SHOUT OUT: Hillsdale police tonight revived an overdosing heroin user with Narcan.
Sgt. Chris Donaldson and Officers Alex Kaplan and Travis Woods responded to a 9 p.m. call to the home and administered the drug to the 25-year-old man, Detective Bill Diedtrich told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The revived victim was turned over to the River Vale Ambulance Corps. for treatment and transportation to HackensackUMC at Pascack Valley in Westwood.
It was the department’s second save using Naloxone,
ONLY ON CVP: Authorities have charged four Bergen County residents with scamming state social services programs of more than $75,000 for nearly a decade and a fifth with illegally collecting county assistance.
Mohammad Karkart and Bahija Masad of Little Ferry are charged in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack with conducting the fraud from October 2005 to Dececember 2014.
Rasha Heleh and Hassant Areiqat did the same from January 2003 through March 2013, another indictment alleges.
All were “intending to cheat and defraud the New Jersey State Medical Assistance and Health Services [by] purposely creating or reinforcing the false impression that they and their family were needy and unable to sustain themselves,” both say.
A third indictment returned by the grand jury charges Ann Sinski of Ridgefield with illegally obtaining assistance from the Bergen County Board of Social Services from August 2008 through last December.
ONLY ON CVP: A Mexican immigrant illegally living in Passaic had several ounces of cocaine stashed in a secret electronic compartment in his car, as well as several more — along with a stolen handgun — in his apartment, an indictment alleges.
Francisco Oropenza-Lima, 28, was pulled over on westbound Route 4 the night of last Dec. 20 by Fort Lee Detective T.J. Cullen for having tinted windows.
Cullen searched the 2000 Mercury Sable after Oropenza-Lima admitted that he didn’t have a license because he wasn’t a citizen — and took him into custody after finding the hidden cocaine, authorities said at the time.
A search followed of his Passaic apartment, where investigators said they found eight more ounces of the drug, a kilo press, bottles of lidocaine (used to cut cocaine) and a Taurus PT 738 .380-caliber semi-automatic reported stolen from a Hanover Township, PA couple in Pennsylvania last July.
The six-count indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack variously charges Oropenza-Lim with possession of:
• cocaine and adulterants with the intent to distribute the drug;
• the gun;
• stolen property.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has a detainer on Oropenza-Lima, who remained held on $150,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail this morning (down from an original $250,000).
PUBLIC SAFETY: Using checkpoints and dedicated patrols, Lodi police wrote 423 summonses in a single week as part of the Nationwide Seat Belt Enforcement Campaign running through the end of the month.
In the process, they picked off a drunk driver, caught another with drugs and nabbed two poeple wanted on outstanding warrants.
The breakdown:
Seatbelts: 188
Child restraints: 4
Cellphone: 53
Suspended license: 5
Careless driving: 2
Other MV violations: 170
“The members of the Lodi Police Department would like to remind everyone about the importance of driving safely and wearing their seatbelts,” Chief Vincent Quatrone said.
SHOUT OUTS: New Milford police last night used Narcan to rescue an overdosing heroin user.
Officer Michael Lafrano and Richard Giacobone, Jr. found the 30-year-old Senate Road resident in an upstairs bedroom after his mother called police around 8 p.m., said Sgt. Daniel LaMorges, who also responded.
“He was semi-conscious with shallow breathing. His pupils appeared to be constricted,” Morges said. “It was brought to our attention by his mother that her son utilizes heroin. A needle mark was observed inside his left elbow.”
As the patrolmen tended to the victim, LaMorges said he prepared the Narcan kit and gave it to Giacabone, who administered a dose that brought him around after about a minute.
New Milford Volunteer Ambulance Corps took him to Hackensack University Medical Center for treatment.
Lafrano and Giacobone “exhibited extreme calm and their actions resulted in this party getting the medical attention he desperately needed,” LaMorges said.
UPDATE: A report that a man had a bomb at a Fort Lee Pizza Hut — which closed Route 46 (aka Routes 1 & 9) in both direction for more than four hours — proved to be another unfounded “swatting” incident, Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul said tonight after tactical officers stormed and searched the restaurant.
Dispatchers at 6:53 p.m. received a call “threatening that an individual who was suicidal was in the Pizza Hut in Fort Lee and had a bomb strapped to his person along with a fully automatic rifle,” Bendul said.
“This individual threatened to kill all the patrons in the restaurant,” adding that he was “there with his friends,” the chief said.
A short time later, the Fort Lee Communications Center “received a second call from an individual who stated he had just left the Pizza Hut in Fort Lee and thought there were several people there acting suspicious and that police should be sent there to investigate,” Bendul said. “There was no other information given by both of the callers who terminated their calls.
