YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: In a bizarre coincidence, a woman was prevented from jumping from the George Washington Bridge last night — exactly a minute after a man went over the side and into the Hudson.

The woman stopped her car midspan headed from New York to New Jersey, got out, climbed onto the north walkway and headed for the railing, the Port Authority’s Joseph Pentangelo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Two good Samaritans stopped their cars, then rushed over and grabbed the woman before she could jump, Pentangelo said.

Port Authority police were called at 7:06 p.m. — exactly a minute after they received a call from several witnesses who said they saw a man walking east jump from the south walkway near the New Jersey tower.

The 29-year-old man, who left a backpack on the walkway, was spotted floating in the Hudson River, Pentangelo said.

The woman who nearly jumped was taken into custody and brought to a New York City hospital. Pentangelo said she was carrying a small amount of heroin.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Teaneck woman “enticed” two men to a local street corner so that they could be robbed by an ex-con accompanied by a blind man, an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack alleges.

Evidence against the quartet includes a Lorcin LT-25 .25-caliber handgun that authorities said two of the defendants used in robbing both men, according to the indictdment.

The bandits were wearing masks over the bottoms of their faces when they approached the victims at the corner of Linden and Elm avenues last Dec. 17, police told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

One “pulled up his shirt, displaying a handgun, and threatened to shoot the two victims if they moved,” they said.

The robbers grabbed their cellphones and all the cash they were carrying, then took off on foot, they told police.

Asked to describe their assailants, the men said they noticed that one was blind.

(l. to r.) Andre Ziemoore, Marshall Harper, Ayesha Mitchell, Jamila Eason
(MUGSHOTS: Courtesy TEANECK PD)

Police arrested 25-year-old Michael Harper, who they said lives with two women who were also charged in connection with the holdup.

Police spotted the trio leaving their American Legion Drive home in a white Ford Freestar minivan with a second man, Andre Ziemoore.

They followed as the four drove a short distance before stopping at a supermarket. There, police said, Ziemoore got out and “retrieved a plastic bag that was buried under some snow by a tree.”

Police stopped the minivan moments later on Palisade Avenue in Teaneck and got consent to search it from Mitchell.

Inside the bag were the two phones stolen from the victims the night before, authorities said.

All four were taken into custody.

Detectives then obtained a search warrant for the apartment, where they said they found the handgun.

Ayesha Mitchell, 22, spent nearly two months in the Bergen County Jail before being bailed out on $100,000 on Feb. 11, records show.

Jamila Eason, 20, was bailed out on $75,000 the same day.

Ziemoore, 22, remained held on $175,000 bail and Harper, 25, on $150,000 bail.

The indictment returned Thursday charges all four with first-degree robbery by threat of injury, as well as a trio of second-degree weapons counts, among other offenses.

The 4-foot-11-inch, 115-pound Mitchell — who authorities said lured the victims into the holdup — additionally was charged with hindering. Ziemoore, meanwhile, was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: A driver who had to be cut from a car that rolled in a River Edge crash earlier today wasn’t seriously injured, responders at the scene said.

The two-car crash occurred at the corner of Fifth and Concord just after 11 a.m.

PHOTOS: Courtesy TIM CARROLL

River Edge firefighters and police responded.

SHOUT OUT: Hackensack police are seeking participants for their volunteer H-COP special police officer program, which gives citizens a firsthand look at law enforcement.

H-COP was launched in 1997 as a community outreach effort that supports the department with additional manpower while offering citizens a better understanding of what it means to be a police officer.

Selected applicants will be enrolled in a Special Law Enforcement Class at the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute in Mahwah.

Those who successfully complete the couse will be certified as Class 1 special officers.

They’ll receive additional training by Hackensack officers in: patrol tactics, rules and regulations, traffic control, pepper spray, nightstick, handcuffing and the writing of reports and summonses.

