YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Washington Township police officer summoned to a local liquor store on a call of an underage teen trying to buy alcohol got a shock when another walked in and tried the same thing.

He was also carrying marijuana, authorities said.

The teen was one of no fewer than a half-dozen would-be customers sniffed out by store this weekend, Officer Heather Castronova told CLIFFVIEW PILOT tonight.

“A majority of them are male and from Ridgewood,” she said.

The store owner also called police six times in a four-hour span after being shown questionable IDs, Castronova said.

“You would have thought the word would have spread from what took place [last weekend],” the officer said, referring to complaints against Township Liquor and the arrest of a 17-year-old boy trying to buy booze.

The store turned over a half-dozen bogus Maryland driver’s licenses and “obtained a machine to verify the validity of any driver’s license used to provide proof of a person’s age when attempting to purchase an alcoholic beverage,” Police Chief Glenn Hooper said last week.

PUBLIC SAFETY: Local, county and state police will be on the lookout as the holiday-season “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign officially begins this Friday — and continues through Jan. 2.

Saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints will be the norm.

“This is a critical law enforcement program that can save lives during a time of the year when impaired driving traditionally increases by nearly 10 percent,” Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward said. “This initiative brings attention to the serious consequences of drunk driving and the grave danger those who choose to drink and drive pose to all who share the road with them.”

Last year, statistics show, 22% of all motor vehicle fatalities in New Jersey were alcohol-related.

Nationally, more than 10,000 people die each year in drunk-driving crashes, which costs an estimated $37 billion annually.

Authorities suggest:

•If you plan to drink, designate a driver before you go out who will not drink alcohol;
•Take mass transit, a taxi or ask a sober friend to drive you home;
•Spend the night where the activity is held;
•Report impaired drivers to law enforcement (dial #77);
•Always buckle up, every ride, regardless of your seating position in the vehicle. It’s your best defense against an impaired driver;
•If you’re intoxicated and traveling on foot, the safest way to get home is to take a cab or have a sober friend or family member drive you to your doorstep.

UPDATE: Two passengers in an SUV crash on westbound Route 4 in Hackensack this morning sustained minor injuries and were removed from their vehicle by city firefighters.

Hackensack firefighters responded to the highway at Hackensack Avenue entrance just after 8 a.m.

Bergen County Police and a crew from Hackensack University Medical Center also responded.

The vehicle was removed by a flatbed truck.

PHOTOS: Courtesy HACKENSACK FD

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: An 85-year-old woman and her 41-year-old son fled their Elmwood Park home as a fire quickly swept through it, collapsing the second floor, this morning.

Garfield, Saddle Brook and Clifton firefighters also responded, along with Elmwood Park EMS, to the 1½-story home on 16th Avenue off 55th Street just before 9:30 a.m.

No one was injured, Police Chief Michael Foligno told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The mother and son “evacuated themselves when they noticed the smoke and flames,” the chief said.

“The fire did not appear to be suspicious and was believed to have started in the area of the front porch of the home,” he said just before noon, “but the exact cause has not yet been determined.”

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PHOTO, TOP: Doug Haber

PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Kevin Teel

PHOTOS: Elena Pietrocco

ANOTHER CVP SCOOP: Ramsey police have charged two more men in connection with a bogus marijuana deal robbery at a Route 17 motel.

Nicholas M. Manuele (above, left) was freed after posting $100,000 bail while Jerome A. Ashby (right) remained held on that amount in the Bergen County Jail. Both are 18.

Ramsey police charged the pair wth two counts of robbery by force and criminal restraint with the risk of injury in connection with the Nov. 11 mugging of an 18-year-old Allendale man in a room at the Maple Shade MOtel.

Already charged in the robbery was Christopher Balcolm, also 18, who was released from the county jail on $100,000 bail after two weeks behind bars, and a 17-year-old boy.

“The actors planned on stealing marijuana from the victim,” Police Chief Bryan Gurney told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The victim told police he was in the room when he was assaulted — sending him to the hospital with facial cuts. Roughly $150 cash and other personal items were taken, he sad.

Gurney said his officers met with Upper Saddle River police at the motel and found Room 13 unoccupied after getting a call from one of the victim’s friends.

