Affidavit outlines charge against Jerzeez co-owner

VERNON -- Tina Diakos, co-owner of Jerzeez the Diner, told an acquaintance who eventually cooperated with police that "she wasn't going to lose all her money again" and that she "will burn it down before she closes it down," according to an affidavit of probable cause for Diakos' arrest.

The fire that destroyed Jerzeez the Diner on March 8 was deemed suspicious the next day.

Diakos was arrested on March 15 and charged with second-degree witness tampering.

According to the affidavit, Vernon police were contacted by a caller who said that Diakos was in the Pilgrim Diner in Cedar Grove three weeks prior to the fire asking the individual to use a cellphone to search "combustibles." The person later told authorities the information regarding Diakos saying she'd burn down the restaurant down during a taped statement on March 9.

The caller's name and gender have been redacted from the affidavit obtained by the New Jersey Herald.

On March 14, the individual agreed to allow officers to listen to and record a phone call to Diakos during which she confirmed she had asked the person to conduct the Internet search and advised the person to tell police that it was due to a fire near their home or a "science project," the affidavit says.

Two more phone calls were made between Diakos and the individual on March 14, when Diakos told the person to tell police they "didn't really know each other" and that she will write a check to the informant when everything is done, the affidavit says.

Diakos told the individual to take an equivalent amount of money out of the person's bank account so extra cash would not look suspicious and said she would take care of any warrants the person had.

"Unless you opened your mouth and told them what we said on the phone then they have nothing," Diakos told the informant, the affidavit says.

Diakos was arrested after going to meet the person in the parking lot of the Stop and Shop in Bloomfield in order to give $480 in cash to take care of any warrants and promised to give the individual $5,000 she collected from insurance on the fire at Jerzeez, the affidavit says.

The affidavit also states that surveillance video from a gas station near Jerzeez shows a vehicle pull into the diner and park and the driver exit the vehicle. The vehicle stayed parked for about an hour before the driver returned and left, the affidavit says, adding that soon after the diner burst into flames.

The fire was reported shortly after 4 a.m. March 8, when a neighbor saw flames coming out of the roof of the diner, police said.

No one was injured, and the structure appeared to have been unoccupied when the fire started, police said at the time of the fire.

The fire was deemed under control shortly after 7:30 a.m.

Assistant Prosecutor Seana Pappas told the New Jersey Herald last week that authorities are waiting for evidence related to the cause and origin of the fire from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Link : http://www.njherald.com/article/20160420/ARTICLE/304209974#