On Sunday, Jan. 22, at 1 a.m., four KPD members — Sgt. Jack Corbett and Officers Sean Podolski, David Bush and Jonathan Dowie — responded to Walmart on a report of a man and a woman cutting open packages within the store.
The KPD located the couple and escorted them to the loss-prevention office, where the man reportedly turned over one pair of $10 Skullkandy headphones.
Police said the woman admitted she was attempting to steal a similar item but realized she was under surveillance. Police also said that Walmart obtained the duo’s identifications so they could be barred from the store in the future but declined to press charges. Which is why, in this article, the man must remain nameless and can be ID’d only as a 26-year-old Union resident.
His companion, however, can be revealed as Chantal Mitchell, 25, of Newark, because she was taken into KPD custody on a $10,000/10% Newark criminal warrant for obstructing the administration of law, police said.
After being processed at police headquarters, she advised that she had the $1,000, posted the 10% –in cash — and was released on bail. Prompting one of our sources to comment: “If she was carrying around $1,000, why was she stealing $10 headphones?” Allegedly. Discuss amongst yourselves.
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Other recent reports from the Kearny police blotter included the following:
Jan. 21
At 4 a.m., police said, Officer Dowie stopped a 2000 Honda at Kearny and New Lawn Aves., confirmed that driver Alfonso Parada’s license was suspended and also learned that the 27-year-old from Newark had a $350 Newark traffic warrant and a no-bail warrant from the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office on a drug-distribution charge. Parada was booked at HQ and sent to the Hudson County Jail.
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Officers Bush and Chris Manolis responded to a Grove St. location at 8:30 p.m. on the report from a woman of a restraining-order violation by her former significant other, who had been seen in the area. Returning to their cars after interviewing the complainant, the cops spotted the ex – Michael Alves, 32, of Kearny – who began to run, police said. Following a foot pursuit along Kearny Ave., Quincy Ave. and Chestnut St., Alves was caught near Town Hall Park, charged with contempt of court and resisting arrest, and transferred to the county jail.
Jan. 22
Responding to a 3:30 a.m. accident at Quincy Ave. and Forest St., Sgt. Corbett and Officers Bush, Derek Hemphill and Chris Medina arrived to find Danniliz Lopez, 34, of Kearny, yelling in the intersection, police said. Lopez had reportedly been driving a 2017 Acura west on Quincy when she hit one parked car and pushed it into another. Following field sobriety tests, she was charged with DWI, careless driving and refusing an Alcotest.
Jan. 23
Shortly after midnight, Officer Michael Gontarczuk stopped a 1997 Honda for running a stop sign at Devon St. and Columbia Ave., detected the odor of marijuana and subsequently recovered a joint, rolling papers and four oxycodone pills from the car, police said. Anis Singh, 27, of Teaneck, was charged with possession of the drugs and paraphernalia and got summonses for having a CDS in a MV and the stop sign violation.
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Back on patrol at 2:30 a.m., Gontarczuk observed a 1997 Nissan (with a tail-light violation) at first driving “extremely slowly” on Madison Ave., then “speeding up significantly” and heading north on Passaic Ave. He stopped it at the Pike, checked both the driver and passenger for warrants, and found that the latter – who ID’d himself as Ivory Jackson, 40, of Newark – was wanted on a $50 ordinance violation in that city, police said. At HQ, Jackson’s first name was found to be “Ivy,” and under that moniker he reportedly had a $250 Newark ordinance warrant. He was charged on both and with hindering apprehension and having an open container of alcohol (E&G Brandy) in the car and ended up in the county jail.
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At 9 a.m., HQ received a call from a concerned citizen that someone was climbing the fire escape of a multi-family building on the 100 block of Beech St. Officer Giovanni Rodriguez interviewed the caller, got a description of the suspect and issued a BOLO. Officer Philip Finch and Dets. Ramon Lopez and Michael Farinola located Kelvin Mayo, 19, of Kearny, near the military park on Beech and charged him with trespassing and possession of pot/paraphernalia – the latter stemming from the digital scale, plastic pill pouches and pot found in a backpack he had allegedly discarded prior to his flight.
Jan. 25
Officers Patrick Becker, Jay Ward and Sean Wilson responded to a 5 p.m. report of an altercation between a group of juveniles and an adult male on the 600 block of Schuyler Ave. and found the kids still there but the man gone. The group said it had been a verbal argument and that the man had threatened them.
John Vasquez 38, of Newark, found walking on Schuyler, was arrested when a warrant check showed he had a $100 (full) one from Caldwell on an assault charge. He was released after posting bail.
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At 9:30 p.m., Vice officers stopped Jorge Martinez, 30, of Kearny, at Belgrove Drive and Lincoln Ave., confiscated two plastic bags of marijuana and arrested him on a pot/paraphernalia charge, police reported.
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Vice, on Bergen Ave. at 10:20 p.m., stopped a 1999 Saturn whose driver was not wearing a seatbelt, detected the aroma of pot and arrested passenger Irvin Cook, 28, of New Brunswick, who police said admitted to being the owner of three plastic bags of weed in the car. The driver got a seatbelt summons. Cook got a room in the county jail.
– Karen Zautyk
