On July 23 at 4:27 a.m., Officer Jose Castillo was dispatched to a car crash at the Mandee parking lot on Chestnut Street. He found that a Mazda SUV had rolled into several parked cars. In the driver’s seat of the Mazda the officer found Cesar A. Leon-Leon, 59, of Kearny, who was described as sweating profusely.
The officer coached Leon-Leon into shifting his transmission from neutral to park and detected signs of impairment. Leon-Leon was reportedly trying to park in his rented parking space, but he was on the wrong end of the lot. Officer Castillo arrested Leon-Leon after he failed field sobriety tests.
Leon-Leon was charged with DWI, refusal to submit to breath testing, and reckless driving. He was later released with summonses.
On July 21 at 5:05 p.m., Officers Jordan Miranda, Ryan Brady, Kevin Carvalho and Harold Azurdia were dispatched to a domestic dispute at a private home. Officers were met outside by a 20-year-old resident with scratches and red marks on her wrist and thighs. The injured woman told police her live-in mother beat her with a belt during an argument about marijuana use. Officers arrested the 52-year-old mother on aggravated assault and weapon charges. She was later released with a summons.
On July 23 at 4:27 a.m., Officer Jose Castillo was dispatched to a car crash at the Mandee parking lot on Chestnut Street. He found that a Mazda SUV had rolled into several parked cars. In the driver’s seat of the Mazda the officer found Cesar A. Leon-Leon, 59, of Kearny, who was described as sweating profusely.
The officer coached Leon-Leon into shifting his transmission from neutral to park and detected signs of impairment. Leon-Leon was reportedly trying to park in his rented parking space, but he was on the wrong end of the lot. Officer Castillo arrested Leon-Leon after he failed field sobriety tests.
Leon-Leon was charged with DWI, refusal to submit to breath testing, and reckless driving. He was later released with summonses.
On July 23 at 6:11 p.m., Officers Tom Collins and Bryan San Martin responded to a domestic dispute at a private home. They found a 39-year-old husband with injuries to his forearm and left eyebrow. Reportedly, the victim had an argument with his 43-year-old wife after discovering she was electronically-tracking his car to discover if he drives home after drinking at bars.
During the argument, the wife allegedly cut her husband’s eyebrow by throwing a cellular phone at his face. It was believed the injury to his arm was caused by fingernail scratches.
Officers arrested the wife for simple assault. She was later released with a summons.
On July 25 at 12:16 a.m., Officers Collins and San Martin investigated a motor vehicle crash on Hackensack Avenue. Driver Rovi Sese, 31, of Jersey City, had been stopped at a red light and was struck from behind by a Chevy SUV driven by Alan Washington, 63, of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Officer Collins arrested Sese after learning that his driver’s license was suspended and he had warrants out for his arrest from Newark and Clinton. Officers San Martin and Jose Castillo then arrested Washington after detecting signs of impairment and administering field sobriety tests.
Sese was charged by summons with driving with a suspended license. He was then turned over to Newark police. Washington was given a breath test at the police station and then charged with DWI and reckless driving. He was later released.
On July 25 at 8:30 a.m., Officer Nick Funk arrested Yasmen Eissa, 37, of Clifton, who turned herself in for an outstanding arrest summons for which she was processed and later released. The summons was generated as a result of a July 20 incident at the swimming pool at the Vermella apartment complex on Passaic Avenue.
A 55-year-old resident had called police July 20 reporting Eissa assaulted her. It was alleged Eissa had been drinking alcohol for several hours and then threw a vape pen at the victim, twice. When the victim tried to ignore her, Eissa allegedly called her “white trash” and asked other pool-goers, “Who wants to see this white trash go down?”
Eissa allegedly advanced on the victim, pulled her hair and threw her to the ground, injuring the victim’s eye. The victim filed a report and sought attention from EMS. When the victim woke up the next morning, she was unable to see out of her right eye and followed up with Det. Kyle Plaugic and Officer Harold Azurdia. After further investigation, Officer Azurdia filed a charge of aggravated assault against Eissa.
On July 26 at 4:27 p.m., Officer Kevin Carvalho was dispatched to ShopRite on a shoplifting complaint. A store manager accused Mariahdes C. Balisages, 23, of Newark, of using a self-checkout lane and failing to ring up $52.83 of food and bags before trying to leave with the merchandise.
Balisages was charged on a summons with shoplifting and later released.
On July 27 at approximately 5:30 p.m., Det. Michael Farinola arrested Nicolas Saavedra, 25, of Kearny, when he turned himself in at police headquarters. Saavedra was wanted on a theft charge for which he received a summons and was later released.
The charge stemmed from a report made April 12 by a local pest control company owner for whom Saavedra was employed to perform clerical duties. An investigation showed Saavedra diverted more than $50,000 in customer payments to his personal bank account instead of depositing them into the company’s account. It was alleged this occurred over a period exceeding two years and Saavedra then filed false records in the company’s accounting software to disguise the misappropriations.
On July 27 at 7:32 p.m., Officers Luis Cazares, Danny Maganinho, and Bryan San Martin investigated a report of a man asleep behind the wheel of a Nissan that was blocking a New Lawn Avenue driveway. The officers woke Troy D. Sweatnam, 32, of Kearny, who reportedly handed them his vehicle’s driver manual and then went back to sleep.
Awakened a second time, Sweatnam was reportedly unable to pass field sobriety tests, so officers arrested him. Incident to his arrest, officers seized a tightly-rolled dollar bill covered with drug residue, three wax folds of heroin stamped “TMT,” empty heroin wax folds, a paring knife and a serrated steak knife.
The officers learned Sweatnam was wanted by the NYPD for grand larceny and by the Belleville Municipal Court for DWI. He was charged with possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia, unlawful possession of a weapon, fugitive from justice, DWI, refusal to submit to breath testing, operating a vehicle in possession of narcotics and other traffic offenses. Sweatnam was held at the Hudson County jail.
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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.