CVP EXCLUSIVE: A group of officers from four towns ended an intense standoff with a knife-wielding Wood-Ridge man by getting him to surrender, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

The 31-year-old Hillcrest Avenue man began screaming at officers from Wood-Ridge, Carlstadt, Hasbrouck Heights and Moonachie to get out as they arrived Monday night.

“He told the officers to kill him or he would kill himself,” Detective Joseph Rutigliano Jr. told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

He then began advancing on them with the weapon, Rutigliano said.

“The officers showed great restraint, giving him some room,” he said. “They began talking to him, pleading wth him to drop the knife.”

At one point, an officer gave him a cigarette.

After about a half hour, the man gave the knife to Moonachie Police Sgt. Tom Schmidt and surrendered.

He was taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center.

Joining Schmidt were Wood-Ridge Sgt. Thomas Battaglia and Officers Mark Torsiello and Ptl. Joseph Manfredonia, Hasbrouck Heights Sgt. Ian Robertson and Detective Joseph Armeli and Carlstadt Sgt. Thomas Negro.

“No one was injured and a life was saved,” Rutigliano said. “That’s what matters.”

CVP EXCLUSIVE: A Florida man was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail after authorities discovered that he wasn’t a juvenile, as he’d claimed, while being arrested by Ridgefield Park police as part of a credit card fraud ring.

Robert Ellis Norris, 22 (top left, above), was at the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center in Teterboro when authorities discovered his true identity, Ridgefield Park Polie Capt. Daniel Hippe told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

He was immediately charged and brought to the county jail, Hippe said.

Norris was in a car with three other Florida men when a village officer pulled over their Dodge Caravan on Route 46 last Thursday because the driver was talking on a cellphone, the captain said.

They detected the odor of burnt marijuana, obtained consent to search the van and found credit cards, driver’s licenses and checkbooks belonging to more than a dozen other people, Hippe said.

Held on $100,000 bail in the county jail were Adonis Shinholster, 21 (top right, above), Jerrard Green, 24 (bottom right), and Jermaine Armstrong, 19 (bottom left).

Like them, Norris is charged with wrongful impersonation and credit card theft. Police also charged him with hindering for providing a fake ID.

Shinholster also was charged with carrying a small amount of marijuana.

Village police contacted law enforcement authorities in Florida to help them determine the source and scope of the thefts.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

THANKSGIVING SHOUT OUT: An 8-year-old Hasbrouck Heights girl with severe cerebral palsy had one of her fondest holiday wishes granted with a visit from a female New Jersey state trooper who served in Iraq. Yet it was the trooper who insisted that she was most grateful.

“She has such an inspiring story, so much more than I can even describe,” Trooper Alina Spies told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.

Giulianna Moore beamed through the day that trooper spent with her, her mother, Pasqualina, her two sisters — 10-year-old Angelina and 2½-year-old Isabella — and other family members.

“Her mother described it as love at first site,” Spies said.

“She’s an amazing and inspiring girl, and she has a wonderful family,” she said. “They give so much to Make a Wish and to other children in need. They’re beautiful inside and out.”

Giulianna’s grandfather had written to the State Police seeking support for Walk for Wishes, which last month raised $36,889 for the little angel. Spies brought the family plenty more.

Giulianna, who’s wheelchair-bound and requires a feeding tube and constant assistance, always wanted to meet a female trooper.

She got that, as well as a combat veteran.

Spies, who joined the State Police after leaving the military in 2008, gave Giulianna a letter from NJSP Supt. Col. Rick Fuentes, along with a colonel’s challenge coin, a State Police patch, an NJSP t-shirt, a teddy bear and items from the youngster’s favorite movie, “Frozen.”

“Lina has always told her girls they can be whatever they want,” Spies said. “She told me the visit made a difference in their lives, because I’m living proof.

“It made a difference to me, too,” she told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “It made my holiday season even greater. I walked away from there with an entirely new outlook on life.

