Category: Bergen County

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Tis the Season: Teaneck woman charged in pipe attack over parking spot at Garden State Plaza

parking garage cbd

DECEMBER 21, 2015, 11:50 AM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2015, 12:04 PM
BY STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

PARAMUS — A 48-year-old Teaneck woman hit a Paterson teenager in the head with a 15-inch metal pipe during a fight over a parking spot at the Garden State Plaza mall over the weekend, authorities said Monday.

Kenia E. Nicolas-King was charged with aggravated assault and was released, said Deputy Chief Robert Guidetti of the Paramus police. The victim, an 18-year-old Paterson woman, refused medical attention, Guidetti said.

The Paterson woman, whose name was not released, was waiting for a parking spot in an underground garage beneath the movie theater around 5:30 p.m. Saturday when Nicolas-King cut her off and pulled into the spot, Guidetti said. They began arguing and Nicolas-King allegedly went back to her car and grabbed the pipe and hit the woman in the back of the head.

The younger woman fell to the ground and they began wrestling, the deputy chief said. The woman punched Nicolas-King, who jumped back into her car and fled.

But Nicolas-King couldn’t escape the mall’s traffic and Officer Nicholas Luciano stopped her car, Guidetti said. She told Luciano that she had thrown the pipe out of the window, said Guidetti, who added that it was later found.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/teaneck-woman-charged-in-pipe-attack-over-parking-spot-at-garden-state-plaza-1.1477604

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Last Minute Christmas Shopping : Bronx man had 13 pounds of raw heroin in car at Garden State Plaza

Bayer_Heroin_bottle

DECEMBER 19, 2015, 10:32 AM    LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2015, 3:16 PM
BY TODD SOUTH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Authorities arrested a 33-year-old Bronx man Friday afternoon at the Garden State Plaza who they allege had 13 pounds of raw heroin in his car, according to a media release.

In the release, Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik said that at about 1:45 p.m. Friday Passaic sheriff’s detectives along with the investigators from the state Attorney General’s Office Gang/Organized Crime Bureau pulled over Daniel A. Cespedes in a white Honda Accord as part of a joint undercover operation at the mall, in Paramus.

“After the stop, detectives observed the driver acting in a suspicious manner,” Berdnik said.

Officers allege that they saw Cespedes trying to hide an orange tool bag behind the front passenger seat. Police then searched the vehicle and found 13 pounds of raw heroin, with a wholesale value of more than $500,000, according to the release.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/police-bronx-man-had-13-pounds-of-raw-heroin-in-car-at-garden-state-plaza-1.1476906

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SECURITY IS FOCUS AT CHURCHES, MOSQUES AMID HEIGHTENED FEARS

church sky theridgewoodblog.net 1

BY JAY REEVES AND RACHEL ZOLL
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — In Alabama, a Presbyterian church wanted to be able to hire its own police for protection. Mosque leaders around the country are meeting with law enforcement officials as an anti-Muslim furor fuels arson attacks and vandalism. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been holding specialized training for congregations for “all hazards, including active shooter incidents.”

Religious congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter unleashed in June by a white shooter at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, to the killings this month in San Bernardino, California.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said 2015 is shaping up as the worst year ever for U.S. mosques, amid the backlash to the Islamic-extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and the intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric from Donald Trump and others seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Preliminary 2015 data collected by the civil rights organization found 71 reported cases of vandalism, harassment and threats, with 29 of those incidents occurring since the Nov. 13 assaults in France.

https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGREGATIONS_SECURITY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-12-19-09-56-44

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Pedistrian Struck in Fair lawn , a reminder to wear bright colors while walking at night

fair lawn pedestrian hit

photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook
Pedistrian Struck in Fair lawn , a reminder to wear bright colors while walking at night
December 17,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Fair lawn NJ, A pedestrian was struck by a passenger car at the intersection of Saddle River Road and Van Duren Avenue in Fair Lawn shortly after 8 PM on Thursday, 12/17. The adult male victim was transported by ambulance to Hackensack University Medical Center with a non-life threatening head injury.

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bright colors easier to see

The driver of the vehicle involved stayed at the scene and was cooperating with police investigators. It appeared as though the pedestrian was in a marked crosswalk at the time of the incident; a light rain was falling at the time. Fair Lawn PD and EMS responded, along with a paramedic unit from The Valley Hospital.

