Bergen Man Charged After Fair Lawn Motorcycle Pursuit

FAIR LAWN, NJ — A Bergen County man was hit with multiple charges including eluding after he led a Fair Lawn Police Office in pursuit during a Wednesday night motorcycle chase, police said.

Damian Medina, 29, of Haledon, was seen riding a motorcycle with no license plate on Route 208 southbound around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Officer Geovanny Buitron followed the motorcycle in an attempt to gauge how fast it was going, according to police, when the Medina tried to take the Plaza Road exit ramp, but was driving too fast, and had to swerve back onto the highway.

At this time, another vehicle, a Toyota — which appeared to be traveling with the motorcycle — caught up with the patrol vehicle, with the driver, a 26-year-old New Milford resident, changing lanes in order to place the car between the motorcycle and the patrol vehicle, police said.

Buitron then turned on his overhead lights, but was forced to go around the Toyota who was blocking him.

A pursuit began with the motorcycle traveling up to 80 mph, according to police. Buitron pursued the motorcycle onto the Virginia Drive off-ramp, and then Dobrin Court, where police said Medina jumped a curb and was riding on the grass within the apartment complex and around a building where the patrol unit would not fit.

Buitron exited his vehicle and pursued on foot, finding Medina off of the motorcycle, and arresting him without further incident.

Medina was released after being charged with the following: eluding, operating without a license plate, speeding, failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, careless driving, reckless driving, improper passing, failure to signal, wrong way on a divided road, driving on a sidewalk, driving over 4 mph over a sidewalk, operating unlicensed & 2 counts of failure to possess vehicle documents.

The New Milford man was charged with making an unsafe lane change & failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.