YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An alert citizen and Kearny police helped nab a man accused in one North Arlington burglary and suspected in another.

Joseph Ferguson, 23, of Kearny was carrying various items stolen moments earlier from an Abbott Place home when Kearny Detectives Ray Lopez and Michael Farinola — responding to a 911 call of a suspicious-looking man carrying a GAP shopping bag — grabbed him just before 6 o’clock last night, North Arlington Police Chief Louis Ghione told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.

These included several pieces of jewelry, a Play Station, a camera and a cellphone, along with items believed taken in another North Arlington break-in, Ghione said.

Ferguson tried to make a run for it outside North Arlington police headquarters, but Detective Augie Feola and Officer Anthony Scala quickly grabbed him, the chief said.

While processing him, they noticed a bulge in Ferguson’s pants that turned out to be prescription pills — Xanax and Percoset — in a plastic envelope, he added.

Ferguson, who has a criminal history that shows arrests for burglary and resisting, was charged with burglary, escape and drug possession, among other counts.

He was being held on $28,500 bail in the Bergen County Jail.

An investigation was continuing.

ONLY ON CVP: Following a series of postponements, a judge in Hackensack yesterday gave a Leonia construction worker accused of sexually assaulting accused a 16-year-old girl last summer another month to accept a five-year plea deal or go to trial.

Wilfredo Arias (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

Wilfredo Arias, 49, who has remained free on $250,000 bail, approached a CLIFFVIEW PILOT reporter after court yesterday and asked that the proceedings not be reported.

“It is hurting my family,” he said.

Arias, who has a history of sexual offenses, is accused of sticking his fingers into the girl’s vagina and putting her hand on his penis in his van after offering her a ride last July 3. Police said they arrested him after the girl broke free and dialed 911.

Repeating a previous complaint, defense attorney Frank Lucianna told the judge yesterday that audio discs of his client’s statement to police are “very difficult to hear.”

Superior Court Judge James J. Guida said he’d already given the 92-year-old attorney more time to solve the problem in early February.

“What happened in the last six weeks?” he wondered.

In the end, the judge agreed to give Lucianna and Arias until April 13 to respond to the offer from prosecutors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A five-count indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack last October accuses him of sexual assault by “placing his fingers in [the girl’s] vaginal labia through physical force or coercion,” with “no severe personal injury.”

It says he also “[placed] her hand on his penis” through “physical force or coercion,” and that he pressed his groin against hers, “rubbing or grinding.”

Included with the one assault and three sexual contact charges is a count of child endangerment.

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

HAVE YOU SEEN HIM? Fair Lawn police were searching for a man accused of snatching a package from a resident’s porch yesterday.

What the alleged thief didn’t know, a neighbor said, was that the box contained crayons.

“He walked up my friend’s driveway off Morlot Avenue about 2:30 in the afternoon and took a box from Amazon and put it in a blue bag [that] he carried with him,” she said.

He was wearing a black Adidas backpack, a black coat and Nike sneakers.

If you see or know him, police asked that you call them: (201) 796-1400.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Morris County man beat his friend to death after their car crashed on Route 80 in Elmwood Park and then walked away following a ZZ Top concert in Englewood, a prosecutor told a judge in Hackensack this morning.

The judge nonetheless reduced bail for Jared Clackner from $500,000 to to $300,000 full cash with no 10% option, citing his ties to the community.

Clackner was a passenger in a blue 1996 Oldmobile Sierra driven by his friend, 61-year-old William Henning, that New Jersey State Police said crashed into a guardrail at milepost 61.6 during an argument between the two Denville men following the BergenPAC concert last Tuesday night.

SEE: Aggravated manslaughter charge for ZZ Top fan in friend’s Route 80 crash death in Elmwood Park

They initially withheld further details pending an investigation.

During a bail hearing in Hackensack this morning, defense attorney Timothy Smith contended that authorities over-charged his client with first-degree manslaughter and that both threw punches.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Danielle Grootenboer countered that Clackner — a 53-year-old self-employed painter and father of two — beat his friend to death with his fists.

