A ShopRite “shopper” who tried to avoid check-out checked into the Hudson County Jail on $50,000 bail (full, no 10%) after she threw a — to put it mildly — hissy fit at the store, assaulting an off-duty officer in the process, Kearny police reported.
Police said Lt. John Taylor was on off-duty detail at the supermarket at 8:15 p.m., July 13, when he noticed a woman with a bag of merchandise standing inside near the entrance door. Suspicion was that she was waiting until someone came in, at which point she could slip out the open door with unpaid-for goods.
That reportedly is what happened, but Taylor followed, advised her of his observation and told her she needed to go back inside. Police said her response was that she was “not going anywhere.”
To achieve voluntary compliance, Taylor placed a hand on her shoulder to guide her back in. Police said her response was, “Get your (obscenity) hands off me.”
When suspect Katherine Bell, 20, of Newark, was then told she was under arrest for shoplifting, she reportedly became loud and aggressive, threw the merchandise on the ground and waved her arms to avoid being handcuffed.
After a brief struggle, and as onlookers were gathering, Taylor got her cuffed, radioed headquarters and began leading her to the security office.
Police said Bell then managed to slip out of one cuff and began to punch and kick Taylor, who forced her to the ground and resecured the restraints, injuring his hand in the process.
Officers David Bush and Michael Gontarczuk arrived and took Bell into custody and to HQ, where she was charged with robbery, resisting arrest, escape and aggravated assault. At 3 a.m., she was transferred to the county jail.
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Other recent reports from the Kearny police blotter included the following:
July 13
Officer Jordenson Jean, on patrol on Passaic Ave. near the Belleville Pike at 10:10 a.m., observed a 2008 Toyota with an obstructed windshield but reportedly was not able to get the driver to stop until the car crossed the bridge and turned onto Main St. in Belleville.
Jean was advised that the vehicle’s registration was expired, and as he waited for a tow truck to take the car to impound, he ran a warrant check on driver Marcelo Balarezo, 30, of Belleville. Police said the man had two, both for driving while suspended: $1,000 (full) out of Ringwood, and $500 (full) from Mount Olive. He was arrested on those and given summonses for failure to provide proof of insurance and registration and for the windshield violation.
July 14
Officer Jon Dowie, at Wilson Ave. and Maple St. at 2:10 a.m., was alerted by his on-board computer that the owner/operator of a passing 1997 Honda — Franklin Lugo-Valdez, 41, of Kearny — had three East Newark traffic warrants. When Dowie stopped the auto, police said, he detected the odor of marijuana and, in plain view inside, saw a plastic bag containing suspected pot and a Poco Loco blunt cigar, “commonly used to ingest” the drug. Lugo-Valdez was arrested on the warrants and also charged with possession of pot and drug paraphernalia and possession of a CDS in a motor vehicle. The East Newark PD was notified.
July 15
The scent of marijuana reportedly was also in the air at 1 a.m. at Harrison and Schuyler Aves., where Dowie pulled over a 2008 Hyundai for an illegal turn off Bergen Ave. Police said a drawstring bag containing a plastic bag of pot and a prescription bottle with Oxycodone were on the passenger-side floor. Back-up Officer Bush also reportedly spotted four joints in an open ashtray and a large bag of small, empty ziplocks.
Driver Jose Lourosa-Almeida, 18, of Newark, was charged with possession of pot and paraphernalia and got a summons for turning without signaling. The passenger, a 16-year-old Newark male, was charged as a juvenile with the same drug offenses and was released to the custody of his mother.
July 16
At 1:20 p.m., Officer Sean Kelly saw a 1997 Mitsubishi heading north on Kearny Ave. at Quincy Ave. — in the parking lane. He stopped it at Midland Ave. and Chestnut St., where the driver, who could produce no license or ID, identified himself as Ali McCoy of Charlotte, N.C., police said. However, neither Kelly nor HQ could find any record of such a person in N.J. or N.C.
The officer then separately questioned the female passenger, who reportedly said she did not know the man’s true identity, “but she did know he was lying.” The KPD arranged transportation for her to get her wherever it was she was going. And the driver, when told he would be fingerprinted, admitted that he was really Shaheed Williams, 32, of Newark.
Williams was charged with driving while suspended (which apparently is why he lied), driving an uninsured vehicle, hindering apprehension, failure to signal, and passing on the right.
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Officers Mina Ekladious and Darwin Paulino responded to a 10 p.m. domestic violence complaint on the 100 block of Highland Ave. and arrested Jorge Ovando-Ramirez, 43, of Kearny, for alleged simple assault. Police said he was then found to be in possession of two Social Security cards and a resident alien card — all of them fraudulent. He was additionally charged with three counts of exhibiting false documents and was later released on bail ($1,000/10%).
July 17
Shortly before midnight, Officer Ekladious observed Victor Ferrer-Hernandez, 32, of Harrison, riding a bicycle at Halstead St. and Brighton Ave. and arrested him on an $850 North Bergen warrant. He was taken to HQ and the North Bergen PD was notified.
— Karen Zautyk