They contacted the motel owner, who told them that it had been rented by people known to police, and the caller, who returned to the scene, Gurney said.

The victim then responded to Ramsey police headquarters, he said.

Sgt. Craig Weber, Sgt. Richard Falotico and Officer Michael Thormann found marijuana and alcohol in plain view in the room and quickly identified Balcom and the juvenile.

Detectives Marc Shingelo and Adam Szelag then took both into custody, assisted by Mahwah police, the chief said. A deliquency complaint against the juvenile was forwarded to the Family Part of Superior Court in Hackensack.

A continuing investigation continued led to the other two arrests.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

ANOTHER CVP SCOOP: A Hasbrouck Heights custom concrete contractor was freed on $20,000 bail after being arrested early this morning on charges that he threatened his neighbor with a machete.

It’s unclear what the two men who share a two-family MacArthur Avenue house were arguing about.

“It became slightly physical,” at which point 57-year-old Jeffrey S. Grosfeld “went to the rear of the home and retrieved a machete,” Detective Sgt. Michael Colaneri Jr. told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“He then walked to the front in a threatening manner with it over his head, yelling that he’s been to jail and will go back,” Colaneri said.

The 6-foot-2-inch, 268-pound Grosfeld then dropped the machete there — exactly where police later found it after being called by the 35-year-old neighbor.

Records show Grosfeld spent 18 days in the Bergen County Jail in 2012 for driving while on the suspended/revoked list out of Ho-Ho-Kus.

Hasbrouck Heights police charged him today with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: In a pair of previously undisclosed developments, a woman charged in connection with a shooting at a Cliffside Park hi-rise last month is being considered a victim, as well — while the man shot was also being charged in the case, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

Registered nurse Erin Hoyer, who lives in the Greenhouse building on Anderson Avenue where the Nov. 11 shooting occurred, has remained held on $350,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail after being arrested soon after with Jersey City brothers Wessan and Anas Abulaban.

Wessan Abulaban, a 34-year-old ex-con, lost a bid to have his $350,000 bail reduced last week, while his 30-year-old brother had his bail cut to $150,000. Both remained held in the Bergen County Jail.

Wessan Abulaban, who authorities said pulled the trigger, is charged with attempted murder, two counts of robbery by force, aggravated assault, conspiracy and a host of weapons counts — including being a convicted felon in possession of a gun for a drug- and assault-related conviction out of Fort Lee more than a decade ago, court records show.

Anas Abulaban and Royer are both charged with robbery by force and conspiracy to commit robbery.

The aggravated assault charge against Wessan Abulaban is for allegedly pointing the gun against Royer, documents show.

What’s more, authorities confirmed today that the man shot was being charged, as well. CLIFFVIEW PILOT was withholding his identity pending the official filing of charges.

Details of the incident nonetheless remained sketchy.

“On November 12, 2014, at approximately 10:00 p.m., the North Bergen Police Department received a call from the medical staff at reporting a male was being treated at the hospital for a gunshot wound to the abdomen,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said following the initial arrests.

”Initial investigation at the medical center resulted in the determination that the male victim was in critical but stable condition and the shooting occurred at 770 Anderson Avenue, Cliffside Park,” the prosecutor said.

“Also at the medical center were Anas Abulaban and Erin K. Royer,” who were arrested there, he said.

“Police notified the Cliffside Park Police Department, who responded to investigate,” Molinelli said. “A joint investigation with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit then ensued.”

Wessan Abulaban was arrested “with the assistance of the Plainfield police,” he said.

Abulaban has used a host of aliases, including Wessam and Wossan Abulaban, Wesen Lowbond, Loubond and Loobon and those with various spellings of his last name, records show.

Should either of them make bail, Wessan and Anas Abulaban must first have a hearing to prove the source. They also must surrender their passports.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Jacqueline Choi said last week that Anas Abulaban has nine adult arrests on his record and is currently facing in Hudson and Middlesex counties.

Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila Silebi cited the “less serious” charges against Anas Abulaban for lowering his bail to $150,000 while keeping his brother’s bail at $350,000.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

ONLY ON CVP: Evening rush-hour traffic in the center of Paramus was slowed, continuing past 6:30 p.m., after a Tesla downed a utility pole.

