Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

NJ Shrink Busted for Paying Gangster to Disfigure Man Shaking Her Down

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The NJ shrink thought she was hiring a paid killer, but was stalking to an undercover FBI agent instead

CAMDEN, New Jersey (Nov. 8, 2018) — A screwy shrink has been busted for trying to hire a hitman to brutally beat a man who she said was shaking her down for cash, saying: “he needs his pretty little face bashed in.”

Diane Sylvia, 58, a mental health counselor in Linwood, New Jersey, began trying to arrange to attack in September, when she asked one of her patients — a former member of a violent gang — if he could help her kill someone, prosecutors said.

She said the man, who lives in Massachusetts, “had been bilking her for money over the years,” and she wanted him hurt, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The former gang member, however, contacted the FBI, who had him introduce Sylvia to an undercover agent acting as a hitman. She told the agent that she didn’t really want the target dead, but rather beaten and permanently disfigured.

“He needs his pretty little face bashed in, that’s what I really want,” she was quoted as saying. She later added that “a broken arm would help, too,” explaining that “all he has is, like, his big muscles and his cute face.”

She later repeated, “I really just want his face punched in, I swear to God. And his arm broken, that’s what I want.” When the undercover agent asked why Sylvia wanted to do this, she claimed the man “ended up with some stuff on me that he was gonna report me to the licensing board, which means I have no job.”

When asked how assaulting this man would help Sylvia, she replied, “It’s just gonna make me feel better” and “it’s the only way I can get him back.”

The agent then told her to get a pre-paid phone for them to further discuss the assault. In further meetings, at Sylvia’s officer, she said she wanted an attack, that would disfigure the target.

“Something that makes him not so cute,” she said, while making a slashing motion on her chee. “Something so he can’t do push-ups, so he can’t work out.”

Sylvia then agreed to pay the undercover agent $5,000 and she was arrested. She was charged with one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, which carries a sentence of up to five years if she is convicted.

NJ English Teacher Charged With Sending Nude Pics to Underage Student

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Michelina Aichele allegedly had been sending racy texts and nude pictures to her student for months

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — A 29-year-old high school teacher has been busted for allegedly sending racy text messages and nude pictures of herself to one of her students.

Michelina Aichele, an English teacher at Montgomery Township High School had allegedly been sending the steamy pics to her 17-year-old male student for months before school officials caught wind and reported it to police, the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office said.

Montgomery Township police interviewed the student who “provided details of sexually explicit conversations that defendant Aichele engaged in with him through social media sites and email,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Aichele, of Hillsborough, was arrested on Friday, authorities said. She was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Aichele was making $72,500 as a teacher at Montgomery high school and had been teaching there since 2012.

Woman Who Dressed as Nun to Rob Banks Gets 15-Month Prison Term

By HardBoiledNews Staff

The thieves dressed as nuns to knock over banks

NEWARK, New Jersey — She might want to say a prayer to the patron saint of prison inmates.

A 20-year-old stick-up artist has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for a string of bank robberies in which she and her partner dressed up as gun-toting nuns.

Swahilys Pedraza-Rodriguez, of New Haven, Connecticut, had pleaded guilty in June to robbing a bank in Garfield, New Jersey, while wearing a head covering and for a botched attempt to rip off an ATM at a bank in Scotrun, Pennsylvania.

Her co-defendant, 24-year-old Melisa Aquino Arias of Passaic, New Jersey, was sentenced last week to 37 months behind bars.

The two women were also accused of two other failed bank robberies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in which they donned Muslim head scarves to disguise their identities.

Melisa Aquino Arias (l) and Swahilys Pedraza-Rodriguez

In all, they only managed to score $2,900.

They were finally arrested after one of the botched robberies when a bank employee recognized them from photos that had been made public from one of the earlier robberies and called police. While they managed to get away from the bank, they were arrested by officers as they drove away.

 

Serial Rapist Sentenced to 150 Years for Chilling Motel Room Sex Attack Spree

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Serial rapist, Rasheed Powell, attacked women in motel rooms across northern New Jersey

ELIZABETH, New Jersey — A serial rapist who ambushed couples entering their motel rooms forced them at gunpoint to engage in sex acts before assaulting the women himself, has been sentenced to nearly 150 years in prison.

Rasheed Powell, 42, who has been in and out of jail since he was 14-years-old, was convicted in March of four separate terrifying episodes at northern New  Jersey motels in 2012. He was originally charged with two other similar assaults but those cases were thrown out of technicalities.

“Since 14, (Powell) has been literally a never-ending crime spree,” Superior Court Judge Robert Kirsch said, according to NJ.com. “The record of Mr. Powell’s conduct is lifelong and never-ending – until today.”

Calling Powell’s actions “heinous” and “depraved,” the disgusted judge read details from each of the case reports

At a variety of low-cost motels along expressways between Elizabeth and Linden, New Jersey, Powell “preyed” on vulnerable victims as they entered their rooms, the judge said.

Powell would then force his way into the room and, armed with a handgun, force the couples to engage in sex acts with each other. He then would order the men into the bathrooms and then rape the women.

Cops eventually caught Powell in 2012 after tying him to DNA evidence left behind at the crime scenes.

“The terror they lived through in those motel rooms stayed with them for years afterward,” Assistant Union County Prosecutor Caroline Lawlor said. “I can think of no more heinous crime than what was inflicted upon these eight individuals.”

Some of the victims read chilling statements in court, describing how Powell had permanently affected their lives.

“I believe you deserve execution,” one victim said, “the death penalty if it was my choice. I hope you never see daylight again.

“I want to see you cry,” she continued, banging her hand on the table. “You’ve made your bed, now lay in it.”