CLICK here for: HACKENSACK PD H-COP application 

The H-COP program is open to all U.S. citizens, 18 years or older, with a driver’s license and a high school diploma or GED.

All must complete an H-COP application and pass a police background check and interview process. Those who qualify will then required a physical and psychological exam.

Each candidate buys his or her own uniform but the city reimburses the cost upon successful completion of the Academy and one year of service, which includes at least eight hours of volunteer service per month.

ONLY ON CVP: A woman charged with trying to kill a Hackensack pastor’s wife by slicing her with a box cutter nearly seven years ago was indefinitely committed to a long-term mental health facility, ending one of Bergen County’s oldest criminal cases — at least for now.

Although the charges against Yolanda Cooper were dropped, they could be reinstated under a commitment order approved by a judge in Hackensack on Thursday.

Cooper, 47, has been appearing in court regularly since 2007, as judges and attorneys wrestled with whether or not she was competent to stand trial. State statute requires dismissal of charges after seven years if a defendant can’t be made competent.

For her part, Cooper has insisted all along that she wants a trial.

Prosecutors said Cooper followed her pastor’s wife into the woman’s bathroom in the basement of Trinity Baptist Church in Hackensack during a Sunday morning service on July 22, 2007, grabbed her by the hair and sliced her several times with a box cutter.

Theresa Whitfield — the wife of the Rev. Jonathan Whitfield — was holding her baby daughter in her arms during the attack, they said.

The baby was unhurt, but Whitfield was rushed to then-Hackensack Hospital with cuts on her face, neck, chest and thigh.

Doctors needed 2,000 stitches to repair her wounds.

Several parishioners there for church services told police they heard Whitfield’s screams, then saw Cooper run from the room, out of the church and down the street. One of those who followed her pointed Cooper out to the officers who arrested her.

Cooper, of Hackensack, already had charges pending for threatening a Bergen County corrections officer and EMT nurses on two separate occasions.

This time, she was indicted on several charges — including attempted murder, purposely causing serious bodily injury, various weapons counts, threatening and menacing police officers and possessing a silver-handled razor as a convicted felon — and ordered held on $750,000 bail.

Cooper was brought to court for what are known as Krol mental competency every six months or so, insisting each time that she wanted a trial and vowing that she would be exonerated.

Four years ago, then-Presiding Judge Harry Carroll declared Cooper mentally competent and ordered a trial.

When the case came before hearings before Presiding Superior Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi later that year, however, she expressed concern over the length of time that had passed and ordered a new evaluation.

DeAvila-Silebi is known as cautious with defendants who have mental issues. Last year, she ordered prosecutors to include civil commitment as part of a plea agreement with a defendant who said he heard voices, eventually instructing them in how she had handled such cases as a prosecutor herself.

Recently, she ordered a mental evaluation for Joseph Bariso, a Lodi man charged with shooting his grandmother while she slept on the couch. “It’s better to find out his mental status now than a year from now,” the judge said.

An expert witness, Dr. Stephen Simring, told DeAvila-Silebi that Cooper suffers from delusions that “are not reliably treatable.” Simring also said that Cooper improves with medication but needs supervision to make sure that she takes it — and in the correct doses.

Defense attorney Benjamin Morton and Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Nicholas Ostuni both said they’d be satisfied with Cooper remaining indefinitely confined in a secure state mental health facility.

Defense lawyers ordinarily argue for mental incompetence to protect a mentally ill client who is guilty of a crime. However, Morton told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that he was placed in an unusual position of arguing for mental competency because his client maintained her innocence and insisted on a trial.

“She’s an intelligent person who knows the abstract details of a trial,” the defense lawyer said, “but she sees conspiracies all around her.”

Keeping her institutionalized, he said, means that Cooper is “going to get the help and treatment she needs.”

Now that the case has been moved from the criminal to civil courts, all matters going forward will be conducted privately and the details kept sealed.

Cooper will be committed to either Greystone Psychiatric Hospital or the Anne Klein Forensic Center.