Paramus firefighters extricated the driver, who was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with the assistance of a paramedic team from The Valley Hospital after the 4:10 p.m. crash on Farview Avenue.

Farview was closed in both directions between Midland and Haase Avenues. Gridlocked traffic conditions on Midland Avenue in the vicinity of Farview Avenue resulted.

Paramus police, EMS workers, firefighters and Heavy Rescue all responded.

The car, which ended up on a nearby front lawn, was removed by a flatbed tow truck.

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

EXCLUSIVE: As he draws closer to retiring from the department he’s headed for the past 3½ years, Bergen County Police Department Chief Brian Higgins tonight looked back — and ahead.

Higgins, who’s officially retiring at the end of the month, addressed his staff today. Then he answered some questions for CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

CVP: If [Bergen County incumbent Executive] Kathlee Donovan won last month’s election, would you still be retiring?

Bergen County Police Chief Brian Higgins (r.) at court appearance for Lodi man accused of seriously injuring BCPD officer in DWI crash (FILE PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

HIGGINS: The election is not the only factor that I considered when making the decision to retire. As I wrote to the men and women of the Bergen County Police…I love this job, the Bergen County Police and all that includes — our dispatch and 9-1-1 services, our security services, our support services and the police services.

I love this job so much that I see myself staying until I turn 65, as did my father. But my father died after only 2½ years of his retirement.

I often think of my father, who I respect more than any other man, and then to my son who is only 5.

As many of you know, this job has no limit when it comes to time of day, holidays, birthdays, etc. It was a goal of mine to retire after 25 years and definitely by the time I turned 50. Next month will mark 27 years since I was given the oath-of-office with the Carlstadt Police Department and this month I turn 50.

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: When did you decide for sure that this was what you’re going to do?

HIGGINS: I have been wrestling with this decision for the last year. The previous answer should provide insight into this answer.

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: Where to now? Job lined up? Time on a beach somewhere?

HIGGINS: I have a security consulting firm that I will spend more time investing and perform contract work at a pace that is less hectic than my current schedule.

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: What’s your fondest memory as chief?

HIGGINS: I have many fond memories. The relationships that we as an agency have built and I now enjoy with so many in the diverse communities within Bergen County. But the memory that means the most is when PO Danny Breslin went back home to his family.

Higgins accepts award from National Coalition of Latino Officers on behalf of the BCPD for reaching across borders to combat domestic violence (FILE PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: What’s your biggest concern about the men, women and department you’ll leave behind?

HIGGINS: The members of the Bergen County Police possess what I have come to understand as a quiet professionalism — a high level of professionalism and skill set that does not seek attention or accolades.

They perform their duties professionally and without fanfare. They are all extremely focused on their jobs and the jobs they perform are very technical and need a high level of skill.

The Bomb Squad is among the best. The SWAT Team has 40 years of experience and serves as an example of how to operate with a very strict use of force policy. The K9 unit was formed as response to a need and is unmatched in performance and skill.

The ability to provide police service to a population that we serve on a regular basis, such as the homeless shelter and those with mental health and dependency issues at Bergen Regional Medical Center, the county schools that serve children with special needs and the employees and students at Bergen Community College took years to raise to this level. [W]e are always striving to improve on those skills.

The safety of the public is extremely important and critical but the way that occurs is not always politically expedient. That must be kept in mind.

Bergen County Police Department (CVP)

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: What do you want those people to know?

HIGGINS: I am proud of them, the work they do, and how they do it. It has been a great team in which to be a member.

*      *      *      *      *      *

CVP: What do you want the citizens of Bergen County to know?

HIGGINS: The culture of the Bergen County Police.. that culture of not seeking recognition or praise… of coming into a town providing very specialized services with a high level of professionalism should be recognized and treated with the greatest of respect and any changes should be considered with great caution.

These are great men and women who put their lives on the line every day, and they should be treated accordingly.

ONLY ON CVP: A car hit a New Jersey Turnpike guardrail in Teaneck several times last night before it came to rest facing the wrong way, blocking two lanes and backing up traffic for miles.

A tow truck was needed to move the vehicle before Teaneck firefighters and Volunteer Ambulance Corps workers could get to it because of the location — at milepost 119.1 — and the backup. The process took nearly a half-hour, responders at the scene said.

