By Jennifer Golson
Star-Ledger
NEWARK, N.J. — Police have arrested three people in connection with an undercover drug bust in Manville in which a Flemington man struck a detective with a car, pinning him beneath the vehicle, authorities said yesterday.
Jesse Paulino, 24, of Village Commons was behind the wheel of the silver Honda Accord, and charges against him include first-degree attempted murder and third-degree counts of resisting arrest and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute for Wednesday night’s incident, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest said.
The undercover detective was airlifted to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital with serious injuries to his head, neck, back and lower extremities, Forrest said. He was listed yesterday in stable condition.
Police also arrested Frances Pagan, 26, also of Village Commons, who was in the car, and Donna Miller, 44, of South Main Street in Manville. Miller was meeting with Paulino for a drug transaction when the drug bust occurred, Forrest said.
Paulino and the women appeared yesterday before Superior Judge Robert Reed in Somerville for their arraignment.
Noting the severity of the attempted murder charge and the fact it arose from an “effort to flee apprehension,” Reed set Paulino’s bail at $500,000.
Pagan is charged with third-degree possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and Miller is charged with third-degree conspiracy to possess cocaine, and the judge set their bail at $25,000, with a 10-percent option.
Wednesday night’s chain of events started when members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Gangs and Guns Task Force learned from a confidential informant that Paulino would be on South Main Street to meet with Miller, Forrest said. At about 7 p.m., they saw Paulino drive up, and Miller get into his car. She returned to the building seconds later.
Detectives approached Paulino’s car, which was attempting a k-turn to exit the parking lot. Detectives, who had displayed police raid badges and wore ballistic vests with the word “police” written on the front, ordered the man to stop the car.
Paulino initially stopped but, while a task force detective approached him, he “deliberately accelerated forward into that detective in an effort to evade apprehension, striking him, knocking him over and pinning him beneath his vehicle, which came to a stop only after striking a parking lot pole,” Forrest said in a news release.
After a struggle, other task force members removed Paulino from the car, Forrest said. He continued to resist arrest by trying to take another detective to the ground, “kicking, punching and elbowing him,” Forrest said in the release.
After Paulino was detained, police removed Pagan from the car and they later arrested Miller.
“The initial responding Manville officers assisted our personnel in extracting the detective from underneath the vehicle,” Forrest said in a phone interview yesterday.
As of yesterday, the veteran detective was conscious and talking, Forrest said.
The officer, who served in the United States Marine Corps, has been with the prosecutor’s office since April of 2000 and formerly was with Bridgewater police. A graduate of the Somerset County Police Academy, he also has a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees, Forrest said.
“He’s also one of our polygraphists, but he’s our only polygraphist - one of the few, probably in the state - who is a graduate of the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute,” Forrest said yesterday.
Copyright 2009 Star-Ledger