CLIFTON — Police are looking for a man who slashed a barbershop worker from his face to his chest in what investigators believe was a random act of violence.

The 20-year-old employee at a Lexington Avenue barbershop was closing up just after 10 p.m. Tuesday when a man in his 20s walked in and slashed him in the face and chest, said Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken. The attacker fled.

The victim was left with a deep, long cut that ran from his face to his chest. He was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center where he was treated and later released.

Police do not have a motive in the slashing and said it appeared that nothing was taken from the shop and that the victim did not know his attacker. It was unclear if the attacker had a knife, box cutter, razor blade or some other weapon.

“It’s appearing to be, in the initial stages, a random act of violence,” Bracken said.

The investigation is ongoing, he said. Detectives ask anyone with information to call 973-470-5908.

CLIFTON — Police arrested an 18-year-old and are seeking another suspect in two stabbings that happened during a brawl that broke out after a house party this weekend, authorities said.

The brawl stemmed from a comment made about someone’s song selection during the house party on Highland Avenue near Van Winkle Avenue, but police said underlying animosity between two groups in attendance fueled the dispute, said Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken. Investigators also believe gang members were at the party.

The party let out about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, and a huge fight ensued. The altercation spanned a block as at least 20 people fought each other while bouncing off cars with at least two people stabbed and at least one person injured while trying to flee, Bracken said.

Police were called to a Clifton Avenue gas station where two victims in the fight were sitting in a car filled with five people. A 17-year-old Clifton boy was suffering from several stab wounds in his upper and lower back, and a 19-year-old Clifton man had cuts on his arms and hands from what police believe was a fall while he fled from the flight.

Both victims were taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center and were released later in the day.

A 17-year-old male from Passaic, who also was repeatedly stabbed in the back, was driven to St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic with stab wounds. He later was taken to University Hospital in Newark and also was released later in the day, Bracken said.

Police arrested Felix Bonilla, 18, of Passaic in his stabbing, Bracken said.

Bonilla was charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was being held in county jail on $150,000 bond, police said.

Police are seeking a suspect — but do not have an identity — in the stabbing of the Clifton teen in the ongoing investigation, Bracken said. The stabbing victims were from either side of the feuding factions, he said.

“Both of them are extremely lucky,” Bracken said about the stabbing victims. “The slightest margin either way: if the wound was the slightest bit to the left or right or a little deeper, you would have had a different outcome.”

Clifton– Keller Williams Realty the second largest real estate company in the nation celebrated it’s third Annual Red Day Event. Dozens of volunteers from the Clifton office collected donations, and assembled care packages that will be sent to our troops that are fighting for our freedom over seas. ” Renew, energize, and donate” are some of the motto’s by which this company operates stated the owners of the Clifton office David & Maureen Leong.

” This is a nation wide event that is held by every one of our offices throughout the Unites states” Stated Dana Williams one of the volunteers who also works as an associate for the company.

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The prosecution forwarded assault charges against Clifton Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula Wednesday to a Passaic County grand jury for possible further action.

Sadrakula made a brief scheduled appearance Wednesday with her attorney in Pre-Indictment Court in Paterson, where she filled out some standard forms and left after about 15 minutes. She and her lawyer declined to comment on the case.

Pre-Indictment Court is where defendants, defense lawyers and prosecutors confer without a judge present and sometimes resolve the matter. Resolution can come either by way of a plea offer, dismissal of charges, or downgrading of charges and remanding the case to municipal court.

If prosecutors find that none of those options is possible, they forward the case to a grand jury for possible indictment on criminal charges. Prosecutors would not say Wednesday why the case was being sent to a grand jury.

Sadrakula, 55, is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and obstructing the administration of law. She was arrested on Feb. 20 following an incident involving her sister at her Dwasline Road home.

In addition to the assault charges, Clifton police said Sadrakula obstructed the administration of the law by twice telling a police dispatcher that there was no problem at her home after police received an emergency call from her number.

Authorities said Lorraine Sadrakula, the councilwoman’s sister, told officers outside the home that the councilwoman had hit and kicked her and pushed her down. She was treated for a broken nose and tailbone at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic.

Mary Sadrakula has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

CLIFTON — Bright-colored pajama pants led to the capture of two burglars in the act on Sunday, said detective Capt. Robert Rowan.

An off duty Clifton deputy fire chief was on Phyllis Place when he noticed a couple trying to break into a home, Rowan said. The female’s white pajama pants with bright red hearts all over initially caught the attention of Deputy Fire Chief Henry Cholewczynski. Rowan said Cholewczynski called police shortly after 1 p.m. when he saw a woman wearing the brightly colored pants and a man trying to break into a home through a window. Cholewczynski called in the description of the suspects and their SUV parked in front. Rowan said the license plate number of the vehicle had been flagged by the Bloomfield Police Department as possibly having been used in a burglary there.

