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.
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EMERSON
Bad tail light, failure to signal lead to DWI charge – On Nov. 18 at 11:55 p.m., Officer Connor Murphy was on patrol when he observed a vehicle on Linwood Avenue with its tail lights out.
Murphy went behind the vehicle and observed it cross the double yellow lines while making a turn onto Kinderkamack Road. The vehicle’s driver changed lanes and failed to signal, which was when Murphy conducted a motor vehicle stop.
The officer approached the driver’s side door, and asked the driver, a 30-year-old male from Secaucus, for his credentials. At this time, Murphy noticed that the driver appeared to be under an influence.
As there where multiple vehicle occupants, Murphy asked the driver to exit the vehicle. He detected the odor of marijuana emanating from the driver.
Murphy had the man perform standard field sobriety tests, and determined him to be under the influence. The driver was taken to police headquarters and charged with driving while intoxicated, being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, and two motor vehicle summons.
He was released pending a court date.
MONTVALE
Arrested for DWI; Adderall, beer found in car – A 23-year-old Laguna Beach, Calif., man was arrested at a Grand Avenue West residence in the early hours of Nov. 12 after erratic driving and a brief high-speed pursuit led to his arrest for driving while intoxicated.
An officer parked in the municipal lot on Railroad Avenue was setting up road flares for an icy condition due to a water main leak on the bend of Railroad Avenue by Kinderkamack Road when the driver was observed negotiating his black Land Rover around the bend at high speed, failing to yield in a turn, and spinning out.
The officer returned to his car to pursue.
“The closer I was able to get to the Land Rover, the faster the vehicle gained distance at 60-plus mph. Once I was able to close the distance […] I observed the Land Rover crossing back and forth between lanes on Grand Avenue and then back to the left lane, favoring the center line,” the officer reported.
The officer activated his car’s emergency lights, and the Land Rover made an abrupt turn onto a Grand Ave residence.
The officer advised dispatch that he was conducting a vehicle stop and called for a second officer to respond.
The driver appeared very nervous, was slurring his speech, and could not immediately produce all of his paperwork. The interior of the car smelled of alcohol. The driver denied drinking. He was otherwise “incoherent and mumbled,” the report notes.
Visible to the officers were several bottles of prescription Adderall, including their warning labels, which say not to operate a vehicle under the medication’s effect.
There were also unopened bottles of beer in the car.
The driver gave conflicting accounts of his destination and when he last took Adderall. He failed field sobriety tests, was arrested, and his car was impounded. At headquarters, he is reported as becoming argumentative and defensive.
He was issued six summonses, given a court date of Nov. 15, and released to his father’s custody.
MONTVALE
‘Now I know where you live!’ – Police were called to a Magnolia Avenue residence Nov. 18 at about 11 a.m. to receive a motor vehicle complaint.
The caller said he had called out “slow down” to a passing Jeep Grand Cherokee he said had been driving at least 50 mph past his house. The Jeep reportedly passed by, speeding, a second time, and the resident reported he called out a second time.
The Jeep owner reportedly stopped, and shouted back, “Now I know where you live!”
The Jeep reportedly was a newer model, hunter green, with tinted windows, no front plate, a tinted rear plate, and might have been registered in New York.
The caller said he was unable to see the driver.
Police conducted a radar detail in the area for the next 30 minutes, turning up nothing. The resident was told to call police immediately should he see the Jeep again.
Traffic stop leads to traffic warrant discovery – The driver of a black Jeep Wrangler registered in New Jersey was stopped on Spring Valley Road at Edgren Way on Nov. 20 over failure to use a turn signal and a brake light out.
The officer discovered the driver had an outstanding traffic warrant out of Millburn for $89, which the driver paid at headquarters.
The driver was cited for the traffic stop.
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PARK RIDGE
‘My car is not for sale. Stop asking.’ – A Pine Drive resident called police out on a suspicious-act call when she received the second of two sticky notes in two months from a man evidently named Mark, who left his phone number, who asked about buying her Jeep.
The first note was affixed to her Jeep. The second was left at her front door Nov. 12.
The woman never expressed interest in selling her Jeep and has no plans to.
She said nothing of hers appeared to have been tampered with but found it odd that someone would go around on a Sunday trying to buy cars not for sale.
