[slideshow_deploy id=’899′]This section is based on facts provided to Pascack Press weekly by neighborhood police departments. Due to pending court appearances and other variations, the following information should be read in “press time” context.
PARK RIDGE
Immigrant driver not authorized to drive rental car
– A New York City resident is cited for four motor vehicle offenses after he rolled through a stop sign at Pascack Road and Fremont Avenue. Police stopped him on Park Avenue.
The report, filed Jan. 25, involves an incident shortly after 9 p.m. centered on who was or was not authorized to drive the black Honda Fit rental car driven that night by a man who did not have any identification, documentation to drive the ZIP car, did not speak English, and was not authorized to be in the country.
His passenger in the back seat did speak English, but likewise lacked identification and proof of renter’s information.
Sgt. Anthony DiBlasi contacted the rental company and confirmed neither of the people in the car were on a list of authorized drivers.
The passenger was told that she could leave and walked back to her residence on Park Avenue.
At headquarters, three men came by to retrieve the vehicle, all of whom showed their driver’s licenses. One claimed to be the renter, however the rental agent disputed that.
She asked the police to impound the car, which officers arranged with Emerson Towing.
The driver was issued summonses for no registration, driver’s license, and insurance card in possession; being an unlicensed driver; and failure to stop or yield. He has a court date of March 14.
Late night drug bust in the Sony parking lot
– Police performing a security check of the Sony parking lot just before midnight on Jan. 28 observed a gold Grand Marquis pull into the lot, with three occupants inside, all 29. The officer reports that the occupants appeared nervous that the police were watching.
One passenger, reports Officer Michael Albanese, was “consistently adjusting his position, reaching around the vehicle, and continuously looking out of the rear windshield at my patrol vehicle.”
The driver looped around the parking lot and made for the exit.
Albanese reports he saw that a black plastic bracket was obstructing the car’s rear license plate markings. He stopped the vehicle, questioned the occupants, and ran checks on them.
The driver, of Fair Lawn, and the nervous passengers, of Upper Saddle River, all had records involving possession of controlled dangerous substances.
The driver’s Maryland driver’s license came back suspended.
A consented search of the car came up with a sunglasses case containing two “vape” pens, each containing what appeared to be THC oil. The nervous passenger said this was the material in the pens, and he said they were his.
The driver was ticketed for fictitious plates; the passenger was summonsed for possession of marijuana under 50 grams.
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WOODCLIFF LAKE
Allendale man, driving against traffic, nets DWI summons
– An Allendale man was summonsed for driving while intoxicated, failure to signal a turn, careless driving, failure to keep right, and obstruction of windshield for vision in a Jan. 18 incident shortly after 8 p.m.
According to the report, filed by Officer Matthew Schanel, the driver, of Allendale Avenue, was headed east of Saddle Brook Road in a black 2015 Kia Soul.
The driver, 59, hit his brakes hard, turned right without signaling onto Overlook Drive, and then drove onto the far left lane belonging to oncoming traffic, nearly striking the curb.
When he drifted into his proper lane, Schanel conducted a motor vehicle stop.
The driver had slow, fumbling hand motions, watery and bloodshot eyes, and smelled strongly of an alcoholic beverage.
He said he had driven into the wrong lane of traffic because he was following directions from his GPS.
When asked if he’d been drinking, he said, “No, not really.” Asked again, he admitted to two glasses of wine about an hour prior.
He was given field sobriety tests, the results of which caused Schanel and Sgt. DeAngelis to conclude that he was operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor and/or drugs.
At headquarters and Park Ridge Police Headquarters, he was given breath tests, resulting in a finding of 0.07 percent blood alcohol content.
A woman arrived at headquarters to collect him. He had a court date of Jan. 24.
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Ridgewood man on errand to drive brother from bar to frat house ends up with DWI
– Police Officer Michael Charnesky observed a man driving a black Ford pickup westbound on Woodcliff Avenue at 1:44 a.m. on Jan. 27 and saw that the truck’s taillights were out. He stopped the truck at Werimus Road and Wright Street.
The driver, 24, of Ridgewood, whose truck is registered to a contracting company with his name, is reported as having watery, bloodshot eyes and rambled, confused speech.
He gave a story about having had two glasses of wine at around 9 p.m. at a family function, then leaving to pick up his brother at the Cornerstone Restaurant and Bar in Hillsdale and driving him to his fraternity house in Suffern, New York.
The man said he had not entered the bar, only parked outside and waited for his brother. He repeated this when asked a second time.
“I then asked him why he had an ink stamp on his hand. He then admitted that he had did in fact go inside but only to find his brother,” the report reads in part.
When asked why he was only now on his way home after transporting his brother, he said he did not drink or stay long at the fraternity house.
“[Officer] Sherfer arrived on scene and was advised that I did not believe [the driver] was being truthful with me about his evening activities,” Charnesky reports.
The officers ran the driver through verbal tests, which he was not able to complete, and then asked him to complete three standard field sobriety tests.
The officers smelled alcohol on the driver’s breath.
Asked again if he’d had anything to drink, he said, “Nothing. Zero.”
At the completion of the tests, the officers agreed that the driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The man’s truck was towed.
At headquarters, he was given breath tests, which turned up a 0.13 percent BAC.
He was issued four traffic summonses: driving while intoxicated, failure to possess a driver insurance card, failure to possess vehicle registration, and maintenance of lamps. He has a court date of March 14.