She be evaluated periodically and will remain committed as long as she’s diagnosed with severe mental illness. If she recovers enough to be deemed competent, a new hearing will be held.

STORY: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

UPDATE: An Englewood massage therapist accused of inappropriately touching female customers received no complaints until one woman came forward and then was quickly followed by five others, his attorney said.

“These woman who are now complaining have said nothing about this before. None of these women made a complaint or stopped the massage,” attorney Ron Bar-Nadav told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Only after the first complaint was filed, did these other woman come forward.”

A grand jury in Hackensack indicted his client, 52-year-old licensed massage therapist Felipe Cruz, on nearly a dozen counts of “unwanted sexual contact” and three counts of sexual assault by digital penetration.

Bar-Nadav said the first complaint came from a woman who bought a Groupon coupon for a massage at the D2 Day Spa in Englewood, where he said Cruz worked as an independent contractor. The others quickly followed, he said.

“In other cases, there have been female message therapists who were merely charged with prostitution for similar conduct in a massage session,” Bar-Nadav said. “However, as a male therapist, he has been charged with far more serious offenses.

“Certainly, it appears to be an unfair and prejudicial enforcement of the law.”

Bar-Nadav said he was misquoted as knowing the six customers who complained. He said he’d merely pointed out that Cruz had several repeat customers — not that these, in fact, were.

Cruz has remained held on $25,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail since Englewood police and members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office arrested him on Nov. 22.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

SHOUT OUTS: This week, Bergen County will join local and state governments nationwide in honoring the behind-the scenes heroes in public safety: the dispatchers, call takers, telecommunication professionals and radio technicians who are the very first to respond to emergencies.

Launched more than three decades ago, National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week aims to spotlight the unsung contributors during both personal and public crises. The centerpiece takes place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, when Bergen’s crew will be honored by local and county officials (SEE BELOW).

No bigger event happened last year in Bergen County than a gunfire spree by a young man with a rifle at the Garden State Plaza.

Emergency responders of all sizes descended on the mall that Nov. 4 night. Making it possible for all to communicate: Bergen County Communications professionals.

COURTESY: Bergen County Communications Center

They relayed the calls to the county command post and Paramus police of shoppers and store employees locked down in the mall after 20-year-old Richard Shoop of Teaneck began shooting.

But that was only the beginning.

Dispatchers updated the county Command Post and local police on Shoop’s description and movements, while two public safety telecommunicators rushed to the scene in an SUV mini-command post and distributed radios programmed to the Bergen County Trunk Radio System.

It was a critical link: Such interoperability isn’t available every day.

“This allowed multiple agencies and towns to talk on the same talk group and communicate in real time,” said Capt. Mark Lepinski, communications director of the Bergen County Public Safety Operations Center. “All the municipalities and agencies involved were able to talk to one another and work as a team.”

Less than two months earlier, calming words from a county dispatcher helped avert potential disaster after a drunken Westwood man threatened to kill himself with a loaded semi-automatic handgun.

It was only after the troubled caller put the weapon down and surrendered that police discovered he’d positioned several other loaded firearms in a path from his front porch into the house.

PHOTO: Courtesy John Gil, Bergen County Executive’s Office

Veteran dispatcher Cindy Saidel took the 52-year-old man’s call. She knew him from previous dispatching days in Closter and was able to keep him on the line while alerting local police.

“Apparently, he was intoxicated and holding the gun as he sat on his porch, saying he wanted to end his life,” Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Westwood police rushed to the Dean Street home, assisted by officers from Hillsdale and River Vale. They found the man sitting on his porch, holding what turned out to be a loaded Glock .9mm, the chief said.

“They showed the utmost restraint, given how close they were to him,” Regino said. “They laid back while the dispatcher talked with him.

“After about 15 minutes, he put the gun down and surrendered to our officers.”

The man was taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center and no charges were filed.