The officer canvassed the area looking for similar sticky notes on cars and houses but found none.
Woman who parked in a fire zone had warrant – A woman moving into the Pond Ridge Condominiums Nov. 12 around noon might not have drawn officers’ attention had she not parked in a fire zone.
An officer conducting a premises check there ran her plates and found a hit for an outstanding warrant.
As the woman returned to her car, police questioned her, and she acknowledged being outstanding on “a few parking tickets” from East Rutherford, and that her license there had just been restored.
Central Dispatch confirmed a warrant for her arrest with a full cash bail amount of $89. A second officer arrived on the scene.
A man arrived on her behalf with a check and drove the woman to police headquarters, the police leading and following him.
There, the bail was paid and the woman was given a new court date for East Rutherford: Dec. 6.
She was cited for parking in a fire zone, answerable to Pascack Joint Municipal Court on Dec. 20.
Woman is struck in intersection – A 62-year-old Hillsdale woman who minutes earlier had been in a minor motor vehicle crash on Park Avenue was walking back to her car after speaking with the other driver and was struck by another car, a 2001 Jeep Wrangler driven by a Park Ridge resident.
The pedestrian was hit from behind, rolled off the right side of the hood, and fell to the ground near the curb on the south side of Park Avenue around 9:15 p.m. on Nov. 7.
A witness said she had been wearing a large black coat with the hood up. Streetlights were on, but it was raining, and police reported the visibility was poor.
The driver of the Jeep told police that she saw the woman at the last second as she was turning east onto Park Avenue from Pascack Road, and the pedestrian crossed out into the road, outside of the crosswalk, in front of a witness’s car waiting at the light.
The Jeep’s driver slammed on her brakes and skidded into the woman.
The witness and the Jeep driver’s passenger corroborated the story.
Alcohol and drug tests were not given.
Cited for failure to report address change; drug bust – A car with a passenger-side tail light not functioning properly passed a police officer on patrol on Park Avenue in the early hours of Nov. 4, leading to a traffic stop. The vehicle waited at a red light at Park Avenue and Pascack Road, where the officer noted that the car’s passenger side turn signal was barely visible, and the motor vehicle stop was conducted on Pascack Road near Etheridge Place.
The driver, 22, said he was heading home to Siebert Court, which turned out to be at an address not on his driver’s license—this was given as Mahwah—and in the opposite direction he was heading. He explained that he had moved.
He was beyond the two months the DMV allows for address updates, a requirement he said he was unaware of. As officers began to explain the summons for failure to notify the DMV, they smelled raw marijuana coming from the car.
They asked that he step out of the car for a probable-cause search, and, according to the police report, “[the driver] immediately became combative, stating it was unfair and that he did not want to exit the vehicle. [He] stated he started a new job and no longer smokes marijuana and again stated there was no contraband in the vehicle. [He] was told numerous times to exit the vehicle before he eventually complied.”
Found in the car were a multicolored glass pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana, a clear plastic baggie containing greenish vegetation believed to be marijuana, and a vaporizer pen commonly used to smoke marijuana oil, with suspected marijuana oil inside it.
He was arrested, handcuffed, and taken to headquarters for booking, and where evidence was logged. Testing confirmed the presence of marijuana.
Charges are failure to notify change of address, maintenance of lamps, possession of CDS in MV, possession of marijuana under 50 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia
The driver was driven back to his car. He will answer in court on Dec. 13.
Hit and run at restaurant lot – A Westwood man, 50, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failure to report an accident after he was witnessed Nov. 18 backing into a parked car outside the Park Steakhouse at around 7:20 p.m.
Two valet parking attendants witnessed the minor collision and confronted the driver of a 2018 Subaru Forester, who said there was no damage and refused to give his information or remain at the scene.
Photos and video of the driver and his car were taken. The driver was recalled as having been at the bar.
The other car, a black 2013 BMW X3 registered to a Saddle River woman, sustained scuffs and scratches.
Police contacted the registered driver of the Forester, who told them its driver that night had told her that someone had hit him.
Confronted with the report of the witnesses, “She then said [he] had been drinking and was nervous, which was probably why he had left the scene,” the police report notes.
That said, the driver told police on the same call that it was he who had been struck, from behind, though he could not say who hit him or what the other vehicle looked like.
A Westwood police officer responded to the residence and noted a scratch on the rear bumper of the Forester.
Its driver reportedly admitted to the Westwood officer that he had been at the Park Steakhouse “and that he backed up and hit something but then changed his story again to someone hitting him.”
Stopped for speeding, man faces drug charges – A Union man is charged with speeding, fictitious plates, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana under 50 grams after police stopped him for speeding the morning of Nov. 17 at Grand Avenue and Mill Road.
In conducting the stop the officer smelled raw marijuana coming from the driver’s car. The driver denied having anything illegal in the car, but eventually handed over a small, multicolored glass pipe of the type commonly used to smoke marijuana.
In searching the car, police reported the raw marijuana smell grew stronger. A search turned up a headphone case on the floorboard. When police opened this they found a clear plastic Ziploc-type bag containing greenish vegetation believed to be marijuana. They also found a clear Tupperware container with similar vegetation, one package of rolling papers, and a metal grinder.
Charges are answerable at Pascack Joint Municipal Court on Dec. 20.
Fair Lawn man, 23, arrested for DWI – A 23-year-old Fair Lawn man is charged with DWI, improper use of left lane, failure to stop or yield, and reckless driving following behavior behind the wheel police observed Nov. 17 just before 1 a.m.
The driver disregarded the stop sign at Broadway and Park Avenue, turned right at Park, and turned into the left lane, crossing the double yellow line. He drove over the double yellow line entirely into the southbound lane near Madison Avenue and again twice more.
Stopped by police, the driver said he was coming home from The Cornerstone bar and restaurant. He smelled of alcohol, had watery eyes, and slurred his speech. His motions were fumbling.
He said he was on his way to Fair Lawn, which was in the opposite direction.
He failed field sobriety tests and was arrested.
At police headquarters, he said he was struggling with alcoholism. Tested at the Woodcliff Lake Police Department headquarters, his blood alcohol level was found to be 0.14 percent, within acceptable tolerance.
He will answer the charges at Pascack Joint Municipal Court on Dec. 20.
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TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON
Men taken into custody on warrants – On Nov. 18 at about 8:30 p.m., Officer Michael Ferrarini was on patrol when he observed a red sports utility vehicle traveling on Washington Avenue in the township with a malfunctioning brake light.
Officer Ferrarini conducted a motor vehicle stop and requested the appropriate paperwork from the driver. P.O. Vincent Montalabano arrived as backup.
The driver, a 41-year-old man from Jersey City, had an active warrant out of Jersey City for $3,500 and his NJ driver’s license was suspended.
Ferrarini requested identification from the passenger, a 59-year-old man also out of Jersey City. The passenger was also found to have an active warrant out of Hudson County Sheriffs Department.
The driver was issued a summons. Both parties were taken into custody by the appropriate agencies.
WOODCLIFF LAKE
Forgery charge over attempted returns at Tice’s Corner – A Brooklyn, N.Y. man, 33, going by the name Eduardo McNamee Jr., evidently attempted to return products to Free People in the Tice’s Corner shopping area with a receipt that an investigation showed did not originate from the store or from his stated credit card company.
In fact, it was from a misspelled “Free Peoplle” [sic] at an AOL email address, and the purported receipt referred to the store’s Seattle, Wash, location. (That store said there was no such transaction matching the man’s claim.)
The Chestnut Ridge Road Free People staff had called police Oct. 17 just after 3 p.m. to investigate the attempted return from a suspicious person.
The man produced a driver’s license, but could not recite his proper date of birth as shown on the document.
The products were confiscated and turned over to the detective bureau for further investigation, which showed that from Aug. 22 to Oct. 17 the man has returned or attempted to return $6,342 in merchandise from stores.
The purchases were made on a card issued by a bank in Singapore. As such, police are unable to ascertain the owner of the account.
On Nov. 8, police advised McNamee to turn himself in to be processed for the crime of forgery. He replied he had done nothing wrong. Police report they “advised him to think about it.”
On Nov. 15 police issued McNamee a summons for forgery and advised him of a Nov. 27 court date. Copies were mailed to him by regular and certified mail.
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