 

Jailbird Dog Finds Way Home After Becoming Internet Star

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Bean the runaway pug landed behind bars before being reunited with her owner

CAPE MAY, New Jersey — Pug life, yo.

A runaway pug was returned to her owner after cops in Cape May, New Jersey posted her mugshot online.

Bean was found wandering in a family’s backyard on Sunday, prompting Patrolman Michael LeSage to look to the web to find her owner.

“This is what happens when you run away from home. This guy was captured sneaking through yards on the 1300 block on New Jersey Avenue. #pugmug,” the Cape May police posted on Facebook along with the mugshot which quickly went viral.

A few hours later, Bean’s owners contacted police after being informed by a neighbor that their dog had become a minor internet sensation.

“The pug’s owner has been located, and he has been released on bail,” police joked later on Facebook.

Hadley Hubbard, of Baltimore, Maryland, identified herself as Bean’s owner on social media.

“Bean is sound asleep at home after an exciting afternoon on the run,” she wrote.

Schools Superintendent Busted as Serial Pooper at Rival Athletic Fields

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Superintendent Thomas Tramaglini kept dropping loads at a rival school

HOLMDEL, New Jersey — Call him the pooper-intendant.

A New Jersey school superintendent has been identified as a serial pooper who had allegedly been taking a dump on a “daily basis” at the athletic fields of a rival school.

Thomas Tramaglini, 42, who is the superintendent of the Kenilworth school district in New Jersey, was caught after school officials at Holmdel High School set up surveillance after repeatedly finding human feces on their football field and running track, the Holmdel police said.

Tramaglini was charged with lewdness, littering and defecating in public.

He was busted as he ran at Holmdel High’s track early Monday.

Tramaglini, who makes $147,504 a year, was placed on paid leave after his arrest. He had previously served as chief academic officer at nearby schools.

 

Men Busted With Enough Fentanyl to Kill All of NY and NJ Sentenced to Prison

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Jesus Carillo-Pineda and Daniel Vasquez had enough fentanyl on them to kill 18 million people, cops say

TRENTON, New Jersey  — Two drug dealers busted with enough fentanyl to kill the entire populations of New York and New Jersey have been sentenced to jail.

Jesus Carillo-Pineda, 31, of Philadelphia, and  Daniel Vasquez, 28, of Somerton, Arizona, were busted last June when narcotics cops watched them exchange a 40 kilos of the drug in a parking lot in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Cops later found another five kilos of fentanyl at a home in WIllingboro where Carillo-Pineda had been staying. The owner of the home, Omar Zeus Rodriguez, 38, remains a fugitive, authorities said.

“A seizure of this magnitude, which had enough lethal doses to wipe out the entire population of New Jersey twice over, in all likelihood prevented someone from ever taking their first dose, saving them from a life of misery and addiction,” said Colonel Patrick Callahan, Acting Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police.

Carillo-Pineda was sentenced to 10 years for the drug charges, while Vasquez was hit with six years behind bars.

Fentanyl is an extremely powerful synthetic opioid that drug dealers often mix with heroin and other drugs. But if they mix in too much, it can easily result in an overdose.

Officials say the number of fentanyl overdose deaths in New Jersey — much like the rest of the country — have been skyrocketing. In 2016, 800 people suffered fatal overdoses in the state, up from 517 the year before.

 

Drunk School Bus Driver Busted in Road Rage Incident

By HardBoiledNews Staff

LAKEWOOD, New Jersey — Talk about setting a bad example!

A New Jersey school bus driver was arrested after getting into a road rage incident while dead drunk and driving a busload of kids, police said.

Angel Colon, 54, of Toms River, New Jersey, was driving with about 20 kids on their way to school Wednesday morning, when he got into an argument with another motorist, the Lakewood police said.

When cops arrived, they noticed that Colon had alcohol on his breath. They also described him as having “slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.”

He was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and endangering the welfare of children.

Drunk Driver hits Road Sign, Goes 10 Miles Without Noticing it Sticking Out of Her Car

By HardBoiledNews Staff

This should have been hard to miss

SOUTH HACKENSACK, New Jersey — She was feeling no pain, or really noticing much of anything at all.

New Jersey police pulled over a woman they say drove several miles with a sheared-off road sign sticking out of the sunroof of her car without even noticing it.

Not surprisingly, the motorist, Maria Vazquez, 52, of Hawthorne, failed a field sobriety test and cops say she was so drunk she was unaware of the sign hanging out of her car, the Hackensack Daily Voice reported.

Officers determined she had hit the New Jersey Transit road sign in Secaucus early Saturday and then drove nearly 10 miles before cops noticed her.

“Thankfully no one was in the backseat of the vehicle or this could have been a different situation,” Capt. Robert Kaiser said.

Pantless Man in Heels Barges Into Stranger’s Home Yelling ‘I’m Here!’

By HardBoiledNews Staff

 

Justin Christodoro

RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — When just being creepy isn’t enough.

A New Jersey man was arrested after he barged into a stranger’s home wearing nothing but a tight black t-shirt and high heels and screaming “I’m here!”

Police in Rutherford, New Jersey say Justin Christodoro, 39, busted into the home unannounced last week, startling a couple who were sitting watching television.

“No explanation was offered as to why he chose the Rutherford residence,” Rutherford Police Capt. Patrick Feliciano told NJ.com. “He does not know the Rutherford residents.”

He then ran off without further incident, cops said.

Investigators later caught up to Christodoro, who is an attorney, several hours later as he slept in his car parked in the driveway of another home, while still wearing just the shirt and heels.

Cops said he appeared out of it and said he didn’t know how he had gotten there. They later found a bag containing ecstasy pills in the vehicle.

He was taken to a local hospital and was given summonses for criminal trespass, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, lewdness, and a motor vehicle violation for blocking a driveway.