BLOOMSBURY, NJ - A Hunterdon County couple has been charged with making false reports after authorities say they fabricated allegations that New Jersey State Police troopers sexually assaulted one of them during a domestic disturbance response last fall.
Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) announced Tuesday that Randal Kelco, 35, and Lisa DeStefano, 45, both of Bloomsbury, were each charged with second-degree false reporting.
Investigators say the pair claimed the troopers assaulted Kelco while responding to a domestic dispute at the couple’s Brunswick Avenue home at 3:59 a.m. on October 23, 2023. However, the Attorney General’s Office said body-worn camera footage, along with video from Kelco’s cellphone, contradicts every aspect of that account.
Troopers’ cameras recorded about 40 minutes of interactions with the couple before officers left the home around 4:36 a.m., according to the AG’s office. The footage also shows troopers transporting Kelco to a nearby hotel and then departing without further contact.
“In this case, OPIA followed the evidence, including the body-worn camera video of the officers, which allegedly shows this was a malicious, self-serving hoax by the defendants,” Platkin said in a statement.
Roughly 21 hours later, shortly after 1:30 a.m. on October 24, Kelco and DeStefano went to the emergency department at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. There, officials said,...
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