“It wasn’t even a fight,” she said: Henning never connected.

In fact, Clackner told State Police that he “hit him as hard as he could, then walked away” — leaving Henning to die of blunt-force trauma from the blows, which included several broken ribs, Grootenboer said.

Sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that when police arrived, Henning was partially out of the car, which was still in drive up against the guardrail. They picked up Clackner further down the highway, they said.

SEE: Englewood concert-goer killed, friend charged in Route 80 crash in Elmwood Park

Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian told Clackner last week that the aggravated manslaughter charge carries the additional weight of an action committed “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

This morning, Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi reminded Clackner that he’s accused of a first-degree crime.

However, she said: “It’s very obvious the family, business and community ties of the defendant are strong. I have to balance those versus the strong likelihood of conviction.”

This came after Smith argued that his client had lived in the same town for 46 years and worked for the local public works department for a decade.

The judge continued bail conditions that include passport surrender, no possession of firearms or other weapons, no contact with the victim’s family, and not leaving the state while the case is active.

She added a new condition, however: Should Clackner make bail, he will have to wear a monitoring bracelet, although he may go to work.

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

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Paterson man who received 14 summonses following a drunk-driving chase last summer threatened two Wyckoff officers, an indictment returned in Hackensack alleges.

Officer James Bakelaar clocked 35-year-old Michael C. Scian of Pompton Plains at 74 miles an hour on Route 208 just before 3 a.m. last July 12, Police Chief Benjamin Fox said at the time.

Scian pulled off at Cedar Hill Avenue and continued going through several streets before bailing out at the end of Brewster Road, Fox said.

A Midland Park officer spotted Scian at Sicomac and Cedar Hill avenues and took him into custody, the chief said.

Scian was charged with DWI and eluding a police officer while also receiving the summonses, and was released without bail to a friend pending a Municipal Court hearing, Fox said.

The grand jury indictment handed up yesterday charges Scian with:

“knowingly fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer…after having received a signal to bring the vehicle to a full stop”;

“preventing or attempting to prevent [two Wyckoff officers] from effecting an arrest by using or threatening to use physical force or violence.”

MUGSHOT: Courtesy WYCKOFF PD

ANOTHER CVP SCOOP: A Wallington firefighter and first aid squad member made up a story about being struck by a hit-and-run driver outside the borough firehouse last summer, an indictment returned today in Hackensack alleges.

An “all-out” hunt for the phantom driver led investigators back to Joseph Fehl, 37, of Hasbrouck Heights following a review of area surveillance video and a series of interviews, Detective Lt. Shawn Kudlacik told CLIFFVIEW PILOT after arresting Fehl last July 3.

Fehl told police that he was struck by a dark, compact vehicle on Park Row off Adamson Street that then took a right on Stein Avenue toward Main Avenue, the lieutenant said. He said he then went to Hackensack University Medical Center for treatment of some scratches and bruises, Kudlacik said.

After an initial investigation turned up no vehicle debris or skidmarks, detectives obtained feeds from two area video surveillance cameras, he said.

“One of them had a direct view of the firehouse,” Kudlacik said at the time.

The video shows a series of vehicles turning onto Adamson from Park Row, after which Fehl then pulls his into the firehouse and gets out, the lieutenant said.

Another series of vehicles passes — all of them headed straight on Park and not turning, he said.

At that point, Fehl “claimed he’d already been struck,” Kudlacik said.

It’s entirely possible, he said, that Fehl fell.

Fehl has said that the footage is from the wrong street.

The indictment returned today in the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack charges him with insurance fraud and filing a false report.

