Garden State Equality director charged with child endangerment, assault
Christian Fuscarino has served as executive director of the organization since 2016.
The director of Garden State Equality – New Jersey’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group – is facing child endangerment and assault charges.
Christian Fuscarino has served as executive director of the organization since 2016.
An attorney for Fuscarino says the incident in question happened on Nov. 9 and called it a “difficult personal family moment.”
According to an affidavit provided by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Fuscarino serves as a “resource parent” to a male child. The age of the child was redacted from the document.
The affidavit states that in an incident caught on the home's security cameras, Fuscarino is seen pulling the child from bed and appears to strike him multiple times across the face and push him into the bedroom wall.
“Fuscarino appears to stop and speak to [redacted] before striking him again,” the affidavit stated.
“Unfortunately, this private moment has now become public. Christian and his family are working through the proper channels to address this,” the attorney wrote.
In a statement to News 12, a spokesperson for Garden State Equality wrote, "Garden State Equality takes allegations against our staff seriously and we oppose violence of any kind. When we learned about the charge against Mr. Fuscarino, we immediately placed him on leave. We respect the courts and will allow that process to be handled by them. We will continue our important work with our acting Executive Director."
