Crime & Safety

Lovers Sentenced to Prison in Savage Beating of Woman's Ex

The couple's two accomplices in the beating of a Ridgewood man were also charged in connection with the crime, authorities said.

A Wyckoff couple who cops sayorchestrated and carried out the 2012 beating of a Ridgewood manwith a pipe and baseball bat will be spending some time behind bars, Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox announced Monday night.

According to Fox, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Edward Jerejian sentenced township residents Margaux Tocci, who police say lured her ex-boyfriend to the Lincoln Elementary School in the summer of 2012, and her lover Daniel Chaupiz, who cops say carried out a brutal beating of the man with two friends, Friday.

Chaupiz, 21, will spend four years in a state prison, Fox said. According to cops, Chaupiz was charged with theft by unlawful taking after he beat the then 19-year-old Ridgewood man in the schoolyard, stole cash from his wallet, and smashed his cell phone.

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Tocci, 20, who authorities say convinced her ex to go to the school with her, and watched while he was beaten, was charged with conspiracy and sentenced to one year in the Bergen County Jail, Fox said.

The duo’s two accomplices, who police say helped Chaupiz carry out the beating, were also sentenced, Fox said.

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Samer Suhaid Saleh, 26, of Waldwick, was charged with conspiracy and sentenced to four years in a state prison, Fox said.

Jesse Moscatello, 21, of Oakland, was charged with conspiracy and sentenced to non-custodial probation, Fox said. According to cops, Moscatello turned himself in to authorities after Chaupiz, Tocci, and Saleh were arrested in 2012.

Fox called the sentencing a, “conclusion…from a serious incident.” He also thanked the Bergen county Prosecutor’s Office for obtaining convictions of the four involved in the beating, and the members of the Wyckoff PD who, “spent considerable time investigating this crime that culminated in the arrest of all involved.”

In July of 2012, Wyckoff police arrested Tocci, who they saidcalled her ex-boyfriend to see if he wanted to go for a drive in a new car she bought. During their drive, she stopped at the school so they could go on a walk, but the three men were waiting there with a bat and pipe, police said.

After the beating, cops say the quartet left the man on the ground bleeding, and drove away in Tocci’s new car. The victim made it to a nearby house, called 911, was transported to the hospital with head injuries that required stitches, and was later released, police said.

Tocci was arrested the next morning after cops spotted her new car driving on Franklin Avenue. Chaupiz, who police say has a history of criminal activity in Wyckoff, was arrested at his home hours after the beating. Saleh was arrested a few days later, after an off-duty police officer overheard him bragging about his role in the beating.


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