Joseph Cocho, 47, of Maple Avenue was being held at the
Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in lieu of $25,000 bail
on charges of torturing a dog and owning a dagger for an unlawful
purpose. He told police he had a conventional bomb enhanced by
radioactive materials in the mobile home where he lived, said
Detective James Ryan of the South Brunswick Police
Department.
Mr. Cocho was charged with torturing an animal and illegal
possession of a weapon after a woman he sublet a trailer from told
police she saw him having sex with her dog, police
said. Mr. Cocho rented space inside the woman's trailer.
Police found dog hair matching the dog's coat on Mr.
Cocho's jeans, police said.
Mr. Cocho's bail was originally set at $1,000 but a Superior Court
Judge raised it to $25,000, according to the inmate information
department of the county corrections center.
The Middlesex County ASPCA filed two criminal and two civil animal
cruelty charges against Mr. Cocho, Detective Ryan said.
Mr. Cocho faces up to two years in jail and up to $2,000 in fines,
Detective Ryan said. Police also found a 12-inch dagger and several
smaller knives in Mr. Cocho's room, according to report.
Mr. Cocho also allegedly shouted anti-Italian epithets at an
officer and made several other assertions while being arrested,
according to the report. Mr. Cocho told police he believed people
who died in a recent earthquake in Italy had donated blood to
inhabitants of Central America through organ transplants, according
to the report.
An investigative team including the South Brunswick Police, the New
Jersey State Police bomb squad, and bomb sniffing dogs acted on a
judge's warrant and searched the home and the park's common areas
Monday, Detective Ryan said.
Mr. Cocho was renting space In the trailer against park regulations
that prohibit subletting and require examination of those who wish
to live in the development. "Basically, anyone who comes into the
mobile home park, we do a criminal background check and a credit
check," said Arthur Roedel, who owns the park. "This is the kind of
thing that happens when people are careless," Mr. Roedel
said.
After investigating the incident, police arrested Cocho at the
home, and charged him with torture/torment of animals and unlawful
possession of a weapon a 12-inch dagger police discovered in his
room.
The weapons charge was later dismissed because police could not
determine that Cocho had the dagger for an unlawful purpose. The
other charges were downgraded to a disorderly persons
offense.