The driver was taken to Holy Name Medical Center with injuries that responders said didn’t appear life-threatening.

PHOTO: Izzy Infield

SHOUT OUT: No one attending a “Friendsgiving” dinner seemed to quite know how to react as smoke from a kitchen stove fire quickly filled an Edgewater condo, so Whitney Rodriguez of Lodi began throwing their clothes and other belongings into the hallway, then grabbed a towel and oven mitt and tried to beat back the flames.

By the time a firefighter got Rodriguez out of the Avalon apartment off River Road, the smoke had burned her throat and vocal cords.

All that the 33-year-old former ambulance worker cared about was that the fire was snuffed and none of her loved ones was hurt.

Unable to eat, talk or swallow comfortably since Saturday night’s scare, Rodriguez continued receiving gifts, visitors and well wishes this morning at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center as she recovered from thermal burns to her nose and throat.

Whitney Rodriguez

“Every Hero Needs Flowers” reads a balloon in an arrangement delivered to her room yesterday.

“I might be a hero,” wrote Rodriguez, who has asthma, “but I’m far from invincible….My vocal cords are a mess. I still can’t breathe too well. I’m on oxygen and bed rest — and no talking.”

And this at a time when Rodriguez has plenty to say about how we all prepare ourselves for the possibility of a fire or other emergency.

Although others were unsure what to do when the stove fire erupted, “I used to be an EMT,” Rodriguez told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Luckily I work well under pressure.

“The smoke was so dark,” she wrote in an online conversation. “I couldn’t believe how quickly the flames started to engulf the top of the stove.

“Before we knew it, the smoke had us all choking.

“I started trying to get my friends and kids out,” Rodriguez told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “but people were trying to get dressed. Some were crying or screaming. They weren’t responding to me.

“So I grabbed people’s coats and shoes and began throwing them out into the hall.

“I managed to get a group of people out, then I went back inside and started yelling for my friend to call 911,” she added, “but she was just running around. So I started throwing THEIR stuff into the hallway.

“The smoke was so thick by this time, you had to get down low so you could see. I asked where the fire extinguisher was, but no one could answer me.

“I threw some more stuff into the hallway, then went back inside and woke up my friend’s boyfriend and told him what was happening. Then I tossed out some of his stuff. He got the hint.

“My friend came back and tried to get me out, but I couldn’t hear the fire department coming and I was afraid that the apartment might just go up.

“So I turned off the gas and tried moving things off the stove and out of the oven. I could barely see,” Rodriguez said. “Then I started beating the fire with a towel in one hand and a pot holder in the other.

“I couldn’t breathe, but I must have been running on adrenaline. I wanted to leave, but I couldn’t. I ran to the back again to make sure that everyone was out.”

Damage was confined to the kitchen.

Firefighters were later ventilating the unit when one of them checked on Rodriguez.

“At first I didn’t want to go to the hospital,” she told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, “but I couldn’t talk and I could feel my throat burning down and deep.”

Those attending to her at EHMC contacted their counterparts at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston.

“Since my throat wasn’t swollen shut or blistering, I was stable,” Rodriguez said.

“I couldn’t talk, I could barely breathe but I didn’t need to be intubated.

“By that time my friends were at the hospital thanking me for saving their lives and their kids’ lives — and, of course, saving the turkey,” she typed with a smile.

“I have thermal burns to my throat and nose my vocal chords are inflamed and my carbon monoxide levels are high due to the smoke inhalation. But I’m here. I’m lucky.”

Rodriguez is also intent on getting an important message across.

“People need emergency plans,” she wrote. “They need to know where the nearest fire extinguisher is. They need to have their own in the apartment.

“DO NOT GET DRESSED IN A BURNING APARTMENT.”

Imagine it, Rodriguez added: People you love all in one space that is suddenly on fire.

Imagine it, because it happens, she said.

“I’m so grateful that my friends and their kids are OK because you never know,” she wrote. “And the outpouring of well wishes has been amazing.