“It looked like he was ready to go,” one veteran officer told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Who knows what could have happened if it escalated?”

Calm all around kept everyone from finding out.

Saidel “was just phenomenal,” Regino said.

It was only a few days later when a group of first responders and a pair of good Samaritans brought a man who collapsed in Overpeck Park in Leonia back to life.

The victim began having severe chest pains while walking with his wife on a jogging path in the park’s north end. After sitting down on a bench, he collapsed.

Police responding to a call of a man in cardiac arrest found a man and woman doing CPR on him, thanks to cellphone instructions from county telecommunicators Britta Beacham, Kelly Conway and Michael Palmer.

The officers took over, using a portable defibrillator and CPR to get the man’s heart pumping until paramedics and EMTs arrived.

The man eventually recovered at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, Leonia Police Chief Thomas Rowe said.

“Collectively, their dedication and hard work saved a life,” Rowe said.

PST professionals routinely pull 12-hour shifts. They work weekends, holidays. They deal with all types of crises and emergencies, rarely — if ever — knowing how the horrible stories they hear will turn out.

They “don’t nearly get the credit [they] deserve, but make a difference every day,” said Lepinski, the ops center communications director.

On Tuesday, police, firefighters, EMS workers, mayors, council members and others from throughout Bergen County will gather at the ops center in Mahwah beginning at 6 p.m. to honor the heroes you never see.

“As my career winds down and I look at everything I was able to accomplish, having our communications handled by the county will be at the top of the list,” Rowe, the Leonia police chief, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “My officers are safer because of the the transition and the taxpayers are saving considerable money every year.”

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: The driver of a sedan that slammed into a tree in Ridgewood this afternoon was taken into custody by officers at the scene after being given a field sobriety test.

The black, four-door Toyota Corolla hit the tree near the intersection of Fairmount and Heights Roads in Ridgewood.

The driver, who was the only occupant, appeared uninjured.

The Corolla was towed by a flatbed.

STORY / PHOTO: Boyd A. Loving

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Englewood Field Club employee had a close call when he was nearly run down by a car driven by a man who had just stolen $500 worth of lawn furniture, city police said this afternoon.

Englewood and Bergenfield police converged on 56-year-old Michael Kowalski of Ridgefield Park outside the Teaneck armory after the employee called police while chasing him Friday afternoon.

The employee told police he approached Kowalski as he loaded the furniture into his 2002 Saturn from a fenced-in area of the private health and activities club around 2 p.m.

Kowalski was behind the wheel when the employee said he stepped in front of the car, shouting at him to stop.

“It was at this point that Kowalski continued driving straight towards the employee, causing him to jump out of the path of the vehicle to avoid injury,” said Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The man then got into his own vehicle and followed Kowalski north on Engle Street and then west on Ivy Lane , all the while talking with an Englewood 911 dispatcher.

“We don’t encourage citizens to pursue suspects,” Torell said, “so we got the description from him and took it from there.”

As a result, what would have been a theft turned into robbery charges against Kowalski, who was being held on $50,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. He also had an active warrant out of Hackensack, records show.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A suicidal 27-year-old Lyndhurst man was still alive when he was rushed to the hospital tonight with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Officers found the Grant Avenue man unconscious but breathing after a 911 call brought them around 8 p.m. He was taken to Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville.

As of 11 p.m., Lyndhurst Police Chief Jim O’Connor said local authorities didn’t know his condition.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Putting themselves at risk, police officers from Glen Rock and Hawthorne dashed across busy Route 208 to rescue a pit bull puppy who bolted from a car after a drug stop.

Members of the Glen Rock PD’s “B Squad” pulled over the car headed to upstate New York from Paterson for an equipment violation around 3 p.m., Detective Sgt. Eric Reamy told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Three men were inside. 

“There was drug paraphernalia in plain sight, then officers found a deck of heroin,” Reamy said. “One of the three also had 35 or so more folds in his underwear.”

