Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show on Thursday:

🔗 Teachers, officials accused of sex abuse cover-up at high school

🔴 Former student claims multiple teachers sexually harassed her at Union City school.
🔴 Lawsuit claims school officials ignored abuse and enabled a toxic culture.
🔴 Other former students now coming forward with similar accusations

UNION CITY — Several graduates from a high school in New Jersey say their teachers encouraged each other to sexually abuse students, and many got away with it.

The shocking allegations are detailed in a lawsuit from one victim, as well as on social media by other former students. The accusations have become a focus of a local political activist seeking to tie the scandal to municipal officials. New Jersey 101.5 is only identifying one teacher, the only one of the accused who has been charged and prosecuted.

The victim was a 16-year-old student in Francisco Lindo's math class at Emerson High School. In May 2009, she told a clerk in the nurse's office that she'd had an illicit relationship with the teacher. The student broke off the relationship, but Lindo continued to follow her around the school. He was arrested the next day.

Lindo was 30 years old at the time. He was arrested at his Clifton home, where prosecutors said the sexual encounters took place from February through November 2008. They also had sex in a Union City Public Schools classroom, the victim said

There's no doubt that the sexual encounters took place. Lindo, now 47, pleaded guilty to second-degree child endangerment and was sentenced to five years in state prison. He was released on Aug. 12, 2013. His teaching certificate was revoked in 2012 and he never contested the accusations in those hearings.

In a new lawsuit filed in Superior Court, the victim says the Union City School District had a responsibility to protect students from sexual predators. Instead, the district protected and enabled the grooming of a teenage girl.

🔗 $13 million 'psychic' mail scheme sends German man to NJ prison

🔮 Fake “psychic” scam tied to New Jersey businesses stole millions.
🔮 Victims received lottery promises and then threats.
🔮 Fugitive mastermind was finally caught in Italy.

A psychic fraud has to pay back more than $13 million after spending years on the run in Europe, according to authorities.

Georg Ingenbleek, 59, was arrested in Bolzano, Italy, in 2024 and was extradited to the United States last year. An indictment had been filed against him in July 2020. Now, the German citizen has been sentenced in Newark federal court to 70 months behind bars on two counts of mail fraud.

Ingenbleek hinged his mastermind scheme on mail marketing services companies based in New Jersey, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey.

He used one business in Piscataway to mass-produce solicitations that he would then send to victims. Those mailers touted visions that said the recipient would "achieve with 100 percent certainty this one maximum win in the lottery" and win "over a million dollars!!!!!!"

Thousands of victims fell for the psychic scam. In total, Ingenbleek's mailer scheme made him more than $13 million. A federal judge has ordered him to pay $13,618,921.19 in restitution.

🔗 Environment groups are latest to try and stop NJ ICE detention center

A group of New Jersey environmental groups are the latest to ask a judge to block a planned ICE detention facility in Roxbury, Morris County.

In a brief filed in defense of an existing lawsuit brought by state and local officials, the group claims "introducing a mass detention facility into this community threatens to significantly exacerbate its existing environmental burdens."

Roxbury is located in the New Jersey region known as the Highlands and that region is a major source of drinking water for the entire state.

Environmentalists argue the detention center being planned at an abandoned warehouse site would "generate an enormous amount of additional pollution, sewage, and water consumption" and that would put a key water source at risk.

A judge is considering a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent construction on the facility until the current lawsuit is adjudicated in court.

🔗 NJ may ban selling restaurant reservations on secondary markets

Lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would ban selling restaurant reservations on third-party websites.

Landing a table at New Jersey's most popular restaurants can be a challenge. Much like vendors that buy up concert tickets and resell them at a huge markup, these third-party reservation sites can charge hundreds of dollars for restaurant reservations.

To many of us the practice may sound strange, but restaurant owners say this "sleazy' practice of reservation trading has become a big problem and it is hurting their business.

The bill to ban the practice would not impact legitimate partners who do not charge customers to make a reservation.

New York, Florida and Illinois have already banned the selling of reservations ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which will bring millions of tourists to the U.S. for the matches.

🔗 ‘Stole Christmas’? Feds say SantaCon boss pocketed millions

🎅Prosecutors say SantaCon made $2.7M but over half was diverted to personal use
🎅Stefan Pildes charged with fraud
🎅 The event long plagued Hoboken with public drunkenness

WEST MILFORD — The founder of SantaCon was running a con and spent most of the money raised on luxury vacations, a lakefront home and extravagant meals, according to federal prosecutors.

SantaCon is an infamous event founded by Stefan Pildes, of the Hewitt section of West Milford, that for years has drawn thousands dressed as Jolly Old Saint Nick to bars in Hoboken, New York City, and other locations around the country to raise money for charity.

Of the $2.7 million the event raised between 2019 and 2024, more than half went to a slush fund and towards personal expenses, according to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Pilades signed agreements with bars for them to sell tickets and promoted on the event's website that the funds went "directly to Santa's charity drive," prosecutors said.

Participating bars would typically donate 10% and 25% of their sales during the event to SantaCo. Pilades always said he did not receive any compensation.

"Your money will be split between the various charities listed on this page as well as local neighborhood charities along Santa's route," the website says.

Instead, prosecutors say Pildes spent most of the money on "extensive renovations" to a lakefront property in New Jersey, concert tickets, and a luxury vehicle. He is charged with one count of fraud.

“Stefan Pildes, the president of SantaCon, allegedly pocketed over half of the proceeds generated by his nonprofit to make personal purchases,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said

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You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com

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