Newark police arrest two men in separate incidents

Newark police have apprehended two men following separate criminal incidents in the city.

In one incident, Joseph Palma, a 40-year-old man with 20 prior arrests, was charged with attempted burglary, assault, possession of burglar’s tools, obstructing governmental administration, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. Police report that Palma and an unidentified man attempted to enter a vacant IEC building on Norton Street. During a foot chase following the attempted burglary, one officer sustained injuries to both hands. The second man was detained after being found with warrants from Rochester and Irondequoit.

In a separate case, Lee Darryl Harris, 41, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and criminal trespass following a street attack. Security footage captured Harris repeatedly punching a woman in the face and body as she walked home from a bus stop near Leslie Street. Harris, a convicted sex offender who previously served nine years for aggravated sexual assault, was identified after detectives reviewed surveillance footage of a vehicle trailing the victim’s bus.