It specifically alleges that Fehl:

• “did knowingly make, or cause to be made, a false, fictitious, fraudulent or misleading statement of material fact in a record, bill, claim or other document…in connection with a claim for payment,reimbursement or other benefit pursuant to an insurance policy, or from an insurance company or the Unsatisfied Claim And Judgement Fund Law”;

• “did make, present, offer for filing, or use any record, document or thing knowing it to be false, and with purpose that it be taken as a genuine part of information or records received or kept by the government, or required by law to be kept by others for information of the government, with the purpose to defraud or injure the Borough of Wallington.”

Fehl remained free on $2,000 bail that Kudlacik said he posted after his arrest.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy WALLINGTON PD

CLIFFVIEW PILOT photos

PHOTOS: East Rutherford firefighters douse a truck fire on Hackensack Street across from the Chase Bank branch early this afternoon.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A finance manager from Queens posed as a lawyer collecting a debt to swindle $30,000 from a Moonachie beauty products wholesaler, authorities charged today.

Detectives arrested Robert M. Paez, 40, of Woodhaven earlier today on charges of theft by deception, forgery, computer-related theft and practicing law without a license.

Paez was released without bail pending an arraignment in Central Municipal Court in Hackensack tomorrow, said Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.

Members of his White Collar Crimes Unit charged Paez afer a four-month investigation of debt collections filing that they said he made against Beauty Plus Trading Inc., a 35-year-old company on Commercial Avenue.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: A sedan plowed into the front of a Montvale service station convenience mart on Chestnut Ridge Road this afternoon after the elderly driver said her foot got stuck on the accelerator.

Responders said that once the vehicle hit the wall of the Exxon On the Run , the accelerator remained pinned — and the only thing keeping the Crown Victoria from entering the store entirely was the brick wall beneath the window.

No injuries were reported.

Montvale’s building inspector responded along with borough police and EMTs.

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CLIFFVIEW PILOT PHOTOS: Brian Buccino

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Little Ferry police officer drew his weapon this afternoon after a bloodied Lodi man refused to drop a 10-inch kitchen knife as he chased his girlfriend down the steps of her apartment, authorities said.

“Drop the knife!” Officer Samuel Aguilar shouted at 26-year-old Klaudio Mazi.

After several commands, Mazi let go of the weapon, went to the ground and was handcuffed, Detective Ronald M. Klein Jr. told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

He told officers “that he was assaulted the night before by the female’s cousin,” Klein said.

Aguilar and Officer Dominick Verdi and Thomas Egan responded to a broken window call by the landlord of the Washington Avenue apartment at 12:41 p.m., the detective said.

The landlord said the 34-year-old second-floor tenant told him her cousin had broken the window with his hand. “She appeared scared,” he told the officers.

As Aguilar opened an access door, the woman “came running down the stairs screaming incoherantly,” Klein said.

Behind her was Mazi, “covered in what appeared to be blood and holding a 10-inch kitchen knife in an aggressive manner,” he said.

After his partners dragged the woman from the doorway, Aguilar drew his service weapon and ordered Mazi to drop the weapon several times, Klein said.

Mazi, a Detroit native who most recently worked as a concierge in the Bronx, was being held on $50,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with aggravated assault and weapon possession. The woman wasn’t harmed.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy LITTLE FERRY PD

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Fair Lawn police said they seized a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets and arrested a Pennsylvania couple after a sergeant found one of them with two bags of heroin and a needle in his lap as he sat behind the wheel of a car parked outside a local CVS.

Detective Sgt. Tim O’Shaughnessy summoned backups after looking into the 2014 Nissan Altima parked at the River Road pharmacy Monday night, Sgt. Brian Metzler said this morning.

Arrested were the driver, 41-year-old Sean Gill, and his passenger, Erin Harper, 34, who Metzler said was found at police headquarters with 43 bags of heroin stuffed into her underwear.

The gun was in her purse, its handle sticking out, the sergeant said.

The Hanover, PA couple were both charged with drug possession with the intent to distribute it and possession of a hypodermic needle.

Harper also was charged with illegal weapons possession and possession of hollow-point bullets.

Both were being held on $10,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.