Sgt. Harold VanWinkle and Officer Thomas Ulikowski arrived on scene and determined the suspects were still inside the home after they entered through a rear door they pried open, Rowan said. Backup officers arrived and surrounded the home while VanWinkle and Ulikowski entered through the same rear door, Rowan said.

The two officers then came face to face with the two suspects who were ordered to surrender at gunpoint, which they did without incident.

The male suspect, Francisco Villafane, 39, of Union City, was found in possession of a pillowcase full of valuables including coins and jewelry.

He and the female suspect, Valerie Tomassini, 27, of Bayonne, were arrested and searched, Rowan said, adding Villafane had a razor and a screwdriver in his possession as well as more coins and jewelry in his pockets.

The suspects were transported to police headquarters for interrogation, but in the meantime, residents of a home on Cresskill Avenue, one block away from Phyllis Place, reported their home had been burglarized.

Detective Edgar Ruiz interrogated the two suspects where Villafane admitted to being responsible for both Clifton burglaries, Rowan said.

Tomassini did not make a statement.

The vehicle was towed and is being processed for fingerprints, Rowan said, adding proceeds from burglaries were found in the vehicle and will be processed and hopefully returned to the victims.

The couple is also being questioned for burglaries in Bloomfield, Totowa and Little Falls, Rowan said.

Rowan said the both suspects were charged with two counts of burglary in Clifton, as well as possession of drug paraphernalia after crack pipes

Rowan said the suspects were driving around the neighborhood ringing doorbells, if residents answered they would say they were at the wrong house, but if no one answered, the couple would attempt to break in.

“If residents answer their door and find people who say they are at the wrong house, they should call the police because they are most likely up to no good,” Rowan said.

Rowan said Cholewczynski was in the right place at the right time and his cooperation was greatly appreciated.

CLIFTON — Clifton High School Principal Jimmie Warren has resigned from the school district four months after the mother of two high school students accused him of criminal sexual contact and filed a civil lawsuit against Warren and the school district.

MICHAEL KARAS / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

JIMMIE WARREN

Warren, 66, who served as the principal of Christopher Columbus Middle School before taking over the high school in 2008, resigned because he was entitled to retire by state law, said officials.

His departure from the district should not be interpreted as an admission of guilt to the charges, said his lawyer, Barry Kantrowitz of Montvale.

“He’s maintaining his innocence. He will continue to do that,” said Kantrowitz. “Eventually, when someone has the opportunity to cross-examine the complainant, the truth will come out.”

Warren’s resignation offers the district a chance to “put this behind us and move on,” said Richard Tardalo, Clifton‘s superintendent.

“We can get a full-time principal and plan for the future,” Tardalo said. “We can put Mr. Warren’s concerns behind us.”

Warren filed his resignation Wednesday, and the Board of Education approved it at its meeting that night.

“He gets whatever benefits he’s entitled to under the collective-bargaining agreement,” said Derlys Gutierrez, the school board attorney, adding that Warren’s most recent salary was $170,097. According to his contract, she said, he is permitted to take 34 percent of his accumulated sick days and unused vacation days.

Interim High School Principal Pasquale Orsini will remain on the job until the district finds a permanent replacement.

The 37-year-old mother of two district students alleged that the principal exposed himself and touched her inappropriately during meetings in which she sought his help for her special-needs son, who was having trouble in school.

Lou Fraulo, a school board commissioner, said the rumors surrounding Warren are detrimental to the entire district.

“I was one of the people on the board who supported him to be high school principal, because I thought he was an excellent educator,” said Fraulo. “I really can’t pass judgment one way or another until all the facts are known.”

The district until now was barred from hiring a permanent principal to replace Warren because, as a tenured employee, he was entitled to remain in the job until the allegations were resolved, school officials said.

Warren resigned voluntarily and was not pushed to do so by the district, said Gutierrez.

Had Warren remained in the job and been exonerated of the charges, he would have been permitted to return to the district.

In early December, the woman alleged that Warren exposed his private parts to her and touched her breasts during meetings to discuss her son.

The principal scheduled one of their meetings in a hotel room where he stripped down, she alleged.

A Paterson municipal judge found probable cause in the complaints – which included criminal sexual contact, luring, and using one’s office to gain leverage over another person.

Warren pleaded not guilty to the complaints and went free on $2,500 bail.

