Middletown's Top 20 Stories Of 2025

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Patch rounded up 20 of our most highly-read stories of 2025 in Middletown. From Joe Fitzgerald to Jennifer Lopez, this was all the juiciest news:

1. Middletown Teen Dies In Skiing Accident In Berkshires (January 8, 2025) Tragedy occurred within the very first week of the new year. Alex Kemp, 19, of Lincroft, died after a skiing accident on a black-diamond trail at Jiminy Peak ski mountain in Massachusetts. Kemp graduated from Christian Brothers Academy prep school; he ran cross country for CBA and in his senior year helped lead them to a state championship. He was enrolled at Williams College at the time of his death. He was wearing a ski helmet at the time of the crash.

2. Middletown Police Officer Charged With Sex Assault Of Teen (January 14, 2025) The Middletown community was shaken last January to learn that Justin Skelly, a rookie Middletown Police officer in his mid-20s, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a local 17-year-old girl. As of press time of this article, the case has still not been resolved. Skelly remains suspended without pay from the Middletown Police force. He is the son of Middletown's Fire Official Bud Skelly.

3. Middletown North Basketball Coach Charged With Sex Assault Of Student (January 29, 2025): The community was similarly stunned to learn that Justin McGhee, a gym teacher at Middletown High School North and formerly the head coach of the North girls' basketball team, was having an illegal sexual relationship with an underage female student at High School North. McGhee pleaded guilty in November to sex assault. At his sentencing, which is scheduled for February 20, the state will ask that he serve five and a half years in prison and register as a sex offender. The state will also ask that McGhee refrain from any future contact with the victim and that he be forever banned from Middletown High School North. 4. Former Middletown North Teacher/Basketball Coach Admits To Sex With Minor (Nov. 2025)

5. Middletown Cannot Enact Transgender Student Policy, 2nd NJ Court Rules (Feb. 6, 2025) The state Court of Appeals agreed with a previous decision from a Monmouth County Superior Court judge that the Middletown Board of Education is forbidden from enacting its transgender student policy, which requires schools notify parents when a student changes their name, pronoun or bathroom use in school. This was the transgender student policy that got the school district sued by the state of New Jersey in June 2023. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin argued — and two high courts agreed with him — that the Middletown school board was putting LGBTQ+ and transgender kids at risk.

6. Middletown Twp. Will Purchase Mater Dei High, Make It Town Park (March 27, 2025) Eyebrows raised when Middletown Township purchased the former 20-acre Mater Dei High School property from St. Mary's Catholic church, and turned it into a recreational park with sports fields for youth and adults. The new park is called Mater Dei Park. The Mater Dei High School building itself was demolished and torn down this summer. None of these plans affected Saint Mary's grammar school, which remains open and has a healthy enrollment of Middletown youngsters.

7. Family Of Bullied Middletown Teen Girl Seeks Gag Order In Lawsuit (April 1, 2025) This story gave an update on the lawsuit the grieving parents of Jocelyn Walters filed against the Middletown school district. Walters was the 14-year-old sophomore at Middletown High School North who died in a suicide in September 2022. Her parents, Fred and Solangie Walters, sued the Middletown school district in 2024. The Walters say they repeatedly told High School North principal (then Patricia Vari-Cartier) and two North guidance counselors their daughter was being bullied, and that the school district failed to take appropriate action. They say the school even continued to place their daughter in the same classes with the girl who was bullying her. The lawsuit has not been settled.

8. Dad Charged With Assault Says Saint Mary School Principal Is Not Addressing Bullying (June 16, 2025): Saint Mary's school popped back up in the news again in June, when a Port Monmouth dad was arrested there after the school said he knocked a secretary down in a scuffle he had with the school security guard. However, that dad has his own version of the story. He says the Catholic primary school has a serious problem with not addressing bullying.

9. Middletown School Board Member Joe Fitzgerald Arrested On Illegal Gun Charges (July 1, 2025): Patch was the first news outlet to report that, on a balmy summer evening in late June an elected member of Middletown's school board, Joseph Fitzgerald, was arrested when police said they found him with a loaded handgun and other weapons in his blue pick-up truck. Prosecutors say he was headed to the home of a woman with whom he is accused of having an affair, ostensibly to confront her husband. Fitzgerald denies all allegations and hired a lawyer to defend him, primarily on his Second Amendment right to own guns. Despite the serious criminal charges against him (he is facing prison time if convicted), Fitzgerald ran for re-election to school board this year. He lost, receiving the fewest votes among all candidates. The criminal charges against Fitzgerald have not yet been resolved.

10. Keansburg Police Officer Committed No Crime In Fatal Shooting Of Local Man, Grand Jury Determines (July 30, 2025): Video was released in the incident where a man wielding a chainsaw was shot and killed by a Keansburg Police officer inside his own home in 2024. The officer did no wrong, a jury found.

