ONLY ON CVP: The husband of a woman’s clothing designer was indicted this week on charges of running from Little Ferry police and then threatening to kill them after stealing her wallet.

Tammy Pusher-Wiggins called police to say that Tyrone Wiggins was pounding on the door of her home before dawn on Jan. 15, authorities said.

When they arrived, they said, she told them that he took off with her wallet.

A witness told police that Wiggins, 37, had gotten on a bus.

Officers stopped the bus in Moonachie moments later and brought him back to the scene. There, a radio report came in that Wiggins was wanted on a warrant out of Union Township.

At that point Wiggins bolted, but police caught him quickly, Little Ferry Detective Ronald Klein Jr. told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

In the patrol car, the detective said, Wiggins threatened to kill the four officers.

Wiggins had his bail reduced from $200,000 to $40,000 and was released from the Bergen County Jail five days after his arrest.

He was picked up in Fort Lee and released on $1,000 bail last month on contempt of court and simple assault charges.

The grand jury indictment charges him with robbery, eluding police, trying to prevent law enforcement from making an arrest by threatening violence, threatening to kill Pusher-Wiggins and the four officers — Sgt. Chris Boel and Officers Michael Derwin, Keith Ehalt and John Clark — and knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury to them as they were doing their jobs.

Wiggins — who served time twice in New York State, once for robbery and another for weapons possession — once co-owned Audacity Republic Apparel with Pusher-Wiggins, 33, records show. She is the company’s chief executive officer and owns her own New York City boutique.

One of her signature items is a t-shirt that joins the faces of Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Dandridge.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A man who police said robbed an Englewood bank early this afternoon hopped out of the getaway car on Route 4 in Paramus and was caught hiding in a trash bin behind the Jennifer Convertibles store, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

The getaway driver waited outside the Chase Bank branch on Grand Avenue during the holdup, just after 12:30 p.m.

Teaneck Police Detective Stephen Ramirez, who was working patrol for the day to assist with manpower demands, heard the bulletin after the pair fled, spotted the red Altima and stopped it on the westbound highway, Lt. Andrew McGurr told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Both occupants got out, and Ramirez took the driver into custody, McGurr said. He then broadcast a description of the fleeing suspect, who headed behind the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

A short time later, Hackensack Police Sgt. Niles Malvasia and Officer Ralph Cavallo grabbed the accused robber after a brief struggle, city Police Director Michael Mordaga told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

An ambulance was called for the suspect, who had undetermined injuries, Mordaga said.

Meanwhile, the shopping center was closed off and Route 4 traffic was slowed to a crawl.

CHECK BACK FOR MORE DETAILS

ONLY ON CVP: A 17-year-old girl was conscious but dazed after being struck by a bus in Cliffside Park this afternoon.

The northbound bus hit the girl as it turned left from Gorge Road to head west on Edgewater Road, near Cliffside Park High School, just after 1:30 p.m.

The girl, who apparently had been walking north on Gorge Road, was taken to Holy Name Hospital.

STORY / PHOTOS: Richard Criscione, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent

STORY / PHOTOS: Richard Criscione, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Community Reporter

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A raid that turned up four pounds of pot, seven guns and $8,100 in cash led to the arrests of five members of a Washington Township family, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli confirmed today.

CLIFFVIEW PILOT first reported the arrests by prosecutor’s detectives on Wednesday of Glenn Gerhard, his wife, Hilda Gerhard, and their son, Matthew Gerhard, along with the search of their Viola Terrace home – a quarter-mile from the Bergen County YJCC and barely 500 feet from town hall and the Washington Township police station (SEE: Washington Township father, mother, son busted on pot selling charges).

Molinelli withheld release of the full information until the Gerhard’s daughter, Christina, and her husband, Scott Gersten, could turn themselves in. That occurred yesterday the prosecutor’s Paramus office.

Christina Gerhard, Scott Gersten (MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE)

A little over three hours earlier yesterday, Christina Gerhard wrote to CLIFFVIEW PILOT :

“How could you lie so much and try to ruin other peoples lives[.] [T]hat’s my family you wrote about and it has NOTHING true about what happened I’m so glad you have joy to exaggerate the truth. You[']r[e] all disgusting human beings[.]”

The newlyweds had been in North Carolina looking for a new home when the others were busted on Tuesday.

Like the others, Gersten and Christina Gerhard were released on bail pending court appearances on Monday in Hackensack.

Molinelli said his narcotics detectives were investigating Gersten when they applied for a search warrant for the family home.

Along with the cash and pot – which the prosecutor said had a street value of $16,000 – the search last Friday turned up four handguns, two rifles and a shotgun, Molinelli said.

Glenn Gerhard, 60, his 24-year-old daughter and Gersten, also 24, were charged with marijuana possession in a school zone. Hilda Gerhard, 56, and 27-year-old Matthew Gerhard were each charged with possession with the intent to sell the pot and having it in a school zone.

Glenn Gerhard, a gun enthusiast, and his daughter also were charged with possessing a weapon while committing a drug crime.

