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Port Authority PD Grab 2 GWB Toll Evaders Within 10 Minutes

FORT LEE, N.J. -- Port Authority police arrested two toll evaders within 10 minutes of each other at the George Washington Bridge.

Port Authority police remain on the lookout for violators.

Port Authority police remain on the lookout for violators.

Photo Credit: CLIFFVIEW PILOT file photo

Officers first stopped a 2008 International tractor-trailer after it rolled through an E-ZPass without a pass just after 11 a.m. Tuesday, the authority's Joseph Pentaneglo said.

The front license plate was also missing and the rear plate was altered -- "with two digits removed to defeat the E-ZPass cameras," he said.

Officers arrested the driver, 37-year-old Rony D. Rochez of Baltimore, MD, on theft of service, record tampering and toll evasion charges. He's due in Fort Lee Municipal Court on July 11, Pentangelo said.

Officers were attending to Rochez when their colleagues 10 minutes after that stop pulled over a 2006 Nissan sedan at the lower-level cash tolls.

The driver, 25-year-old Jeff Michel of East Orange, "told the toll taker that he had neither cash nor an EZ pass," Pentangelo said.

Michel also had a temporary New Jersey license plate that had been forged -- as well as a suspended driver's license, he said.

He was released pending a court hearing on charges of theft of services, record tampering, toll evasion and driving with a suspended license, among other offenses.

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