New Jersey

Garden State Equality director resigns amid child endangerment, assault charges

Published

3 days ago

December 17, 2025

Garden State Equality director resigns amid child endangerment, assault charges

Christian Fuscarino resigned Tuesday as executive director of Garden State Equality amid charges of child endangerment and assault after an incident last month with a child in his Neptune City home.

“I resigned from Garden State Equality to ensure that the organization’s work is not impacted by a private family matter,” Fuscarino, a nationally recognized advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, said in a statement on social media.

“While my loved ones and I have been working through this moment together with care and love, the press has turned a deeply personal situation into a public headline,” Fuscarino said.

“Everyone involved is safe and navigating this situation responsibly,” he added.

Fuscarino asked that the matter “be seen for what it is: a private family moment, not a public spectacle.”

Fuscarino, 35, is charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child by a caretaker and two counts of simple assault, according to court documents.

An affidavit of probable cause alleges Fuscarino pulled the child from bed about 8 p.m. on Nov. 9 and struck the victim multiple times in the face with an open hand, pushing the child into a wall during the encounter.

The incident was captured on a home security video system, according to the affidavit.

The child was later taken to the Monmouth County Child Advocacy Center in Freehold for a forensic interview. The child made no disclosure of physical abuse, the affidavit states.

However, another person living in the home told investigators they witnessed Fuscarino strike the child and intervened.

The state Division of Child Protection and Permanency obtained the video and notified the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office on Nov. 20.

A Neptune City police detective arrested Fuscarino on Nov. 21. The case has since been referred to the prosecutor’s office, court records show.

In a statement Tuesday, Garden State Equality said they had placed Fuscarino on leave after learning of the charges.

By Wednesday, Fuscarino’s bio on the Garden State Equality website had been removed.

“Garden State Equality takes allegations against our staff seriously and we oppose violence of any kind,” the agency said. “We respect the courts and will allow that process to be handled by them.”

Fuscarino had served since 2016 as the executive director of Garden State Equality, the largest LGBTQ+ organization in New Jersey, which is based in Asbury Park.

With 20 years of experience in LGBTQ+ advocacy, Fuscarino had been at the forefront of efforts to protect transgender rights, combat hate violence, and implement groundbreaking healthcare and education policies.

In a July 2018 story posted to NJ.com, Fuscarino said he wanted to dedicate his life to helping New Jersey’s LGBTQ+ community so that others would not have to suffer the indignities that he endured in adolescence.

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New Jersey

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Published

10 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

63 mph wind was clocked during Friday’s storms. See top gusts in each N.J. county.

Trees were blown down. Electrical poles were snapped. And Christmas decorations went flying off lawns.

All thanks to Friday’s intense storms, which generated wind gusts as strong as 63 mph at the High Point Monument in Sussex County, 60 mph at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County and 60 mph in Belleville in Essex County.

Those were among the highest gusts clocked across the Garden State, according to the National Weather Service and the Rutgers NJ Weather Network.

Fierce gusts also were whipping down in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore, and triggered more than 40,000 power outages across the state Friday afternoon and Friday evening.

Here’s a look at the highest wind gusts reported in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties on Friday:

Atlantic County

52 mph at Atlantic City International Airport
51 mph in Forsythe
48 mph at Atlantic City Marina
47 mph in Brigantine
45 mph in Pleasantville
44 mph in Pleasantville Point

Bergen County

56 mph at Teterboro Airport
47 mph in Lyndhurst

Burlington County

52 mph at McGuire AFB
48 mph at Coyle Field
47 mph at South Jersey Regional Airport
46 mph in Moorestown
41 mph in Tabernacle
40 mph in Silas Little
40 mph in Medford Village

Camden County

52 mph in Pennsauken
41 mph in Blue Anchor

Cape May County

50 mph in Avalon
49 mph in Cape May
49 mph in Cape May Harbor
46 mph in Wildwood
46 mph in Ocean City
42 mph in Woodbine
41 mph at Woodbine Municipal Airport
40 mph in North Wildwood

Cumberland County

48 mph in Fortescue
47 mph in Upper Deerfield
45 mph in Millville
44 mph in Greenwich
39 mph in Vineland

Essex County

60 mph in Belleville
59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
45 mph in Caldwell

Gloucester County

60 mph in Logan Twp.
45 mph at Kingsway Regional H.S.
42 mph in West Deptford
41 mph in South Harrison

Hudson County

41 mph in Bayonne
40 mph in Jersey City

Hunterdon County

47 mph in Pittstown
44 mph in Teetertown
40 mph in Milford

Mercer County

52 mph at Trenton Mercer Airport
48 mph in Hopewell Twp.
44 mph in Woodsville
43 mph in Ewing