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Suit: 8 Bergen County employees claim they are layoff targets because of Donovan support

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Eight Bergen County employees have filed a federal lawsuit claiming they have been targeted for layoffs because of their previous support of former Republican County Executive Kathleen Donovan. John C. Ensslin, The Record Read more

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Bergen Sheriff Saudino: ‘There is no Place for Politics in Law Enforcement’

Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino

Sheriff says he will run on platform of fiscal responsibility

By Alyana Alfaro | 12/15/15 4:13pm

Bergen County Sheriff Saudino is up for reelection next year.

With the year winding down, eyes around the state are starting to turn to the 2016 election. In Bergen County, November will see Republican Sheriff Michael Saudino working to keep his seat.

This year, the Bergen County Democratic Party won big in the assembly and county races. They retained their majority on the freeholder board and decisively won LD38, a district initially perceived to be one of the most competitive in the state. Now, as Democrats prepare for next year, it is only logical that they will try to maintain that flood of victories and secure Saudino’s seat for the Democratic Party.

However, Saudino, seems to be in the good graces of many of his Democratic colleagues. Last week, he was the only Republican at an event in Paterson where elected officials spoke out against anti-Muslim sentiment. Last year, he made waves when he endorsed Democratic challenger Jim Tedesco for County Executive over incumbent Republican Kathleen Donovan. He later rescinded that endorsement but Donovan eventually lost to Tedesco.

“I think I have shown that I am not a political guy,” Saudino told PolitickerNJ. “I don’t intend to change. I don’t want to be a political guy. I understand that I am in an elected position but I want to keep politics as much as I can out of it. There is no place for politics in law enforcement. I try to maintain that attitude. To me, it is not about the party. It is about who the best people are, who has the best ideas.”

Saudino said he hopes he can win in 2016 despite the number of Democratic wins in the county this year

 

https://politickernj.com/2015/12/bergen-sheriff-saudino-there-is-no-place-for-politics-in-law-enforcement/

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In Oradell, fate of historic Blauvelt Mansion faces further discussion

Atwood-Blauvelt mansion

DECEMBER 15, 2015, 9:11 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 10:18 PM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

ORADELL — Supporters of the historic Blauvelt Mansion breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday night after Mayor Joseph Murray, Jr. announced that the property’s owner, CareOne, would not apply for a demolition permit before the end of the year.

“Mayor-elect [Dianne] Didio and I met with people from CareOne yesterday and they have agreed to continue dialogue with Mayor Didio to find a mutually satisfactory resolution and hopefully to preserve the mansion,” he said. “That conversation will probably commence in January.”

Murray’s statement at least temporarily quelled widespread fears that CareOne, one of the state’s largest nursing home operators, was planning to demolish the 1890s-era structure. Built in the Shingle Style by the architect Fred Wesley Wentworth, who would become most famous for his role in reconstructing Paterson after fire destroyed large portions of the city in 1902, the great house sits like a castle at the top of a sprawling lawn bordering Kinderkamack Road and has become a beloved landmark for many Bergen County residents.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/in-oradell-fate-of-historic-blauvelt-mansion-faces-further-discussion-1.1474073

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Herointown, N.J.: The state’s heroin crisis in 9 startling statistics

Heroin-006

184,038 Number of patients admitted to New Jersey substance abuse treatment facilities for heroin or opioid abuse since 2010.

781 Number of heroin-related deaths in New Jersey in 2014, the fourth straight year the state saw an increase

By Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 15, 2015 at 6:38 AM, updated December 15, 2015 at 7:59 AM

The statistics on New Jersey’s heroin crisis are staggering, and paint a picture of a crisis that spreads far beyond overdoses and deaths.

Below are bullet points on just how far and wide heroin and opioid addiction reaches in the Garden State.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/herointown_nj_the_states_heroin_crisis_in_10_graph.html

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Feds: Rutherford man among three charged in spamming scheme that targeted 60M people

spam_theridgewoodblog

DECEMBER 15, 2015, 11:55 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 12:07 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWARK — Three men were charged Tuesday in a computer hacking and spamming scheme that federal prosecutors in New Jersey said compromised the personal information of 60 million people and netted more than $2 million in profits.

Timothy Livingston, 30, of Boca Raton, Florida, operated a business known as A Whole Lot of Nothing that sent spam emails on behalf of clients including insurance companies and online pharmacies, charging $5 to $9 for each spam email that resulted in a completed transaction, according to authorities.

