Crime & Safety

Sparta Man Gets Probation for Trespassing, Eluding Police

Mark A. Cordero was originally charged with burglary and resisting arrest.

A Sparta man accused of burglary and eluding police on two separate days last April was sentenced Friday to four years probation by Judge N. Peter Conforti at the Sussex County Courthouse in Newton, according to a release from the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office.

Mark A. Cordero, 25, had been charged with burglarizing a Whispering Woods Lane residence April 25 while a woman and her three children slept inside. The man admitted that he had illegally entered the home. Five days later, police said an "agitated" Cordero assaulted officers after a 2 1/2-mile road chase through Sparta Township.

On Aug. 26, Cordero entered guilty pleas to charges of fourth-degree criminal trespass, third-degree eluding, resisting arrest, speeding and driving on a suspended license, the article said. The probation sentence is to run concurrently with a Bergen County probation he is serving. 

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Additionally, the prosecutor's statement said, Cordero must serve 180 days in the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility—of which 151 days have already been served—get and keep a job, pay restitution of  $138.32 and fines of $1,605, undergo mental health counseling and submit to an evaluation, a DNA test and random drug testing. His driver's license was suspended for two years.


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