“Management of Pizza Hut on scene stated they received similar calls shortly before Fort Lee Police arrival,” the chief said.
“Initial investigation also revealed that several patrons or unknown persons at the restaurant left frantically in different directions or secured themselves in restaurant rooms after learning of the threat that was called in,” he said.
Fort Lee police who arrived almost immediately surrounded the building, evacuated 20 or so customers and about a half-dozen employees, and closed down the highway. They also set up an emergency command post at the Exxon station next door and requested bomb-detection dogs from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and New Jersey State Police.
“For the next four and a half hours, on scene Emergency Services Personnel methodically searched all areas of the building interior as well as exterior grounds for any persons, suspicious packages, explosive devices or weapons” and found nothing, Bendul said.
SEE BELOW: Full text of Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul’s statement
Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield police, joined Fort Lee uniformed officers, detectives, Emergency Service Unit personnel and command supervisors — along with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Police Services, Port Authority Police and the NJSP.
Service stations along the route eventually shut down, while access to the Wendy’s and Dunkin Donuts was restricted to Bergen Boulevard.
Area roads were choked with traffic detoured in both directions by the state DOT.
Bendul said his detectives were already teaming up with their counterparts in other Bergen and Passaic County towns where “swatting” incidents have taxed resources, in a bid to hunt down whomever was responsible.
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WHAT WE THINK: We want to feel that, as Americans, we can solve any crime, catch any miscreant. But swatting has created a treacherous form of terrorism that, sooner or later, could at the very least strike an innocent with a seizure or heart attack caused by the anxiety of such a terrifying moment. READ MORE….
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CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos
FULL TEXT of FORT LEE POLICE CHIEF KEITH BENDUL’S STATEMENT:
On May 24, 2015, at approximately 1853 Hours, a phone call was received by Fort Lee Police Communications Center dispatchers threatening that an individual who was suicidal, was in the Pizza Hut in Fort lee and had a bomb strapped to his person along with a fully automatic rifle.
This individual threated to kill all the patrons in the restaurant stating he was there with his friends.
Shortly after, Fort Lee Communications Center received a second call from an individual who stated he had just left the Pizza Hut in Fort Lee and thought there were several people there acting suspicious and that police should be sent there to investigate.
There was no other information given by both of the callers who terminated their calls.
As a result, Fort Lee Police Officers and Supervisors responded to the location and implemented an emergency safety response and procedures to address that threat as credible.
Initial Officers on scene conducted an orderly evacuation and security check of patrons and employees who were present at the restaurant.
They identified managerial staff there and investigated the threats that were called into Fort Lee Communications Center earlier. Management of Pizza Hut on scene stated they received similar calls shortly before Fort Lee Police arrival.
Initial investigation also revealed that several patrons or unknown persons at the restaurant left frantically in different directions or secured themselves in restaurant rooms after learning of the threat that was called in.
Officers secured the restaurant after the initial evacuation and treated the scene as a credible bomb threat and possible armed barricaded subject.
Additional Officers, Detectives, Emergency Service Unit Personnel, as well as Command Supervisors were dispatched to the Fort Lee Pizza Hut and surrounding area, in order to secure the building, grounds, and entrances, while remaining aware of any suspicious activity.
Route 1 North and South, as well as a perimeter area surrounding the building were closed off to vehicles and pedestrians. An emergency command post was established on Route One South at a business east of that location.
Patrons and employees evacuated were interviewed at the location and were moved to a pre-determined safety area at the Fort Lee Police Department.
Specialized assistance was requested and received from the Bergen County Sherriff’s Department and Port Authority Police of New York and New Jersey in the form of trained bomb detection K-9 dogs, bomb squad unit and Emergency Services Unit.
New Jersey State Police responded with Troopers for assistance. Surrounding towns of Palisades Park, Edgewater, Leonia, provided Officers for police call response while Fort Lee Officers addressed the bomb threat scene. New Jersey State DOT responded for highway and access road closures.
For the next four and a half hours, on scene Emergency Services Personnel, methodically searched all areas of the building interior as well as exterior grounds for any persons, suspicious packages, explosive devices or weapons.
This search resulted in no suspicious persons or explosive devices located.
The threat is under investigation by the Fort Lee Police Detective Bureau. The investigation is also reviewing similar types of “Swatting” incidents which have occurred throughout Bergen and Passaic Counties in recent months.
“Swatting” is a term where individuals using various means of information technology systems, launch false calls for emergency services, tricking emergency personnel to respond en mass to calls of major incidents. A joint investigation into these Bomb threat incidents has been launched and is continuing at this time.
Keith Bendul
Fort Lee Chief of Police
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Elmwood Park police said they revived a 23-year-old overdose victim with Narcan after he’d used several bags.
