NJ cop charged after allegedly stalking a teenage girl he met at the National Night Out event

A grand jury has returned a 19-count indictment against a police officer accused of stalking two teenage girls and sending them inappropriate messages.

Kevin Ruditsky, 47, who has been suspended from the Manalapan Police Department since August, was indicted on nine counts of official misconduct, three counts of computer criminal activity, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of engaging in a crime. According to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, there is a pattern of official misconduct, hindering apprehension, impersonating a law enforcement officer and stalking.

The charge of impersonating a law enforcement officer stems from allegations that Ruditsky attempted to act as a law enforcement officer after his suspension, officials said. The police officer was suspended without pay in August, shortly after his arrest.

Public pension records show he has been a sworn public servant since August 1999 and his most recently reported salary from Manalapan Township was $133,768.

Detectives began investigating Ruditsky after receiving information that he allegedly had inappropriate communications with a 16-year-old girl he met at Manalapan Township’s annual National Night Out community event in 2023.

Ruditsky was wearing his uniform when he met the girl at the event and let her sit in his patrol car, authorities alleged. In the days after the event, he began contacting her on social media, despite her repeated warnings about her age, officials said.

He later stopped her as she drove on Route 9, unlawfully handcuffed her and tried to kiss her while his dashcam and bodycam were turned off, prosecutors alleged.

After the girl refused to give him her address, he unlawfully looked it up using a law enforcement database and parked his patrol vehicle outside the house in the middle of the night while he was on duty, investigators said.

It was later determined that he had inappropriate conversations with a second victim, a 17-year-old girl, and that he also unlawfully looked up her name in the law enforcement database, prosecutors alleged.

At the time of his arrest, Ruditsky was also charged with false imprisonment. Prosecutors declined to say Thursday why that charge was not included in the indictment.