Officers Mike Trover, Robert Surdyka and Matt Stanislao were joined by Hawthorne colleagues Jim Geier and Mike Phillips as they waited for a Bergen County Sheriff’s K9 unit to sniff search the car, the sergeant said.

After about a half hour, the pit bull scampered out and bolted across the highway, he said.

While two officers kept an eye on the suspects, the others chased the frightened pooch — stopping traffic in either direction.

“Tire were screeching, the dog was running back and forth, then up the shoulder,” Reamy said.

“He couldn’t have been more than 12 weeks old,” he said. “Nobody wanted to see the little guy get hurt.”

The chase ended when one of the officers scooped up the pup after he tried ducking under a guard rail.

The three suspects were all charged and released pending further investigation.

Meanwhile, the skittish pooch was returned to his owner.

“He showed no signs of abuse or neglect, and was obviously well taken care of — aside from being brought to Paterson for a drug deal,” Reamy said. “So by rights we had to return him.

“Nothing we could do,” he added. “That’s the law.”

PHOTO: Courtesy GLEN ROCK PD

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: A BMW sedan rear-ended a Honda CRV in Fair Lawn this morning, causing a significant fuel spill.

A female passenger in the Honda complained of chest pains but declined to be taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Meanwhile, members of the Fair Lawn Heavy Rescue Squad applied an absorbent compound to the fluid spill on Broadway near Banata Place.

The BMW was removed by a flatbed tow truck. The Honda was driven away.

One lane of westbound Broadway was closed while emergency crews worked.

STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Oakland police were investigating a large jewelry heist over the weekend by a burglar or burglars who broke through the wall of a neighboring real estate office.

The break-in occurred sometime overnight Saturday into Sunday at Alpha Jewelers on Ramapo Valley Road, Lt. Christian Eldridge said this morning.

Whoever was responsinble broke through the wall of the adjoining ReMax Real Estate and also got into Star Nails next door — although nothing was taken from either business, Eldridge said.

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence, the lieutenant said.

PUBLIC SAFETY: New Jersey is coming off a “distracted driving decade” that has law enforcement working overtime to try and stem the worsening crisis of motorists trying to work a two-ton machine and a handheld phone at the same time, the state’s top lawman said this morning.

From 2004 to last year, driver inattention was a major contributing circumstance in a “staggering” 1.4 million crashes in New Jersey – about half of all, Acting Attorney General John Hoffman.

It also accounted for more than 1,600 deaths on the state’s roads, he added.

“What is perhaps most troubling about these numbers is that the issue of distracted driving seems to be getting progressively worse,” Hoffman said. “Our research indicates that while crashes and fatalities are trending downward as a whole, the number and proportion of distracted crashes are rising.”

At the beginning of the “Distracted Driving Decade” in 2004, driver inattention was cited as a major contributing circumstance in 42% of crashes, statistics show.

That number rose to a peak of 53% last year.

The problem: cellphones and other devices with screens that take attention away from where it belongs — on the road.

“Using a handheld phone and texting has reached epidemic levels,” NHTSA Region 2 Administrator Thomas M. Louizou said. “When you text or talk on the phone while driving, you take your focus off the road. That puts everyone else’s lives in danger, and no one has the right to do that.”

The crisis has led to the current “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” campaign, through which the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety gave 60 police departments throughout the state money to pay for checkpoints and increased patrols.

About halfway through the three-week campaign, which ends April 21, the funded departments have issued an estimated 3,000 summonses for cell phone and electronic device violations.

Louizou said the successes of “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” and “Click It or Ticket” initiatives prove that tough laws, direct advertising and high-visibility enforcement can change people’s risky traffic safety habits.

“People need to know that we are serious about stopping this deadly behavior,” he said.

So serious, in fact, that state lawmakers have boosted penalties for breaking New Jersey’s primary cell phone law.

