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PEQUANNOCK - Police say wanted man fled from traffic stop
PEQUANNOCK - Patrolman Jack Lyon had no idea why a Wallington man allegedly raced away from him over a misused license plate, almost running over a police officer in Wayne and drawing the New Jersey State Police into the multi-town pursuit.
Lyon had randomly picked a 1993 Ford Escort wagon for a computer check, and when it showed no record of that license plate, he attempted a motor vehicle stop in the area of Route 23 the morning of Jan. 17.
Yet he didn't know until later that motorist Joseph Gangi, 37, of Wallington, was listed in the New Jersey Wanted Persons file for an alleged parole violation.
A check with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) shows that Gangi was paroled in April of 2007 from a Bergen County sentence for burglary, eluding, hindering apprehension and contempt. The maximum sentence could have meant release in June of 2008, according to the DOC, but he won an earlier parole from Southern State Correctional Facility in Delmont, Cumberland County.
Gangi's Jan. 17 arrest in both Pequannock and Wayne means that he will remain in the Morris County Correctional Facility without the opportunity for bail until his parole issue is settled. Besides that, Municipal Court Judge John Paparazzo set bail at $20,000 on Pequannock's charge of eluding police, as well as motor vehicle complaints. Wayne set $2,500 bail for one count of aggravated assault on an officer, Lt. Daniel Dooley said.
According to police, Gangi allegedly sped off at 10:15 a.m. at the sight of Officer Lyon, continuing south on Route 23 into Wayne Township, where he met an unmarked police car in the area of Alps Road and allegedly swerved in its direction.
In response, Wayne detectives broadcast over the police radio frequency that the Ford wagon had tried to run an officer off the road, resulting in an aggravated assault charge against the operator of the fleeing vehicle, Dooley reported.
New Jersey State Police took a primary role in the pursuit since the Ford wagon was now a distance from Pequannock in travels from Route 20 to Route 21 heading toward Newark. Near that city's border, the state police terminated the pursuit but the Wallington man was not to get away.
A short time later, the Essex County Sheriff's Department located the vehicle and took Gangi into custody. While his vehicle went to a Newark impound, he was taken to the state police barracks in Totowa and finally to the Pequannock police station.
His Pequannock charges include eluding, a third-degree crime, as well as summonses for driving while suspended, reckless driving, misuse of plates, no insurance and no registration, according to Dooley.
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