>Monday, July 14, 2008
Last updated: Monday July 14, 2008, EDT 5:03 PM
BY KIPP CLARK AND MIKE DALY
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Local police arrested two Allendale men accused of kidnapping, robbing and assaulting an acquaintance from Ridgewood.
The 41-year-old man victim was found injured on the side of a road in Harriman State Park in Rockland County, N.Y. yesterday. New York State Park Police said he told them he’d been assaulted by acquaintances who broke into his apartment., said Ridgewood Detective William Hemmer.
The intruders got in through a window after climbing a fire escape, police said.
The man told police they pulled him from his bed, took cash and then led him down the stairs and out into the parking lot. They then forced him into a car, drove him a remote area of the park and led him to a wooded section where he was beaten and threatened, he said.
Several departments combined to investigate the case — among them, Ridgewood Police, New York State Park Police, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and Allendale Police.
After interviewing him, detectives obtained arrest warrants for Cullen Schlesiona, 31, and Matthew Staudt, 24, and then arrested them last night at an apartment they share.
Schlesiona and Staudt are being held on $500,000 cash bail each at the Bergen County Jail, charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary, terroristic threats and criminal restraint.
The alleged victim was treated at a Rockland County hospital for minor injuries to his face and arms and released, police said.
An investigation is continuing and additional charges could follow, police said.