WARREN COUNTY SHERIFF   Newsletter

Wednesday, January 15,2003

BY KATIE WANG

Star-Ledger Staff

The Warren County Sheriffs Office unveiled a new anonymous tip line yesterday in a statewide effort to nab fugitives wanted for serious crimes in New Jersey.

The sheriff's office also joined the statewide fugitive task force by designating one member of its staff as the liaison to the state. The prosecutor's office has also followed suit."

This is a collaboration between the federal authorities and the state and county officials," said James Plousis, the U.S. marshal for New Jersey, who was at the courthouse in Belvidere yesterday to formalize the partnership. "We bring resources to the table that local officials don't have.

The state's fugitive task force has been operating on an ad hoc basis since May. In November, state and federal law enforcement officials formally created a force of 260 investigators who will attempt to locate and capture 26,000 fugitives on the loose statewide.

The state has asked officials from each of the 21 Counties to help out by designating someone in the sheriffs and prosecutor's offices to serve as a liaison to the state.

There are about 400 fugitives in Warren County, according to Sheriff Sal Simonetti.

"They have different degrees of danger," said Simonetti. "I don't know how many are of what degree, but they do vary."

The top five fugitives include one man who escaped from the county jail in August 2001. The other four are wanted for drug offenses and sex crimes.

But a shortage in personnel has prevented the county from hunting down four of the top five most- wanted the county. Officials are only actively searching for Scott Hornick, 31, who escaped with another inmate from jail on Aug. 6,2001.

Hornick was serving a nine- month sentence for a parole violation in a bad-check case when he and fellow inmate John Struble escaped through a hatch. Struble was arrested in Cinnaminson five months later. Hornick was recently apprehended.

Simonetti encouraged Warren County residents to use the new anonymous hotline, (877) ARREST-U if residents have information that can lead to the arrest of a fugitive.

There also is a state Web site, www.dcjfugitives.org that lists the state's most-wanted fugitives, including

photographs and descriptions.

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