Hazlet Brothers Suing State, Monmouth County After Porn Arrest

HAZLET, NJ — A pair of Hazlet brothers and Internet entrepreneurs, one of whom goes by the nickname "Fist Pump," have filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Monmouth County, saying the eldest brother was falsely arrested in 2016 on underage child pornography charges.

The Ianuale brothers, Robert "Fist Pump", 34, and Philip, 33, say they have been humiliated and defamed by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's office. They told Patch they are representing themselves.

“We stand by our constitutional rights and will not let the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office continue to violate our rights, defame our name and get away with it,” said Robert Ianuale in an email sent to the media announcing they had filed the suit.

As Patch reported at the time, Robert Ianuale was arrested on March 28, 2016 when Hazlet police and detectives with the prosecutor's office raided the studio he broadcast from his home on Ned Drive in Hazlet. Ianuale hosted a live Internet videocast, SwerveCast, which was shut down by the county prosecutor.

But Monmouth prosecutors say Robert featured underage teenage girls having sex on SwerveCast. The underage girls were a 14-year-old Maryland girl and a 14-year-old Middlesex County, New Jersey, girl, police said. Viewers could "tip" the girls using virtual currency that was under the control of Ianuale, and he would pay a percentage of the tipped amount to the juvenile girls in exchange for performing sex acts online, the county prosecutor says.

They also say he tried to lure his subscribers to sexually assault a woman and broadcast the assault live on his show. The county prosecutor says that during an online broadcast in May 2015, Ianuale tried to entice his viewers to sexually assault a 25-year-old New York City woman outside her place of employment.

Ianuale offered $100 to anyone who would sexually assault the woman and broadcast the event live, the prosecutor charges.

It's an allegation Robert vehemently denies.

"There was absolutely no rape threat of any kind," Ianuale told Patch. "The MCPO was supplied edited portions of one of my thousands of online broadcasts."

The Ianuale brothers also say that a key witness in the case who tipped off the police is someone who they had previously reported for cyber-stalking, harassment and threats to their family for over three years.

In the May 15 rape allegation, Ianuale says that same person supplied an edited version of his show to to the county prosecutor.

"It had been recorded, edited and supplied to the state by the cyber-stalker, in order to portray me in the worst light possible," he said.

Ianuale says his alleged stalker is behind one of the five “swatting calls” people made, which are prank calls that sent police to their Ned Drive home, including an April 19, 2015 "swatting" incident that was captured on his live show. Watch below.

After their arrests in 2016, the Ianuale brothers were named in a twelve-count indictment in 2017, which charged Robert Ianuale with possession and distribution of child pornography and Philip Ianuale with obstruction of justice during the raid.

The criminal charges against both Robert Ianuale and Philip Ianuale remain pending in Superior Court.

But Ianuale says that when police seized nearly 100 different forms of media, which included all of the Ianuales’ phones, hard drives, and devices, including the SwerveCast servers, from his home that day, they found absolutely no evidence of child pornography.

The Ianuale brothers also say Monmouth County has not yet provided all discovery in the case, including a video they requested of Philip's arrest during the raid.

“If the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Technology Unit cannot copy a simple video file to a USB drive after two years, then one may question the accuracy and competency of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office’s entire investigation,” said Philip Ianuale, referring to his repeated requests for the home video surveillance footage of his arrest, which he said the county seized.

Their lawsuit was filed against the State of New Jersey, Monmouth County, Hazlet Township, Hazlet Township Police, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni, Assistant Prosecutor Margaret Koping and Detective John Sosdian.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni declined to comment when asked by Patch if he had a response to the lawsuit.

Ongoing Patch reporting:

Hazlet Man Nicknamed 'FistPump' Indicted For Running Underage Sex Site

Pictured: A photo of Robert, left, and Philip Ianuale provided to Patch by Robert.