A creepy New Jersey cop stalked an underaged girl he met at a National Night Out event — even cuffing her in a depraved attempt to kiss her, prosecutors said.
Manalapan patrolman Kevin Ruditsky was in full uniform when he met the 16-year-old girl on Aug. 1 at the town’s National Night Out — an event at towns across America that seeks to “build relationships between the community and first responders.”
He let her sit in his patrol car, and later that evening, Ruditsky, 46, began peppering the girl with sexually explicit messages and photos on social media, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said this week.
Several days after National Night Out, the pervy patrolman pulled the teen over on Route 9, handcuffed her, and attempted to kiss her “while his dash camera and body-worn camera were both deactivated,” Santiago said.
Ruditsky also “conducted lookups” of the victim in a law enforcement database, and once sat outside the girl’s home in his patrol car after the teen refused to give him her address, prosecutors said.
“That a sworn member of law enforcement would begin to so egregiously violate
the public’s trust while in uniform at an event specifically intended to strengthen trust
between law enforcement and the public is, in a word, unconscionable,” Santiago said.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed that this victim had her trust betrayed by a man wearing one of our uniforms,” said Manalapan Township Police Chief Edward Niesz.
Ruditsky was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child; official misconduct and stalking.
He was suspended without pay, the police chief said.
He earned $133,768 annually, public records show.
Ruditsky’s attorney, Mitchell Ansell, did not immediately return comment.
