On July 31 at 7:11 p.m., Officer Paul Duran was dispatched to meet Det. Jordenson Jean who was working a security detail at ShopRite. Det. Jean detained Javante L. Bynum, 29, of Irvington, after another customer pointed her out and described how she had just walked out of the store without paying for greeting cards, snow crab legs, and a sippy cup that she had taken.
Det. Jean stopped Bynum on the sidewalk outside the store and found she had $96.92 of unpaid-for merchandise (described above) in her possession.
At police headquarters, a dispatcher found Bynum had 96 traffic warrants out for her arrest with an aggregate bail totaling $48,000. Officer Duran was able to charge Bynum with shoplifting on a warrant to hold her at the county jail.
The officer was somehow able to articulate she might not appear for court.
On July 30 at 2:16 p.m., a 30-year-old Kearny woman walked in to police headquarters and reported to Officers Ryan Brady and Jordan Miranda she had been a victim of domestic violence a night earlier. She reported she had been letting her children’s father, a 32-year-old Kearny, man stay at her home.
Fearful of his recent erratic behavior, the victim attempted to leave the home to stay with her father for the night, but the man became suspicious she was leaving for a romantic interlude. The man reportedly reacted by threatening and insulting the victim and then punching her in the head, torso and thigh. He then shattered her cellular phone with a hammer when the phone rang.
The assailant then brandished a serrated bread knife, threatened to kill the victim and announced he would drive the victim to her father’s house. When the pair passed a marked police car, the assailant allegedly pressed the knife against the victim’s abdomen and threatened to stab her if she did anything stupid.
Upon arrival at the father’s house, the man reportedly acted like nothing was amiss and stayed the night.
The officers applied for an arrest warrant for the man, charging him with criminal restraint, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, weapon possession charges, criminal mischief, simple assault, harassment, and certain persons not to have weapons.
Later, Officers Brady, Miranda and Alan and Ryan Stickno located the defendant at his job at a local barber shop. They arrested him without incident. The defendant was later remanded to the Hudson County Jail.
On July 28 at 2:26 p.m., Officers Andre Fernandes and Sean Kelly responded to ShopRite where a store employee was detaining a woman on a shoplifting allegation. The employee accused Marianne Stabile, 55, homeless, of concealing $49.60 worth of hygiene and beauty products in her backpack and trying to make for the exit without paying.
Officers arrested Stabile on a charge of shoplifting.
She was later released from the police station with a summons.
On July 31 at 12:54 a.m., Sgt. Chris Levchak and Officers Paul Duran, Ryan Wilson, Kevin Matos, and Lawrence Latka were dispatched to a report of a possible carjacking at Wawa. A security guard met the officers and reported he had seen three males wearing all black peering into parked cars in the Wawa and adjacent Walmart parking lots.
Simultaneously, a state trooper was interviewing a woman who had flagged him down reporting three males wearing all black, masks and gloves, approached her as she was entering her car and she feared their intention had been to carjack her. Upon seeing the males approaching her, the woman about-faced and sought help from the security guard before flagging down the trooper who happened to be driving by.
A second trooper stopped a 15-year-old male and two 16-year-old males walking near 1100 Harrison Ave., who matched the description of the suspicious males. The boys were all Newark residents. KPD officers asked the complainant to view the boys in a “show-up” identification procedure, but she refused to be further involved in investigating the incident.
The boys were taken into custody for violations of the town’s juvenile curfew ordinance.
Four marijuana blunts were seized from a cigarette box in one boy’s possession. Two of the boys were later released to their parents. The third was the subject of an outstanding Essex County Family Court warrant and was therefore remanded to the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center.
Juvenile Det. Michal Gontarczuk was later able to access security camera footage and confirm that the three boys taken into custody were the same who had approached the complainant at her car.
On Aug. 1 at 3:11 a.m., Officers Ryan Wilson, Paul Duran, Angel Martinez, Janitza Aquino, Sgt. Chris Levchak and Capt. Dave Feldhan responded to a report of a domestic assault with a weapon at a private home. A 32-year-old town man reported his 35-year-old cohabitating girlfriend read his text messages while he was asleep, and apparently saw something she didn’t like.
The girlfriend allegedly began striking the victim with a cooking pot before pulling a clump of hair out of his scalp. The man did not require medical care. Officers arrested the girlfriend for aggravated assault and weapon charges. She was later released with a summons.
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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.