On July 1, the penalties jump from a $100 fine (plus court costs and fees) to a range of $200 to $400 for a first offense, $400 to $600 for a second, and up to $800 and three insurance points for subsequent violations.

These changes follow the adoption in 2012 of the “Kulesh, Kubert and Bolis Law,” which says that a defendant involved in a crash while operating a hand-held wireless telephone can be presumed to be engaged in reckless driving.

Prosecutors are empowered to charge the offender with committing vehicular homicide or assault when an injury or death occurs from a reckless crash.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A 63-year-old bus driver from Fairview was arrested by county and local authorities and charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl twice.

Roberto Trochez, who drives for a private North Bergen company, was being held on $350,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charge with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of child endangerment.

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Trochez, who is married, was arrested by members of his Special Victims Unit and Fairview police on Friday.

The girl, who is now 14, “told a friend what had occurred at the time of the first incident but did not disclose to an adult what had happened until recently telling her aunt, who then told her parents,” the prosecutor said this afternoon.

They, in turn, alerted Fairview police, who contacted his investigators, Molinelli said.

During an interview with them, she “confirmed the information she had provided to her aunt” about Trochez “touching her in an inappropriate manner on two occasions,” he said.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

PUBLIC SAFETY: Police chiefs throughout Bergen County have boosted Passover Week security in their towns after a gunman killed three people at two Jewish facilities near Kansas City yesterday.

In addition, Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino and Bergen County Police Chief Brian Higgins offered their K9 units and other specialized teams to the chiefs to help increase safety and ease concerns in their communities.

Saudino and Higgins said any police agency or facility can request a bomb sweep.

The sheriff also said that officers out serving warrants are including drive-bys — and stops at — local Jewish centers.

“I spoke with Rabbi Mosbacher, who leads our temple, regarding the incident in Kansas,” Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon. “He provided us with the times of all their services.

“We will provide a visible presence during those times as well as extra patrols throughout the next several weeks.”

Batelli, who is the president of the Bergen County Police Chiefs Association, also emailed his colleagues.

“These days have historically been marked by extremist acts of violence and terrorism as evidenced by Sunday’s incident,” the message to his fellow chiefs reads, in part. “If you have a Jewish synagogue or community center in your jurisdiction I would encourage you to reach out to them to see what concerns they may have and the times of their services.”

The chiefs were right in step.

“We’ve increased both our patrols and presence at and around our Jewish facilities,” Tenafly Police Chief Robert Chamberlain said.

“We immediately deployed directed marked and unmarked patrols in the area of Temple Israel (photo, above) upon learning of the shootings,” Ridgewood Police Chief John Ward said. “We will maintain extra presence in and around the temple throughout the holidays and beyond as needed.”

“We increased patrols and reached out to our synagogues and schools,” Paramus Police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg said.

“We have extra patrols at all religious houses of worship,” Closter Police Chief Dennis Kaine added.

Even those facilities not in use are getting attention.

“The Solomon Schechter School is not in session this week,” New Milford Police Chief Frank Papapietro said, “but we’re keeping an eye on it.”

The vigilance has spread throughout the county.

“Although we do not have any temples in the borough, we are cognizant this time of year — especially considering yesterday’s attack,” Ramsey Police Chief Bryan Gurney told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Oklahoma City, Brand Davidians, Columbine, Virginia Tech and the Boston bombings all occurred this time of the month.”

The Anti-Defamation League noted that the Passover holiday coincides this year with Adolf Hitler’s birthday on Sunday.

TOP PHOTO: Temple Israel, Ridgewood PD car (BOYD A. LOVING PHOTO)

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Five genuine charities have split $225,000 in contributions to a purported Superstorm Sandy charity that was shut down by state authorities after its operators stole the name of New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie’s fund, acting state Attorney General John J. Hoffman said this morning.

The money came from the Hurricane Sandy Relief Foundation (HSRF), created by John Sandberg and Christina Terraccino.

