A 19-year-old Lodi man is in some serious hot water following a bizarre police chase in Lyndhurst on Aug. 7, Det. Lt. Vincent Auteri tells The Observer.
That night, at around 11:30 p.m., while parked in the area of Rutherford Avenue and the exit from Rt. 3 East, Officer Nicollette Villani says she observed two motorcycles turning onto Park Avenue that proceeded south.
The drivers of both cycles were not wearing helmets and the motorcycles’ front and rear lights were not illuminated.
As soon as Officer Villani activated her emergency lights, both motorcycles proceeded to flee at a high rate of speed down and, at one point, she observed from a distance as one of the motorcycles headed down a one-way street, so she proceeded toward that area.
Moments later, she came across one of the motorcycles being operated by Jaydan Tejada after he had fell off his bike after failing to safely navigate a residential side street.
Before Officer Villani could get close to Tejada, however, he returned to the bike and again fled the area at a high rate of speed.
Officer Villani ultimately located Tejada as he was trying to navigate his way through a nearby small park.
At that time, Villani was joined by Lt. Paul Haggerty and Sgt. Richard Jasinski who assisted Officer Villani with placing Tejada under arrest. It was then police discovered Tejada was in possession of a large kitchen knife, a ski mask, drug paraphernalia, small quantities of crystal meth and psychedelic mushrooms, edible THC candies and multiple THC vaporizers.
He was charged with possession within 500 feet of public property, possession of CDS, hindering one’s self by providing false information, possession of drug paraphernalia, distributing CDS, possession of marijuana under one pound, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, unlawful possession of a weapon, resisting arrest, possession of meth and a slew of other drug-related violations.
Tejada was remanded to the Bergen County Jail, Hackensack.
Police continue to search for the second motor cycle driver.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.