PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT (top); Annette Di Maggio Eichler (above)

UPDATE: Two occupants who were hospitalized after their single-engine Coast Guard auxiliary plane crash-landed in a Cresskill athletic field yesterday were in stable condition this morning, authorities said.

Meanwhile the plane remained at the edge of a bank of trees in Regan Field next to the Cresskill Swim Club off 3rd Street (photos, above), pending a National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
“If it was another hour from now this field would have been packed with kids playing football,” Cresskill Police Chief Edward Wrixon told The Daily Voice of Bergen-Passaic.

“There were a lot of people around, though,” he added. “Kudos to the pilot for putting it down where he did.”

The pilots had intended to set the 1978 Cessna Skyhawk down in a Tenafly field, but there were too many people around, the chief said. They ended up in the safest spot around 4:45 p.m., he said.

Both were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center by ambulance after responders cancelled a medical helicopter.

Although both were conscious and alert, Wrixon said he “would consider their injuries serious — compound fractures, lacerations.”

The pair had been surveying the Hudson River and “were experiencing some difficulties and some problems with the plane,” the chief said. “From what we’re gathering, they checked in with one of the towers at LaGuardia [Airport].

“They were going to try and make it to the Hudson River, but they ended up here.”

Cresskill police, firefighters and EMTs were first on the scene. Also responding were officers and emergency workers from various surrounding towns and the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police.

Local officials were awaiting investigators from the NTSB. Meanwhile, they’d cordoned off the area as they would a crime scene.

STORY by Daily Voice Reporter Cecilia Levine

Regan Field

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Elmwood Park police made a pair of heroin arrests hours apart yesterday.

Officers charged Carl Walters, 24, with having 10 bags of the drug, along with a syringe and paraphernalia after taking him into custody in the Kmart parking lot on Broadway around 3:40 p.m., Police Chief Michael Foligno said.

They also charged him with hindering for providing false information to a law enforcement officer, Foligno said.

Around 8 p.m., they arrested 36-year-old Eric Hoffman of Nanuet on Locust Street after the chief said they caught him with 60 bags of heroin.

Both were released on court summonses.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Washington Township police said they arrested a transient whom they found carrying heroin after the caught him walking around a neighborhood.

Alerted by a White Birch Road resident to a stranger wearing a backpack walking in the area of Washington School around 9 p.m. Tuesday, officers asked James Laube whether he needed help, Police Chief Glenn Hooper said this afternoon.

Laube showed them a New Jersey driver’s license and “went on to explain [that] he was between living arrangements in town and another county,” the chief said.

He later “changed his story as to why he was walking around at that time of night with a backpack,” he said.

A computer check showed that Laube was wanted on a $5,000 warrant out of Newark, so they took him into custody.

Laube posted $15,000 before dawn today and was released from the Bergen County Jail. He faces charges of possessing drugs and a hypodermic needle.

Hooper thanked the resident who called — and others who’ve done the same — for “being the eyes and ears of our community.”

MUGSHOT: Courtesy WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP PD

HAVE YOU SEEN HER? A 15-year-old Demarest girl reported missing may be on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — or headed to Chicago, New Jersey State Police said this afternoon.

Michelle Hong, who was last seen at 10 a.m. Tuesday, is 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds, with “fair” complexion, black eyes and black hair.

“It is unknown what kind of clothing she was wearing,” a State Police missing report says.

UPDATE: A 50-year-old Hillsdale man died at Hackensack University Medical Center tonight after losing his arm when he was struck by a train that was later stopped in Emerson, an NJ Transit spokesperson told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The victim apparently tried to board the train while it was moving and was injured around 4:20 p.m., multiple sources said.

“The crew didn’t even realize what happened,” an official source with direct knowledge of the incident told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “The train made two others stops.”

AirMed One landed at the George White School in Hillsdale and collected the victim, who another source said was still breathing when he was taken to the hospital.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 31-year-old customer service representative from Hackensack repeatedly molested a local girl over the course of more than a year, beginning when she was nine, a indictment returned by a grand jury alleges.

Favio F. Maldonado was arrested a year ago this month by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and Hackensack police after the girl “disclosed to her mother that [he] touched her over and under her clothing on several occasions,” Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.

The mother went to city police, who Molinelli said notified his office and the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

“Arrangements were made for the victim to be interviewed by a detective from the Special Victims Unit at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in Paramus,” he said. “During that interview, the victim provided specific details as to what had occurred between her and [Maldonado].”

