The married New Jersey former middle school teacher accused of sexually abusing and grooming a preteen for years cried as a judge ordered her to be held behind bars until her trial.
Ashley Fisler, who appeared by video from jail, held her hands up to her mouth, then wiped her eyes and sniveled as Judge William Ziegler ruled she posed a risk to the community if she remained free until trial on first-degree aggravated sexual assault charges.
She also grimaced and rocked back and forth upon hearing the news.
The judge said the evidence allegedly showed Fisler “was able to surreptitiously keep this relationship between herself and the victim … that is, she hid the relationship from her husband, other people and all others, and continued this relationship knowing his precise age.”
Fisler, a 36-year-old 8th-grade social studies teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School in Washington, is accused of having sex with her student six times when he was 13 and 14 and continuing to sext him for years until he finally ended it and reported her to the police in January.
At a bail hearing Wednesday, prosecutor Kylie Finley said her office has 7,500 pages of disturbing and incriminating text exchanges between the pair showing she continued to carry out six years of “grooming, manipulation and abuse” against the boy.
Her lawyer claimed texts from when the boy was 16 showed he was no “babe in the woods.”
Fisler is due back in court on May 14.
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