“But, really, I wish I could sit down each person I care about and ask them, ‘What’s YOUR plan to stay alive?’ “

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A grand jury has returned an indictment against a Mahwah man who authorities said crashed his car during a police chase and then acted as if as if he had a gun in his waistband — threatening to use it — in an intense drama that played out on the side of the Garden State Parkway.

Officers privately told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time that Jabari Dickson appeared clearly intent on commiting suicide by cop but wasn’t given the satisfaction.

Dickson was doing 85 miles an hour on southbound Route 17 around 3 a.m. July 7 when Sgt. Michael LaCroix tried stopping his 1998 Nissan Sentra, Ho-Ho-Kus Police Chief John Wanamaker told CLIFFVIEW PILOT just hours after the incident.

Jabari Dickson (MUGSHOT: Courtesy HO-HO-KUS PD)

Dickson slowed to 55 miles an hour but didn’t stop after LaCroix activated his lights, Wanamaker said.

At Ridgewood Avenue, Dickson activated his hazards and pulled the car to a stop on the shoulder, but as the sergeant approached after calling for backup, it roared off, the chief said.

Dickson was doing nearly 75 miles an hour as he pulled onto the Garden State Parkway, with LaCroix about 50 yards behind, he said.

Near Exit 158, the car suddenly veered right from the center lane into a guard rail, Wanamaker said.

“Watching the video, as I did several times, it appears to me that he did it intentionally,” the chief told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Dickson then “got out and put his hand into the shape of a gun,” he said. “He pointed it at LaCroix and said, ‘I’ve got a gun!’ “

Backups arrived as he hopped over the guard rail, Wanamaker said.

“He then came back and over the guard rail from the gulley with his hand in his back waistband,” the chief said.

“He said: ‘I’ve got a gun and I’m going to shoot all of you cops.’ He then pulled his hand out and made a motion toward LaCroix,” Wanamaker said.

“At that moment, another officer tackled him,” he said. “He was subdued and handcuffed.”

“I’m glad to say it ended well,” Wanamaker told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time. “This was one of those moments that could have changed a lot of lives in just a split second.

“I cannot say enough about the restraint that these officers and backup officers showed,” the chief said. “Everyone is going home safe and this obviously troubled young man will hopefully get the help he needs.”

Dickson posted $30,000 bail a day later and was released from the Bergen County Jail.

The grand jury indictment returned yesterday charges him with fleeing law enforcement through Ho-Ho-Kus, Paramus, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park and Saddle Brook after receiving a signal to stop, “creating a risk of death or injury,” and a count of threatening to shoot LaCroix and other officers “with the purpose to terrorize [them].”

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

ONLY ON CVP: An illegal Mexican immigrant running a brothel at a Fairview residence was indicted by a grand jury in Hackensack on charges of promoting prostitution and eluding human trafficking investigators by hiding in the basement when he saw them coming.

Fairview police teamed up with federal Homeland Security agents and detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to arrest 49-year-old Antonio Miguel Ramirez Lima and another illegal Mexican immigrant, Edelia Osorio-Martinez, 30, of Astoria, Queens, following a late July raid on Cliff Street.

Federal agents took custody of Osorio-Martinez and a customer whose name turned up in a warrant check, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

Ramirez Lima, meanwhile, was being held on $25,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, with an ICE detainer.

Today’s grand jury indictment charges Lima with “knowingly promoted the prostitution of Edelia Osorio-Martinez by owning, controlling, managing or otherwise keeping a house of prostitution or a prostitution business” at the apartment.

It also says that Lima “prevented or attempted to prevent [officers] from effecting an arrest by flight.”

Lima “took off when we hit the door,” Deputy Police Chief Martin Kahn said at the time. “He had a camera set up outside the building and headed for the basement when he saw us coming.”

The July 29 raid came a week after authorities hit a Bergen Boulevard massage parlor where they said sex was being sold.

The raids, employing undercover police officers posing as customers, are part of an escalating effort by local, county and federal authorities to curb prostitution as a tool in fighting human trafficking.

Both followed citizen complaints, police said.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy FAIRVIEW PD

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: A Ramapo College student who prosecutors said carried an unconscious woman to a dorm room on his back from a frat party before he and a fellow student took turns raping her had his bail reduced by $50,000 to $300,000 by a judge in Hackensack this afternoon.