The four-count indictment returned this past week charges him with touching the girl’s private parts with his his hand and penis. It also charges him with child endangerment.

Maldonado remained held on $250,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail this weekend.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

EXCLUSIVE REPORT: “Not a day goes by that I don’t remember,” a teenager told a judge in Hackensack who sentenced a security guard to a year in the county jail for sexually assaulting the boy as he slept in a Rutherford hotel room during a class trip.

”This will never be over for me, no matter where I go or what I do,” said the victim, now 18, as Jose Olivares watched with his attorney from the defense table.

Olivares, 27, of Jersey City, was working security at the hotel when he hung out with the group of upstate New York teens staying there after a day in Manhattan.

Two months ago, he admitted in court that that he gave the then-16-year-old boy slept in the early morning hours of Sept. 15, 2013.

“When you think of a school field trip to Little Italy, you think about good food, fun, and friends,” the victim told Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Foti. “Sexual assault is the furthest thing from your mind.

“I was preyed on in a most vulnerable moment, and it has made me question everything I thought to be good and true.”

The Syracuse, NY victim also related his anxiety whenever investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office contacted him from “that unfamiliar New Jersey area code on the phone.”

“I never knew when or where it would happen,” he said. “It was an endless dread.”

Olivares apologized to the victim and his family.

“I was dealing with a lot of stress and my judgment was extremely poor,” he said.

“I lost everything,” Olivares added. “I was discharged from the military, and I lost my job.

“I have been trying to pick myself up again,” he said. “I just found a job two weeks ago — and with that, I will be able to straighten myself out.”

Olivares pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact in exchange for a reduced charge, as well as 364 days in the jail — not prison.

Foti also sentenced him to two years probation and subjected him to the requirements of Megan’s Law registration and reporting and Nicole’s Law — putting him under a permanent restraining order prohibiting contact with the victim or his family.

He’ll also remain on parole supervision for life, must submit a DNA sample to the state database and must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and follow-up services, the judge said.

Defense lawyer S. Emile Lisboa pleaded for leniency based on Olivares’ “profound and deep remorse,” and what he said was a hardship due to his father’s chronic medical condition.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley objected. Olivares got considerable leniency when he was allowed to plead to reduced charges, the prosecutor said.

“The original charge was sexual assault with force,” Findley said. That, he said, was “very serious.”

“I believe he can receive effective psychiatric services in jail,” the judge said. “[W]ithout those services, I feel there is a risk to re-offend.”

Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Foti
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley
Jose Olivares, defense attorney S. Emile Lisboa, Findley
(STORY / PHOTOS: Daily Voice Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

PHOTOS: A driver was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening after firefighters cut him from his SUV in Hasbrouck Heights today.

Borough firefighters and police responded instantly after the vehicle rolled in the 200 block of Kipp Avenue just before 12:30 p.m., Detective Lt. Michael Colaneri told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

HUMC medics also responded.

PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Sean Slattery

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 2-year-old Cliffside Park boy was hospitalized with rib injuries after his father accidentally hit him with his SUV this morning.

The boy was first taken to Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck after he was hit by the front driver’s side tire of the 2004 Chevy Suburban at 8:40 a.m. in the 300 block of Columbia Avenue, Police Chief Richard Gaito told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

He was later transferred to Hackensack University Medical Center.

No summonses were immediately issued against the 30-year-old father. An investigation was continuing, he said.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A married carpenter from North Bergen had sexual communications several times with a 14-year-old Fairview girl, said authorities who arrested him yesterday.

Kevin M. Quiroz, 26, was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and child endangerment.

Special Victims Unit investigators and Fairview detectives took Quiroz into custody after the girl and her family reported the alleged behavior to police, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.

He was scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow afternoon in Superior Court in Hackensack.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

UPDATE: The attorney for an Emerson man whose wife went missing eight years ago said his client will most likely be departed to his native Ireland if convicted of using false documents to renew his driver’s license.

Paschal Delahunty, a 52-year-old painter, lived in the U.S. under the name of a deceased friend from his homeland after emigrating 15 years ago, authorities said.

One of the charges pending against him, for displaying a driver’s license and Social Security card in the name of Joseph A. Murphy, is considered serious enough to carry a prison term.

CLIFFVIEW PILOT exclusively reported that Delahunty took the name from a childhood friend who died in a motorcycle crash in their native Irish County Carlow (SEE: Husband of missing Emerson woman lived under childhood friend’s identity).

