A player of the University varsity baseball team has been charged with robbery, accused of a pre-dawn break-in and scuffle at an Ocean Township family’s home, on Sunday Sep. 13.
“The University is aware of the situation,” Mary Anne Nagy, Vice President for Student Life said in a statement to The Outlook. “The University follows its established practices with regard to any allegation of student misconduct. Under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, I cannot comment any student matter.”
The homeowner, his wife and their two children were asleep when the burglary occurred, Kim Gilhooly, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, said at a virtual detention hearing, before Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon.
Gilhooly asked Escandon to order the University athlete held without bail at the Monmouth County Jail, awaiting trial on charges of burglary, robbery, theft and possession of drug paraphernalia, more specifically two glass marijuana pipes found in the baseball player’s car.
The University athlete was released from jail on the judge’s conditions that the player must “report to a probation officer, refrain from the use of alcohol or illegal drugs and undergo a substance evaluation.”
Gilhooly alleged the athlete tried to leave the victim’s residence, carrying a backpack belonging to the homeowner’s son, containing a pair of $500 sneakers and a controller for an Xbox.
The athlete’s attorney, Richard Incremona, questioned the robbery charge, stating that his client did not use or threaten force or inflict any injury during the incident, an element that must be required to prove a robbery allegation. The homeowner’s statement to police “contradicts the state’s fact pattern,” Incremona said.
PHOTO COURTESY of Anthony Deprimo
