Former Ocean City lifeguard indicted in sexual assault of 16-year-old rookie
The Ocean City Beach Patrol lifeguard got a rookie lifeguard drunk and then sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
OCEAN CITY, N.J. — The instagram account was called OCBP predators, and it detailed, anonymously, a culture of assault, harassment, and predatory behavior on the part of senior lifeguards on the Ocean City Beach Patrol toward their teenaged rookie counterparts.
As investigators dug deeper, conducting 30 interviews since April 2021, one name came up repeatedly, they said in court documents this week: Jonathan Howell, a senior guard from Marmora, who was also a teacher in Pleasantville.
Howell, 41, now an ex-Ocean City lifeguard, was indicted Tuesday by a Cape May County grand jury on charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and official misconduct. The indictment follows his arrest last June.
The victim was a 16-year-old rookie lifeguard reporting to Howell during the summer of 2017, when the assault occurred, prosecutors said. Howell was 36 at the time.
Efforts to reach Howell, who was released from custody to await trial, were unsuccessful Thursday. His attorney, John Tumelty, could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the affidavit of probable cause for Howell’s arrest, the victim told investigators he provided her with alcohol “to the point of extreme intoxication,” and that she woke up “with the room spinning,” and Howell standing over her, “removing a condom and saying ‘you’re amazing.’”
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Prosecutors said she woke up in only a T-shirt, with her pants pulled down to her ankles. According to the affidavit, another minor female was also at the residence, along with the person who lived there. That person,whose name was redacted in the affidavit, told prosecutors Howell and the 16-year-old had sex, that he discussed it with Howell, and that they were “all pretty drunk.”
If convicted, Howell faces a possible prison sentence of three to 20 years.
An arraignment is set for Feb. 16.