“I aboslutely love being a state trooper,” Spies said. “Our job isn’t easy, but moments like that make the sacrefices worth it.

“I look forward to see them again — and I will. This wasn’t a onetime visit. Giulianna and her family are very special to me.”

Lina Moore holds her niece, while NJ State Trooper Alina Spies holds Isabella, Angelina stands behind Giulianna (PHOTOS: Courtesy NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE)

ONLY ON CVP: Hackensack firefighters made quick work of this pickup truck fire at the corner of State and Atlantic streets late this morning.

YOU SAW HIM HERE FIRST: Authorities have charged a Rockland County man with setting a fire last week that tore through a 2½-story wood-frame house under construction on a Mahwah cul-de-sac.

Antonio Almodovar, 19, of Pomona was ordered held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail on charges of aggravated arson, burglary and failure to report a fire following a first appearance in Municipal Court, Police Chief James Batelli said.

PHOTOS: Courtesy MAHWAH FIRE DEPARTMENT

A source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that the defendant is an acquaintance of the former owner, who sold the Lakeview Drive property off Stag Hill Road after a battle with the borough over 150 or so chicken coops that he’d kept on the lot.

New construction on the property “was fully involved when police and firefighters got there” last Wednesday around 9 p.m., an emergency responder told CLIFFVIEW PILOT a short time later.

Within a half-hour, firefighters went to defensive positions while drafting water from the Silver Lake due to a lack of area hydrants.

All units were cleared around 1 a.m.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

FIRE PHOTOS: Courtesy MAHWAH FD

CVP EXCLUSIVE: Two Ramapo College students took turns raping an unconscious fellow student in a dorm room while others watched and laughed after one of them carried her there on his back from a frat party, a prosecutor told a judge in Hackensack. READ MORE….

Nakeem Gardner, defense attorney Walter Neely (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

UPDATE: Hundreds of Mahwah customers got their power back tonight after workers replaced a toppled utility pole.

Age and weather took their toll on the pole at Campgaw Road and Seminary Drive whose base snapped earlier today.

As many as 770 customers were without power for several hours. The number dwindled to 35 before 6:30 p.m., a spokesman for Orange & Rockland Utilities told the Nyack Free Press tonight.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Englewood said they took an 18-year-old city man into custody and expected to soon capture a juvenile accomplice after both fled a jewelry store and 7-Eleven empty-handed while wearing ski masks yesterday.

Joshua Foster was wearing a distinctive black sports jacket with white sleeves when Detective Michael Chapman found him loitering in the Wendy’s restaurant at the corner of West Palisade Avenue and Nathaniel Place just after 5 p.m., Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

A short time earlier, Torell said, Foster and his partner went into the convenience store at a strip mall by the monument at the circle of West Palisade Avenue and Tenafly Road (photo, right).

IMAGES: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

The pair “made motions like they had guns” and announced a robbery, he said.

“There’s a lot of foot traffic there around the monument,” Torell said. “Several clerks and customers were in the store.

“They got nervous and ran.”

The pair then headed to B&M Jewelry, which was empty at the time except for the owner, who was protected by Plexi-glass (photo, top). He refused to cooperate, hitting the panic button, and they took off, the captain said.

Patrol units and detectives flooded the area. Within 20 minutes, Chapman spotted Foster.

He was carrying a ski mask used in the bungled robberies, Torell said.

Foster — who turned 18 within the past two weeks — was being held on $300,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts of first-degree robbery.

Police don’t believe either had a weapon, he added.

Torell advised the juvenile to turn himself in.

Englewood Detective Bureau: (201) 568-4875

(All calls remain confidential.)

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Detectives seized a third of a pound of cocaine while busting two Union County men outside the Garden State Plaza in Paramus last night.

Investigators from the Bergen County Narcotic Task Force and Paramus police were watching as Jessie Legar, 26 (above, left), and 30-year-old Carlos Sencion-Perez (right) walked back and forth to their car several times before retrieving what turned out to be the cocaine, worth $9,000 o the street, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said tonight.

