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JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A 16-year-old Wilkes-Barre girl who was the target of a “rescue attempt” that led to the arrest of three heavily armed individuals from the Lehigh Valley at the Holland Tunnel Tuesday previously had been at the center of an Amber Alert case last summer.
Zionsville residents Josh Cramsey, 50, Dean Smith, 53, and Kimberly Arendt, 29, of Lehighton, were arrested after they were stopped at the Holland Tunnel in a vehicle containing numerous firearms. According to The Associated Press, police said they also found a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle, and a Port Authority photo, obtained by media outlets, also showed officers found a a military-grade helmet, night-vision goggles and a box bearing the phrase “Shoot Your Local Heroin Dealer.”
The three pleaded not guilty to weapons and drug charges Wednesday in an appearance at the Hudson County Courthouse. Their bail amounts were set at $75,000 each.
The AP reported that Cramsey, who owns a gun store, made a Facebook post shortly before his arrest, saying the group was headed to Brooklyn to “extract a 16 year old girl who went up there to Party with a few friends.”
The post went on to say the teen was from Wilkes-Barre and “is scared and wants to come home. Last night she woke to find her friends body next to her in the same bed were her friend died of another heroin overdose.”
The Morning Call of Allentown identified the girl as Jenea Patterson, who previously was abducted at gunpoint on July 30, 2015, in front of her apartment by Walter McKinley Lewis.
A friend of the group told the AP that Arendt, Patterson’s former counselor, received a call from Patterson on Monday asking for help. Cramsey’s own 20-year-old daughter died from a heroin overdose four months ago, the AP reported, and he has become a regular fixture at town hall meetings in the Lehigh Valley, speaking out against drugs.
Previous abduction
In the 2015 incident, Lewis, 22, known as “Pop,” allegedly abducted Patterson two days after her mother, Cyndi Angeles, 55, filed a protection from abuse order against him on Patterson’s behalf.
The teen’s disappearance set off a statewide Amber Alert that sparked a search involving law enforcement agents at the federal, state and local levels. The pursuit ended with Lewis’ arrest after the pair was found in Wilkes-Barre General Hospital’s parking garage less than 24 hours after the abduction.
Lewis pleaded guilty April 13 to 11 total charges related to the incident, including three counts each of simple assault and making terroristic threats as well as one count each of possessing a firearm with an altered serial number, carrying a weapon without a license, illegal firearm possession, fleeing police and resisting arrest.
In another act of violence involving Patterson, Lewis pleaded guilty to simple assault, altering a weapon and fleeing law enforcement following a 2014 confrontation in which he hit Patterson and chased her down an alley. Lewis dropped a spring-action knife as he fled from police prior to being captured in the area of Austin Avenue, police say.
Lewis was sentenced in June to up to 20 years in prison, but requested his sentenced be halved earlier this week.
The AP reported that New York police had located Patterson as of Wednesday and that she wasn’t in any danger, although there was a nonsuspicious overdose death in the city that matched the claim on Facebook. Attempts by the Times Leader to reach Patterson’s parents for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.
