Feds: ID Thief Fraudulently Collected $140,000 In Pandemic Insurance While In Prison Feds: ID Thief Fraudulently Collected $140,000 In Pandemic Insurance While In Prison
Feds: ID Thief Fraudulently Collected $140,000 In Pandemic Insurance While In Prison People from all walks of life have fraudulently collected pandemic benefits, but Devontae Stokes took it to a different level. Stokes, a 27-year-old identity thief, was serving time at Fort Dix on an unspecified conviction when he schemed with others to collect $140,000 in COVID unemployment benefits while they were federal prisoners. That’s right. Stokes was a prisoner at the low-security Federal Correctional Institution adjacent to the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County when he and a group of co-conspirators “obtained personal identification information, including nam…
KIDNAPPING: Abducted Fort Lee Man Rescued By NYPD, Feds Seize Trio In $680,000 Ransom Demand KIDNAPPING: Abducted Fort Lee Man Rescued By NYPD, Feds Seize Trio In $680,000 Ransom Demand
Kidnapping: Abducted Fort Lee Man Rescued By Nypd, Feds Seize Trio In $680,000 Ransom Demand Federal authorities have charged three New York City men with kidnapping a Fort Lee resident and holding him for ransom. A judge ordered Albert Ferrelli, 50, and Chiahao Lee, 30, both of Queens, and Fa Deng, 42, of Staten Island detained following a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Newark on Thursday, April 7. The kidnapper sent the victim’s wife a photograph showing the victim with his hands bound and his eyes and mouth duct-taped while demanding $680,000 following the Tuesday night abduction, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. New York City police officers resc…
'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman 'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman
'Coming To Rape Your Family': NJ Man Admits Texting Racist Threats To Black MD Woman A New Jersey man admitted that he sent racist texts to a Maryland woman threatening to hurt her and her family, federal authorities said. "I know where you live now, I'm coming to rape your family," Michael Marotta, 26, of Sewell (Gloucester County) texted the woman using an anonymizing messaging service, they said. Marotta "used racial epithets" in the texts, which included "eat my bullets," according to an FBI complaint. Taking a deal from the government rather than face trial, Marotta pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday, March 8 to making threatening interstat…
Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years
Conspirator Who Used NJ High School Students To Cash Stolen COVID Stimulus Checks Gets 4 Years One of a nest of criminals who paid New Jersey high school students to cash COVID stimulus checks stolen from the mail was sentenced to four years in federal prison. Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Jeffrey Bennett, 27, of Irvington, must serve just about all of the plea-bargained sentence rubber-stamped by a U.S. District Court judge in Newark via videoconference on Monday, Feb. 14. Bennett -- a reputed associate of a group called "The Members" -- recruited U.S. Postal Service employees to steal checks, checkbooks, debit cards, and credit cards from the mail in excha…
NJ Man Convinced By Ex-Con To Rob Bank Gets 92 Months In Federal Prison NJ Man Convinced By Ex-Con To Rob Bank Gets 92 Months In Federal Prison
NJ Man Convinced By Ex-Con To Rob Bank Gets 92 Months In Federal Prison A Camden man was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison for his role in a holdup spree by a serial bank robber. Laque Hunter, 37, was recruited to rob the Ocean First Bank in Collingswood in July 2018 by Anthony L. Livingston, 50, also of Camden. Livingston helped with a demand note and even drove Hunter to the bank, authorities said. The two then split the proceeds. Livington had only just been released from federal prison less than two weeks earlier after serving 18 years for robbing eight South Jersey banks in 2000 and 2001. A day after he was freed, Livingston robbed a PNC Bank…
Speeding Trespasser Admits Deliberately Hitting Fort Dix MPs With His Car Speeding Trespasser Admits Deliberately Hitting Fort Dix MPs With His Car
Speeding Trespasser Admits Deliberately Hitting Fort Dix MPs With His Car A Florida man who hit two Air Force military police officers with his car after blowing through a checkpoint at Fort Dix -- dragging one of them several feet -- pleaded guilty to assault in exchange for what he hopes will be leniency, federal authorities said. The officers pursued Hal Wander, 25, of Port Charlotte, after he sped through a designated checkpoint without stopping at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst military base in Burlington County, NJ on Nov. 16, 2020. Wander, who records show had prior arrests in Florida involving marijuana and stolen property, admitted deliberately plo…
MURDER FOR HIRE: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate MURDER FOR HIRE: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate
Murder FOR Hire: NJ Political Operative Admits Paying Hit Men To Kill Longtime Associate A New Jersey-based political consultant admitted Tuesday that he hired two hitmen to kill a longtime associate from Hudson County who had worked for him on various election campaigns, federal authorities said. Sean Caddle, 44, a former aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) paid the killers -- one from Connecticut, the other from Pennsylvania -- to get rid of Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics. Galdieri, 52, was stabbed to death in May 2014 before his Jersey City apartmen…
Jersey Shore Man Who Labeled Shipment Of Iguanas As Toys Sentenced To Home Confinement Jersey Shore Man Who Labeled Shipment Of Iguanas As Toys Sentenced To Home Confinement
Jersey Shore Man Who Labeled Shipment Of Iguanas As Toys Sentenced To Home Confinement UPDATE: A Jersey Shore man who falsely labeled a package containing 10 live iguanas bound for Hong Kong as “toys" was sentenced by a federal judge Tuesday to a plea-bargained six months of home confinement as part of three years probation. Jason Ksepka, 44, of Farmingdale, also was prohibited from "harassing, harming, pursuing, hunting, shooting, wounding, trapping, capturing, or collecting wildlife or attempting to engage in such conduct," U.S Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi also barred him from the "the import, export, transport, s…
Hudson County Man Enticed Minors To Send Him Homemade Porn Pics, Video, FBI Charges Hudson County Man Enticed Minors To Send Him Homemade Porn Pics, Video, FBI Charges
Hudson County Man Enticed Minors To Send Him Homemade Porn Pics, Video, FBI Charges A Hudson County man was arrested by the FBI after he enticed two underage children to create and send him porn photos and videos of themselves, federal authorities charged. Erick Solis, 25, "used a social media application to engage with two underage victims in sexually explicit conversations," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said Thursday. He then "instructed both victims to take sexually explicit photographs and videos of themselves and send them to him," Sellinger said. At least one of them complied, the U.S. attorney said. Solis, who's recently lived in Union City and Weehawken, was…
Judge Won't Toss Excessive Force Claims In Wrongful Death Lawsuit Of Anton Black Judge Won't Toss Excessive Force Claims In Wrongful Death Lawsuit Of Anton Black
Judge Won't Toss Excessive Force Claims In Wrongful Death Lawsuit Of Anton Black A ruling by a federal judge paves the way for the family of 19-year-old Anton Black to continue with a lawsuit claiming that police on Maryland's Eastern Shore used excessive force when they handcuffed him and shackled his legs, according to the AP. US District Judge Catherine Blake refused to throw out the family's claims in the lawsuit and says body camera video of the deadly encounter doesn't contradict what Black's family says was use of excessive force by police. The three white police officers who tried to restrain him after they chased black outside of their home in rural Greensboro,…
Ex-Amtrak Worker From NJ Admits Stealing, Selling Agency Equipment Ex-Amtrak Worker From NJ Admits Stealing, Selling Agency Equipment
Ex-Amtrak Worker From NJ Admits Stealing, Selling Agency Equipment UPDATE: For more than eight years, a now-former Amtrak employee from the Jersey Shore collected chainsaws and chainsaw parts from the agency, then sold them and kept the money. Federal authorities eventually caught on to Jose Rodriguez, 49, of Brick, then got a conviction for mail fraud. Hired in October 2007, Rodriguez worked as a senior engineer and repairman at Amtrak's North Brunswick facility, authorities said. Five years later, Rodriguez admitted in federal court, he began gathering equipment under the false pretense that they'd be used for company projects. Before he was caught in …
Pedophile Gets 50 Years, No Parole, For Soliciting Child Porn From Female Facebook 'Friends' Pedophile Gets 50 Years, No Parole, For Soliciting Child Porn From Female Facebook 'Friends'
Pedophile Gets 50 Years, No Parole, For Soliciting Child Porn From Female Facebook 'Friends' A registered sex offender was sentenced Friday to 50 years in federal prison for getting women he met on Facebook to take and send him sexually explicit photos of pre-teens and even infants. Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Lorenzo Johnson will have to live to 83 to see freedom again, under the sentence imposed by a U.S. District Court judge in Indiana. Johnson, 33, of Hammond, IN took his chances at a trial rather than accept a plea deal from the government. Jurors, in turn, convicted him in August of two pornography-related counts as well as with being a convicted f…