Police: Manalapan cop sent teen photo with hand down pants, wanted to kiss her 'so bad'

MANALAPAN - Township Patrolman Kevin Ruditsky used the social media platform Snapchat to send messages to a 16-year-old girl that included a photo of himself with his hand down his pants and the caption that he was sexually aroused thinking about her, according to a copy of the criminal complaint against him.

Other messages sent to the underage teen from the 46-year-old police officer were about his desire to kiss her “so bad” and an admonishment to “please not tell anyone;” that he missed her lips, which came with a photo of himself in uniform; and that he promised to give her a Police Benevolent Association card when she turned 17, reads the affidavit of probable cause.

Ruditsky’s week-long infatuation with the teen eventually drove him to pull over a car she was traveling in with friends as they left a local Wendy’s restaurant. He asked her to step out of the vehicle and then placed her in his handcuffs and tried to kiss her, the charging document said.

After the teen refused to disclose where she lived, Ruditsky accessed her personal information through his department’s law enforcement database and keyed up her home address. A day after the incident with the vehicle stop and handcuffs, the officer drove several miles into neighboring Marlboro in his marked patrol vehicle and sat outside the house where she lives, according to the complaint.

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Ruditsky, who has been a police officer since 1999, was suspended without pay from his $133,768-a-year position with the Manalapan Police Department following his Aug. 30 arrest. He is charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree official misconduct, third-degree computer theft, third-degree hindering apprehension, fourth-degree stalking and false imprisonment; the last charge is a disorderly persons’ offense.

The charges related to computer theft and hindering apprehension were filed because he is alleged to have accessed official government records for personal use and turned off all his cameras and recording equipment when he unlawfully detained the teen, according to the complaint.

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Manalapan Police Chief Edward Niesz has said the department is “deeply saddened and disturbed that this victim had her trust betrayed by a man wearing one of our uniforms.”

Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago, whose office is pursuing convictions against Ruditsky, called the alleged misconduct “unconscionable,” and promised swift action in the matter.

Manalapan Mayor Susan Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.

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Ruditsky appears to have met the victim during Manalapan’s National Night Out event on Aug. 1. The annual community outreach campaign, which Ruditsky had helped organize for the department in the past, is intended to be an opportunity for police officers to connect with those in the community that they protect and serve.

That evening, Ruditsky allowed the teen to sit in his patrol car after she complained of being hot, according to the affidavit.

While they sat together in the car, the officer eventually exchanged their contact information on Snapchat and Ruditsky began messaging her later that night, expressing his desire to kiss her, the complaint said.

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The incident in which he pulled over took place on Aug. 5, in front of the Best Buy on Route 9. The next day, he traveled to her home in Marlboro where he was confronted by a Marlboro police officer on patrol who asked the officer why he was outside his jurisdiction. Ruditsky answered that he was visiting a friend, according to the complaint.

If convicted, Ruditsky could spend more than 30 years in state prison. He was no longer listed as an inmate at the Monmouth County Jail in Freehold Township, where he had been taken after his arrest last week.

Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Manalapan NJ cop sent teen photo with hand down pants, police say