Glenn Gerhard, who works as a sales executive for a North Bergen lithograph company, lives with his wife of 35 years in a cul-de-sac off Pascack Road.

Sources told CLIFFVIEW PILOT it was the site of parties for football players, cheerleaders and others when Matthew Gerhard (Class of 2005) attended Westwood Regional High School.

Glenn Gerhard was released on $75,000 bail and his wife and son on $35,000 bail each soon after being processed at the Bergen County Jail. Gersten and Christina Gerhard each posted $75,000 bail and were released.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A “very courageous and dedicated” employee followed a man who’d just robbed an Englewood bank of more than $10,000 yesterday, leading to the capture of the robber and a getaway driver, both of Paterson, authorities said this morning.

Hackensack police took 53-year-old Michael Hall into custody following a violent struggle after they found him hiding in a garbage bin behind a Route 4 strip mall in Paramus.

Moments earlier, a Teaneck officer who stopped the getaway car arrested the driver.

The accused robbers, who were being held on $500,000 bail each, have 22 felony convictions between them, records show. Authorities said they are trying to determine whether they may have been responsible for other bank holdups in the area.

Englewood police got the 911 bank robbery call from the Chase Bank branch on Grand Avenue just after 12:30 p.m. yesterday, Detective Capt. Timothy Torell said.

Hall (above, left), who was wearing a disguise, had just fled with the cash after passing a note, he said.

“A very courageous and dedicated bank manager followed the suspect through the city’s busy downtown area for about two blocks and saw him get into a waiting red Nissan Altima on South Dean Street,” Torell said.

Englewood police issued a description of Hall and the car over the State Police Emergency Network, the captain said.

Teaneck Police Detective Stephen Ramirez, who was working patrol for the day to assist with manpower demands, heard the bulletin after the pair fled, spotted the red Altima on the westbound highway near River Road and eventually stopped it in Paramus near the Jewelry Exchange, Lt. Andrew McGurr told CLIFFVIEW PILOT yesterday.

Both occupants bailed out, he said.

Ramirez grabbed the driver, identified as Clarence Jones, 46 (above, right), and broadcast a description of the fleeing passenger, who headed behind the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant.

A short time later, Hackensack Police Sgt. Niles Malvasia and Officer Ralph Cavallo grabbed Hall after a brief but violent struggle, city Police Director Michael Mordaga told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

An ambulance was called for Hall, who had undetermined injuries, Mordaga said.

Both men are charged with bank robbery and Hall with resisting arrest, as well.

The Altima was impounded with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification until Englewood detectives could obtain a warrant.

“There is a significant amount of cash visible in the vehicle,” Torell said. “We anticipate recovering most, if not all of the proceeds, along with other key evidence in the case, such as a disguise that Hall wore when he committed the robbery.”
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy ENGLEWOOD PD

UPDATE: Pre-dawn fires in a vacant house in Ridgefield and a single-family Rutherford home were both set, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.

Cliffside Park, Fairview and Palisades Park firefighters joined their Ridgefield colleagues at 894 Lancaster Avenue around 5:30 a.m. (photos above, below).

A 60-something woman who lived alone got out before a 1 a.m. fire that began in the garage rendered her 2½-story house on Ridge Road in Rutherford unihabitable, authorities said.

Firefighters from East Rutherford, Lyndhurst, North Arlington and Wallington assisted.

Both fires “have been determined as arsons” and are under investigation by his office’s Arson Unit, Molinelli said.

STORY / PHOTOS: Richard Criscione, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent

STORY / PHOTOS: Richard Criscione, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Correspondent

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A motorcyclist led a Paramus police officer on a brief chase before crashing in Clifton, authorities said this morning.

Officer Norman Gin tried pulling over the 2014 BMW’s operator for reckless driving on Route 17 South around 10 a.m., Sgt. Christine Udis told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The rider continued on, however, heading onto the southbound Garden State Parkway and then westbound Route 46 before wiping out at Crooks Avenue, Udis said.

Identified as 21-year-old Boris Begun of Brooklyn, he was taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center with an apparent leg injury, she said.

He will be charged with eluding, among other offenses, police said.

EXCLUSIVE: A man convicted of murdering a Cliffside Park chef described in graphic detail yesterday how he and his co-defendant cut up the body and disposed of it in garbage bags around town after he stabbed the victim in the neck.

Testifying against Wilfredo Sanchez in a trial that began two weeks ago, Pedro Garcia claimed he wasn’t looking for leniency when he is sentenced.

Rather, Garcia said, he “just wanted to tell the truth of what happened” to Francisco Gonzalez Fuentes, who worked as a cook and kitchen helper at Cliffside Park’s Club House Cafe on Palisade Avenue.

Sanchez (inset, above), the defendant, kept his head down most of the time, occasionally scribbling a note and not talking directly to his attorney.

