PHOTOS: Tim Carroll
YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: Firefighters extricated a pickup truck driver trapped after Ford F-150 crashed on Kinderkamack Road in Oradell late this afternoon.
Responders included River Edge Rescue 1, Oradell Squad 22, Hackensack University University Medical Center ALS, Holy Name Medical Center BLS and Emerson and Beren County police.
PHOTO: Aidan Flannery
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 9-year-old boy was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center as a precaution after being clipped by a passing car outside a Little Ferry Chinese restaurant this afternoon.
The restaurant owner had given the boy money to go to a nearby store and the youngster dashed out when he was struck on Liberty Street near Washington Avenue, police told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
UPDATE: An accused car thief who was with an Irvington ex-con shot dead after he repeatedly ramming police vehicles with a stolen SUV was shot dead himself last night, authorities confirmed today.
Jemmaine T. Bynes, 31, of East Orange had been free since he posted $75,000 bail and was released from the Bergen County Jail in November, two months after the fateful night.
He was pronounced dead before midnight last night after someone shot him several times in an apartment complex courtyard near the intersection of South 10th Street and Woodland Avenue, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray announced late this afternoon.
No arrests had yet been made, and authorities had neither a motive nor a potential suspect, she said.
Bynes and 23-year-old Kashad Ashford had swiped a Nissan Armada in Newark and were casing neighborhoods in North Arlington the night of Sept. 21, authorities said at the time, when a resident called police and an alert was broadcast.
* * * * * *
Kahad Ashford (MUGSHOTS: Various sources)
A PUBLISHER WRITES: A media report this weekend that the state attorney general has “launched” an investigation into the September shooting of an ex-con who tried to ram police with a stolen SUV in Rutherford after crashing during a chase is somewhat disingenuous. READ MORE….
* * * * * *
A Lyndhurst officer began following the stolen SUV but broke off the chase at Route 3, a law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.
Another Lyndhurst unit picked it up on Riverside Avenue near Valley Brook moments later, he said.
Ashford then “proceeded to drive [the Nissan] recklessly through Lyndhurst and surrounding towns,” state Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman later said.
The SUV headed into Rutherford and crashed on the Ridge Road bridge over Route 3 as Lyndhurst, Rutherford and State Police converged on it.
“Police positioned their vehicles around the SUV in an attempt to apprehend the vehicle’s occupants,” Hoffman said, confirming an earlier CLIFFVIEW PILOT report, “but the driver put the car in reverse, spinning the tires of the vehicle until the roadway was filled with smoke.”
“The Rutherford unit pulled right up behind it,” a source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “[Ashford] began ramming it, trying to get away. He kept gunning it so much that it literally melted the rear tire while it was up against the Rutherford patrol car.
“The officers ordered them to stop, to stop, to stop,” the law enforcement source said. “Then the shots were fired.”
At least one was from a shotgun, another source said.
Bynes stumbled out of the SUV and was immediately handcuffed.
Inside the vehicle police found a loaded .357-caliber Magnum handgun and a ski mask.
Ashford died hours later at Hackensack University Medical Center. He’d been out of prison all of 10 months after serving more than three years for aggravated assault and “resisting arrest by fleeing in a motor vehicle, creating a risk of injury” — and had been released only weeks earlier from the Essex County Jail for a subsequent offense, CLIFFVIEW PILOT learned.
As is standard procedure in police-involved shootings in New Jersey, Hoffman’s office was presenting the circumstances of the incident to a grand jury.
Meanwhile, the state Appellate Division has denied Open Public Records Act requests from The Bergen Record and one of its weekly papers for information from the five police departments involved — Lyndhurst, North Arlington, Rutherford, the former Bergen County Police Department (now the Bureau of Police Services in the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office) and NJSP — for what it says are “incident reports, arrest reports, motor dispatch audio and video from patrol cars” from that night.
PHOTO TOP: Courtesy NEWS12 / MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
UPDATE: A 19-year-old Clifton man who led police on a car and foot chase that ended when he was tackled on a Hasbrouck Heights street before dawn yesterday was free on bail on charges that he swiped cellphones from three Garfield boys.
Kevin Acosta was being held in the Passaic County Jail on what are now much more serious charges, including aggravated assault with a weapon and resisting arrest, along with more than a dozen traffic offenses.
Acosta was free on $25,000 bail after being arrested by Garfield police on theft charges last August when Passaic police said they tried to pull him over for running a red light around 1:30 a.m. yesterday.
