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Jerome Shaw arrived in court in Hackensack as scheduled, but his son, Jerome Shaw Jr., was delayed by snow.
When he called at about 11:30 a.m. and said it would take him 15 minutes more to get to court, both sides agreed to adjourn until next Wednesday.
The catch: There won’t be any last-minute plea deals and they’ll be given a trial date.
The Shaws face 10 third-degree charges, including conspiracy to commit burglary, breaking into six different houses — four in Saddle River and two in Morris County — and three separate counts of possession of weapons and burglary tools.
Alerted by a resident, a borough police sergeant pulled over the Shaws’ pickup truck on West Saddle River Road just after 1:15 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2012.
Both were wearing black coverall jumpsuits, and Shaw Jr. had a handwritten list of addresses of residences in Saddle River and Mendham with him — a violation of state statute, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack.
Inside the truck, which had North Carolina license plates, police reported finding “a sledgehammer or large mallet, a pipe wrench, pry bars, cutting pliers, plastic zip ties, black gloves, black ski masks, goggles, flashlights, and five small rocks,” it says.
Earlier that night, homes were broken into on Warewoods Road, Stoney Ridge Road, High Meadow Road and Eugene Drive in Saddle River and Chapel Road and Stevens Road in Mendham, the indictment says.
The Shaws, who have previous burglary convictions out of Nassau County, were both arrested under similar circumstances in Montgomery County, Md. in 2006. The disposition of that case couldn’t be determined.
Both remain free on $50,000 bail each in the Bergen County case.
Defense attorney Brian Neary, Jerome Shaw Jr., Jerome Shaw Sr.
(STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
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