Former resident arrested in struggle outside house

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

MONROE — Three police officers suffered minor injuries Friday in the arrest of a local man on drug charges.

Police arrested Thomas Jordan, 42, after responding to a suspicious vehicle at a condemned house on Bordentown Turnpike and then having to briefly chase Jordan on foot.

Police were called to the house around 7:30 p.m. by a nearby resident who noticed a car in the driveway.

According to Detective Sgt. Lawrence Linke, Officer Jason Cohn responded and found the car about to pull away. He stopped the car and proceeded to perform a warrant check on Jordan, who was the driver, and the two passengers. Sgt. Robert Bell and Officer Cristen Mariano arrived shortly thereafter, and Mariano pulled Jordan from the car, Linke said.

“While they were removing Jordan out of the car, that’s when he tried to escape. Then Mariano grabbed his jacket, and as he was pulling away she lost her balance and fell,” Linke said.

Jordan struggled, wrested himself and began to run, but he didn’t get far before Bell ran him down and tackled him, Linke said.

“Bell ran so fast, that’s how he got hurt,” Linke said, adding that Bell hurt his knees because he landed so hard after tackling Jordan.

Linke said the house had been condemned after a second-floor bedroom caught fire and burned through the ceiling. Firefighters were able to contain the fire to the second floor and limit ground floor damage to smoke and water damage. Although Jordan’s family owned the house at the time of the fire, Linke said that no one has been allowed on the premises because of its condemned status.

Jordan was living in the house when it burned, but has since moved out of town, Linke said.

The warrant check revealed that Jordan had an outstanding warrant in Howell Township.

Police said they found two packets of suspected cocaine, two packets of marijuana, and a pipe in Jordan’s pockets.

Neither of the passengers was found to have any outstanding warrants, Linke said.

Aside from what was found in Jordan’s pockets, no other illegal substances or drug paraphernalia were found in the car, and a search of the passengers revealed that only Jordan was in possession of anything illegal, police said.

Mariano, who sustained a shoulder injury during the struggle, and Bell and Jordan, who complained of back pain, were all taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where they were treated and released.

Jordan was charged with resisting arrest and related drug offenses.

He was lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, in lieu of $30,000 bail.