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Mahwah Car Burglars: Judge Frees One, Other Held On PA Warrant After Oakland PD Adds Charges Mahwah Car Burglars: Judge Frees One, Other Held On PA Warrant After Oakland PD Adds Charges
Mahwah Car Burglars: Judge Frees One, Other Held On PA Warrant After Oakland PD Adds Charges Oakland police filed a host of charges against two New York City men captured in Mahwah while burglarizing dozens of vehicles in northwest Bergen County. Although Kalil Clay was charged with eight counts each of burglary and theft, among other offenses, a Superior Court judge in Hackensack released him from the Bergen County Jail, with conditions, under New Jersey's 2017 bail reform law. Clay's accused running mate, Eric B. Torres remained held under a fugitive warrant out of Monroe County, PA. Torres is charged with the same offenses as Clay, in addition to resisting arrest, disorderly co…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Prosecutor Drops Child Porn Charges Against Ramsey Plumber After Cybersleuth Proves Innocence Prosecutor Drops Child Porn Charges Against Ramsey Plumber After Cybersleuth Proves Innocence
Prosecutor Drops Child Porn Charges Against Ramsey Plumber After Cybersleuth Proves Innocence A Ramsey volunteer first responder who was wrongfully accused in a child-porn case was vindicated after a private forensic investigator proved his innocence. Charles Gilbride had no idea what was happening when cybercrime detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office raided his home and arrested him early on the morning of Dec. 2, 2021. That’s because he hadn’t done anything wrong. First responders, like many others, found it impossible to believe the 2015 Ramsey High School graduate – who’d been a lieutenant with the all-volunteer Ramsey Rescue Squad – was capable of such crimes. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Transit Police Charge Passenger With Assaulting Conductor In Bergen Transit Police Charge Passenger With Assaulting Conductor In Bergen
Transit Police Charge Passenger With Assaulting Conductor In Bergen Authorities captured a Waldwick man wanted for assaulting a conductor at a local train station. New Jersey Transit police tracked down DeVaugn K. Dudley, 23, and took him into custody assisted by Waldwick police, said Emma Wright, NJT's senior public information officer. They charged him with aggravated assault and interfering with transportation in connection with a Nov. 23 incident at the Waldwick station, Wright said. DeVaugn K. DudleyBERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF No sooner was Dudley booked into the Bergen County Jail than a Superior Court judge in Hackensack released him Tuesday, pending…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
GoFundMe For NJ Mom Accused Of Killing Kids In Crash Taken Down GoFundMe For NJ Mom Accused Of Killing Kids In Crash Taken Down
GoFundMe For NJ Mom Accused Of Killing Kids In Crash Taken Down The New Jersey mom accused of causing a wrong-way Thanksgiving police car crash that killed her 9-year-old son and his cousin "loved the kids more than anything," despite the charges that she faces, her mother said on a GoFundMe page. UPDATE: The GoFundMe page had been taken down as of 4:45 p.m., and had raised nearly $4,000 as of 3:45 p.m. Yokauri Batista-Alcantara, 31, of New Brunswick, was charged with aggravated manslaughter in connection with the accident, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and North Brunswick Police Chief Joseph Battaglia. Alcohol was …

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Linden Smoke Shop Owner Busted With 7 Pounds Of Pot: Police Linden Smoke Shop Owner Busted With 7 Pounds Of Pot: Police
Linden Smoke Shop Owner Busted With 7 Pounds Of Pot: Police The owner of a Linden convenience store was arrested after police found close to seven pounds of suspected marijuana at the shop, authorities said. Detectives made the discovery on Nov. 19 while executing a search warrant at the Absolute Snacks & Smokes, Linden Police Lt. Christopher Guenther said.  The owner, 36-year-old Antoine Blount, of Elizabeth, was subsequently taken into custody, according to Guenther.  Blount has been charged with second-degree distribution of marijuana and related narcotics charges, he has also been charged with fourth-degree possession of a weapon …