Clifton police began chasing his Hyundai into Elmwood Park and then through Lodi before crashing on the front lawn of Hasbrouck Heights home. He got out and tried to run but was grabbed by the Clifton officers, authorities said.
Late last August, Garfield police said Acosta pulled up to two 14-year-old boys who were walking on Outwater Lane near Chestnut Street, asked to borrow their cellphone, then drove off with it.
Acosta then asked a 17-year-old boy on Palisade Avene near Garfield High School for directions and snatched his phone, then approached a 16-year-old boy and his friend on Van Winkle Avenue, asked to use a phone and made off with it.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from the high school to get the license plate of the white 2006 Acura TL that Acosta was driving.
With help from Clifton police, they stopped the car the next day near the corner of Lexington and Russell avenues in Clifton, arrested Acosta and recovered two of the phones.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy GARFIELD PD
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 55-year-old man struck and killed by a passenger train in Hackensack last night was homeless and “known in the area,”authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Jack Stewart Engle, who had an extensive petty criminal history stretching back two decades, was carrying various identification when he walked onto the tracks and stood in the train’s path near the Atlantic Street crossing just before 8 p.m.
Engle was free on $3,500 bail following an incident in Hackensack last fall in which he was charged with improper behavior. His criminal history included dozens of arrests, mostly for defiant trespassing and other misdemeanors, records show. He’d been staying at the South River Street shelter in Hackensack, authorities said.
There were no injuries to the 300 or so passengers and crew aboard the No. 1639 Spring Valley-bound Pascack Valley Line train in last night’s incident, NJT’s William Smith told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Service was suspended in both directions and substitute bus service was being arranged.
NJ Transit police were investigating.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An SUV was smashed between a car carrier and a tractor-trailer in a chain-reaction crash that severely damaged at least two other cars on westbound Route 80 in Elmwood Park this morning.
NOTE: No fewer than six emergency responders and witnesses at the scene told CLIFFVIEW PILOT there was no evidence of a car falling from the carrier, as was reported elsewhere (more below).
The pileup began around 11:20 a.m. when a Lancaster County, PA tractor-trailer hauling organic produce became disabled in the center lane just after Exit 62, police said.
The resulting chain reaction crash left an SUV sandwiched between the rear of that rig and a car carrier whose driver apparently swerved to avoid it, witnesses told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The SUV “was smashed pretty bad,” one said. “They had to cut it open to remove a passenger.”
New Jersey State Police Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams confirmed that the SUV occupant and the driver of another vehicle were extricated with injuries that didn’t appear life-threatening. Saddle Brook Rescue 1 got the SUV passenger out, while Elmwood Park firefighters removed the driver of a Nissan Altima.
Williams also said authorities tentatively believed that a vehicle also fell from the carrier and hit another car — although aerial and ground photos of the crash scene show a full carrier, with damage to the cab and a white sedan above it.
Several responders at the scene, including two ranking officials, said they believe a piece of a car may have fallen, or swung loose, but not an entire vehicle.
Two other vehicles sustained major damage, included the Altima.
Several other vehicles were damaged and the SUV was left barely recognizable following the extrication.
Saddle Brook Rescue 1 and Elmwood Park and New Jersey State Police were among the responders.
Massive traffic backups resulted on Route 80, the Garden State Parkway and local access roads.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 41-year-old bus driver and 12-year-old girl he transported to and from a Mahwah private school showed naked photos of themselves to one another while alone on the bus, Police Chief James Batelli said this afternoon in announcing the Paterson man’s arrest on sexual assault charges.
Eddie Toste-Sanchez, who drove for the Sussex/Wantage School District while working for FSZ Transportation, was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail after being taken into custody at the school late yesterday, Batelli said.
“Recently, the student’s mother voiced her concerns to a school therapist regarding [their] relationship,” he said, “which advanced to a friendship via Facebook.”
A staff member then told Sgt. Brendan Mullin and Officer Richard Allen that the girl disclosed a “growing, loving relationship,” including him “showing her photogoraphs of his genitalia and [her showing] him photographs of her naked, as well,” the chief said.
Tostel-Sanchez admitted to detectives at headquarters “that he showed the victim photographs of his genitalia and that he looked at nude photographs of her, as well,” he said.
He was then interviewed by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit, Batelli said.
Tostel-Sanchez and the girl’s mother consented to cellphone searches that produced the photos, he said.
