail -- a familiar stop over the past several years (story continues below).
Calling Dufont “known to police” would be an understatement.
The Westwood resident first made headlines with Paramus Catholic near the turn of the decade. His senior year was barely half over, however, when it all turned the other way.
Going on 4½ years now, Dufont has been in and out of jail several times following arrests in various area towns, records show.
2019 began with Dufont's arrest on drug and weapons charges in Old Tappan, according to criminal records on file in Superior Court in Hackensack. He was in the county lockup for less than 24 hours when a judge released him under New Jersey's bail reform law.
Four months later, Dufont was among a trio of overnight car burglars cornered by Mahwah police.
SEE: Car Burglary Trio Nabbed At Mahwah Condo Complex
The narratives of those two incidents were tame compared to what came next.
It was in late November of 2019 that authorities said Dufont and four others used SnapChat to lure a Rochelle Park man to a darkened parking lot where they beat him and took nearly $900 worth of drugs, an iPod and Airpods.
Dufont was charged with aggravated assault and conspiracy and sent to the county jail for three months.
SEE: 5 From Four Bergen Towns Charged In SnapChat-Arranged Drug Deal Robbery
Later that same year, Woodcliff Lake police caught him prowling through backyards in what authorities said turned out to be a close call: Dufont resisted, they said, and had to be subdued by officers who found him carrying a 9mm handgun in his chest pocket.
SEE: Woodcliff Lake Police Subdue Westwood Offender Carrying Loaded Gun
Dufont spent another six months "in county" following that arrest. He was released, again, in March 2021, although it wasn't clear why
Dufont's longest jail stretch to this point -- 10 months -- was to follow.
He was arrested in Washington Township on burglary, theft and criminal mischief charges in November 2021, then was back on the street late last September, records show.
Westwood police earlier this month arrested Dufont on charges of receiving stolen property, conspiracy and fencing stolen goods. He was once again sent to the county lockup -- only this time a judge freed him the following day.
Then came this week's overnight adventure.
Dufont remained held Friday in the Bergen County Jail following his arrest two days earlier in Paramus.
How long he'll remain there is anyone's guess.
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