Garcia (photo) told jurors through a Spanish interpreter that he’d known “Frisco” since 2009 and shared a tiny, two-room apartment with him where Sanchez threw a party on Jan. 8, 2011, a Saturday. He said he cooked for the nine or so guests with food Sanchez bought, and that people drank.

Eventually, Garcia said, only he, Sanchez and Fuentes were left.

After Sanchez fell asleep on the one bed in the combined living/bedroom, Fuentes started unzipping his pants,  waking him, Garcia said.

An argument ensued.

Garcia, 36, said he already was angry at the openly gay Fuentes, 46, for telling people that he was his boyfriend. The mother of his infant son began restricting visits as a result, he testified.

Sanchez, 37, pushed Fuentes hard to the floor, breaking a plate, Garcia said, then he grabbed Fuentes by the neck and began hitting him with his right hand, shouting: “I’m not Garcia.”

“I’m going to call the police,” said Fuentes, who then went to the door and opened it, Garcia told jurors.

At that point, Sanchez grabbed Fuentes and hit him again, putting a piece of the broken plate to his neck, he said.

Garcia said he then went into the kitchen and got a “a big knife with a black grip.”

When he returned, he said, the two men were in the bathroom.

Still furious over Fuentes’s claim that they were lovers, Garcia said he stabbed him in the left side of the neck.

“The blood shot out,” he said. “I gave the knife to [Sanchez] and went into the kitchen.”

Garcia said he knew the neck wound had killed Fuentes, which he said had to be done to keep him from going to police. He said he also put on music “because they were making so much noise.”

“I got another knife and came back, and I saw [Sanchez] had stabbed him in the stomach,” Garcia testified. “He was dead.”

Garcia’s older sister, who had been sobbing quietly in the courtroom with her other siblings, got up at that point and left, along with several other spectators.

Then things got grisly.

First, they cut off Fuentes’ head, Garcia testified. Then they removed an arm.

After dumping everything in a nearby parking lot, they decided “it was too big,” Garcia said. “You could see it from far away.”

So they took the body back inside and continued dismembering it, sticking the pieces into garbage bags.

They sprayed disinfectant during the four-hour operation, which Garcia said began at 1 a.m. They also changed gloves and mopped up with rags, clothes, papers and anything they could find, he said.

They then dropped the bags around Cliffside Park — “at the church, at construction, in a parking lot,” he said.

“First, we threw out the three bags to the church,” Garcia said. “I put the legs behind the construction.

“When I came back, [Sanchez] grabbed the knife and opened his stomach,” he continued. “He changed his gloves and started taking out the intestines with his hands.

“The smell was so strong I left out of there. I wanted to throw up,” Garcia said.

Sanchez, meanwhile, “grabbed a bottle of chemical and started spraying it on the stomach because the smell was very strong.”

One knife broke during the procedure, and another had to be sharpened to cut through both legs, Garcia testified.

After throwing the last two bags near a construction site, they returned to the apartment. It was just after 5 a.m.

They got a couple hours sleep, then began to clean up, Garcia said.

The bloody tools, rags, and other items were placed into bags and thrown out. Garcia said he then took their clothes to a nearby laundry while Sanchez cleaned the apartment with bleach.

When he returned, he said, Sanchez “took me to the bathroom and told me ‘Hey, look how I left it all clean. It appears that nothing ever happened’.”

Things changed when Fuentes’ sister came by around noon that day, looking for her brother.

There was no answer, she testified earlier in the trial, so she returned around 5 p.m. and got the landlord to open the door.

Garcia, Sanchez, and Sanchez’ brother were in the bathroom, she said.

“Why didn’t you open the bathroom door?” she said she asked them.

“We were sleeping,” she said they told her.

There was blood on the wall, she said, and “the whole place just reeked.”

So she went to police, who launched a search that night.

Her brother’s head was found behind St. Demetrius Melkite-Greek Church on Cliff Street, down the block from the apartment, the next morning — Monday, Jan. 10. A search turned up other parts the same day.

That Wednesday, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office arrested Garcia and Sanchez, charging them with Fuentes’s murder and dismemberment.

Garcia, who was convicted in October, after a jury trial, remains held without bail in the Bergen County jail pending sentencing.

Also there is Sanchez, whose bail is $2 million.

Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Monday morning.

STORY / FILE PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

ONLY ON CVP: A kitchen worker from Bergenfield whose repeated sex assaults on a 5-year-old boy over a decade ago ignited a “chain of acting-out sexual behavior” by the victim and another family member was sentenced to 10 years in state prison on Friday.

Jorge Molina, 60, admitted putting the boy’s penis in his mouth and touching his genitals through his clothing in exchange for the sentence and a dismissal by prosecutors of charges that he forced the boy to do the same to him.

First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Marybel Mercado Ramirez said the plea agreement was the best resolution under the circumstances for the boy, now 16, and his family, who didn’t want to endure the trauma of a trial.

The impact of Molina’s behavior on them was devastating: The Colombian native had been a pedophile for many years, and what he did to the boy created a “chain of acting-out sexual behavior” that affected everyone, the prosecutor said.