Both were being held on $100,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail, charged with possession with the intent to distribute more than five ounces of cocaine.

An arraignment was set for Monday.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Kinnelon woman was killed in a crash while backing her car on the shoulder of southbound Route 287 in Wanaque early this morning, New Jersey State Police told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The woman’s Toyota Solara convertible swerved into traffic, was struck on the passenger side by an Audi SUV and got slammed into the median just before 7 a.m., Trooper Alina Spies said.

Four occupants of the SUV sustained minor injuries in the collision at milepost 55.9 near the Ringwood Avenue exit, Spies told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The 43-year-old accountant, a Butler native, was pronounced dead at the scene.

PHOTO: Courtney Szymanski 

ONLY ON CVP: An Elmwood Park family got a Thanksgiving dinner scare, but all ended well when a 9-year-old boy missing for nearly an hour turned out to be visiting a friend nearby.

“Everyone’s hearts were in their chests,” Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Thankfully he was OK.”

Foligno, who lives near the North Street home, headed there with his son — who was celebrating his 17th birthday today — when he heard the alert just after 3:15 p.m.

He also called for a K9 unit from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office. Garfield police responded, as well.

“All of a sudden, the boy came running out of his friend’s house,” the chief said. “It was a happy ending for everyone.”

SHOUT OUTS: A trio of local dance students were awarded $500 grants each by the The Dancer’s Dream Fund Inc. of Paramus.

The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization launched its pilot awards program at its home studios earlier this month Reyshelle Rodriguez of North Bergen (from Viibe in Ridgefield), Jessica Pagano of Paramus (from Maryann’s School of Dance in Paramus) and Alexandra Williams of Creskill (from Dance Dimensions in New Milford)with grantees .

“The children were selected through a nomination & application process,” Dancer’s Dream Fund President Monica Byrne said. “Their commitment to give back, to work hard in school, and to be kind, caring individuals are all requirements to receive the grant money.”

The Dancer’s Dream Fund was launched in April by four dance moms who wanted to give back to their community. It accepts corporate sponsors.

“Basically we raise money through holding events, various fundraising programs and direct donations,” said Byrne. “We are in the process of creating a few different programs, along with direct scholarship awards”

INFO: www.dancersdreamfund.org

Meet the grantees (courtesy The Dancer’s Dream Fund)

Reyshelle (The ViiBe Dance Center, Ridgefield) was nominted by her teacher and classmates for Student of the Month in May 2014 and received The Citizenship Award in recognition of her exemplary behavior and valuable services rendered to her school. She volunteers for various charitable efforts, including the North Bergen Emergency Relief Program. Reyshelle helps collect food donations for the program, which helps families in need throughout the township.

Alexandra (Dance Dimensions, New Milford), known as Allie, is a straight-A student who’s been awarded “Student of the Week” several times by school administrators and teachers. She assists preschool-2nd graders at her home studio

Jessica (Mariann’s School of Dance, Paramus) does a lot of volunteer work, including being an active Girl Scout for 7 years, working with special needs children and actively participating in her parish. She also works with Camp Snowflake, The Butterfly Ball & Julia’s Butterflies (a local organization that helps families with sick children).

ONLY ON CVP: Tenafly police rescued a choking Thanksgiving dinner guest today on — believe it or not — Pilgrim Court.

The victim — a Maryland man who sources said had recently retired — was choking on a large piece of brisket when a doctor at the afternoon meal tried the Heimlich maneuver with no luck, Capt. Michael deMoncada told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Officers who responded within a few minutes found the victim turning blue and struggling to breathe, deMoncada said.

Lt. Ralph Lawrance and Officers James Yankowsky and Officer Louis Smaragdakis gave it a few more tries before Lawrence finally dislodged the obstruction.

Tenafly Volunteer Ambulance workers and paramedics from Englewood Hospital and Medical Center arrived soon after.

The victim was taken to EHMC, where he was kept overnight for observation.

STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

ONLY ON CVP: Glen Rock firefighters cut a Hawthorne driver from her SUV after she fell asleep behind the wheel and it slammed into a tree this morning.

The 66-year-old woman was taken to the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood with what emergency responders considered minor injuries after she lost control of the vehicle as it headed south on Lincoln Avenue at Isabella Place around 7:20 a.m.

Glen Rock police and EMS workers responded along with firefighters and Ridgewood police, who assisted with traffic.

A flatbed removed the SUV.

STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

UPDATE: Paramus police this afternoon chased a Mercedes Benz reportedly carjacked from an Upper Saddle River man in the parking lot of a Route 17 store onto the southbound Garden State Parkway before it vanished in East Orange.

Borough officers pulled back near the Essex Toll Plaza at Exit 149 just before 1:30 p.m.

Initial traffic was light after the dark blue, four-door 2015 S-550 was taken outside the PGA Tour superstore 20 minutes or so earlier.

The 50-year-old victim told police he was getting in when at least two black men approached, one of whom “implied that he was armed with a handgun,” Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.

They then demanded his cellphone and took off with it and the car, the chief said.

A borough officer in a marked unit spotted the car getting onto the Parkway and tried stopping it. A chase followed.

An original report from sources that the NJSP picked up the pursuit from there was incorrect. State Police were looking for the vehicle without having seen it.

Anyone with information that could help find the car is asked to call Paramus police: (201) 262-3400.

ONLY ON CVP: Two cats died despite valiant efforts by emergency responders to revive them during a Ridgewood basement fire today.

The South Pleasant Avenue homeowners rescued a dog in the 3 p.m. blaze, which apparently was caused by an open chimney cleanout door. The cats were found on the second floor.

STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

Responding along with village firefighters, police and EMS workers were Waldwick and Glen Rock firefighters and Glen Rock police.

The 2½-story wood-frame house sustained smoke damage.

South Pleasant Avenue was closed between Spring Avenue and Grove Street.

It was one of three village fire calls that were quickly snuffed this afternoon. The others involved a burned-out pump in an East Franklin Avenue basement and a Liberty Street kitchen fire that spread to the second floors (SEE: Small Ridgewood fire put down).

Glen Rock and Waldwick responders assisted with those, as well.

STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 1-year-old Ramsey girl was flown to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston with second-degree burns this afternoon after she was scalded by hot tea, Police Chief Bryan Gurney told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Ramsey Volunteer Ambulance Corps members, along with a unit from The Valley Hospital, picked up the child at her Airmont Avenue home around 3:30 p.m.

They rushed her less than two miles to McFarren Field, where Hackensack Unversity Medical Center’s AirMed One picked her up.

PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Jennifer Aumuller

PHOTO/INSET: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Richard Criscione, TOP: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Damien Danis

UPDATE: Cliffside Park fire officials said they don’t know why propane tanks exploded and sparked a windswept fire 10 days ago that blew through five interconnected four-story condominium buildings under construction and ignited another fire nearby.

 Multiple sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT they heard at least three loud blasts — possibly propane tanks exploding — from the upper floors of the Walker Street building around 5:30 p.m. the night of Nov. 18. The fire quickly went to three alarms, and by 7:30 the roof was gone.

A roofing contractor had been working there earlier, the sources said.

Embers blown from the scene ignited a second blaze that destroyed the upper half of a three-story apartment building two blocks away and forced a neighborhood evacuation.

The chain reaction of events brought firefighters from no fewer than eight other Bergen towns, along with North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue.

“Despite a logistical nightmare of sub-freezing temperatures, brutal wind blowing the fire right at them and electrical wires right above them, Cliffside firefighters began putting water on the fire within minutes and kept an even larger tragedy from occurring,” said borough resident Richard Criscione, a CLIFFVIEW PILOT correspondent.

Borough firefighters were battling flames that roared on the former site of Marburn Warehouse at Walker Street and Cliff Lane when flying embers ignited the second blaze on the roof and cockoft of the Palisade Avenue building.

