Monthly Archives: January 2011
Vineland police charge VHS-South substitute teacher in sex assault of student at party
A substitute teacher has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a student at a party, according to Vineland police. Remarno O. Chambers, 27, of Vineland, is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault. Chambers is accused of assaulting the student at a party attended by high school students after supplying the alleged victim with “alcohol and/or drugs,” according to police.
Chambers had been a substitute teacher at Vineland High School South, on East Chestnut Avenue. Vineland Public Schools spokesman John Sbrana stated he had been teaching there since September 2010. Sbrana stated he could not comment on Chambers’ current employment status with the school district, adding the school board will review the case and come to a decision at a later date.
According to records available at Cumberland County Courthouse, Chambers had been charged in July 2006 with assault. However, the offense was later downgraded to municipal court. The records list Chambers’ address at that time as West Chestnut Avenue, in Vineland.
Story is here.
New Brunswick man accused of leading police on 50-mile chase after jewelry store heist
A New Brunswick man has been charged with leading police on a 50-mile chase in a stolen van after allegedly stealing $7,000 worth of jewelry from a Middletown store, authorities said yesterday. After crashing the van in Newark on Monday, Eugene Andreola was arrested and charged by police in Middletown and Woodbridge in connection with the theft of the van, two car chases and the robbery of a jewelry store, said Middletown Detective Lt. Stephen Dollinger.
Police were first tipped off to Andreola’s whereabouts by the owner of an Edison business, who told authorities his van was stolen earlier that day and the GPS tracking indicated the vehicle was in Middletown, Dollinger said. Middletown police Sgt. Paul Bailey first spotted the van traveling in the wrong direction on Route 35. Bailey chased the van into Perth Amboy where Middletown police called off the pursuit, Dollinger said. During the chase, Middletown police received a report of an alarm at the Jovi Fine Jewelry store on Route 35 near New Monmouth Road. The glass front door had been smashed, a jewelry case had been damaged and several trays of jewelry, valued at $7,000, were stolen, Dollinger said.
Spotting the van, Woodbridge police gave chase. Andreola was arrested after the van crashed in Newark, Dollinger said. He said police found the stolen jewelry in the van. Middletown police charged Andreola with burglary, theft, criminal mischief, numerous motor vehicle offenses and possession of burglary tools, said Dollinger. Woodbridge police charged him with possession of stolen property, eluding and resisting arrest.
Story is here.
Former Bridgeton cop confesses to New Jersey, Pennsylvania bank robberies
A former Bridgeton police officer, who served prison time for official misconduct, has confessed to seven bank robberies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including two robberies of the same Millville bank, according to authorities in Pennsylvania. Carl Holliday, 33, confessed Thursday to eight robberies, including one at a drug store, police in White Haven, Pa., confirmed Friday afternoon. Two of the alleged robberies occurred at the TD Bank branch on Second Street in Millville.
Around 4:15 p.m. Thursday, a man who had been present at the Nov. 18 robbery of a PNC Bank in White Haven, noticed the same gold-colored Honda Accord parked outside of the same bank. The car did not have license plates. The witness called police, who pulled over the car for the plate violation. Holliday was identified as the driver. White Haven police took him into custody and met with FBI agents at the White Haven police station.
Shupp said that while talking to White Haven police and FBI agents, Holliday confessed to robbing six banks and a Rite Aid. In Pennsylvania, he said he had robbed banks in Allentown, Quakertown and White Haven, where he also robbed a Rite Aid drug store, according to police. He said he had robbed banks in New Jersey in Paulsboro, Harrison Township and Millville. Specific dates and locations of those robberies were not released.
The Millville TD Bank was robbed twice in less than 20 days last fall, on Oct. 15 and Nov. 4. At the time, authorities said they believed those robberies were committed by the same person. Shupp said that it was through extensive efforts by White Haven Officer Thomas Szoke, whose idea it was to institute a neighborhood watch program in White Haven, as well as the reporting resident, that the case was solved as fast as it was.
He said he was taken to the Federal Courthouse for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Scranton, and was arraigned Friday afternoon on one charge of bank robbery in relation to the robbery of the PNC Bank in White Haven. He was formerly an officer with Millville, the Bridgeton Board of Education, and most recently the Bridgeton Police Department. Holliday’s tenure in Bridgeton came to an end following a November 2006 incident, in which he and Gregory Willis, who were on duty in an unmarked police vehicle, arrested Rigoverto Diaz. Holliday told the man in Spanish they were taking him home. While driving with Diaz, he and Willis pulled over a man for suspicion of drunken driving. The man was the brother of another police officer, and rather than arrest him, Holliday and Willis dropped him off at another bar.
After dropping the man off, they continued with Diaz to Bridgeton City Park, where Holliday allegedly punched and kicked him, and stole his wallet, cell phone and hat.
Diaz reported the incident to the Bridgeton police. Willis and Holliday eventually pleaded to second-degree official misconduct for not arresting the drunken man, though they never actually pleaded to anything involving their alleged robbing of Diaz. Willis was sentenced to three years in state prison and Holliday to three and a half, though both were released into an intensive supervision program after about only three months in the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown. The ISP included mandatory employment, curfews, drug tests and community service.
