A 79-year-old man accused of setting fire to three police cars in Hackensack was allegedly angry that he had been asked to appear in municipal court for parking tickets.
Jaime Magnelli Sr. was released from Bergen County Jail on Sept. 8 after a detention hearing in front of Superior Court Judge Mitchell Steinhart.
Steinhart released Magnelli on strict home detention and said he could not leave his apartment.
Magnelli was arrested on Sept. 2 on charges of aggravated arson and arson after three marked Hackensack Police Department vehicles were set on fire just after 8 p.m. on Aug. 30. The vehicles were in a municipal lot, near the Bergen County Islamic Center and close to municipal gas pumps. No one was injured and the vehicles were unoccupied at the time.
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Assistant Prosecutor Magdalen Czykier said Magnelli’s actions were intentional and planned, and that he used gasoline he siphoned and a lighter to set the cars ablaze. The affidavit of probable cause said video surveillance showed Magnelli wearing long shorts, dark shoes, a T-shirt, a skull cap and a dark-colored face mask.
Czykier said Magnelli was upset because he had gotten parking tickets and had received a summons to appear in court earlier that day. She added that he lied to the police about where he was in his statement.
“The defendant used both fire and gasoline, which are both inherently uncontrollable and indiscriminate in the damage that they inflict,” the prosecutor said.
The affidavit said he fled in a white Mazda 2 hatchback on Union Street and additional surveillance footage showed him leaving his house in the same outfit. A search of his car revealed a black face mask, the affidavit said
Magnelli told police during questioning that he intentionally set the fire, the affidavit stated.
Magnelli’s attorney, Jorge Morales, told Steinhart there was a miscommunication between his client and the arson investigator and that he didn’t confess to police.
“There appeared to be a lot gaps in my client’s memory,” Morales said. “I don’t think they were intentional but I think it led to serious misunderstandings.”
Morales noted his client did apologize to the police at the end of the interview and ask if anyone had been injured, expressing happiness at no one being hurt.
Additionally, Morales said Magnelli was trying to sell his car and that is why it kept getting tickets and he didn’t have the money to pay the fines.

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