Tostel-Shanchez is charged with sexual assault of a juvenile less than 13 years old and child endangerment — which was enhanced to a second-degree offense because of the supervisory nature of his job.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy MAHWAH PD
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A registered sex offender from Teaneck arrested last weekend on charges of having “inappropriate sexual activity” with several children ranging from 3 to 5 years old also did the same with a 9-year-old boy from town, authorities have charged.
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.
William Romero Kooney, a 41-year-old software engineer, had his $750,000 bail boosted by $150,000 as a result.
Kooney was registered in 2009 as a Megan’s Law offender for sexually assaulting a Passaic County girl under 13 and possessing child pornography (SEE: Convicted Teaneck Megan’s Law offender held on new child sex charges).
He was arrested on Sunday on the charges involving the younger children before another alleged victim came forward.
This afternoon, Molinelli announced the additional charges filed yesterday.
“The victim’s father contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and arrangements were made for the victim to be interviewed by a detective from the Special Victims Unit,” he said. “During that interview, the victim provided specific details regarding what had occurred with [Kooney].”
Detectives, in turn, charged him with one count of sexual assault and one of child endangerment. Arraignment was scheduled for this coming Wednesday.
MUGSHOT: NJ DEPT of CORRECTIONS
ONLY ON CVP: An Elmwood Park man who chased his girlfriend with a machete after smashing in the window of his car with it took a plea yesterday that kept him out of prison.
By pleading out before a grand jury could consider an indictment, Edison Ortiz got a year’s probation.
Edison Ortiz (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Police in late October said Ortiz, a 45-year-old legal resident from the Dominican Republic, pulled the machete from his car trunk after his girlfriend locked herself inside during an argument and smashed the driver-side window with it.
She ran and Ortiz chased her, “brandishing the machete and swinging it at her,” Police Chief Michael Foligno said at the time.
Ortiz took off when he heard the police sirens, but officers found him a short time later — and recovered the weapon, the chief said.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Melanie Siletti agreed with defense attorney Robert Galluccio yesterday that Ortiz has come to grips with “control issues” that center on relationships with women.
Galluccio told Superior Court Judge James J. Guida that Ortiz is enrolled in the Alternatives to Domestic Violence program and received counseling from Care One.
He also has a child with the victim.
“I find it would be a hardship to his children, [who] he supports financially, if he went to jail,” Guida said. “What triggers this behavior might be emotions, anger that he has to address.
“He should be OK if he gets the counseling.”
Galluccio said that Ortiz currently owes $400 in child support and recently paid $100. He’s not currently employed but is actively looking for work, the attorney said.
He has been free on aggravated assault charges since posting $50,000 bail four days after his arrest.
STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Elmwood Park police said they nabbed two upstate New York men with three bricks of heroin — 150 bags — following a traffic stop yesterday.
The 3:30 p.m. stop on East 55th Street led to possession charges for drugs, drug paraphernalia and drugs in a motor vehicle against Alexander Hagen, 25, and 32-year-old Larry Wiackley, both of Wurstboro, NY, Police Chief Michael Foligno said this morning.
Both were processed and released on court summonses.
PHOTOS: Courtesy MOONACHIE PD
YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: A Garfield man who broke his collarbone after his car slammed into a utility pole in Moonachie, snapping it, had two small bags of heroin and some marijuana in the vehicle, police said.
The Accord smashed into the pole on Redneck Avenue at Joseph Street just after midnight this morning, forcing police to close the roadway until late into the day, Sgt. Jeff Napolitano told CLIFFVIEW PILOT tonight.
Joseph D. Ayala, 25, was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center, where he submitted a blood sample for analysis, Napolitano said.
He was later released with court summonses for D.U.I. and drug possession of CDS.
PHOTOS: Courtesy MOONACHIE PD
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Elmwood Park man who Upper Saddle River police said let five females out of his car as officers chased him — knocking one of them down as he sped off — was indicted on eluding and crack cocaine charges.
Jonathan Jachimczyk, 20, stopped long enough on northbound Route 17 man to allow four of his occupants out — then hit the gas, knocking the fifth to the ground, authorities said at the time.
The Nov. 6 chase ended when Jachimczyk abandoned the car in a residential neighborhood and a police dog tracked him down, they said.
Officers said they also found cocaine and packaging materials in the vehicle.
As a result, the grand jury in Hackensack on Friday charged Jachimczyk with eluding, cocaine possession and possession with the intent to distribute the drug.
He remained held on $150,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy UPPER SADDLE RIVER PD
ONLY ON CVP: A Lodi man and a pair of accomplices stole credit card information from gas station customers that was then used to buy alcohol for his Jersey City nightclub, authorities charged.
Kenny Frias (above, left) is accused of heading the crew, which an collected the information through skimming devices attached to credit card swipe machines at has stations in Hasbrouck Heights, Lodi and Jersey City, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack last week says.
More than $75,000 worth of alcohol was bought wth the stolen identities at the Food Basics in Glen Rock and then sold at Frias’ Phebe Nightclub and Restaurant on Newark Avenue in Jersey City, it says.
Investigators who executed search warrants at Frias’s home and the club last spring seized a credit card reading and writer device, fraudulent credit cards, false identification and more than $75,000 of what authorities said were ill-gotten gains.
Frias’ girlfriend, Jeanessa Torres of Clifton (above, right), who authorities said was with him, was indicted on weapons charges for a knife they said she was carrying.
Investigators later charged Richard Almonte of Elmwood Park and Lisaldo Espinal of Paterson with buying the alcohol for Frias.
Frias, Almonte and Espinal “knowingly possessed 10 or more items containing personal identifying information” without authorization of no fewer than five people for purposes of fraud, the indictment alleges.
They also “possessed with the intent to defraud another, a device, apparatus, equipment, software, article, material, good, property or supply, that was specifically designed or adapted for use as or in a scanning device or reencoder — namely computer software and/or a computer and/or a credit card re-encoder and/or a credit card scanner,” it says.
Using the information swiped by the scanner, the trio conspired and conducted the scheme, the grand jury charged.
Frias alone is charged in the indictment with using his business for the illegal operation.
Frias remains free on $100,000 bail and Torres on $2,500 bail, both posted a day after their May 21 arrests last year. Bail information on Almonte and Espinal wasn’t immediately available.
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
UPDATE: Carlstadt firefighters quickly doused a roof fire this morning at the Unimac Graphics printing factory behind the Meadowlands Sports Complex.
Just off Paterson Plank Road, Unimac produces billboards and other large signs and graphics for exhibits, bus shelters, kiosks and other uses.
Moonachie FAST and a Wood-Ridge ladder also responded to the 7:30 a.m. fire, which apparently ignited in a duct in a press room, where workers hit it with extinguishers.
STORY / PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Kevin Teel
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Ridgewood detectives were reviewing neighborhood surveillance video after an SUV was stolen and several vehicles broken into overnight.
Police said they got six reports of car entries on Heights Road, Crest Road and Sunset Avenue.
All were unlocked, Detective Chris McDowell said.
A 2009 Escalade was also reported stolen from a Sunset Avenue home.
McDowell reminded citizens to always lock car doors and never leave keys inside.
“Items that may be expensive and vulnerable to theft should not be left in the vehicle,” he said.
It’s also vital that citizens immediately report any suspicious people they see in their neighborhoods. Police don’t mind — they’d rather respond immediately and find nothing than be called too late and discover a crime was committed and the perpetrator long gone.
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Paramus man who sold a handgun that a fleeing fugitive used to shoot at Hackensack police officers has until April 6 to accept a plea deal or go to trial, a judge in Hackensack said this morning.
Sean Stark was one of two middlemen in the journey of a gun sold by a retired Florida law enforcement officer to a pawn shop.
Robert Leonardis (MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
The weapon ended up in the hands of Robert Leonardis, a self-proclaimed Bloods gang member who was wanted for attempted murder when he led Hackensack officers on a chase that ended in a violent confrontation the morning of July 22, 2013.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer this morning told Superior Court Judge James J. Guida that plea discussions with Stark’s attorney “were productive” but that there were sticking points over certain weapons charges.
Leonardis is charged with the attempted murders of Sgt. James Dalton and Officers Joseph Ayoubi and Brett McCarthy, in addition to the charges of attempted reckless bodily injury against all three.
Jorge Alberto Rodriguez PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter / MUGSHOTS (Jerry “Angel” Nunez, Sean Stark, Christiana Cyriax): Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
Ayoubi was “lucky to be alive” after a bullet fired by Leonardis shattered the windshield of his squad car and whizzed by his head, city Police Director Michael Mordaga told CLIFFVIEW PILOT soon after the shooting.
Leonardis was out on bail on attempted murder charges at the time for stabbing a Ridgefield man who broke into his home carrying a tire iron in a fight over the intruder’s wife, authorities said.
Dalton, a 13-year department veteran, was first on the scene with another officer after a call came in of a man with a gun in the housing projects on Newman Street and Railroad Avenue.
Seeing the officers, Leonardis ran, Mordaga said. READ MORE….
STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A math teacher whose car slammed into a police cruiser, critically injuring Bergen County Police Officer Daniel Breslin on Route 46 in Lodi last April, had a blood alcohol level of .219 that “greatly contributed to the accident,” a prosecutor this morning said an expert’s report shows.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney (STORY/PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Psychopharmacologist John Brick is prepared to testify that Michael Ettz was “severely impaired” when the crash occurred at 1:50 a.m. last April 19, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney told a judge during a status conference this morning.
Delaney also said surveillance video shows Ettz’s vehicle hitting Breslin’s car in the rear and slamming it into a utility pole at the side of the road with such an impact that it activated the cruiser’s emergency lights.
“That is not from an in-car vehicle — it’s from a surveillance camera at Enterprise Rent-a-Car,” the assistant prosecutor said.
Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian — who told Ettz in January that he’d have to serve nearly six years in prison without parole if he accepts a plea deal — set the next court appearance for April 20.
Defense attorney Brian Neary also agreed Ettz to submit a DNA sample to the prosecutor’s office as required by state law.
In exchange for a guilty plea, Delaney has offered a seven-year deal — 85% of which Ettz’ would have to serve under the state No Early Release Act.
Danny Breslin (FAMILY PHOTO)
He remained free on $150,000 bail.
A grand jury in Hackensack indicted Ettz in August on charges of aggravated assault, DWI assault by auto and leaving the scene of a crash with serious injuries.
Breslin, meanwhile, was continuing physical rehabilitation.
The married father of two returned to his Fairfield home in August after spending several months in a hospital and rehab facility.
Friends and loved one said he has tackled outpatient rehabilitation — including physical and speech therapy — with great determination, a testament to his courage and personality, those who know him said.
Breslin had stopped his SUV in the right lane of Route 46 to block traffic from hitting a county police car stopped on the right shoulder, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.
The other officer was having radio problems, the prosecutor explained. Ettz’s four-door 2012 Ford Fusion slammed into Breslin’s SUV, trapping the officer, who had to be extricated, the prosecutor said.
Ettz then tried to make a run for it after being pulled from his car but was caught by a Lodi police sergeant, he said.
Breslin sustained a “significant head injury” and was brought to surgery with a skull fracture and bleeding after a CAT scan was done following the 1:50 a.m. crash, Molinelli said.
He also sustained several broken ribs and a collapsed lung.
Ettz, a Lodi High School teacher, previously had his driver’s license suspended 240 days for a drunk driving conviction out of Clifton.
STORY/PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
PHOTO (above): CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent Kevin Teel
YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A day laborer from Hackensack was being held on $100,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail after authorities said he hit a 3-year-old child in the face and on the back with a leather belt.
Luis Pacheco, 28, was charged with child endangerment on Friday after staff members at the youngster’s preschool called Hackensack police about the injuries, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.
City police notified his Special Victims Unit, as well as the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency, Molinelli said, and the child was medically examined and interviewed at the Audrey Hepburn Children’s House in Hackensack.
“During that interview, as well as additional interviews conducted with the victim’s family members, specific details were learned regarding what had occurred,” the prosecutor said.
Pacheco, who is married, is scheduled for arraignment on Wednesday.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
UPDATE: A pregnant Pennsylvania woman accused of stashing 89 folds of heroin in her vagina during a traffic stop was due in court tomorrow, as her unborn child’s father tried to sell his truck to pay to retrieve his impounded car.
Glen Rock police said officers stopped 27-year-old Dakota Dunning’s 2003 Sabb with expired New York license plates on Route 208 near Lincoln Avenue on Friday.
After discovering warrants for Dunning and passenger Marina McCarthy — as well as noticing “marks and behavior consistent with drug use” — the officers got his consent to search the car, Detective Sgt. Eric Reamy said this afternoon.
A Bergen County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit responded and indicated the presence of drugs even though none were found in the vehicle itself, Reamy said.
After taking the Gouldsboro, PA couple to headquarters, “officers reviewed in-car surveillance camera data and observed McCarthy moving in a way to make them believe she was concealing contraband in or near her genitalia,” the sergeant said.
McCarthy, 22, who police said is six months pregnant, “was immediately questioned about those movements, as the introduction of narcotics into any body cavity could be fatal to [her]as well as [to] her unborn child,” he said.
She admitted stashing the smack, “and in the presence of a female police officer in a private holding room…extracted a total of 89 bags” of heroin, Reamy said.
