New Jersey man arrested after weapons, chemicals found in home

A search warrant served by the New Jersey police and the FBI on Saturday turned up cache of assault weapons and chemicals used to make bombs at a New Jersey doctor’s home, authorities said.

Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times by the Associated Press, said 60-year-old Robert Rivera of Ridgewood faces half a dozen charges including recklessly creating a risk of widespread injury or damage, unlawfully possessing a destructive device, and possession of an assault firearm.

Rivera is being held on $1-million bail. No other details of the cache were given.

Rivera, who authorities say is unemployed, apparently has had ties to the Occupy Wall Street movement. In a Bloomberg news story last year, Rivera was photographed and quoted as crediting the youth for standing up for their beliefs.

In November 2011, the Tribeca Trib interviewed Rivera, who was walking through the Occupy camp at Zuccotti Park providing medical treatment. Rivera, referring to the park’s chairman, John Zuccotti, said, “Did he ever think to himself that his little park might be the birthplace of the second American independence revolution?”

A media liaison for Occupy Wall Street emphasized Saturday night that the movement is committed to nonviolence. In an email provided to the Los Angeles Times, Bill Dobbs also described Rivera’s link to the movement as “tenuous.”

Authorities said they discovered Rivera’s stockpile after receiving a report about hazardous and explosive materials in his home. After getting a search warrant, an FBI Bomb Squad along with local police searched his home. Prosecutors described the chemicals as “highly volatile.”

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joseph.serna@latimes.com

@josephserna