The case is being held for grand jury review, which will determine whether to indict Warren and send him to trial, according to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office. No dates have been scheduled.

The Board of Education had nearly completed its internal investigation of the matter, said Gutierrez, but Warren’s retirement announcement will bring the exploration to a halt.

The lawsuits, however, will continue.

Last month, Warren’s accuser filed a federal lawsuit for damages against the Board of Education, the high school and Warren, claiming he harassed her and that district officials were aware of his inappropriate behavior and did nothing about it.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, claimed that Warren asked the woman to perform sexual acts in exchange for helping her children with school.

The woman asked for unspecified damages. Gutierrez called the suit “without merit.”

Board President James Daley said the district insurance fund will cover the costs of the civil case because Warren was a district employee.

CLIFTON – Police officers arriving at a raging fire borrowed a ladder from a neighbor and hoisted it to a second-floor window but an elderly man remained in a chair in his bedroom and died, authorities said. Two other people were rescued.

Jane and Thomas Johnson were rescued by police and taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic. Deputy Fire Chief Henry Cholewczynski. Three police officers were treated for smoke inhalation at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson.

The call came in this morning at 4:46 from Jane Johnson, who was in the home. Police arrived on the scene first to find flames swirling out of the first and second floor windows, said Clifton Police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan. They kicked down the front door but couldn’t enter the home because of a thick wall of flames.

The police obtained a ladder from a neighbor and placed it against the house. Sergeant Keith Allmendiger and Patrolman Jeffrey Eelman climbed up to Johnson, who was afraid and clung to the window at first for fear of falling, and carried her down.

Then they assisted her brother Thomas Johnson, who was in another window on the second floor. He too was afraid to exit the window but the officers dragged him through the window and carried him down the ladder, said Rowan.

The Johnsons then told the officers that their father, Allan Johnson, 78, was still in the house. But by then, the home was fully engulfed in flames and it was impossible for emergency personnel to get inside, said Rowan.

Allan Jonson was later found in his bedroom sitting in a chair. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cholewczynski said the fire department was able to save the house next door although its vinyl siding melted from the intense heat.

Dean Urbano, a 22 year-old senior at Caldwell College who lives on Van Houten Avenue by Goss Place, said he was woken up at around 4:45 a.m. by a police siren.

“In a matter of three minutes we went from one car to six, seven police cars and four, five fire trucks,” he said. “They were pretty quick.”

At first, Urbano, who watched from his living room window, said he couldn’t see anything, then “it was a matter of five to seven seconds that the house started burning up real quick.”

“Luckily, the fire didn’t spread to any of the other homes,” he said.

“It was a severe fire. We utilized every Clifton unit and two mutual aid units,” said Deputy Fire Chief George Spies.

The Clifton Fire Department, the Clifton Police Department and the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the cause of the fire, which is likely to be electrical, said Rowan.

Full Story:Northjersey.com

Colon, Jr.

CLIFTON – A Clifton man has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Bloomfield girl.

Victor Colon, Jr., 59, of Clifton, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal restraint of a family friend’s 13-year-old daughter, said detective Capt. Robert Rowan.

Rowan said on Feb. 21, the girl’s mother received a call from her friend’s husband who said he was taking his two grandchildren bowling since they had the day off from school for Presidents’ Day, and asked if he could take her 13-year-old daughter along too.

The victim’s mother, who has known the suspect and his family for years, Rowan said, agreed to let her daughter go bowling. Colon picked the child up at her home at 11 a.m. on Feb. 21, Rowan said.

Once in the car, the suspect told the child it was too early to go bowling and told her he would take her back to his apartment to watch a movie in the meantime, Rowan said. Back at the apartment, Colon turned on the movie, “Embrace of the Vampire” an R-rated horror, thriller, Rowan said.

During the movie the girl asked Colon to turn it off because there was lots of nudity and she was not allowed to watch it, Rowan said. According to the victim’s statement, Rowan said Colon turned the movie off and asked the girl to pick another movie from his collection. The girl said she didn’t like any of the movies, so Colon re-started the vampire movie, Rowan said. At that point the suspect moved and sat next to the victim, Rowan said.

The suspect removed the girl’s pants and underwear and fondled her, Rowan said. The girl’s statement to police indicates she repeatedly said no to the suspect and attempted to push him away. Following the assault, Rowan said the suspect made the girl promise she would not tell anyone, and after she promised he turned his attention to his computer. The victim went into the kitchen and made noise with a wind chime in order to camouflage the noise of the front door opening, in order to make her escape, Rowan said. “Once she was out of the Clifton apartment the girl called her mother,” who picked her up and took her home, Rowan said. The mother told police she then confronted the suspect, who told her he was sorry and that “the Devil entered his body,” Rowan said.

