Keansburg Police Officer Charged With Sexual Assault

KEANSBURG, NJ — A Keansburg police officer has been charged with sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman earlier this year, said Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Lori Linskey Tuesday.

The woman was unconscious when the sex assault occurred, said the county prosecutor.

The officer is Nicholas Thompson, 24, who is charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact.

Thompson was taken into police custody without incident on Monday on this week and transported to the county jail in Freehold, where he is waiting his first appearance in Monmouth County Superior Court. He has been suspended without pay from the Keansburg Police Department pending the outcome of this case.

Monmouth Prosecutor's office detectives say that the sexual assault took place in a private home sometime in January 2021, where the woman was unconscious and incapable of consent.

Thompson was sworn in as a Keansburg patrolman last month, but he was a SLEO (Special Law Enforcement Officer) Type II at the time of the alleged assault.

This is the second time in one week a Monmouth County law enforcement officer has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman, and in both instances, the sex assaults were alleged to have occurred while the women were unconscious.

A former Middlesex County Sheriff's officer, who lives in Eatontown, was charged last week by the same prosecutor with videotaping violent sexual assaults on multiple unconscious women. He sexually assaulted women over the span of three years, all while they were similarly unconscious, said acting Prosecutor Linskey. Read that story: Ex-Middlesex Sheriff's Officer Assaulted Sleeping Women, Cops Say (Sept. 27)

The two incidents are entirely unrelated, although they both involve police officers accused of sex crimes.

“The news of yesterday’s arrest was shocking and disturbing for all of us to hear,” Keansburg Police Chief Wayne Davis said. “The Keansburg Police Department is comprised of professional investigators of the highest caliber, and we refuse to allow the actions of one officer to negate or obscure the good work they do every day. We will also continue to cooperate with the Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation and prosecution in any way necessary, in order to bring this defendant to justice.”

If convicted, Thompson could face up to 20 years in state prison on the aggravated sexual assault charge, as well as up to 10 years on the sexual assault charge.

Thompson is represented by Mitchell Ansell, Esq., a well-known Monmouth County criminal defense lawyer, the same lawyer who represented Paul Caneiro, the man accused of murdering his brother, his brother's wife and two young children in the 2018 Colts Neck killings.

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