First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Marybel Mercado Ramirez, Jorge Molina (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

Molina, who worked at a Norwood nursing home, was caring for the boy and his younger brother when the assaults occurred, authorities said.

According to Ramirez, the boy old reacted to the abuse by assaulting his younger brother, who in turn assaulted someone else.

When investigators talked to family members, the boy’s mother told them that Molina molested her as a child, as well, she said. Other family members said he did the same to them, Ramirez told the judge.

“The sadness of this case shows the permeating nature of sexual assault and its after-effects,” the prosecutor said.

She also faulted Molina’s evaluation at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, saying the subsequent report is “not worth the paper it’s written on.

“The defendant blames the victim for everything,” Ramirez said. “He claims the victim asked him to perform fellatio on him at the age of five years old, and apparently Mr. Molina was unable to resist.

“Although Avenel claims he’s not repetitive and compulsive, the evidence shows otherwise,” she continued. “And I am hard-pressed to believe that Mr. Molina was drunk every time this happened, because he would have had to be perpetually drunk for at least several years.

“He is a pedophile, a classic sex offender,” Ramirez concluded, in asking the judge to uphold the plea agreement to its maximum.

Guida agreed.

Although he noted that he could sentence Molina only for the guilty plea involving the boy, the judge said that was a serious enough offense to warrant 10 years.

For one thing, he said, “there is a high risk of another offense.”

“Under other circumstances, we would be looking at 20 years on the first count alone,” Guida said, “but I understand why the plea is as it is.”

Guida sentenced Molina to 10 years under the No Early Release Act, which carries 8½ years of mandatory time before parole.

He’s already served 1½ years in jail awaiting the resolution of his case, which means he can be out in seven years.

The sentence includes what essentially are moot penalties.

For one thing, the judge fined Molina $5,000 that his lawyer said he doesn’t have. He also put Molina on parole supervision for life under both Megan’s and Nicole’s laws — but said the Colombian native will be deported once his prison term is up.

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

TRIBUTE: The funeral Mass for Firefighter John Barnas, a Wallington native who lived in Jersey City, is scheduled for 11 a.m. this Thursday at the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Wallington.

Visiting hours for Barnas, 23, who died yesterday after battling cancer, are set for 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Warner-Wozniak Funeral Home on Midland Avenue in Wallington.

John, Greg Barnas (here and below)

Barnas’s father, Fire Capt. Gregory Barnas, died in a Wallington restaurant fire in late February.

He had been donating blood cells for John — whose brother, Kevin, is also a firefighter — as he underwent chemotherapy.

Firefighters from inside and out of Wallington, Bergen County, New Jersey and the country contributed and sponsored blood drives and other fundraisers to help Barnas, who began in the junior academy and, like his dad, applied to work for the Jersey City department.

“John was just like his father,” Wallington Fire Chief Mark Tomko said, bestowing the ultimate compliment.

ONLY ON CVP: Two ambulances were required to transport the victims of a Fair Lawn crash to Hackensack University Medical Center this afternoon.

Rescue workers freed the most seriously injured of the victims from a Volvo sedan, which collided with a Honda at the intersection of Plaza Road and Fair Lawn Avenue just before 1 p.m.

Responding were Fair Lawn police, EMS and Reavy Rescue Squad members.

Both vehicles were removed by tow trucks.

STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Burlington County man who Fort Lee police said was driving on the shoulder past backed-up traffic to the George Washington Bridge claimed he was a New York City police officer – and had a loaded gun, ammo, handcuffs and fake police ID cards in his car, authorities said this morning.

Detective Philip Ross stopped the 2008 Jeep Wrangler “on the right shoulder passing vehicles stopped in heavy traffic” around 7:45 p.m. Saturday, Capt. Stanley Zon said.

The driver, 44-year-old George Santos of Willingboro, “immediately identified himself as a police officer with the New York City Sanitation police department,” and showed Ross a police shield and ID card that expired April 30, Zon said.

A “very nervous” Santos could explain why he hadn’t replaced the card, the captain said.

What’s more, he said, Santos wasn’t looking into the camera in the card’s photo.

Ross then began asking NYPD-related questions that Santos couldn’t answer correctly, Zon said.

Once backup officers arrived, they ordered Santos ot of the Jeep, obtained his consent to search the vehicle and turned up a fully loaded 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun, along with bogus ID cards, and another magazine for the weapon, the captain said. A total fo 24 rounds were found, he said.

Santos posted $7,500 bail and was released pending a hearing on charges of impersonating a police officer and illegal possession of a hadngun, a high-capacity magazine, handcuffs and false government documents. He also was issued summonses for improper passing and driving an unregistered vehicle.

YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST: Police from three agencies are looking for a driver who they said tried coaxing a 17-year-old Saddle Brook High School runner into his car this morning.

An alert citizen snapped a cellphone photo of the man’s white BMW SUV, a copy of which (above) was obtained by CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“We’re hoping that someone recognizes the vehicle and the suspect’s description,” Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler told the website.

