Record: Former Fort Lee Family Members Acquitted of Assaulting Police Officers

Three members of an ex-For Lee family were acquitted in Superior Court in Hackensack Wednesday of assaulting police officers during a 2008 traffic stop, The Bergen Record reports.

But Mario Alvarez and Waljude Rodriguez were found guilty of lesser offenses, according to the article.

The two, along with their daughter, Christy Alvarez, had been accused of showing up when their 17-year-old son was being arrested on drug charges, trying to pull him out of a police car and kicking, punching and biting arresting officers in the ensuing chaos.

Defense attorneys had argued the three simply showed up to find out why the youth was being arrested and accused police of overreacting and using excessive force, which resulted in Mario Alvarez being hospitalized with “serious injuries," according to The Record.

A jury found all three defendants not guilty Wednesday of aggravated assault of a police officer, but found Mario Alvarez and Waljude Rodriguez guilty of the third-degree crime of resisting arrest, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison, after a trial that began in February, The Record said.