On Dec. 4 at 1:57 a.m., Officer Kevin Matos was patrolling Fish House Road near Route 7 and came upon a Ford Fusion stopped and idling in the roadway facing oncoming traffic. When the officer shined his flashlight into the Ford, he saw its driver slumped over the center console, apparently unconscious.
After much difficulty rousing the driver, Officer Matos opened the driver’s door and eventually woke him, but not for long. Several times, driver Shaheed E. Shannon, 22, of Irvington, reportedly was awakened, slurred a mumbled garble and then went back to sleep.
Officer Matos finally got Shannon to his feet, where he reportedly swayed heavily. The officer smelled alcohol on his breath and saw an empty airplane bottle of vodka on the front passenger seat. He arrested Shannon and brought him to the police station for breath testing. After testing, Officer Matos charged Shannon with DWI, reckless driving, leaving a vehicle standing in a roadway, open container of alcohol in a vehicle, delaying traffic and failure to keep right.
At about 4:45 a.m., while Officer Matos was completing John’s Law (release) paperwork with a person Shannon summoned to pick him up, Shannon allegedly lowered his jeans to the floor, spread his legs toward Capt. Dave Feldhan and began manipulating his genitals through a hole in his long johns. It reportedly took several pleas from the officers for Shannon to put himself away. Eventually he did and was released — with an additional summons for lewdness.
On Dec. 2 at 8:36 p.m., Officer Bryan San Martin was dispatched to the 10 Spot store on Passaic Avenue for a shoplifting complaint. Store employees reported Imoni E. Gilmore, 25, of East Orange, concealed $106.96 worth of boots, jeans and sweaters in a large purse and tried to leave the store without paying. The store manager, a 40-year-old Newark woman, confronted Gilmore at the exit when anti-shoplifting alarms sounded.
When confronted, Gilmore reportedly pushed the store manager leading to a brawl.
During the fight, a second store employee, a 20-year-old Newark woman, saw a pair of stolen store pants protruding from Gilmore’s bag and snatched them back. Gilmore allegedly responded by punching the woman in the face, causing a bloody mess.
Gilmore left before police were called.
Det. Jordenson Jean and Officer San Martin took the store employees to the police station for further investigation. While there, they were notified Gilmore returned to the store. San Martin and several officers went to the 10 Spot and arrested her.
They charged Gilmore with robbery, shoplifting and simple assault and placed her into the Hudson County Jail in South Kearny.
On the morning of Dec. 3, Det. Jonathan Dowie, Sgt. Neil Nelson and Officer Ryan Brady assisted detectives from the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) in executing a search warrant at a Devon Terrace home.
After executing the warrant, detectives arrested Adam J. Motichka, 30, of Kearny, based on information developed in the DCJ investigation. Motichka was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, third degree (N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(5)(b)); and endangering the welfare of a child, second degree (N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4b(5)(a)(i)).
On Dec. 4 at 9:28 a.m., Officers Anthony Nunez, Harold Azurdia, Sean Podolski, and Lt. Brian Wisely were summoned to a private home where a 30-year-old woman told them that she allowed Luis G. Alonso, 30 of Kearny, to crash at her place for a few days, but she wanted him out. The woman verbalized several criminal allegations but refused to pursue them formally.
While investigating, the officers learned that Alonso was subject to an outstanding Kearny arrest warrant for contempt stemming from an unrelated incident in November. Officer arrested Alonso at the scene without incident. They later transferred him to the county jail in South Kearny.
On Dec. 6 at 12:57 a.m., Officer Matos was observing traffic near the Belleville Turnpike and Elm Street where he heard the growl of an accelerating engine coming down the Pike. He watched as a black Honda Civic passed him at a high speed, so the officer followed the Civic east on the Pike, pacing him at 50 mph. in a 30 mph. zone.
He pulled over the Civic near Barczewski Street.
Driver Steven M. Morales, 30, of Jersey City, handed Officer Matos a state identification card instead of a driver’s license. His license was later found to have been suspended. Dispatch advised the officer that the temporary registration tag on Morales’s Honda was associated with a Tesla registered out of Lyndhurst.
Lyndhurst police assisted by finding that Tesla and confirming that it still had its legitimate temporary tag displayed on it.
Officer Matos arrested Morales on charges of driving with a suspended license, fictitious plates, unregistered vehicle and careless driving.
Morales was later released.
On Dec. 7 at 9:04 p.m., Officers Anthony Oliveira, Nick Funk and Sgt. Ben Wuelfing were dispatched to a private home on a domestic dispute. There, they learned a married couple got into an argument over the husband’s disciplinary philosophy with their daughter, who reportedly was being disobedient.
During the argument, the wife allegedly struck the husband in the face with a soda can, causing a bloody cut near the husband’s eye. The husband then allegedly spit on the wife. Officers arrested the 39-year-old wife for simple assault under domestic violence laws. She was charged on a summons and later released.
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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.