The teen told police she was jogging through Saddle River County Park with her SBHS track team and their coach up ahead of her around 10:30 this morning when the driver slowed down as she ran on Railroad Avenue into Rochelle Park.

He shouted something, she said, but she kept on running.

But he persisted.

“Hey, I know you,” he yelled. “Why don’t you get in?”

At this point, the girl broke into a sprint, Kugler said.

“She caught up to her coach and the remaining team members and told the coach what happened,” the chief said. “He immediately called it in.”

The driver eventually parked on the Rochelle Park side of the county park and took what police believe was a small Yorkie for a short walk.

That’s when a good Samaritan snapped a shot of the SUV.

“We believe that U and T are two of the letters on the [license] plate,” Kugler said.

He described the driver as black, in his late 20s to early 30s, and somewhere between 5-foot-10 and just over 6 feet.

Saddle Brook, Rochelle Park and Bergen County police were investigating, Kugler said.

“Bravo to the girl,” the chief added.” She did exactly what she should have done: She sprinted away and reported it immediately.”

Anyone with information that could help the investigation is asked to call either:

Bergen County Police: (201) 336-7700
Saddle Brook Police: (201) 843-7000
Rochelle Park Police: (201) 843-1515

IMAGE: Courtesy LAW ENFORCEMENT

ONLY ON CVP: An infant strapped into a child seat escaped serious injury this afternoon after the car his mother was driving was broadsided by another in Fair Lawn this afternoon.

Fair Lawn Police Capt. Robert Kneer
(STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving)

Police Capt. Robert Kneer, who was one of the first emergency responders at the scene, comforted the mother and child after their Volkswagen sedan was rammed by a 2-door Honda at the intersection of Heights and Loretto avenues around 2:45 p.m.

Fair Lawn Heavy Rescue responded along with police and an ambulance from Fuchs Medical Services (covering for Fair Lawn EMS).

The infant and the Honda driver were both taken to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening.

Both vehicles were removed by flatbed tow truck.

STORY / PHOTOS: Boyd A. Loving

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Three Oakland cement company workers trying to fix a disabled mixer on northbound Route 287 were killed when a tractor-trailer slammed into them, the mixer and then another vehicle in a fiery crash early this afternoon.

Another Concrete on Demand mixer similar to the one struck (PHOTO: Rebecca Abma)

The workers from Concrete on Demand in Oakland were outside the mixer and a pickup truck just after 12:30 p.m. when the tractor-trailer carrying a load of bricks veered onto the shoulder, slammed into the mixer and then continued on, colliding with a Toyota Avalon.

Both the rig’s cab and the sedan caught fire, State Police said.

The husband and wife in the Toyota and the driver of the tractor-trailer all escaped before the fire engulfed the cab. Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. 

They received minor injuries and were treated at two local hospitals, he said.

A visibly shaken worker at the Concrete on Demand on Edison Road confirmed the fatalities to CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

He declined further comment.

Leading the investigation is the New Jersey State Police Fatal Accident Investigation Unit, with assistance from the NJSP Crime Scene Investigation Unit and the Commercial Vehicle Inspection Unit, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Transportation Safety Board.

PHOTO: Janna Hildebrandt Morgan

ALL PHOTOS (except where noted): BOYD A. LOVING

TRIBUTE: A full fireman’s funeral for Firefighter John Barnas, a Wallington native who lived in Jersey City, is scheduled for 11 a.m. this Thursday at the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Wallington.

Visiting hours for Barnas, 23, who beat lymphoma but died yesterday after being stricken with pneumonia, are set for 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Warner-Wozniak Funeral Home on Midland Avenue in Wallington.

Mourners are expected to line Wallington’s streets on Thursday the way they did for Barnas’ father’s funeral.

Barnas’s father, Fire Capt. Gregory Barnas, died in a Wallington restaurant fire in late February. He had been donating blood cells for John — whose brother, Kevin, is also a firefighter — as he underwent chemotherapy.

Police on Thursday will close:

John, Greg Barnas (above & below)

• Midland Avenue (8:45 to 10:30 a.m.);
• Paterson Avenue from Locust to Carlton avenues (10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.);
• Bond Street (10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.);
• Dankhoff Avenue (10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.);
• Johnson Avenue from Van Dyke Street to Paterson Avenue (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.);
• Wadsworth Street from Johnson to Morrissee avenues (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Following the Mass, a procession will move to the Johnson Avenue fire station for a final alarm.

“The wounds are so fresh from before and now they’re opened up and deeper,” Wallington Fire Commissioner Mark Tomko, “so it’s been a rough go for the whole family.”

Firefighters from inside and out of Wallington, Bergen County, New Jersey and the country contributed and sponsored blood drives and other fundraisers to help Barnas, who began in the junior academy and, like his dad, applied to work for the Jersey City department.

“John was just like his father,” Tomko said, bestowing the ultimate compliment.

