STAFF REPORT
NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. — A Palisades Park man was arrested on Oct. 10 for allegedly sending a string of harassing and threatening letters to local police officers and businesses, including one in Englewood.
Nikolay Levinson, 34, was charged with making terroristic threats, bias intimidation and harassment, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement.
Approximately two weeks before Levinson’s arrest, Grewal said his office was informed that three police officers from Paramus, Fair Lawn and Garfield had received “harassing and threatening letters.” Several local businesses received letters around the same time period, according to Grewal, which “contained racial, homophobic and threatening messages.”
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Squad and local police departments initiated an investigation into the letters, and during the investigation two more letters were sent to businesses in Englewood and Allendale, Grewal said. These letters contained anti-Semitic and racist remarks, he added.
According to Grewal, “The letters all appeared to be written by the same person and contained similar threatening remarks.”
As a result of the investigation, Levinson was arrested in Palisades Park and charged with two counts of terroristic threats, a third degree crime; three counts of bias intimidation, a third degree crime; and four counts of harassment, a third degree crime.
Levinson’s first detention hearing was scheduled for Oct. 16, according to Grewal.