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A judge ordered both Karl M. Weckstrom, 46, and Michele Weckstrom, 44, of Emerson held without bail in the Bergen County Jail after Special Victims Unit investigators and local police arrested them at their homes Friday. Both had been free on bail.
This came after the girl "reported receiving communications from [Karl Weckstrom] in violation of a court order of no-contact," Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said Saturday.
Michele Weckstrom "tampered with evidence by deleting the communications," he added.
Both were charged with witness tampering and with disobeying a judicial order.
Michele Weckstrom, a former 3rd-grade teacher in the Little Ferry school system, also was charged with hindering.
Both are scheduled to be brought before a judge in Hackensack on Feb. 23.
Michelle Weckstrom already faced charges that she “hindered apprehension or prosecution” by directing the alleged victim “not to tell anyone” of the crime “and / or taking no further action and / or alerting” her husband, according to an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack in April 2014.
The indictment also charges Karl Weckstrom with fondling and digitally penetrating the girl sometime between Jan. 1, 2010 and August 21, 2011, before she turned 10. He’s also charged with impairing the morals of a minor.
Detectives from the Special Victims Unit and borough police arrested the 6-foot-4-inch, 280-pound Weckstrom, an IT worker, in October 2013 after the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency alerted local authorities.
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