FIREMAN’S FUNERAL (Courtesy WALLINGTON FD): “We are asking any departments that will be arriving in fire apparatus to please enter from Midland Avenue in Garfield. Apparatus can park to the side of the roadway as directed and the personnel can walk up Midland Avenue to the funeral home. Please do not block Midland Avenue (as per our PD). Limitation of fire apparatus would be appreciated on the day of the funeral, however apparatus will be accommodated. Following the Church Services, the procession will proceed to the Johnson Avenue Firehouse for a ceremony at the firehouse and John’s final alarm.”

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Saying the victim begged for his life, a judge in Hackensack today sentenced a Cliffside Park kitchen worker to 90 years in prison for his role in the murder and dismemberment of a popular neighborhood cook, following emotional statements by the victim’s siblings.

Wilfredo Sanchez, 38, appeared ashamed as Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi sentenced him to two 10-year terms and five separate five-year terms for an aggregate sentence of 90 years for the murder and desecration of the body of Francisco Gonzalez Fuentes.

He also stood for the entire proceeding, shifting from one foot to another, occasionally glancing at family members in the gallery or mouthing words to them.

It was a stark difference from the stoic that Sanchez had throughout the two-week trial and subsequent verdict in December.

His mother and two other relatives spoke on Sanchez’s behalf.

“What happened that night should not have happened,” defense attorney John Weichsel told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi, seeking mercy for his client. “It evolved from a pretty miserable existence when you work hard all week and get stupidly, blindly drunk on the weekend.”

Weichsel said Sanchez “worked very hard for very menial wages, like many people who have come to this country and are not documented. He couldn’t be part of the system, couldn’t get a Social Security number, and couldn’t complain when he was cheated on his wages.

“He is so sorry and so remorseful for what he did that fateful day – he is full of shame, full of guilt,” the attorney said. “He knows if he ever gets out of jail, he’ll be deported to a native country he will not have seen in decades.

“He knows he’ll probably be in jail when his mother, who has stood behind him, passes away. He has two children in El Salvador who will not know him.”

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

Gonzalez’ siblings (above), who attended every day of both trials, had no sympathy for Sanchez or his co-defendant, Pedro Garcia.

In turn, they described how the two killed their brother “like an animal.”

“We want him to pay for this crime because we are not going to see our brother again,” Francisco Gonzales told the judge. “The killing they did on my brother was worse than a dog should suffer. They killed him as if they were killing a chicken.

“When the body was given back to us, we got half of it,” he said. “Only they know what happened to the other half.”

“We’re just asking for the full force of the law to fall down on them.”

Garcia, the key witness against Sanchez, told jurors in graphic detail during the trial how he stabbed Fuentes in the neck, killing him, and then cut up and disposed of the body in garbage bags around town with Sanchez following a party at the apartment that Garcia and the 46-year-old victim shared.

Garcia said that he’d known “Frisco” since 2009 and shared a tiny, two-room apartment with him where Sanchez threw a party on Jan. 8, 2011, a Saturday. He said he cooked for the nine or so guests with food Sanchez bought, and that people drank.

Eventually, Garcia said, only he, Sanchez and Fuentes were left.

After Sanchez fell asleep on the one bed in the combined living/bedroom, Fuentes started unzipping his pants, waking him, Garcia said.

An argument ensued.

Garcia said he was already angry at the openly gay “Frisco” Fuentes who worked as a cook and kitchen helper at Cliffside Park’s Club House Cafe on Palisade Avenue, for telling people that he was his boyfriend. The mother of his infant son began restricting visits as a result, he testified.

Sanchez pushed Fuentes hard to the floor, breaking a plate, Garcia said, then he grabbed Fuentes by the neck and began hitting him with his right hand, shouting: “I’m not Garcia.”

Sanchez family members (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

“I’m going to call the police,” said Fuentes, who then went to the door and opened it, Garcia told jurors.

At that point, Sanchez grabbed Fuentes and hit him again, putting a piece of the broken plate to his neck, he said.

Garcia said he then went into the kitchen and got a “a big knife with a black grip.”

When he returned, he said, the two men were in the bathroom.

Still furious over Fuentes’s claim that they were lovers, Garcia said he stabbed him in the left side of the neck.

“The blood shot out,” he said. “I gave the knife to [Sanchez] and went into the kitchen.”

Garcia said he knew the neck wound had killed Fuentes, which he said had to be done to keep him from going to police. He said he also put on music “because they were making so much noise.”

“I got another knife and came back, and I saw [Sanchez] had stabbed him in the stomach,” Garcia testified. “He was dead.”

Then things got grisly.

First, they cut off Fuentes’ head, Garcia testified. Then they removed an arm.

After dumping everything in a nearby parking lot, they decided “it was too big,” Garcia said. “You could see it from far away.”

So they took the body back inside and continued dismembering it, sticking the pieces into garbage bags.

They sprayed disinfectant during the four-hour operation, which Garcia said began at 1 a.m. They also changed gloves and mopped up with rags, clothes, papers and anything they could find, he said.

They then dropped the bags around Cliffside Park — “at the church, at construction, in a parking lot,” he said.