EMTs were summoned, but McCarthy refused hospitalization, he said.
McCarthy posted cash for a $1,000 Sparta warrant and was released on a court summonse charging her with heroin possession.
Dunning was released after getting a new court date on a $593 warrant out of Oxford Township.
Dunning yesterday morning posted on his and McCarthy’s Facebook page:
“I have a 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 slt Laramie pickup truck. I bought and did a motor swap on it just last month, so I have the title it has been notarized in my name but not send out to be switched over yet. The new motor has 100,000 miles on it. It run perfect, nothing wrong with it mechanically. My new car which is my daily driver and has been impounded so I need to sell this truck today or scrap it before I rack up more impound fees. Anyone willing to buy it today before it goes to the scrap yard, I’ll will do it for 800$. I have more than double that in the truck but I need my car back before its to late.”
CVP EXCLUSIVE: A heroin-addicted Garfield ex-con has less than a month to accept a 10-year plea offer from prosecutors or stand trial for the stolen motorcycle-aided holdup of an Elmwood Park convenience store last summer.
“I’m not coming down on my offer,” Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Nicholas Ostuni told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi during a court appearance today for Ariel Drapczynski. “The proofs in the case are very strong.”
Ariel Drapczynski (STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
What’s more, Ostuni said, an unidentified informant may be able to testify both in this and in a Passaic County case.
Although Ostuni didn’t identify him, former Garfield resident Tomasz Maczka faces charges with Drapczynski in Passaic County for a Wanaque convenience store robbery — which authorities said was solved after Drapcyznski posted photos of them in motorcycle helmets on Facebook.
“I don’t know if Passaic is offering him consecutive or concurrent time,” the assistant prosecutor said, “But when we come back I’ll ask for him to be sentenced in addition to whatever Passaic County gives him.”
Ostuni said other evidence against Drapcyznski includes:
• One eyewitness who reported seeing Drapczynski wearing a distinctive t-shirt at the crime scene;
• Another who reported seeing him remove the same shirt and toss it into a trash can;
• The t-shirt itself, which had DNA matching Drapczynski’s;
• The stolen motorcycle;
• A partial identification by the Seven Days convenience mart owner.
Drapcyznski (r), Facebook photos
The judge gave Drapczynski until April 13 to either accept the deal or go to trial.
Bergen County sheriff’s detectives and Garfield and Elmwood Park police arrested Drapczynksi in the backyard of his girlfriend’s residence on Van Bussum Avenue in Garfield last Aug. 19, four days after the holdup
Drapcynski, who is in state prison after being sentenced in September for a drug-related evidence tampering conviction from last year, was briefly hospitalized at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson for a heroin overdose after the Elmwood Park robbery, sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
The clerk at the Boulevard convenience store told Elmwood Park police that she handed over cigarettes and an undetermined amount of cash after the robber came in wearing a cycle helmet and pointed a gun at her.
He then fled on a motorcycle or dirt bike, she said.
A surveillance image was posted on CLIFFVIEW PILOT within hours of the holdup and tips quickly began coming in, police said.
SEE: Surveillance photo issued in Elmwood Park convenience store armed robbery
Before long, an arrest warrant was obtained.
Ariel Drapczynksi (FACEBOOK PHOTO)
Drapczynski already had a record that includes parole and probation violations, one stemming from an aggravated assault conviction with a weapon in the late 2000s.
A state judge in Hackensack issued a bench warrant for him after he skipped sentencing last year on a third-degree drug conviction. Investigators from Garfield and Elmwood Park serving the warrant originally thought they had Drapczynski holed up — and armed — in a friend’s apartment on Plauderville Avenue a day before his arrest.
They briefly made contact with him, but a law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he refused to surrender. So a perimeter was established and the street was closed between Shaw and Main streets in the mixed-use neighborhood.
Several area residents were relocated to Fire Company #5′s firehouse in the neighborhood.
A Bergen County SWAT team was then brought in.
It was later determined that Drapczynksi wasn’t there. Nor was he at two other residences that police checked.
As the search continued, Drapcyznki posted photos on Facebook of him and Maczka.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT published the photos, which led authorities to Maczka, who police said joined Drapcyznski in robbing a Quick Stop on Ringwood Avenue in Wanaque while wearing the helmets, leather jackets and bandanas over their faces. The robbers fled on a single motorcycle, authorities said at the time.
STORY / COURTROOM PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy GARFIELD PD / CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo / FACEBOOK photos
