Jackson Memorial Basketball Coach Charged with Sexual Assault of Teen

Dinesh Patel

JACKSON-Jackson Police have announced the arrest of William J. O’Neill, 53, of Jackson and charged him with Aggravated Sexual Assault, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Contact, Sexual Assault and Endangering the Welfare of a Child on Sunday.

Police say O’Neill’s victim was between the age of 13 and 16 and that the alleged abuse occurred between the Summer of 2018 and the day before his arrest.

According to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, O’Neill works as a teacher and basketball coach at Jackson Memorial High School.

The school district issued the following release in response to the arrest:


“In accordance with state law, the employee has been suspended with pay during the investigation. He will not be permitted on school property. Our district will continue to work closely with law enforcement and our school resource officers during the investigation,” the district said. “This is a police matter, which means the district is not at liberty to discuss it further. However, we do want our community to understand the strict policies and procedures we have in place to protect our students. All district employees undergo a criminal history background check before they commence employment in the district to ensure they are free of any criminal record. The district is alerted immediately of any criminal charges. Those procedures were followed in this case.”

According to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer, O’Neill was awaiting a pre-trial detention hearing under the New Jersey Bail Reform and Speedy Trial Act.   He is no longer listed as an inmate on Ocean County’s Inmate Lookup system.

 

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.