11. Woman Survived 12 Hours Overnight Floating In Ocean Off Sandy Hook After Jet Ski Mishap (August 12, 2025): A man and woman from Elizabeth were knocked off their Jet Ski around sundown under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and both survived an overnight floating in the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of New York Harbor. The currents carried the man to a beach in Staten Island, where he was found dangerously dehydrated and near death. The Coast Guard found the woman the next morning, floating in about seven feet of water near Romer Shoal, an isolated rock outcropping about 2 1/2 miles north Sandy Hook, and a mile south of Breezy Point, Queens. She credits her survival to the fact that she was wearing a life jacket.

12. St. Leo The Great Says Former Finance Director Stole $1.6 Million From Church (August 14, 2025): One of the biggest houses of worship in Middletown, the Church of St. Leo the Great, says its former director of finance, Joseph Manzi, had been embezzling $1.6 million of the church's operating funds for the past six years. The news first broke when the Catholic diocese of Trenton filed a civil lawsuit against Manzi; you can read a copy of it here. After the church sued, the Monmouth County Prosecutor then launched its own investigation and filed criminal charges against Manzi in October. If found guilty, he's facing prison time. Bonus article: Former St. Leo The Great Finance Director Now Criminally Charged With Theft (Oct. 2025)

13. David Burke's THE GOAT In Union Beach Permanently Closed (August 29, 2025): Local celeb chef David Burke opened the GOAT in spring 2022, but the restaurant never reached the popularity or acclaim of his tonier Red Horse in Rumson. The GOAT quietly closed its doors in August of this year.

14. Beach Gallery Bar Says State Asked Them To Hire Ex-Cons, Will Permanently Close (Oct. 2, 2025) Many people in the Middletown, Keansburg and Bayshore area were stunned when beachfront bar/restaurant the Beach Gallery in Keansburg suddenly fired all its staff and closed its doors. Patch was the first to report the bar was under investigation by the state Division of Alcohol Beverage Control for hiring criminal sex offenders to work there (it is against ABC rules for convicted sex offenders to work in a liquor establishment). Many employees say they are still owed outstanding wages from Beach Gallery.

15. Jennifer Lopez Movie Filming In Middletown (Oct. 6, 2025): Get ready to look for sections of Middletown when "The Last Mrs. Parrish" is released in 2026 on Netflix. It's a psychological thriller about a woman who schemes to take the place of a wife married to a wealthy man; Lopez plays the wealthy man's wife, and she has some big secrets of her own that she's hiding. Filming took place in the wealthiest section of Middletown, along Navesink River Road, McClees Road and Sailors Way. Lopez was also spotted dining at Birravino Italian wine bar in Red Bank.

16. Man Riding E-Bike Hit, Killed By Atlantic Highlands Police Officer In Patrol Car (Oct. 24, 2025): As the e-bike/e-scooter craze takes hold of America, Middletown was not spared from its hazards. An Atlantic Highlands Police officer, driving a marked patrol car, collided with a man riding an e-bike at 1 p.m. Oct. 10 on Rt. 36 in Middletown, at Orchard Avenue. The man riding the e-bike was airlifted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where he died of his injures nine days later. To date, no criminal charges have been filed against the Atlantic Highlands Police officer. The e-bike rider was never identified by name.

17. Chef At Popular Atlantic Highlands Mexican Restaurant Detained By ICE (Oct. 30, 2025): Ruperto Marquez, the head chef of Emilio's Kitchen in Atlantic Highlands, which he runs with his brother, was picked up by ICE agents Oct. 19 and held at Delaney Hall, the ICE holding facility in Newark. Although Marquez has valid work papers to work in the United States, he also had a 2010 charge against him for resisting arrest in Red Bank. An ICE spokeswoman said they had an order for his removal. However, his lawyer successfully challenged that and Marquez was released in November. He returned to a welcome-home rally outside the well-loved Mexican restaurant.

18. Human Remains Found By Henry Hudson Trail Are Those Of Middletown Man, Missing For 10 Years (November 2025): In November 2024, human skeletal remains were found on the Henry Hudson Trail in the area of Willow Street. However, they went unidentified for 10 years. It was not until October of this year that the remains were identified as those of John Paul Fernandez, a young man who grew up in Middletown and died 10 years ago. Fernandez graduated from Middletown High School North. At the time of his death, he was in his senior year at Seton Hall University, studying accounting.

19. School Board Member, Middletown Mayor Argue Over Why Property Taxes Increased This Year (Dec. 5, 2025): School board member Mark Soporowski touched a nerve when he said it was the way Middletown calculates its property taxes (Real Time Property Tax Assessment Demonstration program, known as RDP or ADP) that was responsible for this year's property tax increase — and not the fact that most Middletown school board members, himself included, voted in April to raise the school portion of the tax bill 10.1 percent.

20. Best Christmas Lights In Middletown And Nearby: The 2025 List (December): What can we say? People like driving around and looking at the lights.