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PEQUANNOCK - Empty gas tank fuels alleged assault on cop
(by Stephen Janoski - Staff Writer - July 16, 2008)
PEQUANNOCK - Sgt. Dan Comune’s routine patrol through the Hess Station on Route 23 turned violent and even bloody on the night of Sunday, July 13, when he and Patrolman Jack Lyon encountered a man who allegedly decided that arrest or not, he would not go quietly into the night.
According to Lt. Daniel Dooley, Comune pulled into the Hess Station at the intersection of Route 23 and Alexander Avenue and observed a man walking around the parking lot “looking disoriented.”
When questioned, an employee of the gas station also said that the man was “acting strange.” Comune approached the man, a 28-year-old Newfoundland resident named Keith Libutti.
Libutti told the officer that he had run out of gas and had no money to buy more. He told them he was attempting to get the employees to give him gas and let him return to pay later.
Comune went on to check Libutti’s gas gauge, which was, in fact, on empty. Upon looking into the car, Lyon and Comune spotted drug paraphernalia sitting on the passenger seat of the car, and promptly arrested Libutti, Lt. Dooley said.
Handcuffed and placed into the back of the supervisor’s police car, Libutti watched as police searched his car, allegedly finding bent spoons typically used for ingesting controlled dangerous substances (CDS), glassine bags typically used to hold CDS and several hypodermic syringes.
Comune returned to the patrol car to search Libutti for contraband and pulled him out after noticing that he had removed his shoes. After the search, Libutti began his alleged tirade.
Becoming belligerent, he allegedly resisted the officers in their attempts to put him back in the car, so the officers forced Libutti into the backseat, Lt. Dooley said.
Libutti continued to rebel, police said, laying down on the seat and kicking out the rear driver’s side window — glass from which gave Lyon a cut under his eye. Officers got into the backseat and fastened a seatbelt over Libutti to restrain him.
During the drive to the police station, Libutti somehow removed the seatbelt and, lying down again, allegedly kicked out the passenger-side window of the patrol car. According to police, He began smashing his head into the plastic glass divider in the back of the car.
When the cruiser arrived at the station, Libutti refused to get out of the car, Lt. Dooley said. Once dragged out of the car, he refused to walk into the station, forcing Comune and Lyon to carry him in, Dooley reported.
Libutti didn’t stop inside the station, either — police said that once inside the processing room, he began slamming his head against the concrete floors, the walls and the desk. He again had to be restrained until the township’s First Aid Squad arrived to transport him to Chilton Memorial Hospital.
Later released back to police headquarters, he remained there until his arraignment in Municipal Court on the morning of July 14.
According to police, Libutti has been hit with a swarm of charges: resisting arrest, aggravated assault on a police officer, possession of hypodermic syringes, possession of drug paraphernalia, being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, and criminal mischief (for the damage of the patrol car).
At his arraignment, Municipal Judge John Paparazzo set bail at $15,000. In default of bail, Libutti was committed to the Morris County Correctional Facility, where as of Tuesday he was still being held.
Estimates on the damage to the police car appear to exceed $2,000.
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