Free Republic

A New Jersey police sergeant and former Democratic mayor is facing multiple charges after he allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted a child he met online, according to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Jersey City police Sgt. Andrew LaBruno, 44, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said in a statement. The alleged assault occurred earlier that day at a home in Englewood, New Jersey, authorities said. Investigators allege LaBruno contacted a juvenile on a social media app, arranged a meeting and went to the...

Congresswoman LaMonica McIver must face at least two of three federal charges accusing her of assaulting and impeding immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center after federal judge on Thursday rejected her attempt to dismiss the case. The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials following her May 9 visit to Delaney Hall, a privately owned, 1,000-bed facility in Newark that ICE uses as a detention center. The government alleges McIver intervened as federal agents attempted to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper turned down...

A death in New Jersey is now being called the first-ever linked to a meat allergy caused by a tick bite. Doctors say a 47-year-old man who passed away in the summer of last year had a severe reaction to a steak after spending a day in the outdoors. He became severely ill but recovered, so he thought nothing of it. Then, two weeks later, he died after eating a hamburger, according to officials. The allergy is known as "Alpha-gal syndrome." The allergy is caused by the bite of the Lone Star tick. According to University of Virginia Health, people...

A new analysis finds that the states of New York and New Jersey have lost billions of dollars from their tax base amid an exodus of residents in recent years. Unleash Prosperity released a report on Tuesday that found New York lost $517.5 billion in resident incomes from 2013 to 2022, while New Jersey lost $170.1 billion in that period, according to data from the Census Bureau and IRS. The report covers cumulative gains and losses in each state's resident income, as a mover takes their income to another state for subsequent years – not just the first year after...

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a staunch advocate for unrestricted abortion, won New Jersey’s gubernatorial race Tuesday night, defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a contest that pro-life leaders decried as a setback for vulnerable unborn children. With nearly all votes counted, Sherrill captured 53% of the vote to Ciattarelli’s 46%, according to projections. The victory extends Democratic control of the governor’s mansion for a third consecutive term — the first such streak for the party in New Jersey since 1961 — and positions Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, to succeed pro-abortion Gov. Phil Murphy in January. Sherrill’s...

BREAKING: New data from @Kalshi on the 2025 New Jersey Governor's Race Of traders who ACTUALLY LIVE in New Jersey, 86% believe Jack Ciattarelli will win the race

The clip was pulled from the tail end of a May primary debate between Democratic candidates for governor. NJ Spotlight News anchor Briana Vannozzi asked the candidates whether parents should have the right to opt their children out of LGBTQ-related content, similar to how students can be removed from sex ed-related curriculum. “I believe that parents have the right to oversee their children’s education,” Sherrill said. “I would push an LGBTQ education into our schools. Parents have a right to opt out of a lot of things, but this is not an area where they should be opting out, because...

The Donald Trump administration Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an amicus brief defending rights protected by the Second Amendment in the consolidated case to be heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The case is ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY RIFLE AND PISTOL CLUBS, INC., et al., v. ATTORNEY GENERAL NEW JERSEY, et al.This case is one of the best candidates for courts to make clear that bans on semi-automatic rifles and magazines that hold more than ten rounds are unconstitutional and in conflict with the Second Amendment.The Trump DOJ was not asked to submit...

New Jersey Democrat candidate for governor Mikie Sherrill has not addressed her congressional voting record on bills related to transgender athletes in women's sports. President Donald Trump called out Sherrill for her stance on the issue in a Truth Social post on Thursday. "Sherrill wants Open Borders (again!), men playing in Women’s Sports, Transgender for everyone, and all of the things that almost DESTROYED America," Trump wrote. Fox News Digital has reached out to Sherrill's campaign multiple times for clarification on her stance on the issue of trans athletes in women's sports but has not received a response. Sherrill has...

https://x.com/JohnMcCloy/status/1967990814794977687

(CNN)The suspect in New York City's deadliest terror attack since 9/11 has offered to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty, according to a new court filing from the suspect's defense attorneys. Sayfullo Saipov, 29, has been charged with killing eight people and injuring a dozen others after he drove a pickup truck down a bicycle path near the World Trade Center on October 31. Saipov faces a 22-count indictment, which includes murder and terror-related charges. He has pleaded not guilty. In the filing, Saipov's attorneys say that with the amount of discovery the government has already produced...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A Virginia man convicted of shooting a New Jersey pastor to death outside her home in 2023 was sentenced Monday to life in prison. Rashid Ali Bynum, 31, of Portsmouth, Virginia, appeared in a county courtroom in New Brunswick, New Jersey, that was filled with relatives and friends of the victim, Eunice Dwumfour. His lawyer, Michael Ashley, has said an appeal of the murder and weapons convictions is planned. Dwumfour, 30, was ambushed in her vehicle on Feb. 1, 2023, as she arrived home at an apartment complex in Sayreville, a central New Jersey town where...

