DNA check leads to charges
Police charged Ricardo Cipriano, 39, of Hoboken with burglary, theft, and forgery on Tuesday, Feb. 24 after a piece of evidence containing DNA helped to close an investigation several months old.
Police initially had been called to a burglary on the 500 block of First Street on Aug. 28. Upon arriving, they found items tossed around the room, and the victim’s laptop and iPod were missing, police said. Police found pry marks on the door to the apartment and dusted a wooden box for fingerprints, but had no immediate suspects.
After the fingerprint processing was unsuccessful, police revisited the scene on Sept. 9.
The victim told police that the burglar had taken two checks and cashed them outside of Hoboken. The cashed checks totaled $650.
On that return visit, Det. Steven Kranz found a piece of a latex glove under the refrigerator. After police made sure the glove piece did not belong to the victim, they sent the scrap to a state police lab that checked for DNA found on the item against a criminal database, said Captain Anthony Falco.
Months later, the DNA match came back and police had probable cause to arrest a suspect.
However, police said they did not have to apprehend Cipriano. He is already incarcerated in East Jersey State Prison.
Cuts neck, gets bounced
On Saturday, Feb. 21 at 2:30 a.m., police responded to a disturbance call from the Green Rock Tavern, on Hudson Street across from the PATH station.
Once inside, a manager led officers to a victim in the back of the bar who was bleeding profusely from the back of his neck.
The victim told police that he was not sure who had assaulted him. He said someone smashed a bottle over the back of his head then slashed it across the back of his neck.
Another victim was bleeding from the nose and told police that shattered glass from the bottle cut his right nostril.
Witnesses told police that when the incident happened, bouncers immediately escorted two men out of the bar.
The bouncers described the two men to police as possibly Hispanic, and wearing knit caps. One suspect was 5-foot-7, wearing a black shirt and brown blazer. The other was 6-foot-4, wearing a black hoodie and black leather jacket.
The victim was taken to Hoboken University Medical Center, and then transferred to a larger trauma center in Newark. He was given 18 staples in his neck as well as internal stitches, police said. The man with the nose injury declined medical attention.