NJ firehouse horror date turns into rape, woman claims – NJ Top News

Here are the top stories on New Jersey 101.5 today for Tuesday, February 17, 2026

⬛ Civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson has died at age 84

CHICAGO (AP) — The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader's assassination, has died. He was 84.

Jackson died Tuesday surrounded by family, according to a statement posted online from the family.

As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis shortly before King was killed and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King's successor.

Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

And when he declared, “I am Somebody,” in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. “I may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody,” Jackson intoned.

It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America’s best-known civil rights activist since King.

Despite profound health challenges in his final years including a rare brain disorder that affected his ability to move and speak, Jackson continued protesting against racial injustice into the era of Black Lives Matter. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and at a City Council meeting to show support for a resolution backing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

⬛ Woman details a NJ firehouse horror date claiming rape

PLUMSTED — A woman says in a new lawsuit that a date at a firehouse turned into a sexual assault.

The firefighter named in the lawsuit has not been charged with a crime. The municipality in Ocean County is also named as a defendant.

The 34-year-old woman says in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court that she met the firefighter online in September and discussed the possibility of "meeting in person to get to know each other."  The woman said she did not sleep with people "the first few times" she met someone. If the meeting went well, they could discuss the possibility of a sexual relationship. The woman said she had been raped three times as a teen and once at the age of four, and boundaries were "extremely important," according to the lawsuit, which was first brought to light by Exit 82 Scanner News.

Things got worse from there. Read the story for all the details.

⬛ NJ cops charged after off-duty steakhouse brawl 

PARK RIDGE — Two off-duty police officers were charged with assault in a fight outside a steak house in December that left one man seriously injured.

Police were called to The Park Steakhouse on Dec. 6 and found a man on the ground with a serious head injury. He was taken to a hospital and released several days later.

Investigators said Nicholas Dispoto, 31, who works for the Montvale Police Department, delivered the blows that led to the most serious injuries. He then hid in the steakhouse when police arrived, officials said.

Investigators said Park Ridge Officer Jason R. Vradenburg, 29, tried to throw them off the trail of Dispoto by giving false information. He was charged with endangering an injured victim, tampering with public records and hindering apprehension.

⬛ NJ politician shows up in cop uniform for an underage Grindr hookup 

A Jersey City police sergeant who once served as mayor of a Bergen County borough is now facing additional charges after accusations that he raped a juvenile he met on a social media app.

Andrew LaBruno, of Dumont, was arrested in November. The 44-year-old Democrat ran for state Assembly in District 39 but lost that same month.

On Thursday, a Bergen County Grand Jury indicted LaBruno on two counts of second-degree official misconduct, as well as first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

⬛ NJ health system tackles food insecurity with a "food farmacy"

HAMILTON (Mercer) — In an effort to combat food insecurity in New Jersey, RWJBarnabas Health has opened its fifth “Food Farmacy.”

It was launched in partnership with Mercer Street Friends, a leading organization that addresses hunger and poverty in Mercer County, and Fairgrown Farm, a local farm and distributor in Pennington.

Located inside the fitness and wellness center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, 3100 Quakerbridge Road in Hamilton (Mercerville), the food farmacy not only gives patients access to healthy foods, but also provides them access to registered dieticians, personalized nutrition counseling, and education designed to support long-term health and chronic disease management for those in Mercer County.

“Each one of these patients is able to meet with a dietician to get evidence-based education and information on how to make better choices, and what choices they should be making as a way to treat, manage, or prevent a chronic condition,” said Barbara Mintz, Senior Vice President of Social Impact and Community Investment at RWJBarnabas Health.

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