A judge in Hackensack last year dissolved the bogus charity, which authorities said gave less than 1% of the proceeds to help victims, under a settlement agreement between the couple and the state.

Both Sandberg and Terracino also were banned from ever again running a charitable organization related to Sandy and from serving in a leadership position in any charitable organization in New Jersey for at least two years.

Recent reports said the couple had relocated to Costa Rica and launched a new business there.

Financial records show that Sandberg and Terraccino used some of the money from the phony charity to pay off credit cards, to have dinner at Vivo Tapas in Newark (among other restaurants), to buy a Christmas tree, to shop at the Apple online store and for other personal uses, state authorities alleged in bringing a lawsuit against them and HSRF.

The $225,000 was distributed last week to four charitable organizations registered with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and one charitable organization registered in New York State — all specifically for the benefit of Sandy victims.

The organizations were selected based on their proposals to specifically use the money to help Sandy victims, in accord with the representations that HSRF made to the public when soliciting donations.

The distribution is the first installment of roughly $334,000 seized from the couple and made available for those in need, Hoffman said.

“Today’s announcement is a victory for donors who gave generously to help families whose lives were torn apart by Superstorm Sandy,” New Jersey DCA Acting Director Steve Lee said. “As we demonstrated in bringing charges against those involved in price gouging and other scams in Sandy’s wake, we will not tolerate anyone who seeks to profit from the suffering of others.”

Sandberg and Terraccino (below), both of Sparta, agreed last year to place the approximately $631,000 donated to that point and any additional funds that came in afterward into an interest-bearing attorneys’ escrow account. The amount included $13,597 that state officials said Sandberg and Terraccino transferred directly to their own personal accounts.

Superior Court Judge Robert Contillo also ordered that remainder of $400,000 in donated items that were stored in a warehouse, as well as unused gift cards, be donated to the Salvation Army.

State authorities accused HSRF and the couple of unlawfully misleading the public by diverting donated funds into their personal accounts. They also misled donors with false claims about the ways donations would be used, falsely claimed that donations were tax-deductible, and “otherwise deceived the public in violation of New Jersey’s charity registration and consumer protection laws,” Hoffman said.

State authorities alleged in the lawsuit that the charity hardly provided the promised “immediate” relief to Sandy victims, distributing only $1,650 in gift cards during the three and a half months of its existence – an amount representing less than one percent of the $631,000 raised.

The recipients of the $225,000:

O.C.E.A.N., Inc., of Toms River, received $100,000 to construct 12 three-bedroom, single-family homes in Berkeley Township. The homes will be rented to Sandy victims. Placements will be made based on O.C.E.A.N. Inc.’s waiting list for rental housing, as well as on referrals from the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group and Catholic Charities.

The FoodBank of Monmouth/Ocean Counties, of Neptune, received $50,000 to support its network of food pantries that provide food for thousands of Sandy-affected families.

The Alliance Center for Independence, of Edison, in partnership with South Carolina-based Portlight Strategies, Inc., received $50,000 for post-Sandy relief projects aiding individuals with disabilities. This will include providing durable medical equipment; the repair or replacement of lifts, elevators and ramps; and other equipment for internal and external accessibility needs.

Graybeards, Ltd. Based in Rockaway, N.Y., received $25,000 for donations to Sandy-affected individuals in and near the Rockaway Peninsula. This proposal was selected because certain contributions to HSRF were earmarked for Superstorm Sandy relief in New York.

The state divisions of Criminal Justice and Consumer Affairs brought the case to Bergen County because Sandberg listed his parents’ home address in Wyckoff as the main business contact when the HSRF was established as a nonprofit on October 31, 2012. A Facebook page used Terracino’s hometown of South Hackensack.

CLIFFVIEW PILOT broke the original story:

• YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: State authorities have sued the operators of a purported Superstorm Sandy charity who they said steered donations into their personal accounts and stole the name of New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie’s Hurricane Sandy Relief charity to do so. For all of the details, click here to: READ MORE….