Delahunty’s oldest daughter lives in Emerson with her younger sister, over whom she has full custody, defense attorney Joseph Raia said today.

Raia entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf today. Delahunty was returned to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained held on $100,000 bail today — down from an original $350,000.

Meanwhile, the investigation of the sudden disappearance of Liza Murphy was continuing.

The former Liza Stellatos went missing just days before her husband deliberately walked out in front of a fire official’s cruiser in a suicide attempt in neighboring Westwood. A recovering alcoholic, he had tried to kill himself once before, in 1990, authorities said at the time.

Police earlier had questioned him about his then-42-year-old wife’s disappearance, which was reported by one of her friends. He told them she took off after he confronted her about an affair, leaving behind her purse, cellphone, keys, cigarettes — and their three children.

Nor did she bring medication she was taking for fibromyalgia, a sometimes debilitating muscle and tissue condition, authorities said.

Police in Emerson gathered about 200 people and searched the woods around the Oradell Reservoir after Murphy was officially declared missing in late August 2007.

They didn’t find anything.

The case turned bizarre when Delahunty walked into traffic five days after his wife’s disappearance, trying to kill himself, and suffered a broken hip. He has refused to speak with investigators since.

Searchers had new hope six years ago, when a tipster led detectives to the back of the town’s American Legion Hall, where they quietly did some digging.

A law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time that they didn’t find anything of value — but that the probe was far from a cold case.

“During the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Liza Murphy, who was last seen on August 19, 2007, it was determined through interviews and evidence that her husband was using a false identity, and for years represented himself to be one Joseph Murphy with a date of birth of 3/11/1968,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in December.

“Further investigation revealed that he is an immigrant of Ireland who entered the United States illegally, and whose legal name is Paschal Delahunty, with a date of birth of 4/13/1963,” he said.

Sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that Delahunty came from County Carlow.

“On 12/1/1990, Paschal Delahunty became a permanent resident of the United States, utilizing the false name Joseph Murphy,” the prosecutor said.

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia

UPDATE: A Leonia construction worker today dropped what authorities called a blatant set of lies and admitted sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl while giving her a ride in his truck last summer.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Natalie Candela (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)

Wilfredo Arias, 49, pleaded guilty in writing in Hackensack before Superior Court Judge James J. Guida, who rejected a plea attempt yesterday after Arias claimed the girl came on to him.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Natalie Candela insisted on the unusual move, telling Arias that she would agree to the plea only if he put his admission on paper.

Candela told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that she wanted to be sure that Arias kept his part of the bargain this time.

Defense attorney Frank Lucianna, in turn, said that his client “got a good deal” after talking it over last night with his wife, who kept a watchful eye in court today.

“He admitted to forcing [the girl’s hand] onto his penis and putting his hand on her vagina, as well as penetrating her vagina,” Candela said. “He also admitted holding her and grinding against her body.”

Arias yesterday claimed there was a July 3, 2014 party held by his stepdaughter that the victim attended but today said the teens had actually been watching movies that night. She didn’t do or say anything to provoke him in any way, he admitted.

Superior Court Judge James J. Guida (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)

In fact, as Candela told the judge, Arias doesn’t even know the victim’s name.

Guida accepted the guilty plea to sexual assault and child endangerment.

“He could have gotten 15 years in prison if he was tried and convicted,” Lucianna, the defense lawyer, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Under the plea, he’ll get six years and he’ll have to serve 85% of that.

“If the two counts are merged at sentence, he’ll spend only four years and two months in prison.” he said.

Lucianna and Candela both said they were ready for a trial before Arias signed his plea.

Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 11, provided that an evaluation is completed at Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel to determine whether Arias is a compulsive sex offender who must be considered for a civil commitment.

In addition to prison time, he must pay fines of about $2,000 and meet the requirements of both Megan’s Law sex offender registration and Nicole’s Law, which permanently prohibits contact with the girl or her family. Arias also will remain under parole supervision for life.

He remains free on $250,000 bail pending sentencing.

A court order prohibits him from living at the home in Leonia.

The case is Arias’ fourth prosecution and the third for a sex offense in the past 15 years.

He previously avoided prison time and Megan’s Law registration when New Jersey’s highest court overturned his 2002 conviction of of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old Little Ferry girl two years earlier he Arias wasn’t allowed to participate in interviews of potential jurors.