“First, we threw out the three bags to the church,” Garcia said. “I put the legs behind the construction.

“When I came back, [Sanchez] grabbed the knife and opened his stomach,” he continued. “He changed his gloves and started taking out the intestines with his hands.

“The smell was so strong I left out of there. I wanted to throw up,” Garcia said.

Sanchez, meanwhile, “grabbed a bottle of chemical and started spraying it on the stomach because the smell was very strong.”

One knife broke during the procedure, and another had to be sharpened to cut through both legs, Garcia testified.

After throwing the last two bags near a construction site, they returned to the apartment. It was just after 5 a.m.

They got a couple hours sleep, then began to clean up, Garcia said.

The bloody tools, rags, and other items were placed into bags and thrown out. Garcia said he then took their clothes to a nearby laundry while Sanchez cleaned the apartment with bleach.

When he returned, he said, Sanchez “took me to the bathroom and told me ‘Hey, look how I left it all clean. It appears that nothing ever happened’.”

Things changed when Fuentes’ sister, Dora Alicia Gonzales, came by around noon that day, looking for her brother.

There was no answer, she testified earlier in the trial, so she returned around 5 p.m. and got the landlord to open the door.

Garcia, Sanchez, and Sanchez’ brother were in the bathroom, she said.

“Why didn’t you open the bathroom door?” she said she asked them.

“We were sleeping,” she said they told her.

There was blood on the wall, she said, and “the whole place just reeked.”

So she went to police, who launched a search that night.

Her brother’s head was found behind St. Demetrius Melkite-Greek Church on Cliff Street, down the block from the apartment, the next morning — Monday, Jan. 10. A search turned up other parts the same day.

That Wednesday, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office arrested Garcia and Sanchez, charging them with Fuentes’s murder and dismemberment.

“When I asked Wilfredo what’s up with my brother, he said he didn’t know anything about him,” Gonzales told the judge today. “He gave me the same kiss that Judas gave the Lord.”

Each family member thanked the judge, the prosecutors and the investigators.

“Everything came out as it should, without lies,” Dora Gonzales said, echoing the sentiments of her brothers.

The siblings’ devotion to seeing justice done in their brither’s name touched him, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Wayne Mello (photo, top) said.

“I have come to know these people — Dora best of all, because she has testified in two trials and suffered so much, but most of all because she is such a lovely human being,” he told the judge. “When she speaks, it’s almost as if Francisco would speak to me.

“The life of every human being that is taken is given to me in trust – to protect and preserve, forever after. It was Dora who gave me the strength to do that,” Mello said.

“The inequity of the suffering of people who come to this country – the good and decent — they suffer, and they suffer mightily. But they push on for their family name, for their tradition, for the daughters and sons, mothers and fathers – and in their suffering they become magnificent.”

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

PHOTOS: Authorities were investigating the cause of a fire that destroyed a pedestrian pier in Edgewater overnight.

The wind-whipped, two-alarm blaze began at the end of Main Street off River Road in the Hudson River — near one of the East Coast’s most notorious Superfund sites — and moved toward the shore before it was snuffed within two hours.

More than four dozen firefighters Edgewater, Cliffside Park, Fort Lee, Englewood Cliffs and Leonia. Manhattan and Jersey City tried to send boats but were stifled by a low tide.

There were no reported injuries.

PHOTOS: Kevin Teel (CLICK HERE FOR MORE)

PHOTOS: Kevin Teel (CLICK HERE FOR MORE)

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Englewood convenience store clerk who was being entirely cooperative with an armed robber was brutally pistol-whipped last night, and police are hoping citizens help find his attacker.

“This is a small local store off the beaten path. Our suspect is most likely a local guy,” Detective Capt. Timothy Torell told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“We have a few leads in this case, but what we really need is the public’s help on this one,” Torell said. “The injuries the clerk received were totally unwarranted.

“This suspect is a violent criminal we need to get off the streets ASAP.”

The robber attacked the 26-year-old clerk at the New Quick Market, at the corner of West Hamilton Avenue and Pindle Avenue in the City’s 3rd Ward, around 9:40 p.m., the captain said

A pedestrian who found him dazed and bleeding badly from the face and head flagged down a passing patrol officer, and the Hackensack victim was taken to Englewood Medical Center, he said.

“It appears that the clerk was totally cooperative during the robbery and was pistol-whipped for no reason,” Torell said. “He need a significant amount of stitches before being released.”

The clerk described his assailant as tall, black, wearing dark pants and a dark-colored shirt over his head, partially obscuring his face.

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence.

Anyone with information that could help the investigation is asked to call Englewood detectives: (201) 568-4875. All calls will remain confidential, Torell said.

ONLY ON CVP: Two North Arlington brothers will receive extremely different sentences for locking their disabled uncle in a bedroom while they robbed a bank in Little Ferry late last year, following their guilty pleas in Hackensack.

Terence “Terry” Shelton, 31, who robbed the TD Bank branch on Main street of $5,899 while wearing a clown mask and holding a pistol, will be sentenced to 14 years in prison in exchange for taking the full weight of the holdup.