John Sandberg, Christina Terraccino

Chief Investigator Laurie Goodman, of the DCA’s Office of Consumer Protection, conducted the investigation. Deputy Attorney General Lorraine Rak, Chief of the Consumer Fraud Prosecution Section, and Deputy Attorney General Kourtney J. A. Knop are representing the state.

SHOUT OUT: A Ramsey patrolman will be among several law enforcement officers honored by the New Jersey Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving for “outstanding enforcement of the state’s Driving While Intoxicated laws.”

His superiors nominated Patrolman James “Scott” Peterson for the honor at the Law Enforcement Recognition breakfast scheduled for June 11 at Middlesex County College in Edison.

Peterson will be recognized for “outstanding and distinguished service to [the] community” in 2013 for “saving lives by preventing crashes.”

The three-year veteran led the department last year with 14 self-initiated DWI arrests, Police Chief Bryan Gurney said.

“It is nice to see a young officer develop and understand the importance of enforcing the DWI laws,” Gurney said. “He has made the borough of Ramsey a safer community.”

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A dozen Garfield residents were evacuated and a neighbor taken into custody following what police said was a bomb threat overnight.

Garfield police conducting a Harrison Avenue welfare check just before 1 a.m. were met by 45-year-old Michael Kapotis, who “made suicidal threats,” Capt. Darren Sucorowski said this morning.

As the officers tried to take him to a hospital for a mental evaluation, Kapotis “became verbally abusive and combative,” shoving one officer and resisting attempts to handcuff him, Sucorowski said.

He also repeatedly said he had a bomb in the apartment, the captain said.

“Officers evacuated six people from the other apartments in the building, along with six additional people from neighboring buildings,” Sucorowski said. “A perimeter was set up and all traffic was shut down on Harrison Avenue between Clark Street and Frederick Street.”

Garfield police were soon joined by the Bergen County Police Department Bomb Squad, which gave the all-clear around 3 a.m.

Also responding were city firefighters, along with BLS & ALS units from Hackensack University Medical Center.

“There was no evidence of any bomb, explosives, or bomb-making materials located,” Sucorowski said. “Residents were allowed back into their homes and the perimeter was broken down.”

As CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported earlier, Kapotis was being evaluated in a secure area of Bergen Regional Medical Center. Bail was set at $15,000 on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, making a false public alarm and resisting arrest, records show.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A former college basketball player from Hackensack was charged with kidnapping, raping and endangering a 14-year-old girl he picked up at a Rochelle Park supermarket.

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli this afternoon confirmed an earlier report in CLIFFVIEW PILOT that detectives from his office and city police arrested 24-year-old Darion Benbow on Friday.

Molinelli said Benbow picked up the girl at the Rochelle Park Shop Rite earlier that day and brought her to his Clinton Place apartment, where he gave  her alcohol and then had “sexual activity with her against her will.”

The girl called a friend and left, then both told a Hackensack police officer what happened, the prosecutor said.

Hackensack police brought the girl to headquarters, and the SVU was contacted, he said

“The victim was subsequently interviewed by a detective from that unit and the Hackensack Police Department, at which time she provided specific details as to what had occurred at [Benbow's] residence,” Molinelli said.

They then arrested him.

The 6-foot-7-inch, 170-pound Benbow — a former honors students at St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx — played small forward for Lafayette University in Pennsylvania from 2007-2011. He averaged just under five points and three rebounds a game his senior year at the school, which only began offering athletic scholarships a year before he applied.

At St. Ray’s, he averaged 10 points and seven rebounds a game playing center his senior year.

Benbow was being held on $400,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with sexual assault, kidnapping and child endangerment, as CLIFFVIEW PILOT initially reported this morning. He also was issued a summons for giving alcohol to a minor.

An arraignment was scheduled tomorrow.