Christian Lopez (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

A defense attorney said the family of Christian Lopez, 24, of Secaucus, is working to raise the $30,000 necessary to secure a bondsman to post the full bail.

Lopez said nothing apart from speaking quietly with his lawyer during a bail hearing attended by more than 30 friends and family members — including a brother who came from his home in California.

Loved ones of the victim were in court, as well, as they were last week when co-defendant Nakeem Gardner, 18, of Paterson had his bail lowered from the same original $350,000 to $275,000.

Both remained held in the Bergen County Jail.

Two additional male and one female student are charged with failing to help the victim — and even recording what was happening on their cellphones.

Defense attorney John Bruno told Superior Court Judge John A. Conte a short time earlier that Lopez was a Dean’s List criminal justice major, with a 3.7 Grade Point Average, before being banned from campus following his arrest.

Christian Lopez (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

The attorney said Lopez, who was born in Jersey City to Salvadoran and Ecuadoran immigrants, has a “stellar record as a young man,” with no prior criminal history, a good academic history and experience at Secaucus High School on wrestling, soccer, track, baseball and bowling teams.

“He is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we are convinced that presumption will prevail and he will be found innocent,” the lawyer said.

“His record isn’t spotless,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi countered. “He has a record as a juvenile and I believe we will find he has arrests in New York once his full record is investigated.”

Fantuzzi last week said that Lopez met the 19-year-old victim at at on-campus fraternity party the night of Nov. 14.

The woman became intoxicated, after which Lopez locked her in a room at the frat house “and may have actually sexually assaulted her there,” she told a judge.

Others at the party intervened and kicked out Lopez, who “took the victim on his back to a car and was driven to a dormitory where he took her into a room” as evening turned to overnight, the assistant prosecutor said.

Using a room key someone had given him, Lopez sexually assaulted the woman, Fantuzzi said.

“When he came out of the room, he bragged to his friends that he had just had sex with her, and she was passed out on the bed,” she said. “He then asked two friends did they want ‘a piece of it?’

“One of them declined, but Gardner went into the room where the woman was naked and unconscious and proceeded to have sex with her,” the assistant prosecutor said.

He also admitted videotaping a portion of the assaults, she said.

The woman told investigators she wasn’t feeling well, went to lie down and woke up that next morning partially clothed in an on-campus dorm room, sources with direct knowledge of the investigation told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

After taking a shower, she went to Hackensack University Medical Center, whose personnel notified authorities, they said.

Investigators from the prosecutor’s office and Mahwah police interviewed the girl, as well as several students, before arresting Gonzalez on campus and Lopez at his home two weeks ago.

The victim had “vaginal lacerations and bruises to her legs, both of which are consistent with forced intercourse,” Fantuzzi told a judge last week.

Video also shows Lopez going into the room with the woman, leaving, and Gardner then going into the room, while other students “were looking in and laughing,” the assistant prosecutor said.

Several witnesses confirmed that the woman was unconscious, she added.

Gardner intially was charged with aggravated sexual assault and invasion of privacy. Detectives last week added a charge of endangering an injured victim.

They also charged Lopez in connection with a second alleged student victim — for inappropriate sexual contact — while adding counts to the first offense: criminal restraint, endangering an injured victim and invasion of privacy.

And they arrested three more Ramapo College students who they said “aided or encouraged” the alleged assault, two of whom they sadi also “took pictures of the victim without her consent.”

Justin Somers and Christopher Rainone, both of Staten Island, and Jordan Massood of Wayne, all 18, are each charged with endangering an injured victim. Somers and Rainone are charged with invasion of privacy.

All three were released pending Municipal Court appearances. READ MORE….

Defense attorney John Bruno (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Correspondent Mary K. Miraglia)

UPDATE: NJ Transit transferred roughly 500 riders onto another train after the #53 out of Hoboken to Port Jervis struck and killed a woman on the tracks just west of the Rutherford train station just after 5 p.m., an agency spokesperson told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The Bergen County Line transfer began about an hour after the apparent suicide (Rutherford wasn’t a stop on the line) and was completed 20 minutes or so later.

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A Bergenfield homeowner interrupted an afternoon burglary, and utility workers helped lead police to two suspects, authorities said this morning.