UPDATE: Paramus Catholic’s former vice-president of operations and assistant varsity football coach cannot be prosecuted here on charges of having sex with three teenage students during a school trip that they chaperoned to Germany, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today.

The 6-0 decision by the state’s highest court 14 counts in a 25-count indictment against Michael Sumulikoski (above, top) and Arthur Sopel (above, bottom).

It sends the case back to Hackensack for the remaining counts, including allegation that Sopel tried to get two of the students to lie about the alleged incidents.

The Supremes’ ruling overturns a June 2013 decision by a state appeals court that Superior Court Judge James J. Guida was correct in refusing to dismiss the case.

“There must be territorial jurisdiction in New Jersey for the state to prosecute a crime here,” the court found. “The state has the power to prosecute crimes that occur within its borders but may not bring charges for offenses committed entirely in another state or country.”

Lawyers for both men had argued that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office “lacks territorial jurisdiction” because “the alleged wrongful acts occurred outside New Jersey’s borders.”

The prosecutor’s office, in turn, said both men breached their duty to protect the teens, making it a state case.

“To think that parents would entrust their children on school trips and not have anyone held legally responsible if anything criminal happens simply defies common sense,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time, adding that he knew of no other case of its kind ever in New Jersey.

The Supreme Court justice unanimously disagreed.

“When, as here, all of the elements of an offense that relate to conduct that took place outside the state’s borders, jurisdiction lies elsewhere—in the state or country where the conduct occurred,” they wrote.

Molinelli this afternoon responded in an email:

“While I am disappointed in the Supreme Court’s ruling, [the decision] was driven exclusively by statute and the Court ruled that we were asking it to interpret the territorial limits of the state court’s beyond what the Legislature intended when such statutes were adopted.

“I am hopeful that our Legislature receives the Court’s message and amends the statute to encompass these types of alleged offenses so as to avoid what the Court clearly deemed as ‘unsettling’ and ‘troubling’ circumstances.

“I am hopeful that school districts throughout New Jersey recognize the significance of this ruling, at least until it is corrected by statute.

“Any school sponsored class event outside of the state of New Jersey and where a similar incident is alleged to have occurred might meet with the same result, much to the surprise of parents and guardians [who] might believe otherwise when they authorize their child to attend such events.”

The appeals judges had previously found that both men had the “supervisory or disciplinary power” over the students while “assuming the responsibility for [their] care” – both of which were established in New Jersey.

“[A] state may regulate conduct occurring outside of its territorial boundaries if the conduct has, or is intended to have, a substantial effect within the territory and the regulation itself is otherwise reasonable,” the Appellate Division noted.

The appeals judges pointed to U.S. Supreme Court opinions – one in 1992 and the other from 1911 – that specify that acts “done outside a jurisdiction, but intended to produce and producing detrimental effects within it, justify a State in punishing the cause of the harm as if he had been present at the effect.”

A grand jury in Hackensack returned a 25-count indictment against the pair in December 2011 in connection with the 10-day trip the previous February to Werl, Germany, during which they served as chaperones.

Sopel, of River Edge, who was 28 at the time, was charged with six counts of sexual assault involving two alleged victims – both 17 — and two counts of child endangerment “by engaging in sexual contact.”

Sumulikoski, of Elmwood Park, who was 31, was charged with three counts of sexual assault, one of child endangerment “by engaging in sexual contact” and two of child endangerment “by allowing Sopel to perform unlawful acts in the presence of the victim.”

Both men are former Paramus Catholic High School athletes who were stars in their day.

Sumulikoski was an assistant varsity football coach in charge of the wide receivers and cornerbacks who also taught at the school. A former team captain, “Sims” was graduated from Paramus Catholic in ’01 before attending Rutgers University.

He was a two-time All-League selection at wide receiver and cornerback and winner of the 2001 All-Suburban Most Versatile Player Award.

Sopel was graduated from the school in 1998. More than 6 feet tall, he had been playing soccer when he was recruited for Paramus Catholic’s varsity basketball team and quickly became a high-scoring frontcourt player.