After discussing the incident with family members for advice on how to handle the incident, the victim’s mother took the girl to Clifton police headquarters on Feb. 23 where she was questioned by detectives Frank Loran and Joseph Hillyer, Rowan said. When detectives arrived at Colon’s Clifton apartment, he told them: “I know why you are here” and made a full confession, Rowan said. Colon was charged and remains in the Passaic County Jail on $200,000 bail with no 10 percent option.

CLIFTON — Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula has been charged with an additional crime stemming from the Feb. 20, emergency 911 call from her Dwasline Road home.

Detective Lt. Robert Bielsten, a member of the Special Investigations Divisions formerly known as Internal Affairs, consulted with the Passaic County Prosecutor’s office and as a result has charged Sadrakula with purposely obstructing the administration of law, a fourth degree crime, “by twice telling a 911 police dispatcher that there was no problem at her address…contrary to the fact that a domestic violence victim had called 911 from the house,” said detective Capt. Robert Rowan, the department’s spokesman.

Rowan said the councilwoman was informed of the additional charge via certified mail which required her signature upon acceptance. Rowan confirmed that Sadrakula had received the letter this week.

Sadrakula was arrested and charged with third degree aggravated assault following a 911 call from her house on Feb. 20 where a female relative told police the councilwoman had struck her following an argument, Rowan said. Sadrakula pleaded not guilty on Feb. 22 and has a scheduled pre-indictment hearing on March 16.

The family relative, identified as Sadrakula’s sister by the Councilwoman’s first attorney, suffered a broken nose and a broken tailbone from the incident, according to police records.

Rowan said the obstruction charges are a result of conversations between Sadrakula and a 911 dispatcher on the night of Feb. 20.

Rowan said the 911 dispatcher called the Dwasline Road house after receiving a “dropped” or hung up call to 911. When the dispatcher called, he spoke to a woman who identified herself as Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula who told him that everything was fine and that she had trouble with her phone, according to a recording of the 911 call. The councilwoman twice spoke with the dispatcher, and each time told him everything was fine, Rowan said.

Sadrakula, present at Tuesday night’s Clifton City Council meeting, said she had been advised by her attorney not to comment on the incident.

Following her arrest, Sadrakula’s second attorney, Robert Galantucci, questioned the police department’s motives in releasing the information to the press and accused the police of releasing information “selectively.”

The Police Department released a statement through Rowan on Monday, addressing the attorney’s comments.

Rowan said: “It appears that our patrol officers acted properly when they responded to Councilwoman Mary Sadrakula’s home last Sunday evening. They followed all requirements of the Domestic Violence Act.” He said: “Secondly, we gave the news to the media as we always do. We certainly wouldn’t want to withhold a story and be accused of a cover-up because the alleged perpetrator is a member of the City Council.”

Rowan went on to say that two reporters informed him that “Ms. Sadrakula’s attorney claimed we were only releasing selected parts of the police reports, therefore, I brought both of these reporters to my office and I read the report to them verbatim, excluding only the name of the victim, as required.”

Rowan said Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests were filed by members of the media for the 911 tapes of the incident and we did release them based on written instructions by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s office. So I don’t know what Mr. Galantuci is referring to when he claims Clifton police are acting on a vendetta against Ms. Sadrakula.”

NORTH BERGEN — Police arrested a Clifton man Tuesday for using counterfeit $100 bills at a township deli and two Hackensack McDonald’s restaurants, authorities said.

Police in both Hackensack and North Bergen arrested Samuel Garcia-Fuentes, 29, in separate cases.

In North Bergen, he is accused of trying to use a fake $100 bill to buy two bottles of soda at a deli on Union Turnpike about 11 p.m. on Feb. 25th. The store clerk confronted the man, telling him the bill was phony, said Lt. Frank Cannella.

The man ran out of the store and jumped in his vehicle, but not before the clerk wrote down the license plate. Investigators tracked the plate, which was from Massachusetts, back to a car rental company and the person who rented the vehicle, Cannella said.

Garcia-Fuentes was first arrested by Hackensack police, who were investigating the use of fake $100 bills at two McDonald’s restaurants.

North Bergen arrested Garcia-Fuentes at Hackensack police headquarters about 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Hackensack police charged him with forgery and theft by deception, and township police charged him with forgery and attempted theft by deception, Cannella said.

Garcia-Fuentes posted $5,000 bail in North Bergen about 8 p.m., Cannella said.

The counterfeit bills were printed on thicker paper; they did not have watermarks and the ink was not metallic unlike the ink used to print real currency, police said.