Source: The Monmouth Journal
A Hazlet man has admitted he sexually assaulted an elderly female patient while he was employed as nursing assistant at a former county-run nursing home, announced Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
Todd Fulton, 43, of Hazlet, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of second degree Sexual Assault and one count of second degree Official Misconduct before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Scully.
Under the terms of the negotiated plea agreement, the prosecutor’s office will recommend Fulton be sentenced to seven years in a New Jersey state prison on the Sexual Assault charge. The sentence will be subject to the provisions of the “No Early Release Act” (NERA) requiring him to serve 85 percent of his sentence prior to being considered for release on parole.
The recommendation will ask the judge to impose a five-year prison term with a five-year period of parole ineligibility on the Official Misconduct charge. The sentence would be served concurrently with the sentence for the sexual assault. Once released from prison, Fulton will be subject to Parole Supervision for Life and Megan’s Law.
The charges stem from a joint investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victim’s Bureau and Wall Township Police Department after administrative staff at the Geraldine Thompson Nursing Home in Wall reported that an elderly female patient disclosed she had been sexually assaulted by a member of the staff.
At the time of the disclosure, the victim was not able to provide the identity of the staff member, but Fulton was identified as her assailant through a subsequent forensics investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey State Police Forensic Laboratory and Wall Township Police Department.
At the time of the assault, Geraldine Thompson Nursing home was owned and operated by the County of Monmouth. Todd Fulton was employed as a Certified Nursing Assistant at the nursing home facility. Fulton is currently lodged in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Freehold Township.