Burned Woman Lied About Relationship, Attacker: Ocean County Prosecutor

TOMS RIVER, NJ — An Eatontown woman told authorities she had been hit, splashed with alcohol and set on fire by her boyfriend following an argument in the woods in Ocean County.

But authorities say Chelsea M. Villano lied about the events — and even went so far as to lie about which man at the scene was her boyfriend.

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Villano, 33, is charged with two counts of falsely incriminating another person in an Oct. 15 incident in Plumsted.

In a detention hearing before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels on Wednesday, Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Mara Brater said the physical evidence gathered during the investigation did not support what Villano told law enforcement.

Plumsted Township police and emergency medical services were called to the area of Hawkin Road and Success Road in the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management area at 1:36 p.m. on Oct. 15 when a caller reported a woman — now identified as Villano — suffering from burns and in distress.

Villano was intubated and flown to the Temple University Burn Center in Philadelphia for treatment, and was later released.

Brater said that although authorities initially arrested Villano's boyfriend, Justin D. Martin, 36, of Saddle Brook, and charged him with attempted murder and aggravated arson, Martin wasn't the man Villano named as having attacked her or as being her boyfriend.

Instead, Villano named a second man who was with them — one Brater said Villano barely knew — and later told authorities she blamed the second man because she didn't want her actual boyfriend, Martin, to get in trouble.

The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office dropped the charges against Martin "in the interest of justice," Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said Saturday.

Patch is not naming the second man who was at the scene as he has not been charged with a crime in connection with the incident.

Brater and Megan Chase, the public defender representing Villano, read parts of the affidavit filed against Villano into the record during the detention hearing.

Villano, in a statement to police at the hospital after the breathing tube was removed, said she and Martin and the other man had gone to the woods in Martin's car to go camping, they said.

She told authorities there had been an argument and the other man got angry with her and began hitting her. She said she fell to the ground and the man then threw BeatBox, an alcoholic drink, on her and lit it on fire, Chase said.

Villano told authorities she sat for a bit, then walked 2 miles to where she encountered the man who called 911, Chase said.

Brater said the continuing investigation, which included a search of Martin's car and interviews with the medical professionals who treated Villano, did not corroborate what she was telling them.

Initially, Brater said, Villano said the second man had thrown the alcohol on her in Martin's car. In a second statement she told authorities it happened outside the car, Brater said.

A search of the car turned up no evidence of any fire inside it and there was "no evidence of actual alcohol except a small vodka shooter," she said.

The medical professionals told authorities Villano's injuries didn't support what she claimed had happened.

"Her injuries were more consistent with a blowback of fire," Brater said authorities were told.

"Had she actually been submerged or (had fire) blown in her face intentionally her injuries would have been much more severe," Brater said detectives were told.

Authorities have not described what injuries Villano suffered, except for a mention of smoke inhalation and the intubation.

And Villano's cell phone records indicated she had only known the second man for about a week, Brater said.

However, Villano kept telling people — including the 911 caller and law enforcement — that the second man was her boyfriend and was the one responsible for her injuries, Brater said. It wasn't until a third interview where Villano said the man was "nothing to her," Brater said.

"The reason she blamed (the second man) was she didn't want law enforcement to think (Martin) had anything to do with this," Brater said, adding that Villano had admitted she and Martin had a rocky relationship.

Chase argued that Villano's changing accounts and inconsistencies and blaming of the second man were the result of what happened.

"Maybe she was in a dating relationship with both," Chase said, regarding Villano's statements that her boyfriend had harmed her.

"She went through a trauma and is lucky to be alive," Chase said. "There's no indication of a motive for why she would lie."

Chase also called the statements Martin and the second man gave to authorities questionable, in particular citing methamphetamine use by the second man.

The two men indicated in their statements that they and Villano had gone to the woods to use drugs, according to information released during the detention hearing, and that they had gone there because Villano's mother refused to let them stay with her unless they paid her money.

Brater said the investigation and follow-up interviews with Villano made it clear to them that Villano had "manipulated the evidence."

Villano was expected to be released Wednesday afternoon with a list of conditions imposed by Daniels, including no contact with Martin or the other man and ordering her into substance abuse treatment.