MORRIS COUNTY — Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the arrest of Erick Macias, 35, of Wharton, on charges of Robbery, Assault, and Theft offenses in a number of robberies and assaults in Parsippany, Garfield, Lyndhurst, Paterson, and Wharton.

The arrest is the result of a two-month investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti.

During the beginning of June, several communities in northern New Jersey experienced a series of strong-arm robberies that appeared to have been committed by the same individual. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Squad conducted an investigation and identified Erick Macias as the primary suspect in the robberies. On Tuesday, July 14, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office along with numerous municipal detectives executed a search warrant at a residence in Wharton and subsequently arrested Erick Macias.

On July 14, Erick Macias was charged with one count of Robbery, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1a, a 1st-degree crime; five counts of Robbery, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1a, a 2nd-degree crime; two counts of Theft, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3, a 3rd-degree crime; two counts of Aggravated Assault, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1b(1), a 3rd-degree crime; one count of Theft, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3a, a 4th-degree crime; three counts of Theft, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:20-3a, a disorderly person offense; and three counts of Simple Assault, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:12-1a, a disorderly person offense. MACIAS was remanded to the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack pending a detention hearing scheduled for Monday, July 20, at 9:00 a.m.

Prosecutor Musella would also like to thank the Garfield Police Department, Lyndhurst Police Department, Wood-Ridge Police Department, Paterson Police Department, Parsippany Police Department, and Wharton Police Department for their assistance in this investigation.

Editor’s Note: An arrest or the signing of a criminal complaint is merely an accusation.  Despite this accusation, the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until he or she has been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

MORRIS COUNTY — Senator Joe Pennacchio slammed the Democrat-sponsored $10 billion borrowing scheme that could cost New Jersey taxpayers tens of billions of dollars throughout the next four decades:

“It is the definition of insanity to blindly approve borrowing $10 billion when the executive branch has not even proposed a budget yet for next year and we have no clue how much we will actually need. We also shouldn’t forget that Governor Murphy has been sitting on $2 billion of unspent federal funds from the CARES Act for months.

“The governor’s borrowing scheme includes $2.7 billion to fund shortfalls that he says exists in the current fiscal year. That frankly does not make any sense. He recently signed a balanced budget extension bill that will get our State through the end of the fiscal year in September, claiming we’ll end the year with a $1 billion surplus.

“It’s increasingly clear that this borrowing scheme is not about actual fiscal need, it’s about giving Governor Murphy a $10 billion slush fund that our grandchildren will be stuck repaying for a generation.”