The Norfolk Street homeowner said a man forced his way through the front door just after 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon and then ran when confronted, Capt. Cathy Madalone said.

Members of a PSE&G crew working in the area saw the suspect run by and get into a car with a getaway driver, she said.

Descriptions were broadcast and Teaneck police stopped a vehicle on Forest Avenue. Witnesses identified the pair as being involved in the break-in, the captain said.

Christopher Thompson, 45, of Bergenfield was charged with burglary and attempted theft, while 53-year-old Richard Allen of Teaneck was charged with complicity.

Both were being held on $70,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

ONLY ON CVP: A Hackensack man endangered his three children — ages 16, 9 and 22 months — when he stabbed their mother several times in the head with a pair of scissors in Maywood in an attempted murder, a grand jury indictment charges.

Kelly Jones, 42, and the victim were in her car with their three children in the back seat on April 5 when he “became enraged and started assaulting her with a pair of scissors,” Maywood Police Chief David Pegg told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

The 36-year-old victim stopped the car so the children could get out, then ran from the vehicle.

Maywood police received several 911 calls and rushed to West Pleasant Avenue, where Pegg said Officers Darryl Wuhrl, Matthew Parodi and Erik Aronson saw the accused assailant following the victim.

Joined by officers from Rochelle Park, they took him into custody as a crowd of onlookers watched.

The woman was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.

Jones remained held on $300,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

The indictment returned yesterday in Hackensack charges him with first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault “manifesting extreme indifference to human life, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two illegal weapons possession offenses and three child endangerment counts.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

CVP EXCLUSIVE: Plea negotiations continued this week for a convict charged with leading police on a high-speed, six-town Bergen County chase from Paramus to Bogota that ended in gunfire.

Franceso Piserchia, 40, is currently serving prison sentences of three and five years, respectively, for drug, resisting and terroristic threat convictions out of Bergen and Passaic counties.

Admitted to Northern State Prison in Newark in February 2012, he comes up for parole in a little under three weeks.

Piserchia (Courtesy NJDOC)

Piserchia also is named in two separate domestic violence indictments, in which Bergen County authorities say he beat and restrained the same woman with weapons, stole her car and fought with police.

Current talks are centering on an August 2010 chase that led to the acquittals of two Bergen County Police Department officers accused of covering up the shooting.

The incident began the afternoon of Aug. 12, 2010, when a Forest Avenue resident returned home and found a black SUV with a man inside parked in her driveway. Suddenly, a second man emerged from her house and got into the SUV.

Piserchia was behind the wheel, authorities said.

The woman called Paramus police, who immediately responded and broadcast a description of the vehicle with a partial license plate. An hour later, a Paramus officer began chasing the SUV, broadcasting its location over the State Police Emergency Network (SPEN).

BCPD Officer Saheed Baksh joined the chase headed east on Route 4. Heavy traffic, combined with rain and the SUV’s “high speed and erratic driving conditions,” quickly made him the lead pursuer as the getaway vehicle exited off the highway into Teaneck.

In Bogota, the SUV was struck by a truck driven by a civilian. The SUV spun and collided with Baksh’s patrol car before continuing down Chestnut Avenue toward West Shore Avenue, authorities said.

At the bottom of the hill, where Chestnut intersects with West Shore, the driver turned left and pulled the SUV onto a grassy berm near some woods.

“Baksh continued straight and then onto the berm,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli later said.

Piserchia and passenger Carlos Camacho then bailed out and ran toward the woods, he said.

Baksh got out, as well, pulled his Glock service weapon and fired two shots, the prosecutor said.

BCPD Officer Jeffrey Roberts, who also heard the SPEN transmission and joined the pursuit, was directly behind Baksh as he drove down Chestnut Avenue, Molinelli wrote in court papers. He quickly joined the chase, along with other officers who were converging on the area.

Both Piserchia and Camacho were caught. They complained of “medical issues” and were taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.

Prosecutors later brought a case against the two county officers. In what was considered an unusual move, Molinelli himself testified during their trial.

SEE: Bergen County Police officers not guilty of lying, concealing evidence in shooting

Both returned to duty after their acquittals and their department handled the matter administratively.