Hi brother, Nicholas, 28, who drove the getaway car, will get probation.

Terry Shelton told Presiding Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi yesterday that his brother had no idea what he was up to that Dec. 27 night.

Nicholas Shelton was arrested soon after crashing the getaway car in East Rutherford. Police said they found the smashed-up 2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse on the entrance ramp to Route 3 from Route 120 — and a dazed Shelton hiding in the nearby weeds — after he fled a traffic stop by a Moonachie police officer in Carlstadt.

Terence “Terry” Shelton, Nicholas Shelton (STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)

Terry Shelton, a fugitive from Ohio who police said hopped out of the car and ran after the stop, was tracked to an abandoned chicken coop in the Meadowlands swamps and taken into custody.

Most of the cash was recovered and returned by a Carlstadt freight company manager after Shelton tried stashing it under a truck while fleeing. The rest was in the pockets of a peat coat that the Little Ferry Police Chief Ralph Verdi said he ditched nearby.

“Witnesses saw Terence running down Main Street with the clown mask on,” Verdi told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “While all this was going on, a dye pack in the batch exploded on him.”

He then hopped into the car driven by his brother.

Within minutes of the broadcast, Moonachie Police Officer Vito De Trizio stopped the getaway car as it headed south on Moonachie Road, Moonachie Police Chief Michael J. Maguire told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

The officer was getting out of his cruiser when Terence Shelton bolted on foot. As De Trizio chased him, Nicholas Shelton hit the gas and sped off, Maguire said.

The Mitsubishi crashed just up the road. East Rutherford police found it moments later on the Route 3 entrance ramp from Route 120. They also found a dazed Nicholas Shelton in the weeds nearby.

He was brought to Hackensack University Medical Center and then to Little Ferry police headquarters, where department detectives and the FBI interrogated him.

Terry Shelton, meanwhile, eluded police for more than two hours before a Bergen County Sheriff’s K-9 unit found him.

First, Shelton jumped a barbed-wire fence at Con-Way Freight on Moonachie Avenue in Carlstadt just off Moonachie Road, Verdi told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

There he shed the peat coat and hid some of the stolen loot under the chassis of a tractor-trailer, the chief said. The coat, torn up from the barbed wire, was splotched with dye from the exploding pack and had money stuffed into the pockets, he said.

CLICK HERE: Bank robbery brothers lock disabled uncle in bedroom

It proved useful for police dogs trying to track him.

After dashing back across Moonachie Avenue, Shelton jumped a fence at a UPS lot and vanished, Verdi said. De Trizio injured his back during the chase and was later attended to at HUMC, he said.

A perimeter was set up and K9 units were brought in from both the Bergen County Police Department and Bergen County Sheriff’s Office. Officers from Carlstadt, Hackensack and several other area departments joined the search. A New Jersey State Police helicopter arrived soon after.

Bergen County Sheriff’s K9 Officer Matthew Ryan and his partner, Dak, later found Shelton in an abandoned chicken coop in the meadows.

Dak grabbed a mouthful of the 6-foot, 200-pound suspect, who was then turned over to Little Ferry police. After a trip to the hospital, he was taken to police headquarters.

Ohio authorities weeks earlier issued a fugitive warrant for Terry Shelton after he left the state while on three years of intensive supervised parole following an eight-year prison stretch for burglary, aggravated assault on a police officer and violating “post-release control” following a previous prison sentence.

Shelton was believed to be hiding out in the Geraldine Road house that his younger brother bought from their mentally challenged uncle, North Arlington Police Chief Louis Ghione told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

“We’d been watching the house off and on for at least a month, looking for Terry,” Ghione said after the brothers were arrested. “He didn’t produce himself until the robbery.”

North Arlington police rushed to the house and forced their way when Detective Mark Ballantyne knew that Nicholas Shelton was responsible for his uncle, the chief said. So uniformed officers went to the house following the brothers’ arrests.

“They didn’t get an answer at the door, so they forced their way in,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “They found the uncle locked in a bedroom.”

State Adult Protective Services was called and relatives contacted, Ghione said.

“He’s OK and being taken care of,” the chief said.

Terry Shelton pleaded guilty yesterday to one first degree count of armed robbery, while Nicholas pleaded guilty to endangering his uncle and purposely eluding police to provide a diversion for his brother while he was trying to escape.

Nicholas Shelton, questioned by attorney Landry Belizaire, admitted to the two-fold crimes of neglecting his disabled uncle and eluding police to create a diversion to help his brother escape.

He also admitted eluding police and crashing his car.

DeAvila-Silebi told Terry Shelton he will have to serve 85 percent of his 14-year sentence, or 11 years and 10 months, plus five years of parole.

Nicholas Shelton will be sentenced to one or two years parole, which has still to be decided. He also said he plans to apply for pre-trial intervention in an attempt to clear his record.

DeAvila-Silebi set sentencing for Sept. 12.

STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter