A former New Jersey middle school teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a student was indicted Wednesday on new charges, including manufacturing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors said.
Ashley Fisler, 36, of Washington Township, now faces a 12-count indictment that also includes sexual assault of a minor and a pattern of official misconduct, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to prosecutors, the alleged victim, who is now an adult, told police he had an unlawful sexual relationship with Fisler while he was a minor and she was his teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School.
Prosecutors said the victim described multiple sexual encounters that allegedly took place in Fisler’s vehicle and classroom in 2021.
Investigators said they recovered text messages that allegedly demonstrated the unlawful nature of the relationship.
According to NJ Advance Media, prosecutors allege Fisler continued exchanging thousands of often sexually explicit text messages with the victim after he entered high school.
In one of the exchanges included in a tranche of roughly 7,500 pages of text messages collected by investigators, the former student wrote that the teacher left him mentally broken, the outlet reported.
Defense attorney Rocco Cipparone has argued prosecutors lack evidence to support the allegations, saying the text messages cited by investigators were taken out of context.
“The selective, salacious texts that were recited by the prosecution lack context,” Cipparone previously argued in court.
Fisler was arrested in March and initially charged with six counts of first-degree sexual assault of a minor, one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child and one count of second-degree official misconduct.
The superseding indictment added charges of second-degree pattern of official misconduct, first-degree manufacturing child sexual abuse material, third-degree possession of child sexual abuse material, and third-degree distribution of obscenity to a minor.
If convicted, each first-degree charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The second-degree charges carry a maximum sentence of ten years, while each third-degree charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Fisler taught social studies in the Washington Township school district from 2014 until June 2023, according to an online resume.
She is no longer employed by the Washington Township School District or any other school district, according to officials.
