A man from Fair Lawn, New Jersey was arrested and charged with first-degree carjacking as well as impersonating a police officer during a drunken episode in which he insisted that officers from the Fair Lawn Police Department arrest him. In a coordinated effort involving multiple local police departments, the man was identified through a victim’s description and the resulting sketch of her assailant.
On December 20th, 59-year-old Steven Garfield allegedly claimed to be a police officer before stealing a woman’s 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, as well as her purse, in a Rochelle Avenue Dunkin Donuts in Rochelle Park at approximately 7:30 a.m. A few hours later, an intoxicated Garfield approached officers at the intersection of River Road and Manor Avenue in Fair Lawn, where he repeatedly asked them to arrest him.
After an Englewood Cliffs lieutenant created a sketch of the suspect in the carjacking case based on the victim’s description, it was circulated to other police departments in the area, including Fair Lawn and Ridgewood. When Nicholas Magarelli, a records clerk and chief of the Fair Lawn Auxiliary Police, viewed the suspect’s sketch, he identified that it matched the description of the intoxicated man whom Fair Lawn officers had recently reported.
Garfield was subsequently questioned, at which time he gave officers a vague description of where the stolen vehicle was located. Officers from the Rochelle Park Police Department later discovered the vehicle at the Connect One Bank on Ridgewood Avenue, where the car was still running. A criminal background check revealed Garfield’s prior record of charges includingrobbery, burglary, assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct.
Per the Alcohol Treatment and Rehabilitation Act (ATRA), Garfield first underwent detoxification at Bergen Regional Medical Center, before being taken to the Bergen County Jail, where he is being held on $150,000 bail.
For more information pertaining to this case, access the following article: Police sketch, drunken demands to be arrested lead police to Rochelle Park carjacking suspect