Embers hit other buildings on Walker and at least one more on Palisade, as well, along with some utility poles and vehicles, emergency responders at the scene said.

Those evacuated were taken to the senior center on Gorge Road, they said. There were no immediate indications Wednesday morning of how many were left homeless.

Firefighters from Bogota, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, Hackensack Leonia, Little Ferry, Palisades Park and Teaneck responded to the scenes or as standby mutual aid.

DPW crews spread salt to keep runoff from turning slick in the frigid night.

VIDEO by Alan Sikiric (via North Jerzy Fire Alerts)

PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Damien Danis

PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Damien Danis

PHOTO: Werner R. Ennesser

PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Kevin Teel

PHOTO: Cathy Kerr Tolomeo

PHOTO: Richard Criscione

PHOTO: Edwin Trejo

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Polish national is facing possible deportation after Garfield police arrested him on Thanksgiving for driving drunk while his license was suspended a second time — both for DWI.

Records show Kazimierz M. Burdzy, 28, also owes $664 for a July 2009 DWI conviction out of Rutherford.

Burdzy (who posted the above photos on Facebook) was being held on $25,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

The INS also put a detainer on him for deportation proceedings once the case is resolved.

ONLY ON CVP: Police suspected a 70-year-old Allendale man was under the influence when he crashed his sedan into his garage last night.

The Colonial Drive resident was taken to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood by ambulance after complaining of difficulty breathing following the 9 p.m. crash.

Members of the Allendale Fire Department’s Heavy Rescue team shored up a structural support beam so that the home could remain occupied after being struck by the 2011 Hyundai Elantra.

The Allendale building sub-code official also responded, along with borough police and EMS workers.

STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Boyd A. Loving

ONLY ON CVP: Two Dominican brothers charged in a botched overnight burglary that left a Paramus officer injured and their accomplice dead had their bail reduced, despite burglary-related criminal histories in New Jersey and New York.

Hector Felix, 25 and Josue Felix, 21, would have to remain under house arrest, with monitoring bracelets, at their father’s Bronx apartment if they make $200,000 bail — reduced from $500,000, Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi ruled this past week.

Hector Felix, Nico Vega, Josue Felix (FILE PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

The judge noted that the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the Dominican Republic, that the brothers live in the Bronx and not New Jersey and that both have criminal records — including arrests by the NYPD earlier this year.

Still, she said, “I am going to reduce the bail because they don’t have significant priors [previous arrests].”

DeAvila-Silebi said both must surrender their passports and green cards, raising an objection from defense attorney Vincent Basile, who said the Felixes “can get in trouble if they don’t have their green cards with them at all times.”

“They’re going to be under house arrest,” the judge responded, “so it’s not going to be a problem.”

Bail can’t be posted for either brother until a hearing is held to determine the source, she ruled.

Two officers who responded to a 4:36 a.m. burglary alarm on Oct. 8 found the rear door of Jennifer Convertibles on Route 4 pried open, as a crew attempted to break through a wall into an adjoining vacant property on their way to a T-Mobile store, law enforcement sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT soon after the incident.

Using the getaway car as a weapon, 20-year-old Miguel Reyes of Manhattan struck a Paramus officer, who landed on the hood and squeezed off some shots from his service weapon.

Hector Felix, Josue Felix, Nico Vega (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BCSO)

The 2015 Kia slammed into the median on westbound Route 4, after which police arrested Reyes, the Felix brothers and a fourth man, 25-year-old Nico Vega.

Reyes later died at HUMC.

The officer sustained “a head injury, as well as injuries to his lower extremities, contusions and bruises,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.

He was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center and released, the prosecutor said.

Charges against the trio include armed burglary to the Jennifer Convertibles and vacant adjacent store; attempted armed burglary of the T-Mobile; conspiracy to commit armed burglary; and possession of weapons and burglary tools.

ALSO SEE: Three arrested, one dead in fatal Paramus burglary

STORY/PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia