SALEM, N.J. (Court TV) — A judge is weighing whether to release a New Jersey teacher from jail after she was charged with having sex with one of her middle school students.
Ashley Fisler is accused of having sex with a middle school student. (Washington Twp Police)
Ashley Fisler, 36, is charged with six counts of aggravated assault, official misconduct and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child by sexual conduct for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a student that began in 2021.
Fisler, who is currently in custody at the Salem County Jail, appeared virtually at Wednesday’s detention hearing as her attorney asked that she be released on a bond. Prosecutors opposed this, saying she should be held pending trial.
Prosecutor Kylie Finley outlined the state’s case against Fisler, saying that the alleged victim, identified only as G.G., was a student in Fisler’s classroom at Orchard Valley Middle School. The alleged victim told police that the two had intercourse at least twice in Fisler’s car outside her apartment complex and oral sex four times, twice in his middle school classroom.
“This was more than just six isolated and aberrant acts of sexual abuse against a minor,” Finley told Judge William Ziegler. “This was a pattern of six years of grooming, manipulation and abuse by this defendant as a middle school teacher against one of her active and then former students.” The alleged victim told police he would go to Fisler’s classroom during her “prep” period.
While prosecutors say the sexual contact took place in 2021-2022, they said the relationship continued via text for the next several years. Finley said that in December 2023, “the victim confides in the defendant that he’s struggling in school because he’s getting erections more frequently in school. The defendant’s response was, ‘Oh my God, that’s fantastic.'” Prosecutors say there are more than 7,500 pages of text messages between the defendant and the alleged victim, many of which featured photos or graphic descriptions of sex.
Ashley Fisler appeared virtually at a hearing on April 1, 2026, from the Salem County Jail. (Court TV)
“I spent pretty much all day yesterday reviewing those,” Fisler’s attorney, Rocco Cipparone, said of the messages. “And I can say to the court that the selective, salacious texts that were recited by the prosecution lack context.”
Cipparone told Ziegler that the alleged victim in the case approached an attorney before talking to the police, suggesting, “there’s a potential monetary motive here.”
In a post-Miranda interview with detectives, Fisler initially denied knowing she was texting the alleged victim and told officers that she thought she was texting an adult from Ohio who had the same name as one of her students.
Finley suggested during Tuesday’s hearing that the investigation into Fisler is ongoing and that other victims could be revealed. “At least one other family reported inappropriate communications to the police from the defendant to another child who was her student at the time,” Finley said. The alleged victim also said he had heard about a third student being involved with the teacher.
Fisler no longer works as a teacher; her husband said she is a lifelong resident of New Jersey who lives with him.
Ziegler asked the parties to return to court on Thursday morning, when he will announce his decision regarding pretrial detention.