In addition to Livingston, the indictment charged Tomasz Chmielarz, 32, of Rutherford, New Jersey; and Devin McArthur, 27, of Ellicott City, Maryland, with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Livingston and Chmielarz also were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/feds-rutherford-man-among-three-charged-in-spamming-scheme-that-targeted-60m-people-1.1473887

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Police shooting of suspect in Rochelle Park full of mystery

BB gun

Another reminder this morning of the dangers and the quick decisions NJ police sometimes have to make. This gun was being held by a man on Route 17 in Rochelle Park. It’s a BB gun, but the Bergen County prosecutor says the orange tip had been painted over. Is there any realistic way for the officers involved not to have believed that was a real gun? The man was shot and is at the hospital

DECEMBER 14, 2015, 7:46 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 6:43 AM
BY RICHARD COWEN AND JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

Why a Maywood man had a BB gun whose orange tip had been painted black is one of the questions detectives were investigating Monday after the man crashed a car outside the Bergen County Board of Social Services office and was shot by two Rochelle Park police officers.

The shooting occurred at 3:27 a.m. after police were called to the building at 218 Route 17 north by security officers, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said via his Twitter account.

The driver remained inside the Toyota sedan after he crashed it in a driveway, the prosecutor said. The officers’ shots struck him in the lower body.

Molinelli identified the driver as Matthew S. Chaseman, 46, of 14 Marlboro Court in Maywood, and said his injuries did not appear to require surgery.

Chaseman was being treated Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center. The officers were not injured in the incident, which delayed operations at the Social Services office for several hours.

As of late Monday afternoon, authorities had not provided a detailed explanation of what had prompted the shots, which also shattered the rear window on the driver’s side of the car.

A Teaneck couple who identified themselves as Chaseman’s parents pulled into the driveway of their home shortly before 3:30 p.m.

The woman said she had called the hospital. “He’s going to be fine,” she said. “We’re not at all concerned.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/police-shooting-of-suspect-in-rochelle-park-full-of-mystery-1.1473465

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Bergen Town Center mall in Paramus is preparing for a $130 million expansion

The Outlets @ Bergen Town Center

DECEMBER 14, 2015, 11:29 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 6:33 AM
BY JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

One of North Jersey’s oldest shopping centers, formerly known as Bergen Mall and reborn as The Outlets at Bergen Town Center, is preparing for another major makeover.

The Paramus shopping center’s owner is planning an expansion — reportedly to add a level above the existing center — to meet demand for space at the mall, which has benefited in recent years from the success of its off-price and outlet tenants, the fastest-growing category in apparel retailing.

Urban Edge Properties, the public company that owns the mall, expects to invest as much as $130 million in a 200,000-square-foot addition to The Outlets at Bergen Town Center, according to a recent financial filing by the company. That would make the project similar in size to the last renovation and expansion of the mall in 2006, and would increase its size by about 20 percent.

The proposal is a sign of the strength of the North Jersey retail market, and particularly Paramus. The planned revamp would be the latest example of malls responding to pressure to constantly evolve as they face the challenge of online commerce and changing shopping patterns.

Urban Edge has revealed some details about the project in public financial documents, and in meetings with analysts, but has not yet submitted plans to Paramus. Those familiar with the project said Urban Edge plans to add a third retail level over part of the existing shopping center, the section of the mall that houses the majority of its stores and the parking deck. One source said the expansion could be larger than 200,000 square feet, and possibly as big as 500,000 square feet.

Bergen Town Center is 1.2 million square feet. It is divided into two separate sections — the parcel west of Forest Avenue, which is a traditional enclosed mall with a parking deck and a parking lot bordered by a strip of additional stores, and the area east of Forest Avenue, which includes freestanding stores, including a Lowe’s and an REI store that provides gear for camping and hiking.

The enclosed mall portion was 99.9 percent occupied as of the end of September, according to Urban Edge’s third-quarter earnings report.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen-town-center-mall-in-paramus-is-preparing-for-a-130-million-expansion-1.1473710

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Prosecutor: Maywood suspect with BB gun in car shot by police on Route 17 in Rochelle Park

rochell park police

file photo of Rochelle Park Police  by Boyd Loving 

DECEMBER 14, 2015, 7:46 AM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015, 2:06 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN AND RICHARD COWEN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

Two Rochelle Park police officers shot a man who was armed with a BB gun outside the Bergen County Board of Social Services Monday morning, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

Police were called to the building at 218 Route 17 North in Rochelle Park by security after the man crashed his car and remained inside it, the prosecutor said on Twitter.

The officers’ shots hit the suspect in the lower part of his body and shattered the driver’s side rear window of his Toyota sedan, authorities said. Molinelli said the injuries were not life-threatening and did not appear to require surgery.