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by Joe Gomez
Police & Fire
PD: Career Englewood Burglar Chased Down By Bergenfield Police, Judge Once Again Cuts Him Loose PD: Career Englewood Burglar Chased Down By Bergenfield Police, Judge Once Again Cuts Him Loose
PD: Career Englewood Burglar Chased Down By Bergenfield Police, Judge Once Again Cuts Him Loose An Englewood ex-con whose rap sheet includes dozens upon dozens of charges stretching back more than 25 years fled from police who caught him burglarizing a Bergenfield scrap metal yard overnight, authorities said. Willie Edward Carter, 54, was carrying a large duffel bag with copper scraps hanging out of it when officers who heard banging while responding to a burglary at Bergen Scrap Metal on Hill Place found him inside around 1:15 a.m., Police Chief Mustafa Rabboh said. Carter dropped the bag and ran, hopping a fence, before Officers Andres Enriquez and Kevin Helder chased him down, Rabb…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Drugged Driver Takes Plea In Route 23 Gas Station Crash That Killed Dad, Teenage Son, Attendant Drugged Driver Takes Plea In Route 23 Gas Station Crash That Killed Dad, Teenage Son, Attendant
Drugged Driver Takes Plea In Route 23 Gas Station Crash That Killed Dad, Teenage Son, Attendant UPDATE: A drug-addicted Sussex County driver who killed a father, son and gas station attendant in a horrific crash on Route 23 in Wayne two years ago will be sentenced to a minimum of 25½ years without parole after pleading guilty Friday to three counts of aggravated manslaughter, authorities said. Jason Vanderee, 29, told a state judge in Paterson that he’d used heroin and fentanyl in combination with other drugs when he blacked out behind the wheel on Feb. 19, 2019. Jon Warbeck, a former Carlstadt firefighter from Fair Lawn and his 17-year-old son, Luke, of Lincoln Park, had stopped for…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
PA Gunman Followed NJ Man Home Then Shot Him Dead, Prosecutor Says PA Gunman Followed NJ Man Home Then Shot Him Dead, Prosecutor Says
PA Gunman Followed NJ Man Home Then Shot Him Dead, Prosecutor Says A Pennsylvania man is accused of following a 54-year-old New Jersey resident home and then shooting him dead at his house, authorities said Wednesday. Jekai Reid- John, 27, of Norristown, PA followed Sree Aravapalli, to his home in Plainsboro and then shot him dead around 3:40 a.m. on Oct. 26, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone and Chief Fred Tavener said. Aravapalli was transported from the scene to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Reid-John was arrested and charged yesterday with one count of first-degree murder.  Aravpalli had been at a casino bef…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
SWAT STANDOFF: Barricaded Man Seized After Assault SWAT STANDOFF: Barricaded Man Seized After Assault
SWAT Standoff: Barricaded Man Seized After Assault UPDATE: An ex-con smashed his way into his girlfriend's home overnight with a sledgehammer, then beat her and held her captive at knifepoint -- at one point cutting her hair -- before he was captured following an hours-long SWAT standoff this weekend, authorities said. "I wasn't going to make it to see tomorrow," the Oakland victim said Owen R. Harshaney, 30, of Dunnelen, told her during the horrifying overnight ordeal, court papers show. The woman, who'd lost consciousness and suffered severe head injuries during the attack, managed to escape to a family member's home after Harshaney fell…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
One-Man Dream Team, NJ Legal Giant Bob Galantucci Dies At 76 One-Man Dream Team, NJ Legal Giant Bob Galantucci Dies At 76
One-Man Dream Team, NJ Legal Giant Bob Galantucci Dies At 76 He was known in many circles as a "cop's lawyer," but Bob Galantucci represented countless other clients on the other side of the law, as well. Robert L. Galantucci, 76, a founding partner of the Galantucci and Patuto law firm in Hackensack -- and a former Bergen County assistant prosecutor -- died Friday surrounded by family at his home in Spring Lake. Dubbed a “dream team of one” by the New Jersey Law Journal, Galantucci believed that the principles of justice "must for all or they work for none," according to his online bio. He drew national attention representing accused murders and …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Jersey City Police Officer Admits Going To AC To Have Sex With Young Girls Found On Incest App Jersey City Police Officer Admits Going To AC To Have Sex With Young Girls Found On Incest App
Jersey City Police Officer Admits Going To AC To Have Sex With Young Girls Found On Incest App A disgraced Jersey City police officer admitted Thursday that he drove to Atlantic City expecting to have sex with two girls – one 8, the other 10 -- for $200. Stephen Wilson, 34, of Bayonne will be sentenced to eight years in state prison in exchange for his guilty plea before a Superior Court judge in Mays Landing on Thursday to attempted aggravated sexual assault, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said. Wilson was carrying condoms and $500 in cash when State Police and federal Homeland Security agents arrested him this past February, Bruck said. He’d agre…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ High School Teacher Indicted For Sexual Relationship With Student NJ High School Teacher Indicted For Sexual Relationship With Student
NJ High School Teacher Indicted For Sexual Relationship With Student A former high school teacher in Burlington County has been indicted on charges of having a sexual relationship with a student, authorities announced. Gary Jiampetti, 44 -- formerly a teacher at at Rancocas Valley Regional High School -- was indicted by a Burlington County Grand Jury on two counts of official misconduct, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said. The indictment was returned Aug. 31 and signed by First Assistant Prosecutor Philip S. Aronow. An arraignment will be held soon in Superior Court. The investigation began after the BCPO and the Mount Holly Township Polic…

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by Cecilia Levine