The grand jury indictment related to the incident charges Piserchia with eluding, three counts of assault for the injuries sustained by others in the chase, breaking and entering and manufacturing a burglar’s tool.

He remained held in the Essex County Jail on an unrelated case.

MUGSHOT (TOP): Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Bogota man who speaks only Korean was arrested on child abuse charges by police who said he beat his 4-year-old special needs son.

Officers responding to a neighbor’s report of a disturbance took 33-year-old Hongyoul Lee of Queen Anne Road into custody yesterday after finding bruises on the boy’s body, Detective Capt. James Sepp told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.

Sorting things out was difficult immediately after the 1:20 p.m. call, because Lee doesn’t speak English, the boy doesn’t speak and the mother wasn’t home, Sepp said.

The state Division of Child Protection and Permanency had the boy checked out at Hackensack University Medical Center. X-rays were negative, Sepp said.

The DCPP placed the boy with his mother, with arrangements for monitoring.

Meanwhile, the 5-foot-11-inch, 200-pound Lee remained held on $10,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail this morning. A judge ordered that he have no contact with his son until the case is resolved.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: The board of directors of a Fort Lee co-op violated the political-speech rights of a resident running for election to the board when it prohibited him from distributing leaflets about his candidacy, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled today.

Robert Dublirer was trying to deliver a message that was “akin to and should be treated as political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection in our society,” the high court found.

“Dublirer’s right to free speech outweighs the Board’s concerns about the use of the apartment building,” the justices wrote.

Dublirer, who has leased one of 483 units at Mediterranean Towers South since 2002, sued the board after it rejected without discussion his request for permission to distribute the leaflets to the co-op’s 1,000 or so residents.

Dublirer, who has criticized the board in his publication “The Med South Gadfly,” said he was told that complex bylaws prohibit door-to-door solicitation to protect residents’ privacy and reduce clutter (“paper pollution”) — even though the board distributes its own literature.

“Can you imagine the disaster that would befall upon Med South and all of us if this group of selfish people ever got control of the Med South Board?” one of the board-distributed leaflets said.

Another warned of “mean-spirited residents/shareholders” and “chronic complainers,” court records show.

A state judge in Hackensack dismissed Dublirer’s complaint, Dublirer v. 200 Linwood Avenue Owners, but the Appellate Division reversed his ruling.

The Supreme Court upheld the appeals judges’ decision.

“This case is about governance and speech related to governance,” Dublirer told the state’s highest court. “The speech I sought to employ related to my qualifications for office, how my vision and qualifications compare to the incumbent board.

“I am not an outsider,” Dublirer said. “I am a person who has a right to be there and question the governance of the building. The board engages precisely in the kind of speech that it denies to everyone else.”

“Is there any wonder that the president of the board was president for 25 years?” he added. “In most elections, the incumbent board is unopposed.”

A board attorney, meanwhile, argued that it has the right to restrict speech because the co-op is private property and should be able to communicate with its residents however it sees fit.

The New Jersey Constitution “bars the government from abridging free speech and also protects ‘against unreasonably restrictive or oppressive conduct on the part of private entities’ in certain circumstances,” the Supremes wrote in today’s unanimous opinion.

They pointed to previous rulings involving “situations when the person seeking to exercise the right to free speech is not an outsider but a property owner as well – with both free speech and property rights.”

“Barring leaflets about political matters cannot be considered a minor restriction,” the ruling says. “The available alternatives are simply not substantially the same as presenting a leaflet to a neighbor. The Board can adopt reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions to serve the community’s interest…. The Board, however, adopted no such limits.

“In addition, it does not appear that any written standards exist to guide the Board’s discretion.

“Moreover, the Board allows itself to distribute materials throughout the complex, but its critics cannot do so,” the high court ruled.

“On balance, the Court finds that the restriction on Dublirer’s right to disseminate his written materials to neighbors is unreasonable,” the justices added. “Dublirer’s
right to promote his candidacy, and to communicate his views about the governance of the community in which he lives, outweigh the minor interference that neighbors will face from a leaflet under their door.

“Speech about governance is not incompatible with the place to be governed. If anything, speech about matters of public interest, and about the qualifications of people who hold positions of trust, lies at the heart of our societal values.”