The kids aren’t alright — and their parents won’t be, either! Moms and dads in a New Jersey suburb can be tossed in prison and fined for their badly behaving children — under a bonkers new ordinance that some say strips parents of their rights and potentially sets a “dangerous precedent.” The new law in Gloucester Township, passed in late July, is called “Minors and Parent Responsibility” and stipulates that parents will be held “accountable for public disturbances caused by” their child, and could go to jail for three months if their kids are found guilty of multiple offenses. “Parents...

The final illegal immigrant inmate who escaped an ICE center in New Jersey last month was arrested by the FBI after being tracked down on the other side of the country. Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon was taken into custody Thursday in Los Angeles after a traffic stop in the Silver Lake neighborhood, the FBI’s Los Angeles Office wrote on X. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in the arrest. "We are tremendously grateful to our brave ICE agents and law enforcement partners for capturing Andres Pineda-Mogollon and the other three dangerous criminal illegal aliens who escaped Delaney Hall," Department of Homeland Security Assistant...

This dentist sure has a dirty mouth. Elmo Randolph, 68, turned himself into police in the upscale Bergen County borough of Closter on Thursday after being caught scribbling a swastika on a parked car. Randolph, of Orange, was charged with fourth-degree bias intimidation, according to the Daily Voice, which shared video footage of the alleged crime. In the footage, captured by one of the car’s many cameras, a baseball cap-donning Randolph is seen in his car on June 15, parked next to a Tesla Cybertruck outside Gary’s Liquors in the Closter Plaza. He then opens his car door, leans out,...

Fourteen people were injured after a skydiving plane crashed at the Cross Keys Airport in Williamstown, N.J. The Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane went off the end of the runway while departing the airport on Wednesday evening, WPVI reported. The small airport is in a populated area with neighborhoods, stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and churches. The pilot reported engine trouble before the plane crashed into a tree near the runway, investigators said. Andrew Halter with Gloucester County Emergency Management said that rescue crews found extensive damage to the plane and many victims covered in jet fuel when they...

The New Jersey Senate is set to consider a bill on Thursday that would require families who homeschool their children to register with their local governments and the governments to publish their data. Senate Bill 1796 (SB 1796), sponsored by New Jersey state Sen. Angela McKnight (D) would require a “parent or guardian to annually notify” their local school district, in written form, of their intention to homeschool their children. “The letter shall include the name, date of birth, and grade level of the child, and the name of the person who will provide instruction to the child,” the latest...

Hundreds of youths descended upon a north Jersey mall Saturday night in a meet-up that was reportedly pre-planned on TikTok and led to a massive brawl. Seven minors were arrested in the chaotic melee that was spurred by TikTok posts calling for juveniles to meet up at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey, that night, according to officials and local reports. The out-of-control gathering soon grew exponentially from just 100 people to “over 300 youth” from across the Garden State shortly after 8 p.m., Edison Mayor Sam Joshi wrote on social media. At least four of the seven...

He's not exactly a buttoned-down Brooks Brothers suit-wearing — or even a beer-drinking MAGA hat-wearing kind of Trump supporter that you would expect. But he's hellbent on making New Jersey a red state, following his great success in helping President Donald Trump win Pennsylvania. He targeted low propensity voters in Pennsylvania and got them to register and vote. Groups like truckers, hunters and even the Amish were receptive to his message and turned out to vote Republican in the election last year, handing over the important and pivotal state of Pennsylvania to Trump. Presler is in his mid-30s and came...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ripped NJ Transit engineers for going on strike Friday — blasting their actions as a “slap in the face” to commuters and a “mess of their own making.” The Democrat lashed out after roughly 400 rail engineers walked off the job after marathon contract talks stalled ahead of a midnight deadline, setting off the first strike to hit the major transit system in more than 40 years. “It did not have to come to this,” Murphy told a news conference after the morning commuter rush got underway. “A small handful of locomotive engineers have walked...