Three female employees of Walmart were arrested Jan. 14 after one of them allegedly used a cell phone to film a 16-year-old shopper using the ladies’ restroom at the Kearny store, police reported.
At 8:15 p.m., KPD Officers Daniel Esteves and Andre Fernandes and Sgt. Dave Rakowski responded to the store to meet with a Newark woman and her teenage daughter. The girl reported that, while she was in a toilet stall, she saw the cell phone being held over the top of the partition from the adjoining stall, police said.
Reportedly there were three individuals involved in the incident, all of them wearing what appeared to be clothing with Walmart ensignias.
The Kearny officers met with store management and security, viewed in-house video, identified the suspects and determined they were still on the premises.
Taken into custody were Rashonda Solomon, 24, of Bloomfield; Jasmine Williams, 22, of Newark, and Katina Robertson, 19, of Newark. All three were charged with conspiracy. In addition, Solomon and Williams were charged with invasion of privacy. Police said Solomon also had an outstanding $5,000 assault warrant out of Newark.
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Other recent reports from the Kearny police blotter included the following:
Jan. 14
At 3:15 p.m., Officers Esteves and Fernandes stopped a 2003 Honda on Marshall St. near Passaic Ave. when they noticed that its two passengers were not wearing seatbelts. They also did a warrant check and found that one of the passengers, Charles Brunson, 27, of Newark, was the subject of a no-bail, child-neglect warrant from Morris County, police said. He was arrested and taken to headquarters to await pick-up by Morris authorities.
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Officers Dominic Dominguez and Jonathan Dowie were conducting random registration checks at Harrison and Bergen Aves. at 5:30 p.m., when they were alerted that the registered owner of a 2015 Toyota had both a suspended license and a $400 MV violations warrant from Secaucus. Owner/driver Tommy Pham, 21, of Jersey City, was arrested and later posted bail.
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Also at 5:30 p.m., Officers Jordenson Jean and Sean Wilson were on patrol at Kearny Ave. and the Belleville Pike when they observed Luciano Yuelling, 32, of Kearny, whom they knew to have a $250 East Newark ordinance-violation warrant, police said. He was arrested and taken to HQ, and East Newark was notified. (See Jan. 19 for an encore appearance.)
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Headquarters got a 6:40 p.m. call that a man had smashed a store window with his fist on the 300 block of Kearny Ave. Officers Sean Kelly and Michael Gontarczuk responded and got the suspect’s description. KPD units checked the area and found that a man matching the description had been ejected from a saloon shortly before the window incident.
Subsequently, Officers Pat Becker and Alan Stickno spotted the suspect back on Kearny Ave., and he was identified by the person who had called in the report, police said. They arrested Anthony Cain, 45, of Kearny, for criminal mischief and also learned that he had a $1,000 assault warrant from Kearny. Kearny Municipal Court Judge Thomas D. McKeon tacked on another $10,000.
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Shortly after 9 p.m., Officers Jean and Wilson saw a 2008 Infiniti reportedly speeding north on Kearny Ave. near Columbia Ave. Conducting an MV stop, police said, they detected the odor of marijuana and inside the car saw several green beer bottles, a clear baggie and an empty cigar package. Driver Jorge Fernandez, 19, of Kearny, was charged with possession of pot, careless driving and having an open container of alcohol in an MV.
Jan. 15
At about 5 p.m., Det. Michael Farinola was on E. Midland Ave., where he observed Alex Lado, 20, of Kearny and saw what appeared to be a hypodermic needle protruding from his pants pocket, police said. Lado was charged with possession of a syringe and was released on a summons.
Jan. 16
Officers Jose Perez-Fonseca and Cesar Negron, responding to a 9 a.m. report of a theft of a cell phone from a truck near ShopRite, searched the area and, on Marshall St., detained Luis Roman, 37, of Kearny, for questioning. Police said it was not determined if Roman was involved in the theft, but he was arrested – on a $260 Nut ley traffic warrant and a $110 ordinance-violation warrant from Elizabeth.
Jan. 19
Shortly after 8 p.m., Sgt. Charles Smith and Officers Esteves, Fernandes, Wilson and Luis Moran responded to a complaint that individuals “who did not belong there” had entered the cellar of a multi-family home near Kearny and Johnston Aves. In that cellar, police reportedly found three people, including Luciano Yuelling, 32, of Kearny. Yuelling, in a dispute with the complainant, had allegedly threatened to burn down the dwelling. He was arrested on a charge of making terroristic threats, taken to HQ and held pending transfer to the Hudson County Jail on $1,000 bail.
– Karen Zautyk