The case set a standard for how jurors are selected (SEE: Previous case of Leonia man now charged in sex assault on girl, 16, prompted changes in jury selection).

Arias was allowed to then plead guilty to a reduced charge of lewdness in 2005.

He benefitted from another downgraded plea deal four years ago — again keeping him from Megan’s Law registration — after being charged with sexually assaulting a 7-year old Cliffside Park girl.

Arias again pleaded guilty to a reduced charge — lewdness observed by a child under the age of 13 — and was sentenced to 180 days in the Bergen County Jail and three years probation.

Arias finished the jail sentence last April before being arrested in Leonia three months later — violating his probation in the process.

Defense attorney Frank Lucianna, Arias (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia)

HAVE YOU SEEN THEM? Garfield officials have offered a $100 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of two vandals who they said tagged public school property with graffiti after shoplifting spray paint from the local Walmart.

A surveillance shot issued by Garfield police this afternoon shows two suspects leaving the Walmart on Pasaic Street around 2:15 a.m. last Thursday.

Authorities believe the pair spray-painted “MASTO,” “IKC” and “LA” and “several other indistinguisable tags” in black and white on a construction trap attached to a fence at Passaic Street and Marsellus Place about 15 minutes later, Detective Capt. Darren Sucorowski told Daily Voice of Bergen and Passaic.

Anyone with information that can help the investigation is asked to call Sgt. John Lesica: (973) 478-8500, ext. 4140.

FOUND! Less than an hour after seeking the public’s help, Hackensack police got a call from someone who spotted an an 88-year-old city woman with dementia who wandered off this morning.

Quincy Cooper, who was last seen around 8:30 a.m., was “disoriented, a bit tired but OK” when police found her near Hackensack High School after receiving the call around 6:40 p.m., Detective Sgt. James Smith told Daily Voice moments later.

Cooper had gone missing before, “and once ended up in [Arkansas] somehow,” Smith said earlier. “But we’re worried because of her age.”

Smith said police were trying to determine how the caller knew that police were looking for Cooper.

Alerts had been published on CLIFFVIEW PILOT and Daily Voice of Bergen and Passaic.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Glen Rock man with reputed mob ties admitted today that he conspired to scam 15 victims out of nearly $3.5 million.

Paul Mancuso, 49, said he conspired with co-defendant Pasquale “Pat” Stiso, a disbarred attorney from Westchester, to pretend to broker deals on a pizzeria in the Bahamas, a casino in Atlantic City and a chunk of real estate in Matawan that they flipped, among other bogus ventures that authorities said drained victims’ life savings.

Both were up to their necks in hock with bookies — including a $500,000 debt that Macuso still hadn’t paid, the government said.

Instead of funding the purported projects, Mancuso said today, he and Stiso, 53, of West Harrison, used the money for personal expenses and gambling.

Two months ago, police in North Brunswick said Mancuso was behind the wheel of a 2015 Mercedes Benz that crossed a double-yellow line and slammed into another vehicle, critically injuring a 58-year-old grandmother. The status of that case couldn’t immediately be determined this afternoon.

Mancuso reputedly has ties to Genovese captain Joseph “The Eagle” Gatto of Paterson, who died in April 2010. Authorities said Mancuso participated in a gambling ring headed by Gatto that took $300,000 a week in illegal wagers from tens of thousands of customers nationwide.

Gatto’s father and brother, legendary North Jersey Genovese gangster Louis “Streaky” Gatto (above, right), and Louis Gatto Jr. both died while serving federal prison sentences.

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman noted that the government has moved to recover $3.4 million from Mancuso and Stiso “representing the fraudulent payments [they] received from the scheme.”

Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, the IRS, and investigators in his office with making the case, presented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Francisco J. Navarro and Anthony Mahajan of his Criminal Division in Newark.

Sentencing for Mancuso was scheduled for Jan. 12. The case against Stiso was still pending.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A trio of robbers discharged pepper spray in a Leonia liquor store and made off with several bottles of spirits last night, authorities said.

Two women and a man, all black, entered Andres Liquor Store on Broad Avenue around 9:40 p.m.

One of them released the spray “in an attempt to distract and potentially harm the store employees,” Capt. Scott Tamagny said this afternoon.

After grabbing several bottles, the bandits fled in a vehicle, he said.

Anyone who saw or knows anything that could help the investigation is asked to contact Leonia police: (201) 944-0800.