Officers Daniel Martinez, Michael Johnson, Michael Mulligan, and Sgt. Charles Pensari found the victim lying on the floor of a second-floor bathroom on Boulevard at 2:30 a.m. yesterday, Police Chief Michael Foligno said this morning.
“He was non-responsive, unconscious and had very shallow breathing,” Foligno said.
Shortly after Martinez administered the Narcan, the victim came around.
He was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson.
UPDATE: A Bergenfield motorcycle police officer escaped serious injury after being knocked down by a car before the borough’s annual Memorial Day parade.
The officer was struck around 12:50 p.m. at the intersection of South Washington and West Englewood avenues and taken to the hospital by Bergenfield Volunteer Ambulance Corp. The driver of the second vehicle refused aid at the scene, Police Capt. Cathy Madalone said.
The officer received medical aid at Holy Name Hospital and was released with minor injuries, Madalone said.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Rochelle Park police officer maneuvered his cruiser to block a drunk driver from reaching the borough’s Memorial Day parade this afternoon, authorities said.
Patrolman James Lavigna positioned his cruiser to cut off the oncoming vehicle from marchers and spectators up ahead when it was struck around 12:15 p.m., Detective Jim DePreta told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Lavigna, who wasn’t injured, then took 48-year-old Sharon Burke of Rochelle Park into custody on DWI charges.
She was also issued several motor vehicle violations, including driving while suspended, driving with an open container of alcohol in the car, disregarding an officer’s directions, reckless driving, and driving on a closed roadway.
She was released pending a court hearing next month.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy ROCHELLE PARK PD
PHOTOS: A collision in Washington Township earlier tonight left a utility pole severely damaged, a one-way sign down and one of the cars on the lawn of a bridal shop.
One driver was hospitalized with minor injuries after her Toyota sedan colled with a Volkwagen at Pascack Road and Washington Avenue around 5:30 p.m.
Township police and EMS responded along with a PSE&G crew that tended to exposed and low-hanging wires from the damage utility pole.
PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving
PHOTO: The driver of an SUV was taken to Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck with back pain after a crash with a sedan this morning on the eastbound DeGraw Avenue bridge over Route 80 in Teaneck.
PHOTO: Rob Metzdorf
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Wyckoff man told police he chased a burglar last night who dropped electronics and cash as he fled his home.
The Goffle Road man said he heard a noise in the back of his house after returning home after 10 p.m. and spotted the thief leaving with his valuables, Police Chief Benjamin Fox said this morning.
The burglar took off on foot and vanished, he said.
Police from Wyckoff, Midland Park, Ridgewood and Hawthorne flooded the area, quickly followed by a Bergen County Sheriff’s K9 unit, with negative results, the chief said.
ANOTHER CVP SCOOP: Fairview police yesterday chased down a second man in the beating and robbery of a Union City man on a local street earlier this month — and continued searching for a third.
The victim was walking to work just before 8 a.m. yesterday when he spotted 21-year-old Edwin G. Pascual of Newark at the corner of Anderson Avenue and Walker Street, a block from the May 10 attack, Capt. Vincent Bellucci told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
He immediately went to police headquarters, the captain said.
Moments later, Officer Michael Hartmann, Capt. Brendan O’Reilly and Bellucci chased Pascual nearly three blocks before catching him in a Cliff Street backyard.
He remained held this morning on $50,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail — joining Kevin Ozuna, 20, of Fairview (SEE: Fairview police nab local man in beating, robbery).
Kevin Ozuna (MUGSHOT: Courtesy FAIRVIEW PD)
Detectives also continued searching for a third man caught on surveillance video.
The 36-year-old victim was taken to Palisades General Hospital in North Bergen after the trio set up on him at Cliff Street and Anderson Avenue after he left a local supermarket, Bellucci said.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy FAIRVIEW PD
HAVE YOU SEEN HIM? North Arlington police this morning released surveillance photos of a man who they said stole more than $100,000 from unsuspecting victims using a skimmer device at a local ATM that swiped their debit and credit card information.
Borough police and federal authorities identified no fewer than 130 victims dating back a few months after the device was secretly placed on the ATM at the Kearny Bank on Ridge Road, Police Chief Louis M. Ghione said.
IMAGES: Courtesy NORTH ARLINGTON PD
“He used it in several places,” Ghione told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
These included a TD Bank branch in Hoboken on April 26, which produced the surveillance images.
If you know, have seen him or know where to find the man in the photos, please contact North Arlington Detective Agostino Feola: (201) 991-4400.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 19-year-old Baltimore woman who came to New Jersey expecting to spend time with a Wyckoff man she met online told police she was robbed and hit by a car driven by another man she knew from the past.
The woman told police she was unable to contact the man she met online once she arrived late last week, Police Chief Benjamin C. Fox said this morning.
She said she then “reached out to someone she had known from the past after spending the previous night in a hotel,” the chief said.
After he picked her up in Newark for a ride to Wyckoff, they began arguing, the woman told police.
He then “pulled a handgun and ordered her to turn over her phone and get out of the car,” Fox said she told detectives.
“Once out of the vehicle, she was struck by the car and knocked to the ground” on East Stevens Avenue around 11:15 p.m. Saturday, the chief said. “She sustained injuries to both legs and was treated by the Wyckoff Volunteer Ambulance Corps.”
Detectives were investigating, he said.
UPDATE: Hours after a Memorial Day ceremony outside Wyckoff Reformed Church yesterday, someone removed a wreath placed by the borough police department from its stand and smashed it over a stone memorial to local military personnel killed in action.
A Boy Scott leader called police just after 9:30 last night after discovering the vandalism at the Wyckoff War Memorial on the church green, Police Chief Benjamin Fox said this morning.
Fox and Lt. Charles Van Dyk had placed the wreath there during ceremonies yesterday morning.
There were no other memorial wreaths damaged.
“The wreaths placed at the township war memorial by numerous organizations honor the ultimate sacrifice of our military heroes,” Fox said.
“On Memorial Day, a day in which our entire nation pays respect to our military personnel for their service and sacrifice, for someone to commit such a disgraceful and despicable act saddens me greatly,” the chief said. “This is a feeling that I’m confident is shared by many in our community.”
He asked that anyone with information that could help the investigation call Wyckoff PD: (201) 891-2121.
ANOTHER CVP SCOOP: Maywood police arrested a 41-year-old Maywood man after they said he locked himself in a bedroom with an 18-year-old woman and unzipped his pants.
Manuel Yascaribay was still in the house when police arrived just before 9:30 last night, Detective Jason Liaban told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.
The woman had managed to get out of the bathroom and call them, he said.
Yascaribay was being held on $7,500 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with criminal restraint and attempted lewdness.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy MAYWOOD PD
UPDATE: Lodi firefighters doused a three-alarm garden apartment fire this afternoon apparently sparked by a power strip connected to an air conditioner.
“The first floor unit was severely damaged by fire and the second by some fire and a lot of smoke,” Lodi Fire Chief Ron Cannici told CLIFFVIEW PILOT after the 3:34 p.m. call.
Despite trouble with a hydrant directly in front of the building, firefighters had the fire knocked down in less than a half-hour, Canicci said.
Hackensack, Maywood and Wallington firefighters joined their Lodi colleagues.
Residents of both apartments will have to be temporarily relocated, officials said.
PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Kevin Teel
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Lawyers for two Paterson men charged in the heroin overdose death of an Allendale man asked a judge in Hackensack today to order a conference at which they could counter what they called an “inadequate” plea offer from prosecutors.
Timothy Volpe, 21 (above, left), and Kaleik Easton, 20 (right), are charged with strict liability for a drug-induced death — along with manslaughter and conspiracy to distribute heroin — for selling 22-year old Brendan Cole the drugs that killed him on Jan. 4, 2014.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer told Presiding Superior Court Judge Susan J. Steele that she won’t consider a counter-proposal to her offer of seven years — of which both men would have to serve at least six.
Timothy Volpe (above)
Kaleik Easton (below)
STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
She cited the support and cooperation she has received from Cole’s family, many of whom attended today’s court hearing, and said she wasn’t about to go back on her word to them.
Although neither defendant had a prior criminal record, Grootenboer noted that Easton has a gun possession charge pending in Passaic County.
Defense attorneys Dianne D’Alessandro (above, left) and Gayle Hargrave (right) want five-year terms — of which their clients would have to serve four years and three months — in exchange for guilty pleas.
Steele said she’d have to research the law before determining whether to compel Grootenboer to meet with the lawyers.
A third defendant in the case took a deal in March that allows him to walk away with probation for his testimony against Easton and Volpe.
Eric “Big D” Carter, 20 — whom authorities consider ‘peripheral” to the case — admitted driving both men to a meeting with Cole at the Garden State Plaza the night before he died. He said he didn’t know what was in the package they gave Cole.
Carter is tentatively scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 7, pending the outcome of the case against Easton and Volpe. Meanwhile, he remained free on $30,000 bail.
Volpe and Easton remained held on $575,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Elmwood Park police said they arrested a Wood-Ridge man with 20 bags of heroin following a traffic stop yesterday afternoon.
Michael Waldron, 27, was released on a court summons after the 2:30 p.m. stop on Locust Street.
He was charged with drug possession and drug possession in a motor vehicle.
