finediony New Jersey news: luring

Monday, May 21, 2012

Suspect sought in attempted luring in Tenafly

Sketch of Tenafly luring suspect (WABC Photo)

Eyewitness NewsTENAFLY (WABC) -- Tenafly police are investigating a report of an attempted luring on Engle Street, north of East Clinton Avenue.

Police say two girls, ages 6 and 10, were playing in their driveway on Saturday morning when they observed a "large white pick-up truck" driving slowly northbound on Engle Street, park along the curb.

The vehicle was described as similar to a Chevrolet Silverado Crew or Extended Cab pickup.

Investigators said the suspect exited his vehicle, walked across the street onto the girls' property, and said, "Hey, come here." The children ran into their house and told their mother, who then called 911.

The girls described the suspect as a white male with brown hair, approximately 30 years old, 6'0" tall, wearing a long sleeve white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. He was also wearing dark blue jeans. He did not have any facial hair, nor any glasses.

The girls said that the man did not speak with an accent. They both stated, "he spoke normally."

Anyone with similar incidents or further information, should please contact Detective Sgt Kopesky at (201) 568-5100.

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more New Jersey News »

new jersey, tenafly, crime, new jersey news
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/wabc/xml?id=5758260&ptnr=promoCarousel");

View the original article here

Saturday, April 28, 2012

New Jersey cop accused of luring 12-year-old girl

by SAMANTHA HENRYWOODLAND PARK -- A New Jersey police officer sent a 12-year-old girl explicit photos of himself in uniform and tried to set up a sexual encounter with her, days after meeting the girl while assisting her family in an unrelated police matter, authorities said Wednesday.

Woodland Park Police Officer Steven Vigorito Jr. pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges ranging from attempted aggravated sexual assault to luring and enticing a child. He was being held on $250,000 bail following his arrest while on duty Tuesday night. A message left after-hours for the public defender who represented him at the arraignment was not returned.

Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said the girl's mother complained to the police department on Monday that the officer had made inappropriate comments to her daughter, had given her his private cellphone number and had asked her to text him. Woodlawn Park Police Chief Anthony Galietti said they immediately contacted the prosecutor's office, whose detectives posed as the girl and started exchanging texts with Vigorito.

The texts became increasingly explicit over the course of several days, prosecutors said. Vigorito eventually texted the girl photographs in which he was exposing himself while wearing his police uniform and arranged to meet her for a sexual encounter, prosecutors alleged.

The girl was never in harm's way, and never exchanged texts with the officer, Valdes said.

"What is so disturbing about this, is the person who was to assist the family, ends up preying on the family," Valdes said.

The 39-year-old Vigorito has been with the police department for 12 years in Woodland Park, a small suburb about 15 miles from Manhattan. The town, known until a recent voter-approved name change as West Paterson, is a bucolic, leafy borough of neatly landscaped homes adjacent to Paterson, a grittier, more industrialized urban neighbor.

Vigorito, who is a married father of two, was arrested Tuesday night in the police station while on the night shift, according to Galietti, who said the patrolman was suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

The arrest of one of the 25 officers on the force has shaken the small department, Galietti said.

"It's very upsetting, when you have one of your own do something like this. It's very upsetting," he said. Galietti added that department officials had acted immediately upon receiving the family's complaint about the officer, and had no hesitation in alerting the prosecutor's office.

"When this came to light we went into it head-on. We didn't care if it was one of our own," he said. "I'm the father of five kids, and this is wrong. It's a very inappropriate situation. Unfortunately, he (Vigorito) had a badge at the time."

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

new jersey, passaic, police officer arrested, luring, new jersey news
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/wabc/xml?id=5758260&ptnr=promoCarousel");

View the original article here