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MOLINELLI PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BCPO)

PHOTO: Three occupants were taken to the hospital with injuries that responders said weren’t life-threatening after an SUV car struck a pole at 2nd Street and Railroad Avenue below Route 80 in Ridgefield Park this afternoon.

PSE&G joined emergency responders at the scene.

STORY / PHOTO: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Senior Correspondent Kevin Teel

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An intoxicated, unlicensed South Hackensack man elbowed one Fair Lawn police officer and pushed another after pretending he wasn’t driving in an overnight crash that sent the other driver to the hospital, authorities said.

Anthony Cozzubbo, 29, told officers that a woman was driving his 2001 Ford Escape when it collided on Maple Avenue at River Road with a 206 Honda Civic just after 4:30 a.m., Sgt. Brian Metzler said.

The 24-year-old Honda driver was taken Fair Lawn Volunteer Ambulance to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson with neck, back and arm injuries, Metzler said.

Cozzubbo, meanwhile, “tried to leave the scene but could not due to damage to his vehicle,” the sergeant said.

He was being questioned when he pushed Officer Luis Vasquez and elbowed Officer John Rovett, Metzler said. Officers took him into custody after a short struggle, he said.

Cozzubbo was later released on a court summons charging him with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, assault by auto, DWI, driving while suspended and leaving the scene of a crash.

Additional charges were pending, Metzler said.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: After identifying him with from their Glen Rock colleagues, a Fair Lawn detective this afternoon arrested a Paterson man and charged him with swiping a package from a resident’s porch.

In the box: $12.09 worth of crayons.

Detective Paul Donohue was checking the area of Market Street and Clark Street when he found 57-year-old Flavio Arandi at 1:15 p.m., Sgt. Brian Metzler asid.

Arandi was released on a court summons charging him with theft.

CLIFFVIEW PILOT published the above image, taken from surveillance video, yesterday.

“He walked up my friend’s driveway off Morlot Avenue about 2:30 in the afternoon and took a box from Amazon and put it in a blue [laundry] bag [that] he carried with him,” a neighbor said.

Police urge citizens to not have packages left on porches or doorsteps.

It’s not a question of the day and age, they say: It just makes sense.

You can arrange times with just about every delivery service or have a package left with a neighbor — or have the neighbor pick it up.

You could also have a package sent to your local post office.

UPS charges a small fee to text you when a package is waiting. FedEx does it for free.

Also for a small fee, you can require that a package not be delivered unless someone signs for it.

UPS and FedEx also have special delivery methods (also for a fee) through which their employee can stash your package behind a planter or under the porch. And there’s always having the package delivered to you at work.

Just as importantly, police say citizens should all keep a look out and immediately report any suspicious people in the neighborhood to police. They don’t mind checking out tips. That’s how they not only catch criminals but prevent other crimes from happening.

NOTE: If a package of yours does disappear, check your credit card (many banks provide theft protection), then file a police report ASAP.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Backpage.com yielded yet another arrest, this time for an undercover Lodi police investigator who said a local woman offered him a massage and oral sex at her apartment this morning for $140.

The department’s newly-formed Narcotics Division received an anonymous tip “concerning a quality of life issue” with a copy of a Backpage ad was attached, Detective Capt. Donald Scorzetti said this afternoon.

An appointment was made for this morning, and backups moved in and arrested 39-year-old Rahime Sinanaj at her Main Street apartment after the undercover detective paid her, Scorzetti said.

They also found heroin and paraphernalia in plain view, he said.

Sinanaj was being held on $10,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with promoting prostitution, possession of heroin, drug paraphernalia and a hypodermic syringe and various borough ordinance violations.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy LODI PD

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A routine traffic stop by the Bergen County Sheriff’s new Bureau of Police Services led to the arrests of two Dominican nationals and the seizure of heroin, various credit cards in different names and $8,741 in cash.

Officer Robert Duboue, an experienced narcotics detector, stopped their vehicle for an non-signaled lane change on eastbound Route 46 in Fort Lee yesterday and obtained a content to search it after smelling marijuana, said BCSO spokesman Anthony Cureton.

Jose Gregorio Martinez, 48 (above, left), and 23-year-old Julio Moya Nunez (right) were being held on $5,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail, charged with drug possession and financial facilitation of criminal activity.

The Bureau of Police Services was formerly the Bergen County Police Department before it was consolidated into the sheriff’s office earlier this month.

MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An ongoing investigation that began six months ago has led to the arrests of five men and the recovery of hundreds of valuables stolen in no fewer than 40 daytime residential burglaries in five counties, including Rockland.

The haul includes jewelry, electronics, antique coins, cellphones, a safe and three of seven guns stolen from a Washington Township home — in what Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli late this afternoon called “one of the largest recoveries of stolen proceeds in recent years.”

A multi-jurisdictional task force consisting of detectives from various police departments joined forces to crack the break-ins, which Molinelli said involved three different sets of suspects taken down in arrests that began last month.

On Feb. 10, task force members arrested Daniel Gomez, 46, of Union City (above, top left) and Julio Ponce, 33, of Clifton (above, top middle) following a burglary in Englewood’s Third Ward. The pair had been casing homes in Tenafly and Englewood, said investigators who watched them (SEE: Bergen-led task force ties pair nabbed in Englewood break-in to three-county burglary spree).

Ponce was being held on $300,000 bail and Gomez on $115,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. Both are charged with burglaries in Englewood, Fair Lawn, Fairfield, Franklin Lakes and River Edge between Jan. 16-Feb. 10, records show.

Three days later, two men wanted in connection with a series of burglaries in Upper Saddle River and Paramus were picked up by South Hackensack police, who said they found the pair carrying 50 bags of heroin with the street name “007” and burglary tools bail (SEE: South Hackensack police nab pair wanted in Paramus, Upper Saddle River burglaries).

Michael Vincent Puig, 25, of Paramus (above, bottom middle)was being held on a combined $610,000 bail in county lockup.

He was charged with burglaries in Paramus, Upper Saddle River and South Hackensack between Feb. 13-28 — including one involving a handgun from an Upper Saddle River home.

Puig’s alleged accomplice, 35-year-old Gino Manna Jr.  of Paterson (above, bottom left) is charged with an Upper Saddle River break-in, along with theft, criminal mischief and drug possession. His bail was $105,000.

Charges against both were pending from other jurisdictions, Molinelli said this afternoon.

A Feb. 13 Upper Saddle River burglary led investigators to the pair after they tracked a stolen computer to Puig’s home in Paramus, the prosecutor said.

During a subsequent search, he said, task force recovered jewelry, electronics and personal items from burglaries “in and around Bergen County,” while seizing drugs, drug paraphernalia and three guns stolen in a residential break-in on Ridgewood Road in Washington Township (SEE: Five rifles, two handguns stolen in Washington Township home burglary).

Task force members made the fifth arrest on Feb. 17 in Fair Lawn when they took John Cando, 38, of North Bergen (above, right) into custody.

Cando, whom task force members had been watching for several weeks, is charged with break-ins and thefts in Fair Lawn, Mahwah and Oakland — and is also tied to burglaries out of Oakland and in the Monmouth County towns of Oceanport and Tinton Falls, Molinelli said.

Cando was the only one of the five to secure his release, posting $50,000 bail a week after his arrest.

Each defendant is single and unemployed, Molinelli noted. All have arraignments in Central Municipal Court set for next Wednesday.

Overall, the prosecutor said, those arrested were linked to 42 burglaries in: Allendale, Englewood, Franklin Lakes, Fairfield, Fair Lawn, Hillsdale, Mahwah, Nutley, Oakland, Oceanport, Old Tappan, Parsippany, Pearl River (NY), Ridgewood, River Edge, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, Tinton Falls, Totowa, Verona, Waldwick, Washington Township and Woodcliff Lake.