The prosecutor identified the suspect as Matthew S. Chaseman, 46, of 14 Marlboro Court in Maywood. Chaseman is being treated at Hackensack University Medical Center. The officers were not injured.

Molinelli said that it wasn’t immediately clear whether Chaseman had a real gun. The orange tip of the gun had been painted black, the prosecutor said. He said he did not know whether Chaseman pointed the gun at any of the officers.

About 11 a.m., half a dozen detectives from the offices of the Bergen County Prosecutor and Sheriff entered Chaseman’s apartment at Hammel Gardens and removed several bags of his belongings. The evidence included a bow and arrows.

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/prosecutor-maywood-suspect-with-bb-gun-in-car-shot-by-police-on-route-17-in-rochelle-park-1.1473465

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Shops at Riverside mall in Hackensack reopens after bomb threat

Riverside Square Mall

DECEMBER 12, 2015, 2:12 PM    LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015, 6:47 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN AND HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

A false bomb threat led to the three-hour evacuation of The Shops at Riverside mall in Hackensack on the penultimate Saturday in the holiday shopping season.

As authorities investigated the threat — scrawled on a bathroom wall, graffiti-style — hundreds of jittery shoppers had to abandon their meals and purchases, and were forced out of the complex and into the parking lot, alongside mall workers.

Hackensack Police summoned the Bergen County bomb squad and ordered the evacuation after a security officer discovered the message written with a marker near a urinal in a lower-level men’s room at around 1 p.m., said Hackensack Police Capt. Timothy Lloyd.

Witnesses said several hundred customers and employees emptied out of the mall in an urgent but orderly fashion as both sound and light alarms went off.

A search by bomb-sniffing dogs and bomb-squad officers found no explosives and the mall — at the intersection of Route 4 and Hackensack Avenue — re-opened around 4 p.m., Lloyd said.

The evacuation also led police to divert traffic on Hackensack Avenue onto Route 4, said Anthony Cureton, a spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.

Some two hours into the evacuation, most people had cleared out of the area. On the grass at the outskirts of the complex’s parking lot, though, small groups of employees lingered waiting for their stores and restaurants to reopen. And some shoppers also stayed behind, forced to wait because, they said, authorities wouldn’t allow them to retrieve their vehicles from the mall’s multi-tiered parking garage before the all-clear was given.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/shops-at-riverside-mall-in-hackensack-reopens-after-bomb-threat-1.1472899

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Study: credit card debt may reach alarming levels

creditcards

DECEMBER 10, 2015    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY MELANIE ANZIDEI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Consumers are expected to end the year with credit card debt that is close to levels experts consider unsustainable.

A study released Wednesday by the credit card comparison company CardHub found that consumers racked up $21.3 billion in new credit card debt in the third quarter, from July through September. That’s 34 percent more than the same period last year, and the most for the third quarter since 2009, the year the recession ended.

CardHub projects that credit card debt by Dec. 31 will surpass last year’s by $68.5 billion. At that pace, the average household will be ringing in the new year owing more than $8,000, the highest since the last recession.

“We consider an average [household] debt of $8,400 as being unsustainable — proved in 2008 when the crushing debt plunged us into the Great Recession,” Jill Gonzalez, a CardHub analyst, said in an email Tuesday afternoon.

She added that these rising levels of credit card debt should serve as a “wake-up call” to consumers, who should “rein in spending” in an effort to avoid reaching that tipping point.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/credit-card-debt-is-dangerously-high-experts-say-1.1471448

 

CardHub https://www.cardhub.com/edu/credit-card-debt-study/

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Valley’s Life-Saving Tourniquets Donated to Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force

Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force
file photo courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page

Valley’s Life-Saving Tourniquets Donated to Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force
December 2, 2015

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , The Valley Hospital continues to show its dedication to protecting our community through the distribution of tourniquets to first responders. The most recent recipients of the tourniquets are the Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force (RDF), which is comprised of police officers from each municipality within Bergen County.  These officers respond to a variety of incidents including riots and active shooters. Each officer on the Bergen County RDF was issued two tourniquets.

Having access to a tourniquet can be critically important in a life or death situation. If a police officer is shot or injured in an extremity, they are able to apply the tourniquet to themselves. Similarly, if a member of the community is severely injured in an extremity, the tourniquet can be used to assist them. The presence of these tourniquets minimizes the chance that a wounded individual will bleed to death prior to help arriving.

In addition to the Bergen County RDF, Valley’s Department of Emergency Services has donated almost 1,000 tourniquets to approximately 500 police officers in 16 area towns. They have also given tourniquets to the New Jersey Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.