Officer held in stabbing

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Hudson County corrections officer told police yesterday she stabbed a man in self-defense as she was breaking up a fight between the man and his wife. But after police interviewed the victim, they ended up slapping cuffs on the corrections officer.

The corrections officer, Charise Pressly, 28, of Wegman Parkway, was arrested shortly after midnight and charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses in connection with the attack on the 43-year-old Bidwell Avenue man, according to police reports.

When police responded to Fulton and Ocean avenues on an assault call Pressly told them the husband had threatened her with a stick and it was then that she stabbed him with a screwdriver, reports said.

The victim wasn't at the scene at the time, so police put Pressly in a police car to take her to the South District precinct to make a report, police said.

But while they were en route, they were told over the police radio the victim was already at the South District with a stab wound to his left shoulder and had told police he caught Pressly trying to remove the license plate from his car, reports said.

When he confronted her, Pressly stabbed him with the screwdriver, reports said. After he was stabbed, the victim said, he picked up a piece of wood to use to defend himself, reports said, noting a witness corroborated his story.

When this information was radioed to the cops with Pressly, she was immediately placed under arrest, reports said.

Corrections Department Director Oscar Aviles said Pressly is a police academy graduate and began working for the Hudson County Department of Corrections in September.

The officer has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, as well as administrative charges to be filed by the Corrections Department, Aviles said.