On Sept. 18 at 11:21 a.m., Officers Luis Moran, Esteban Gonzalez, Mina Ekladious, Det. Mike Farinola and Capt. Paul Bershefski responded to a private home on a report of a stabbing.
There, a 21-year-old Kearny man had a substantial stab wound to his left shoulder and told police it happened during the course of a street robbery at a different Kearny location. The man was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to a local hospital for treatment.
En route to hospital, the man allegedly changed his story, telling an officer his girlfriend had stabbed him with a kitchen knife while inside their apartment.
Officers located the girlfriend, a 21-year-old Kearny woman, who he told police her boyfriend held her against her will inside their apartment after an argument, thwarting her attempts to escape through the door and through a window. At some point a knife came into play and the woman sustained a minor, self-inflicted cut on her forearm.
After consulting with a prosecutor, officers charged the man with false imprisonment and harassment. He was also held on a Fairfield arrest warrant for a prior DWI charge. The warrant carried a $1,500 bail.
On Sept. 17 at 5:57 a.m., Officers Luis Moran and Jose Resua and Sgt. Phil Finch were dispatched to an Amazon facility on Central Avenue for a report of an employee dispute. A manager alleged to officers that employee Shatara K. Kirk, 20, of East Orange, had yelled at, and been aggressive toward, another manager who had tried to speak with the employee about her work performance.
Kirk allegedly flipped over tables after the manager began speaking to her. Kirk was advised that she had to leave and was no longer welcome on Amazon property.
Sometime after the officers left, Amazon management called the police to report that Kirk had returned to the property with another woman. The officers returned and found Kirk on the property. She was then arrested and charged with defiant trespass.
After requesting medical aid, an EMS crew was summoned, but Kirk then refused their assistance. She was later released from the police station with a summons.
On Sept. 18 at 11:01 a.m., Officers Ellesse Ogando and John Donovan were dispatched to Walmart for a report of a shoplifter. The officers received a secondary call en route reporting Walmart released the alleged shoplifter after she claimed she had a gun.
Officers found the woman in the parking lot, who reportedly became argumentative when the officers took standard safety precautions to avoid being shot.
The woman, identified later as Teemiere T. Goldsbury-Parks, 36, of Irvington, was confirmed by management to have been the woman about whom they called. However, police found no gun on her. A follow-up investigation indicated the woman had made a statement to a Walmart employee that the employee interpreted to mean she was carrying a gun.
Walmart detailed to officers Goldsbury-Parks allegedly concealed bananas, a chicken sandwich, hot dogs, a soda and Cheetos, in a shopping bag and then tried to leave the store without paying the $9.02 retail value.
Goldsbury-Parks was charged on a warrant with shoplifting and remanded to the Hudson County jail in South Kearny.
On Sept. 18 at 10:32 p.m., Officer Chris Montes responded to Boa Vista restaurant on Kearny Avenue on a report of a man breaking in through the front door. When the officer arrived, an employee ran out of the restaurant crying. Bystanders who had seen the suspect’s actions before the officer arrived pleaded with Officer Montes to wait for backup before approaching the man (Whomever these bystanders were, thank you for looking out for our officer’s safety).
The officer looked in and reportedly saw the suspect prying at a cash register drawer with a pair of scissors. When Officers Bryan San Martin and Jose Castillo joined Montes, the troika entered the small restaurant and the suspect ran out the back door and into a rear yard. The officers flanked him in adjacent yards and, seeing this, the suspect put up his hands in surrender and was arrested without further incident.
Officers arrested Juan L. Bonilla, 29, of Kearny, who they charged with robbery and criminal mischief (related to his allegedly breaking a chair and damaging a door and a cash register). He was remanded to the county jail.
On Sept. 21 at 5:48 p.m., Dets. Tim Castle, Dave Bush and Mike Andrews pulled over a 1999 grey Toyota Camry near 22 Passaic Ave. for displaying different front and rear license plates. A computer check of the rear plate showed it registered to a black 2008 Chrysler while the front plate was not on file with the Motor Vehicle Commission.
Driver Kevin Creech, 42, of Newark, who was driving with a 3-year-old child in the car, allegedly had a suspended license and no proof of registration or insurance. While searching for an insurance card, the detectives saw steel wool inside the glove box, which they associated as commonly being used as a filter to smoke narcotics with a pipe. They also saw a pill bottle containing two oxycodone/acetaminophen tablets.
Arrangements were made for a family member to take custody of the child. Creech was arrested on charges of possession of a schedule narcotic and drug paraphernalia, driving with a suspended license and the display of fictitious plates.
He was remanded to the county jail.
On Sept. 22 at 3:58 p.m., Officers Jason Rodrigues, Ekladious and Capt. Bershefski responded to Buy-Rite Liquors on Harrison Avenue on a report of a fight inside the store. An employee told the officers a woman, who had already fled, concealed a $30 bottle of Absolut vodka in her purse.
When the employee confronted the woman about the purloined aqua vitae, she allegedly pushed the employee, claimed the bottle was hers and then threatened to come back the next day and “F” him up. The woman then reportedly put the bottle back on a shelf and fled on foot.
The officers searched the area but could not locate the woman, but 20 minutes after they left, police dispatch received a call reporting the woman returned and had just entered an employment agency next to the liquor store.
Officer Rodrigues and back-up officers found the woman inside the employment agency. She was identified as Melisha T. Hogan, 36, of Newark. An agency employee said she was unaware of the liquor store incident and Hogan was at her agency demanding pay from a past job.
An officer told Hogan she was under arrest for her actions at the liquor store.
Spoiler alert: this news was not well-received.
Hogan allegedly refused to get up from her chair, and then she began to fight. A piece of furniture was damaged in the process. The officers eventually handcuffed Hogan and had to carry her out to a police car. An officer found that the bag she carried was lined with aluminum – a method commonly used by thieves to defeat anti-shoplifting alarms.
Hogan was charged with robbery, resisting arrest and use of an anti-shoplifting countermeasure in a store. She allegedly kicked at her holding cell doors for a while before requesting medical attention for a sore wrist. Hogan was treated at a local hospital and then held, pending a court hearing.
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Capt. Timothy Wagner | Kearny Police Department
Capt. Timothy Wagner is the Kearny Police Department's public-information officer and the commander of the department's Internal Affairs Unit. He contributes the KPD Blotter weekly and writes it completely.