On Sept. 18 at 7:53 p.m., a 31-year-old Kearny woman, whose story was anonymously chronicled in last week’s edition of The Observer, walked in to KPD headquarters to report her brother had violated a restraining order by sending her text messages.
Officer Knighton applied for a warrant charging the 33-year-old brother with contempt of court.
At 11 p.m. the same night, Officers Knighton and David Vazquez found the brother at his Kearny home and arrested him. He was arrested without incident and later transferred to the Hudson County Jail (This incident makes it nine more times since the last edition of The Observer that this family has been involved with the police).
On Sept. 15 at 6:47 p.m., Officer Kevin Matos responded to the GNC store at 150 Harrison Ave. for a report of a shirtless man in an altered mental state. With Officers Ryan Wilson and Cort Montanino, Matos found the shirtless man in the parking lot surrounded by a large crowd.
Several witnesses in the crowd told police the man, later identified as Rutul Jaiswal, 29, homeless, had attempted to illegally enter a Lexus which led to an altercation with the car’s owner. The owner of the Lexus later declined to cooperate in the investigation.
Meanwhile, Jaiswal, who had been bleeding from the mouth for reasons unknown, began walking away and appeared to the officers to not have a sense of the danger of walking into traffic. Sgt. Tim Castle and Officer Angel Martinez stopped Jaiswal in another parking lot adjacent to Harrison Avenue where Jaiswal allegedly became agitated and started shouting. Officers placed Jaiswal in handcuffs for safety while awaiting EMS and Jaiswal allegedly spit bloody sputum onto two of the officers.
After a medical evaluation, Jaiswal was held at the county jail on two counts of throwing bodily fluid at law enforcement officers.
On Sept. 16 at 10:44 p.m., Officers Jose Castillo and Danny Maganinho and Sgt. Dean Gasser were dispatched to investigate a report of a car crashed into a fence near 435 Bergen Ave. The officers found a Honda Accord that had broken a piece of curb before crashing through a chain link fence.
After interviewing driver Joanna G. Sunderman, 26, of Rockaway, and observing signs of impairment, Officer Castillo administered her a series of field-sobriety tests. The officer arrested Sunderman after she could not perform the tests satisfactorily.
Following a breath alcohol test at the police station, Sunderman was charged with DWI, reckless driving, careless driving (with property damage), failure to keep right and expired registration. She was later released with summonses.
On Sept. 17 at midnight, Officer Ellesse Ogando responded to a shoplifting complaint at Walmart. The store’s loss-prevention associate accused Andre E. Lutas, 33, of Newark, of taking a backpack that was offered for sale, filling it with hair-care products and exiting through a side door without paying the $740.58 (I wonder if $700 in haircare products would cure my baldness.)
After being caught by store security, Lutas allegedly returned the products, but the insult was already recorded. Officer Ogando arrested Lutas for shoplifting, but later released him with a summons.
On Sept. 19 at 10:48 p.m., Officer Cort Montanino was dispatched to a report a man broke a store window at the Walgreens located at 248 Kearny Ave. The officer found an approximately softball-sized hole in one of the front windows. After reviewing store surveillance camera footage, Officer Montanino identified the suspected window breaker as Matthew L. Kochell, 32, of Kearny. Kochell had already fled the scene and a search of the area failed to turn him up.
Officer Montanino applied for a warrant charging Kochell with criminal mischief in the fourth degree. Two days later, on Sept. 21, police learned that Kochell was at Clara Maass Medical Center. Sgt. Mike Gonzalez, Det. Mike Gontarczuk and Officer Jason Rodrigues located Kochell at the hospital and arrested him for the warrant-complaint. After processing, Kochell was held at the Hudson County Jail.
Editor’s note: If this name sounds familiar, it’s because Kochell has also been charged with manslaughter in the killing of 34-year-old Corey McFadden.
On Sept. 20 at 6 a.m., a 25-year-old Kearny man turned himself in at police headquarters for a warrant charging him with contempt of court. Five days earlier, the man’s 22-year-old girlfriend had filed a complaint alleging he text messaged her in violation of a domestic-violence restraining order. The man was arrested and held at the county jail.
On Sept. 20 at 10:21 p.m., Officers Angel Martinez and Derek Hemphill were dispatched to a dispute at a private residence. A 49-year-old woman, displaying red injury marks on her arm, told officers her 65-year-old boyfriend pushed her against a wall during an argument.
Officers arrested the man on a simple assault charge. He was later released with a summons.
On Sept. 20 at 9:31 p.m., Officer Bismark Karikari found a Chevrolet TRX with New York license plates double-parked and unattended near 21 Spruce St. A computer database check told the officer that the car’s registration was suspended; it would have to be impounded.
Approximately 15 minutes later, Nelissa A. Peral, 35, of Kearny, emerged from a nearby residence, allegedly told the officer she had double-parked the car and offered to move it. When the officer told her that the car had to be impounded because its registration was suspended, Peral reportedly became “angry and uncooperative.”
After some yelling, Peral allegedly entered the Chevy and moved the car, but arriving backup Officer Chris Montes boxed her in with his SUV preventing her from driving away. Peral allegedly refused to exit the car and reportedly continually moved it back and forth to frustrate the tow truck driver’s efforts to impound it. In the midst of all this, the officers learned that Peral’s driver’s license too was suspended, an arrestable offense in K-Town.
Peral was eventually removed from the Chevy and arrested. Her charges included obstructing the administration of law, driving with a suspended license, driving with a suspended registration, failure to possess proof of insurance, unregistered motor vehicle and double parking. Peral was released with summonses after processing.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.