Aggravated Assaults On Cops, DWI Charges During 'SantaCon' Weekend In Hoboken

HOBOKEN, NJ — The Hoboken police arrested four people over the weekend during the annual SantaCon bar crawl, an event that's popular with young bar patrons but not as popular with city officials.

With COVID cases increasing around the country, Hoboken's mayor had signed an executive order Thursday saying that participants must be fully vaccinated. But that didn't keep everyone away.

The Hoboken police released, on Tuesday, a list of people who were charged with various offenses over the weekend in the area of the bars. Police also said there were 221 calls for service during the hours of the crawl, 28 medical calls, 8 motor vehicle summonses issued, 3 ordinance violations arrested, and these arrests:

• Michael Kozio, 26, from Bloomfield, 6:22 p.m., at 81 River St., charged on a summons with aggravated assault on law enforcement officer and a city ordinance for urinating in public. Police said that Officer Dylan Archilla witnessed the man urinating in public. Archilla approached him, but the man refused to identify himself, pushed Archilla away, and tried to walk away, according to police.

• Lindsay Kromitz, 21, from Ogdenburg, 10:13 p.m., at 221 Washington St.: charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Police said that Sgt. Edward Sellick, Detective Ryan Houghton, Police Officer Dennis Figueroa, and Police Officer Liana Palladino saw a verbal dispute. A woman was arguing over a missing credit card, which was later found in her purse, said police. During the interaction, Kromitz was acting disorderly and was given several warnings to stop, said police. Kromitz continued her behavior until she was placed under arrest after shoving Figueroa. As she was being escorted in handcuffs to the radio car by Palladino, Kromitz tried to pull away and then hit Palladino on her face with the back of her head, said police. Kromitz was taken to headquarters and charged on a summons.

• Juannubar Mazlymian, 23, from Staten Island, 2:17 a.m., 50 Observer Highway. Police Officer Joshua Campoverde conducted a motor vehicle stop for a motor vehicle violation with Police Officer Anthony Rutkowski as his backup. During the stop, Campoverde suspected the driver to be under the influence and conducted a standardized field sobriety test and concluded that Mazlymian was unable to safely operate a motor vehicle. He gave breath samples at police headquarters for testing. He received motor vehicle summonses for driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, improper turn, and failure to exhibit documents. He was released to a responsible party.

• Adrianna Alves, 26, New Rochelle, NY, 2:33 a.m., Newark and Hudson streets, was charged with driving while intoxicated and refusal to submit to chemical testing. Police say that Sunday at 2:22 a.m., Officer Ricky Truppner conducted a motor vehicle stop for observing a vehicle being driven the wrong way on a one-way on Hudson Street from Newark Street. During the stop, Officer Truppner suspected the driver of being under the influence. He administered a standardized field sobriety test. Alves was brought to headquarters, where police say she would not give a breath sample. She received summonses for driving while intoxicated, refusal to submit to chemical testing, reckless driving, and wrong way on a one-way, and was released to a responsible party.

SantaCon In Past Years

Last year, the event promoters officially canceled the event due to virus concerns. The mayor and then-Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante had called it a "potential superspreader event" at the time. READ MORE: Hoboken Says 2020 Santacon 'Potential Superspreader' Is Canceled

In the past, Ferrante had posted popular updates on Twitter about the event, such as:

But city officials are no longer laughing.

For their part, bars in Hoboken have said that special days, such as St. Patrick's Day, earn them enough income to keep them alive through slow times.

"If the law is broken," said city spokesperson Marilyn Baer had said last week, "officers will issue summonses or make arrests, and if participating bars have violations, they will be sanctioned.”

During the city's last significant bar crawl, Leprecon in March, 2020 — just before the pandemic reached the area — there were six arrests.

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