Inebriated NJ Cop Spends Night In Stranger's Car: Police

FAIRFIELD, NJ — An off-duty Passaic County Sheriff’s Officer is facing charges after a stranger said he spent the night in her car. Police later determined he was “heavily intoxicated.”

The vehicle owner, who did not want to be identified, said she returned to her car that she left overnight at a Fairfield restaurant lot, finding her belongings scattered and a stranger's cell phone inside. A man approached her and said he lost his phone the night before, and that he was a cop.

That man was George Rosario.

Rosario, who was off-duty at the time, went to the Fairfield Steakhouse & Tavern the night of Dec. 10, according to police reports. He left the restaurant, appearing "unsteady on his feet" and then spent the night in a stranger's car, authorities said.

This prompted an investigation where Passaic County Sheriff's Office began reviewing the matter internally and then alerted its county's prosecutor's office, according to a spokesperson for the police agency.

Fairfield police gave the initial incident report to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, which declined to charge Rosario.

"After a thorough investigation by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Fairfield Police Department, we have determined there is insufficient evidence to bring an indictable charge," said Katherine Carter, a spokesperson for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. "The complaining witness in this case was advised that the appropriate charge in this case is criminal trespass which she can file in Fairfield Municipal Court."

The complainant did so, pressing charges against Rosario. A probable-cause hearing is scheduled for Feb. 10 at the Fairfield Township Municipal Court.

Rosario retained an attorney for this matter, according to police reports. The attorney did not return comment to Patch in time for initial publication.

The sheriff's officer made an annual salary of $162,512 in 2020 — the most recently available salary year on public record.

What Happened That Night

The complainant went to Fairfield Steakhouse the night of Dec. 10 to meet friends. Later that night, Rosario arrived at the restaurant with two of his off-duty colleagues — Andrew Romeo and Pasquale Pepe — according to police reports.

Surveillance footage inside the restaurant never shows Rosario and the complainant interacting.

The woman didn't feel comfortable driving after drinking that night. So she left her car in the parking lot, and her boyfriend picked her up so she could sleep at a nearby hotel, the police report says.

Rosario's two colleagues left at closing time. But Romeo did not recall when or how Rosario left, where Rosario went or whether he was with anybody when he left, Romeo told Fairfield police in an interview.

Surveillance footage shows a person, who police identified as Rosario, walking directly to the complainant's vehicle at 2:10 a.m. Dec. 11. Rosario entered the car and shut the door, according to police. He exited the vehicle 50 minutes later and briefly stood next to the open door before "stumbling" while re-entering the car, the police report says.

Rosario left the car at 5:03 a.m., according to authorities.

The Next Morning

The woman returned to her car at about 11 a.m. Dec. 11. She described her vehicle as "ransacked," according to police reports. Then she found an unfamiliar cell phone in her car.

The complainant found nothing missing from her vehicle.

At this time, a man approached her and said the phone was his, that he's a cop and he had blacked out, according to her interview with police. The vehicle owner did not believe he was a cop, so she called 911.

The complainant told Fairfield police that she never saw Rosario that night and did not know his name when he approached her that morning.

Rosario identified himself as a Passaic County Sheriff's Officer, saying he went to the steakhouse the night before and returned to retrieve his phone, according to the police report.

Rosario, 51, told police that he didn't know his phone ended up in her vehicle but offered that "maybe they had intimate relations," according to the police report. The complainant denied Rosario's claim in a TikTok video where she discusses the incident. She pointed to the police report that states surveillance footage never shows them interacting.

Fairfield patrol officers gathered information at the scene. Police looked through the phone and saw a photo with Rosario on the lock screen, verifying it belonged to him. They returned the phone to Rosario, promised a "thorough investigation" and had all parties leave the scene, according to the police report.

During the initial investigation, Rosario told Fairfield police he "still did not have any memory of that evening," according to the investigation report.

Rosario told police he remembered waking up on the ground of the Fairfield Steakhouse parking lot and walking to Wawa, where he called a coworker to pick him up.

Fairfield PD's Conclusion

The Fairfield Police Department conducted a supplemental investigation, which included the reviews of surveillance footage from the restaurant and a nearby address, along with interviews with the complainant and Romeo.

Fairfield police contacted Rosario for another interview. Rosario told them he retained an attorney for the matter, and the attorney said his client wouldn't provide any statements.

Police interviewed Pepe for the initial investigation. They also made "several attempts" to contact Pepe for the supplemental report, but he never called them back, the report says.

Fairfield police concluded that "one could only deduce that Mr. Rosario was so heavily intoxicated that he went to this vehicle believing he had reason to be there as if it was his own and possible (sic) tried to start the engine over and over which would explain the constant brake light activation."

They further concluded that "the reasons for (Rosario) moving in, out and around the vehicle were at attempt to search for keys to start the vehicle or a search for his cell phone."

The complainant said on social media that she did not buy the conclusion.

"Why would you spend hours in a vehicle with no key, but you think it’s yours?" she said in a video. "After you have no key and you’ve tried to start the car for hours, wouldn’t you give up?"

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