Story is here.
Howell teen pleads guilty to vehicular homicide in crash that killed friend, injured three
An 18-year-old Howell man admitted smoking marijuana and drinking before driving a car on March 21, causing an accident that killed a Freehold man and injured three people. Michael Woehrle pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, assault by auto, driving while intoxicated and violating the state’s driver’s license rules. His car collided with a car heading north on Route 9, killing his passenger and injuring the three occupants of the other car.
Story is here.
Man hailed as hero for stopping ‘portal to hell’ attack in Union Township
When Hernan Agudelo looked out his sunroom window Friday into a dark morning, he had trouble seeing what was unfolding in his neighbors’ yard. But he knew something was terribly wrong. The 33-year-old husband and father walked out the front door of his Union Township house, went around the fence and into a yard strewn with items cleared out of a shed. There, he said, he witnessed a nightmare scene: A strange man was attacking one of his neighbors with a 10-inch, double-bladed knife.
Agudelo walked to his car, grabbed a small souvenir baseball bat, then returned to the backyard, where he swung for the attacker’s head, cracking it open, police said. He then tackled the man and held him until police arrived. Agudelo interrupted a bizarre attack, one that left two women near death, their bodies riddled with knife and hatchet wounds allegedly inflicted by Morgan Mesz, a 25-year-old who claimed he had been searching for “the portal to hell,” according to police.
Both women — 53-year-old Carolyn Bunnell and 50-year-old Barbara Perrine — were listed in critical condition last night in University Hospital in Newark. The two encountered Mesz after noticing all the things had been taken out of their shed and tossed into their yard township Police Director Dan Zieser said. Mesz, who lives on nearby Nottingham Way with a girlfriend, repeatedly stabbed both women until Agudelo intervened, Zieser said.
When officers arrived, the suspect was walking toward the front yard, blood running down his body, and Agudelo was screaming for them to stop him, the police director said. Mesz received stitches at the hospital and underwent a mental evaluation.
Story is here.
Heroin, cash, paraphernalia seized in Toms River
Police seized hundreds of bags of of heroin, thousands of dollars in cash and arrested a Philadelphia man late Thursday evening, said officials. Detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Operations Group and Toms River police executed a search warrant at the Holiday Inn on Route 37 and seized approximately 250 bags of heroin, $7,000 and drug paraphernalia associated with the operation of a drug production facility such as grinders, sifters, scales and thousands of empty, unused wax paper folds and rubber bands used to package drugs including heroin, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
Ahmed Young, 50, of Newhall Street in Philadelphia, was arrested at the Ocean County Mall on Hooper Avenue during the raid. Young was charged with possession of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, operating and maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was transported to Ocean County Jail, here, with bail set at $175,000 cash only.
Story is here.
Long Branch woman accused of robbing elderly woman in parking lot
A Long Branch woman was arrested after police say she robbed an elderly woman in a business parking lot Wednesday. Police were called to a Sears Department Store parking lot at Seaview Square Mall on Route 66 around 1:20 p.m. regarding a robbery. Officer Trevor Dickerson met with a 77-year-old woman who said she was sitting in her parked car when a beige minivan pulled up behind her. The driver, later identified as Jessica Figueroa, walked up to the woman’s car and opened the front passenger’s door, according to Peters.
The elderly woman was startled and Figueroa was able to grab her purse from the seat before running back to the minivan, Peters said. The woman ran after Figueroa and stood in front of the minivan demanding that Figueroa return her purse, according to Peters. The woman pounded her fists on the hood of Figueroa’s vehicle but Figueroa put it in reverse and backed away from the woman before speeding out of the parking lot.
The woman and a store employee who witnessed the incident and came to help, both reported the minivan’s license plate number to police, Peters said. Detectives Patrick Martin and Jeffrey Malone went to the address register to the vehicle and Figueroa pulled up shortly after them, Peters said. She was charged with robbery.
Story is here.
Jersey City cab driver acquitted of charges he held senior citizen hostage in taxi
A Jersey City cab driver was found not guilty today of allegations he locked a 77-year-old passenger in his cab after refusing to accept the man’s senior discount fare. During the trial Abdalziz testified he drove Harkins to Kennedy Boulevard and Fairmont Avenue on April 9 and upon arrival Harkins showed him a senior citizen card and in keeping with city policy, offered Abdalziz half the $4.50 fare. The driver said he demanded identification and when Harkins said he had none on him, he refused to accept the discounted fare. Abdalziz said Harkins told him he’d had the same problem with a cab driver previously and said he was calling police. Instead, the cabbie told Harkins to stay in the car and he called police himself.
Abdalziz testified, and the judge agreed, that Harkins was free to leave the cab at any time. Abad said Harkins said he wanted to wait for police anyway. The arriving officers filed no charges against driver or passenger and Abdalziz accepted Harkins’ $2.25 fare, which was handed to him by the officers. After today’s verdict, Harkins said he was shocked Abad ignored his testimony stating the Abdalziz had locked him in the cab and repeatedly refused to let him out.
Abdalziz was represented by Jersey City Attorney Patrick G Patel.
Story is here.
Tonacchio Law LC 