187 people, 585 charges: Jersey City's August file at the Prosecutor's Office

The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office complaint export for August 2026 lists 203 Jersey City complaints against 187 people, totaling 585 charge lines. The records, obtained under OPRA, cover Aug. 1 through Aug. 31. They are accusations, not findings of guilt.

Most of those complaints — 152 — are still marked SCREENING, meaning prosecutors have not finished charging review. Forty-eight are marked CLOSED at the initial stage. Closed in this file is not a verdict. Some matters may have been downgraded or sent to municipal court.

The August file includes one murder charge, two cases charged as attempted murder or conspiracy to commit murder, a large volume of weapons and drug counts, and several sexual-offense complaints.

Homicide-related charges

One person in the Jersey City export is charged with murder under N.J.S.A. 2C:11. Jalil Harley, 25, is charged with murder and weapons offenses in the Aug. 11 shooting on Cornelison Avenue. He turned himself in at the Prosecutor’s Office on Aug. 13. Other news outlets reported that arrest when it happened. The complaint remains listed as screening.

Two other people are not charged with completed murder. Omar Vasquez is charged with conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder (N.J.S.A. 2C:5). Evan G. Small is charged with attempted murder (N.J.S.A. 2C:5). Both complaints are listed as screening.

Sexual-offense complaints

Najee L. Buckner, 30, of Jersey City, was arrested Aug. 18 in Buffalo, N.Y., by the U.S. Marshals Service and Buffalo police on Hudson County Special Victims Unit warrants. An HCPO arrest report lists multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and related charges involving juvenile victims. He was held in New York pending extradition to New Jersey. The matters are listed as screening.

Cesar L. Sales Lopez, 41, of Jersey City, was arrested Aug. 17 at the Prosecutor’s Office in Secaucus on a warrant. The arrest report charges two counts of sexual assault by contact and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was taken to the Hudson County Correctional Facility pending a first appearance. Screening.

The August export lists five additional people charged with criminal sexual contact in separate Jersey City complaints, also marked screening.

Other Jersey City matter in the arrest-report batch

Santiago Mena Gutierrez, 27, of Bayonne, was processed Aug. 17 on a summons accusing him of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury, endangering an injured victim, and obstruction, tied to a July 5 incident at Winfield Avenue and Ocean Avenue in Jersey City. The report says he was released pending a later court date.

By the numbers

Charge lines in the August Jersey City export:

• CDS possession: 38 lines, 25 people
• Simple assault: 33 lines, 33 people
• CDS distribution near a school: 32 lines, 21 people
• CDS distribution: 32 lines, 21 people
• Weapon possession for an unlawful purpose (all weapons): 32 lines, 25 people
• Obstruction: 25 lines, 22 people
• Criminal mischief: 16 lines, 16 people
• Child endangerment: 16 lines, 13 people
• Unlawful handgun possession: 14 people
• Aggravated assault by strangulation, listed with a domestic-violence designation: 13 lines, 13 people
• Terroristic threats (death threat): 13 lines, 6 people
• Shoplifting: 12 lines, 12 people

Fourteen people are charged with unlawful handgun possession. Thirteen face firearm-specific weapon-for-unlawful-purpose counts. Ten face large-capacity-magazine counts. Six face assault-firearm counts.

What screening and closed mean

SCREENING means the Prosecutor’s Office is still reviewing the charges. CLOSED in this spreadsheet means initial screening is complete. Neither status is a conviction or an acquittal.

All charges described here are allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Full blotter: 187 people, all charges

The complete blotter listing every person and every charge in the August Jersey City export is published as a web page. It is sorted by severity: homicide-related charges first, then sexual offenses and child endangerment, then weapons, then all remaining charges in alphabetical order. Addresses have been removed. No editorial has been added.

Read the blotter (HTML)

Source: Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office criminal-complaint export for Aug. 1–31, 2026, and HCPO arrest reports produced in response to an Open Public Records Act request.