Affair Was Behind Arrest Of Middletown BOE Member Joe Fitzgerald, Prosecutor Says

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — An extramarital affair may be why Middletown school board member Joe Fitzgerald was headed to someone's home last Monday night with a loaded gun and other weapons, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor said this week.

Fitzgerald was headed to engage in an "altercation" with the husband of the woman he is accused of having an affair with, the prosecutor said at Fitzgerald's detention hearing Wednesday.

This is according to two media reports, NJ101.5 and the Asbury Park Press, which had a reporter in the courtroom Wednesday.

As Patch reported earlier this week, Fitzgerald was released from the Monmouth County Jail on Level III pretrial monitoring. This is the highest level of court monitoring short of having to wear an ankle bracelet. Superior Court Judge Vincent Falcetano barred Fitzgerald from possessing any weapons, and ordered him to surrender his firearms purchaser ID card to police.

Fitzgerald, 47, is also ordered not to have any contact with the other man.

At Wednesday's detention hearing, an assistant Monmouth County prosecutor told Judge Falcetano that Fitzgerald and his wife are going through a separation because he is having an affair with another woman, NJ 101.5 reported.

Fitzgerald was headed to the husband's home to confront him, telling his wife "I'm going to take care of this right now'' — referring to the other woman's husband — the assistant prosecutor said.

However, Fitzgerald's public defender, Lisa Maglone, said Fitzgerald took the guns out of his home because he didn't want his wife to hurt herself. She said his wife had been acting erratic.

Fitzgerald kept an "arsenal" of weapons inside his Middletown home, including five types of guns, ammunition, a hatchet, a handheld laser and a miniature spike launcher, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Fitzgerald was arrested by Middletown Police shortly after 5 p.m. June 30, who stopped his pick-up truck that evening and said they found a loaded handgun (which he did not have a permit to carry), a dart gun and a stun gun in the shape of brass knuckles with a Taser element on it. Fitzgerald is charged with three counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, two counts of possession of a weapon and one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Fitzgerald is next due in court Aug. 18 before Judge Richard English.

Due to the criminal charges against him, and their serious nature, Fitzgerald was temporarily suspended from the Middletown Board of Education. This was announced Tuesday by the Middletown school board lawyer, who said he was informed by the New Jersey Department of Education that Fitzgerald must be temporarily suspended. His seat is up for re-election this November, and Fitzgerald intended to run again. This was before he was arrested.