PHOTOS: Marilyn Bojanowski

TRIBUTE: The morning was still as the names of three Fair Lawn residents killed in the 9/11 terror attacks on America were read outside Borough Hall, and a Flag of Honor with the names of all the victims was unfurled.

Susan Huie, Jennifer Lynn Kane and Richard David Rosenthal were recalled by those gathered in the Memorial Garden on Parmalee Avenue around 9 a.m. Also mentioned Frank Connor who was killed in the terrorist bombing of Fraunces Tavern on Wall Street in 1975.

Taps was played. A moment of silence was held.

Among those attending: Mayor John Cosgrove, Council members Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso, former Fair Lawn Mayor Marty Etler, State Sen. Bob Gordon, Bergen County Freeholder David Ganz and Bergen County Clerk John Hogan.

PHOTOS: Marilyn Bojanowski

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 67-year-old Ridgewood author who spun a real-life scenario of buying clothing for a teenaged woman who worked in his house so that he could secretly photograph her in revealing outfits was sentenced today to three years probation.

The sentencing judge also signed a permanent restraining order keeping Nicholas Sunday from the young woman’s home or future places of employment.

Sunday hid a camera in a clock radio in a bathroom, then modified the furnishings to get better angles, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Brian Sinclair told Superior Court Judge Margaret M. Foti in Hackensack.

He also bought dresses, lingerie, bras and underwear for the victim, who said usually tried them on over her clothes, Sinclair said.

Among the videos seized by detectives last October is one in which she clearly expresses surprise after entering the bathroom and “there was a mirror standing in front of the shower,” the prosecutor said.

A later video shows a clip lamp obviously positioned to add light, he said.

Sunday “basically created a runway for her to be photographed on,” Sinclair said.

He also filmed her using the toilet more than once, he said.

Eventually, the woman caught on.

“You can see her come over to the radio and peer into the camera eye,” Sinclair told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “There is audio, so you can hear her confront Sunday angrily as she figured out what had been going on.”

The girl then ran from the house in her bare feet and called Ridgewood police.

Sunday fled, eventually winding up at the Valley Hospital with chest pains, but the call prompted an investigation that turned up the secret recordings.

Police said they also found evidence during an extensive search of the area surrounding the house.

Sunday, who has since moved to Prospect Park, turned himself in to police in January to face charges of invasion of privacy and destroying evidence.

In exchange for probation, he pleaded guilty today to fourth-degree stalking.

The judge ordered him to report to the Bergen County Probation Department after the hearing, explaining to him in detail the ramifications of the permanent restraining order.

STORY / PHOTOS: Courthouse Reporter Mary Miraglia

UPDATE: A borough crossing guard remained in critical condition tonight after being struck by a vehicle this morning outside a local synagogue as worshippers were attending Rosh Hashanah services.

Jo-Ann Hans, 60, of Bergenfield was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center after being struck around 8 a.m. outside Congregation Beth Abraham at New Bridge Road and Thames Boulevard, Police Chief Cathy Madalone said.

“Officers were on scene and rendered aid immediately,” Madalone said.

The Bergenfield Volunteer Ambulance Corp and paramedics responded, the chief said.

Police issued three summonses to the driver, identified as 63-year-old Pawothil Abraham — for careless driving, failure to obey crossing guard and failure to stop to allow pedestrians to cross.

HAVE YOU SEEN HIM? Palisades Park police and Bergen County authorities are seeking the public’s help identifying a man who they said molested one woman on a local street and threw another down, reaching under her skirt and grabbing her private area.

They described him as Hispanic, with a medium build, about 30-35 years old, between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-8, with light brown skin and a round face.

In both cases, the victims had gotten off a No. 166 NJ Transit bus that runs north on Broad Avenue.

The first incident occurred around 9 p.m. last Tuesday, Sept. 8, near the intersection of Broad and W. Edsall Avenue.

The assailant walked up, “made contact with the victim’s breast with his left hand and her vaginal area with the right hand,” then ran east on W. Edsall before turning north on Broad, an alert issued by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office says.

Just before 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, he approached a woman from behind at the intersection of E. Homestead Avenue and 2nd Street (just east of Broad Avenue), it says.

He “threw her to the ground, reached under her skirt and made contact with the victim’s vaginal area,” then fled north on 2nd Street, the alert says.

If you have information that can help police find this man, contact Detective Wendy Cevallos of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit at (201) 226-5780 (or: wcevallos@bcpo.net) or Detective Shawn Lee of the Palisades Park Police Department at (201) 944-0900.

SKETCH: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR