NY Man Charged For Fake Calls To Hotlines, NJ Police Departments

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A Staten Island man made over 100 anonymous calls to New Jersey police departments and crisis centers. On them, he claimed to be sexually assaulting a child, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office said.

The Prosecutor's Office determined those calls to be untrue, and have charged the man, John P. LaForgia, with one count of false public alarm.

A Cyber Crimes Unit investigation began on Feb. 15 after the Prosecutor's Office was notified by "several" local police departments, and a community crisis hotline, that a caller used "technology to anonymize his caller ID" to make repeated calls, the Prosecutor's Office said.

It was during these calls that LaForgia claimed he was sexually assaulting a child, or was going to. The Cyber Crimes Unit confirmed that no sexual assaults took place, but an investigation found that LaForgia made over 130 similar phone calls to law enforcement agencies and crisis hotlines in New Jersey and New York since Feb. 1.

LaForgia was arrested Friday, and was released pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.

Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Rebein said she couldn't specify which towns received calls, but that they were made "to various hotlines alleging conduct in different towns."

However, the Prosecutor's Office did confirm that the New York City, Hackensack, Oakland, Ramsey, and Ridgewood Police Departments assisted in the investigation.

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