By Karen Zautyk
KEARNY –
Some people are just asking to be arrested.
At 2:30 a.m. last Friday, the Kearny police desk received a report from a concerned citizen about a “commotion” on Forest St., just outside headquarters.
Upon investigating, Officer Wayne Shivers found four Kearny males – along with a parked KPD patrol car with a dented roof. According to Police Chief John Dowie, one of the group fit the caller’s description of a person who had been jumping up and down on said roof.
Dowie said the 20-year-old suspect admitted to being the culprit. He was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.
In the same “asking to be . . .” category is the Kearny mother who was allegedly shooting up heroin while she waited to pick up her child from Franklin School.
Dowie said the 40-year-old woman was spotted by vice detectives at 2:45 p.m., Sept. 16, in a parked car on Ivy St. near Bergen Ave. as she “began to inject a fully-loaded syringe into her arm.”
Also reportedly found in the vehicle were another syringe, an empty glassine envelope believed to have contained heroin, and a bottle cap that police suspect might have been used to “cook” the drug.
The suspect reportedly told the officers she was in the area to pick up her child. They said they would arrange for the child’s father to do that. Police also contacted the state Division of Youth and Family Services.
The woman was charged with possession of heroin, the syringe and drug paraphernalia. Dowie said she was also wanted on two outstanding Kearny warrants, one from Bayonne, and a no-bail warrant out of Hudson County.
In other Kearny police news: At 8 p.m., Sept. 15, Officers Patrick Walsh and Peter Jahera responded to the report of a women screaming in the street and frightening a group of juveniles in the area of Garfield and Kearny Aves. When they arrived, she was not there, but a drunken man emerged from a liquor store (carrying the intriguing combination of a bottle of Georgi vodka and a bag of Skittles) and began spewing obscenities at the juveniles, Dowie said. The 48-year-old Kearny resident was arrested for disorderly conduct.
Meanwhile, his “lady” friend, 33 and from Harrison, also came out of the store and allegedly started screaming at the group. When efforts to calm her were futile, Dowie said, Walsh tried to cuff her, but she would not cooperate and fell to the ground in a fetal position. Eventually, the cops got her into the patrol car. She was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
At 2:30 a.m., Sept.17, Officers Christian Medina and Dean Gasser were at the U.S. Postal facility on Harrison Ave., where they had resolved a dispute, when they were asked to help with a car that was parked in the driveway and blocking the postal trucks. Inside the vehicle, they found a 47-year-old Newark man, sound asleep.
Awakened and asked for his I.D., he first stuck his hand into the air conditioning vent to find it, police said.
Taken into custody and given an alcohol test, he only feigned giving a breath sample – three times, Dowie said. He was charged with DWI and refusal to give that sample.
Just a half-hour later, at 3 a.m., Sgt. John Becker was on patrol on Midland Ave. when he saw a silver BMW travelling east at (for a change) a very slow rate of speed. Near Chestnut St., it crossed into the westbound lane. Becker stopped the car and found a 24-year-old Newark man who reportedly reeked of alcohol, was slurring his speech and had trouble standing.
The BMW was impounded and the driver taken to HQ, where he was charged with DWI, careless driving and refusal to take an alcohol test.
A 20-year-old from Harrison was arrested at 4 p.m. Sept.17 near the railroad tracks at the foot of Sanford Ave. by Officer Mike Andrews, who reportedly saw him discard several small ziplocks containing marijuana. He was issued summonses for possession of the drug and of paraphernalia.
The following day, at 3:30 p.m., Officer Cesar Negron responded to a report of hypodermic needles having been found on a porch on Madison Ave. The occupant of the home said they had heard people on the porch the night before but did not call the cops. Negron inventoried the syringes and turned them in.
(Note to the general public: If strangers are sitting on your porch in the middle of the night – or anytime, really, if they are shooting up – it is a good idea to alert authorities. At that point in time.)
Occupants of a multi-family residence on Kearny Ave. near Dukes St. reported a trespasser inside the building at 8 a.m. Sept. 19. Officers Tom Bannon and Rene Crawford found a 35-year-old Harrison man sitting on the steps in a rear hallway.
Police said he had no legitimate or logical explanation for being there.
He was issued a summons for defiant trespass and was released.
Twelve hours later, at 8 p.m., P.O. Mike Andrews found the same man standing outside the same building and drinking a beer. Asked why he had returned, the man reportedly said he was not aware he was in the same place. This time, he walked away with a summons for public consumption of alcohol.
A mother-son dispute Sept. 19 led to the arrest of a 29-year-old currently homeless Kearny man in connection with a jewelry theft.
Officer Neil Nelson went to a Spruce St. home at 4 p.m. that day to mediate the argument. The mother alleged that the son, who no longer lived there, had stolen a watch, Dowie said. Taken into custody for obstructing the administration of law – for repeatedly ignoring the officer’s orders – the son was brought to HQ, where he confessed to a theft at a John St. home he had been visiting the week before, the chief said.
Police reportedly recovered 50 pieces of jewelry, which were retrieved by their owner. The suspect was charged with receiving stolen property.
Over the Sept. 17-18 weekend, authorities had put out a BOLO on a stolen F150 Ford pickup that police had chased up the Turnpike from Woodbridge but had lost in Newark. At 9:10 p.m. Sept. 19, it was found by Kearny P.O. John Fabula, abandoned but with its engine still running, on Harrison Ave. near Rt. 280. It was towed to the KPD garage and held for CSI processing.
Officers Sean Kelly and Peter Jahera responded to a two-car accident at Bergen and Brighton Aves. at 9:30 p.m., Sept. 20. They reportedly detected a heavy odor of alcohol on one of the drivers, a 43-year-old Kearny man, who was arrested on charges of DWI and careless driving. Police said the other motorist, a 28-year-old Kearny woman, was not injured in the mishap.
On Sept. 21, at 7 p.m., Officer Kelly was in the Quick Chek on Kearny Ave. when he saw a man he knew to have a history of petty theft in town, Dowie reported. The individual, who appeared to be trying to hide in a corner, allegedly began discarding cans of Red Bull from his jacket – and then started writing something on a piece of paper.
Confronted by the officer, the 28-year-old from Newark explained that he was just jotting down the prices of items he intended to purchase in the future.
The comparison-shopping defense did not fly and the suspect was arrested on a charge of shoplifting – as well as on an outstanding warrant from Newark. For shoplifting.