Additional charges from other jurisdictions were expected as authorities continue trying to locate owners of the recovered goods, Molinelli said.

He credited several agencies “for their assistance and cooperation”

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and police departments in Cliffside Park, Englewood, Fair Lawn, Franklin Lakes, Mahwah, Oakland, Paramus, River Edge, Rutherford, Tenafly, Saddle River, South Hackensack, Upper Saddle River and Belleville, Fairfield, Jersey City, North Bergen and Verona.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Englewood hair products entrepreneur was sentenced in Hackensack today to 28 years in prison for confining, threatening and repeatedly raping a former lover in an incident that forced a SWAT team to tear-gas his house.

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

James McDowell — aka Sisa Butu — will have to serve at leat 24 years of the term, making him 77 before he’ll be eligible for parole.

Superior Court Judge James J. Guida cited several factors — including that McDowell, 53, was convicted of terrorizing his victim with a loaded .357 Magnum while making degrading comments about women, calling them “bitches” who should “know their place and keep their mouths shut.”

Jurors last July convicted McDowell of eight counts from a 15-count indictment, including first-degree aggravated sexual assault, false imprisonment and weapons possession.

He was acquitted of kidnapping, criminal restraint, and six counts of sexual assault during a kidnapping.

Butu’s victim told the judge today that she’d considered McDowell a friend before her day/night of terror.

“The first six months after the rape, I was unable to sit on anyone’s couch or go into their living rooms,” she said. “I was unable to drive by myself without a chaperone.

“I used to be an avid speller and reader,” she told Guida. “I can no longer comprehend what I read or write. My husband has to remind me to brush my teeth, change my clothes and pay my bills.

“Your honor, he stole my joy. I avoid crowds, I’m not sociable, and I don’t dance. I used to travel, give parties and cookouts — just because. Now I have no energy, and after four years of therapy and counseling — I am nowhere near where I used to be.

“I thank you, the jury, the detectives and my lawyer for making justice possible.”

Defense attorneys asked the judge to consider McDowell’s age and the fact that he was highly intoxicated when a casual lunch turned horrific. He may have thought he was back in a relationship with the woman, one said.

McDowell, meanwhile, insisted on his innocence.

James McDowell, aka Sisa Butu, with attorneys in court today (STORY / PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)

“I respect the process of the court today,” he said. “I’m not bitter or angry. It is not time for that — it’s time to be truthful. I say again: I’m innocent.

“I believe in the system, it’s going to work. I did five years, nine months and 18 days in the military defending this great country, fighting for it,” McDowell told the judge. “I understand there’s an appeal process, and you have the most difficult job making a decision.”

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi chided McDowell for using words such as “character” and “integrity” in describing himself to the judge.

Although he had no previous convictions, McDowell had been arrested at least a dozen times as an adult, she said. Charges have included perjury, being a fugitive, and child endangerment, records show.

“There is truth with character and integrity,” Fantuzzi said, noting that the jury crafted a very careful verdict that supported the victim’s “excruciatingly exact and detailed” testimony.

“All of the physical evidence in this case supported the victim’s version of what had occurred,” she said. “The gun, the vomit in the garbage can, the bullet hole in the ceiling, the washcloth in the bathroom — all of those things in her testimony were supported by the physical evidence.”

Statements that McDowell made outside of court — he didn’t testify in his own defense — were found to be untruthful, Fantuzzi added.

For example, she said, he claimed the .357 magnum was the victim’s, not his.

“He’s very manipulative and very reckless with the truth when he wants to put himself in a better light,” the prosecutor told the judge.

Fantuzzi cited a dispute with a neighbor in which a bullet was retrieved that matched one that police said McDowell fired into the ceiling “when he was threatening to shoot the victim in the back if she didn’t have sex with him.”

After running a popular chain of hair braiding salons in Brooklyn, McDowell began distributing hair care products under the name SBXtreme “for the multicultural hair care market,” according to company information.