Middlesex County

51 mph in Perth Amboy
47 mph in Carteret
47 mph in Deans (South Brunswick)
42 mph in East Brunswick
40 mph in New Brunswick

Monmouth County

56 mph in Sea Bright
56 mph in Keansburg
54 mph in Sea Girt
51 mph in Monmouth
46 mph in Cream Ridge
43 mph in Millstone Twp.
43 mph in Oceanport

Morris County

49 mph in Pompton Plains
46 mph in Morristown
41 mph at Pequannock Twp. High School
40 mph in Randolph

Ocean County

57 mph in Mantoloking
55 mph in Surf City
54 mph in Harvey Cedars
53 mph in Beach Haven
52 mph in Toms River
50 mph in North Beach Haven
49 mph in Berkeley Twp.
49 mph in Seaside Heights
49 mph at Rutgers
48 mph in Seaside Park
47 mph at Trixies Landing
46 mph in Tuckerton
46 mph in North Beach
43 mph in South Seaside Park

Passaic County

44 mph in Charlotteburg
30 mph in Little Falls

Salem County

52 mph in Lower Alloways Creek
44 mph in Mannington Twp.

Somerset County

47 mph in Franklin Twp.
44 mph in Somerville
41 mph in Hillsborough
41 mph in Manville

Sussex County

63 mph at High Point Monument
50 mph in Hardyston Twp.
41 mph in Sussex

Union County

59 mph at Newark Liberty Airport
49 mph in Linden

Warren County

47 mph in Stewartsville
40 mph in Blairstown
39 mph in Hackettstown

Current weather radar

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New Jersey

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

Published

22 hours ago

December 20, 2025

Press Room

Noesen’s Power Play Goal Pushes Devils Past Mammoth | GAME STORY | New Jersey Devils

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Devils spent much of the night against the Utah Mammoth searching for answers on the power play, watching chances come and go, starting the game 0-for-4 with the man-advantage. That frustration finally broke when Stefan Noesen planted himself in the crease and finished in tight on Karel Vejmelka to give New Jersey the breakthrough they desperately needed.

“Great road win,” Brett Pesce said. “Didn’t have our best, myself included, felt like I hadn’t played in two months,” Brett Pesce said. “You know what, we got a win, we grinded it out, good teams find ways to get to two points.”

Noesen’s conversion provided a much-needed release on an ailing power play, and the timing made it even more significant. Not only did it snap the drought, but it also handed the Devils their first lead of the night against the Mammoth, one they would hang on to win 2-1 in Utah.

Not to be outdone, Jacob Markstrom was rock solid, allowing just a single goal to Utah, in the first period. As the Devils tried to find their footing in the game, with failed power play opportunities, and Utah pressing hard, Markstrom held the fort.

“This one is on him tonight,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We don’t get the opportunity to hang around in the game and have big moments like we did in the third with the penalty kill and power play, if not for Marky and how held us in. We were outplayed for long stretches of the game, but it’s going to happen from time to time.”

The Devils had a gut-check moment at the end of the third period, when Dawson Mercer took a penalty in the dying minutes of the game and the Mammoth pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4. New Jersey came up with the clears and the blocks to hang on for the victory.

The Devils weren’t going to be denied the opportunity for a win, as Connor Brown explained:

“Marky deserved the win at that point, it was a bit scrambly, maybe a bit more scrambly than we would have liked but they got two extra guys on the ice, so it was nice to gut one out.”

Utah opened the game scoring with a first-period power-play goal by Daniil But, before Connor Brown tied the game in the second period, his second goal in as many games and his third in four.

“I’m playing my brand of hockey,” Brown said. “I’m being empowered a little more, playing a little more minutes than typically have over the last couple of years and it’s leading into a little bit more confidence, little bit more plays, so just kind of running with it.”

The Devils have started to find some more stride in their game and are winning four of their last six, including two straight on the two-game road trip through Vegas and Utah.

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New Jersey

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Published

1 day ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

NJ corrections officer charged with sexually assaulting prison inmates

Staff report
| MyCentralJersey.com

A Piscataway man who works as a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer in the state’s prison for sex offenders has been charged with sexually assaulting two inmates.

Anthony Nelson, 37, was charged with sexually assaulting the inmates at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone announced.

Nelson was arrested without incident on Dec. 15 and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, Ciccone said.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office was alerted by New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division on Dec. 1 that two inmates reported they were sexually assaulted by a correctional police officer over that past weekend, the prosecutor said.

An investigation led by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit along with the New Jersey Department of Corrections Special Investigations Division determined that Nelson allegedly sexually assaulted two inmates under his supervision, the prosecutor said.

Nelson was lodged at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center awaiting a preliminary hearing before a Superior Court judge.

The investigation is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detectives Christopher Van Eerde or Tammy Colonna at 732-745-3300 or Investigator Sean Smith at 856-812-3310.

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