His former girlfriend testified during the trial that she had gone to see her dentist in Jersey City and was planning to visit her father in Irvington when she swung by his Tryon Avenue home in September 2010.

He’d told her he wasn’t feeling well, said the woman, who now lives in Pennsylvania with her husband.

After going out to lunch, she said, they had some drinks at the house and watched music videos. She said she was preparing to leave because her husband would be expecting her when things got ugly.

McDowell got the gun from a cabinet and fired a round into the ceiling, the mother of two told jurors.

“I love you too much,” she said he told her. “If you try to leave, there’s going to be a double homicide.”

He then sexually assaulted her under threat of death in his living room and bedroom before becoming ill after drinking nearly a full bottle of cognac, the woman testified.

McDowell was vomiting, she said, when she grabbed her clothes, dressed quickly and ran to a neighbor’s house for help.

“The man there let me in, closed the door and turned off the porch light while I called first the police and then my husband,” she told the 11 men and four women on the jury.

Local media initially reported what came next as a standoff, but an exclusive report in CLIFFVIEW PILOT explained that McDowell was passed out as a tactical squad surrounded his house, tried calling him for a few hours and then finally used tear gas to flush him out.

McDowell emerged naked and was taken into custody.

Citing case law, the judge today said drunkenness — “especially voluntary intoxication” — can’t be considered in favor of a convict.

The judge said he merged two of the sexual assaults in calculating the sentence but that others were counted separately because McDowell “commenced intercourse downstairs, and was unable to complete it, so he took the victim upstairs and continued the act.

“He then allowed her to go the the bathroom and clean up,” Guida said. “There was a break, and after that he went back downstairs and he assaulted her again.”

So, the judge said, he was sentencing McDowell to 18 years for first-degree aggravated sexual assault, and another 10 years for forced oral sex committed after the “break.”

McDowell must register as a Megan’s Law offender for life, remain under parole supervision after he is released, never again have contact with the victim or her family and submit a DNA sample.

Guida also denied bail to McDowell, who has appealed the conviction based on what he said were challenging questions that weren’t presented during jury selection.

McDowell is due back in court April 6 on another indictment that accuses him of assaulting a juvenile with a knife, injuring him, and failing to obtain needed medical attention for the victim.

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

Shock rushed through the law enforcement community and beyond as word spread that Bergen County Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Beutel collapsed and died during a charity basketball tournament at FDU in Hackensack for the Tomorrows Children’s Fund.

“It’s a tremendous loss to his family, a tremendous loss to us, to law enforcement and to society in general,” Sheriff Michael Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT as he headed back to the Bergen County Jail tonight to address the midnight shift lineup — a task ordinarily handled by Beutel, 47, of Westwood.

The athletic and gregarious lieutenant leaves a wife and five daughters.

“We’re going to do all we can for them,” Saudino said tonight.

“He was a great guy, a caring and giving family man and officer,” the sheriff said.

A 15-year former New Jersey Corrections officer, Beutel joined the BCSO in 2002 and was promoted to lieutenant two years ago.

Saudino’s office sponsored one of 16 teams from various North Jersey police departments who were participating in the Battle of the Blue tonight at the Rothman Center to benefit the Tomorrows Children’s Fund (TCF).

Other teams sponsored by their respective PBAs included the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and local police departments from Englewood, Fort Lee, Ho-Ho-Kus, Jersey City, North Bergen, West New York, Passaic and Paterson.

Participants initially thought Beutel was perhaps dehydrated when he collapsed. EMTs immediately rushed to his aid.

He’d apparently gone into cardiac arrest and died on the way to Hackensack University Medical Center, the sheriff said.

* * * * * *

NOTE: An expanded TRIBUTE will be posted here tomorrow morning. PLEASE post or send remembrances, condolences and photos to:

BCSO Lt. Brian Beutel TRIBUTE

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Thank you.

Jerry DeMarco
Publisher/Editor
GerardJDeMarco@gmail.com
(201) 943-2794