Editor’s note: this story includes descriptive details of an alleged rape.
Andrew LaBruno, a Jersey City police sergeant and former Dumont mayor accused of drugging and raping an underage boy, will remain in a Bergen County Jail until his next court hearing on January 8, 2026, after a judge determined he was a risk to his community and a risk of obstructing the investigation into allegations against him.
Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Sara Wilson opposed the release of LaBruno, saying he posed a risk to the community and the victim and might obstruct the ongoing criminal investigation – and that he identified himself as an on-duty police officer to police.
“Although if released, he would be under close scrutiny, the court is concerned, based on his behavior in the aftermath of this incident, that he would use his position and influence to possibly obstruct the criminal justice process,” said Superior Court Judge Gary Wilcox. “Accordingly, the court finds that there is no amount of monetary bail or non-monetary conditions or a combination thereof that exists that would reasonably protect the safety of any other person or the community.
Wilson said that LaBruno was on duty at the time of the alleged rape – he was wearing a Jersey City police shirt — and sought to leverage his status as a police officer during the earliest portion of the investigation.
LaBruno’s attorney, Kevin Corriston, acknowledged that LaBruno was on duty.
“But he’s entitled to a lunch hour,” Corriston said. “I’m sure the father was quite enraged to find out that his son was gay and having people over the house in the middle of the day.”
Wilson said LaBruno and the victim met on Grindr and that LaBruno “sent multiple pictures of his body and his erect penis.” She said the boy was seventeen and appeared younger and physically smaller than LaBruno. He also sent two photographs of his body, including a photo of his penis.
She said LaBruno agreed to meet the boy at his residence, where his father rented a room on the second floor of an Englewood home. According to Wilson, the boy told LaBruno he wanted to get to know him before they became intimate. She said the victim rebuffed LaBruno’s immediate attempt at intimacy.
Wilson said LaBruno “took out a little bottle from his pants … poured it into his hand and put his hand over (the victim’s) mouth.
“(The victim) stated that he immediately felt dizzy and felt like the room was spinning. He stated that this smell was that of nail polish. (The victim) indicated that the defendant then mounted him and restrained him by his wrists. The defendant then started kissing the victim and took off the victim’s clothes. The defendant was kissing the victim all over his body, and he told the defendant to stop and get off. The defendant took down his own pants,” Wilson told the judge. “The defendant inserted his penis into (the victim’s) mouth. But (The victim) could not do anything because the defendant was positioned on top of him and the victim’s arms were restrained over his head. (The victim) stated that he was laying and he was naked, but he could not move. The defendant was positioned with his knees over (the victim’s), shoulders with his penis in the victim’s mouth. (The victim) said, ‘stop that.’ He didn’t want to do anything, but the defendant aggressively put his penis in the victim’s mouth.”
According to the prosecutor, the victim “moved his head from side to side” to not allow LaBruno’s penis to enter his mouth.
Reading from an investigative report, Wilson said LaBruno “was fully erect and not wearing a condom.” She said the victim told police “the room started spinning immediately after (LaBruno) had put his hand over his mouth” and that at one point, LaBruno “dismounted him to remove the boy’s pants – but he felt too weak to do anything from the effects of the nail polish smell.”
At that point, the victim told LaBuno he’d heard his father enter the house and was coming up the stairs. The father said he was going to call the police.
LaBruno allegedly told the victim to “open the door slowly and not say anything” and then bid behind the door. LaBruno apparently pushed the father out of the way and fell down the stairs. He identified himself as a police officer.
Wilson said the nail polish removers were actually nitrate poppers. LaBruno, she said, told police officers it was his inhalant.
She said LaBruno asked if the police officer’s body camera was/
“I got kids, man, I got kids. I was talking. I had no idea. I thought that was an adult. We were just chatting. The 18-year-old kid said, ‘Hey, I could stop over.’ And then the father came in and went nuts,” the prosecutor reported LaBruno as saying.
Corriston pushed back on the allegations made against LaBruno, saying the nitrate poppers had “a very short duration” and complained that there was no toxicology report.
He said the victim invited LaBruno to his home and told the 44-year-old former mayor and 2025 Assembly candidate, “I want to suck.”
According to Corriston, LaBruno thought the boy was 21 and that a 911 call never indicated a sexual assault of drugging. He said LaBruno voluntarily returned to the scene; Wilson said it was to retrieve a cell phone that had fallen out of his pocket when he fell down the steps.
“There’s really no case, Judge. A 17-year-old is completely free to enter into consensual sexual activity with my clients,” Corriston said. “There’s no crime.”
Corriston also attacked the victim’s credibility, wondering why he didn’t tell his father “he’s being raped by my client.”
“Why is he telling my client not to make any noise and be quiet? Judge you would anticipate under these very alarming allegations, you would anticipate that the victim would say to his father, this this guy’s attacking me. This guy is forcing himself on me,” Corriston said. “You would expect that when he police arrive, the victim’s father would have told them what was going on and not tell them some poor story about something that sounds like it’s a trespass or burglary. Not lie to the police about who’s in the building.”
Corriston wondered why a guilty police officer wouldn’t have disposed of the nitrate poppers before returning to the scene. And called the behavior of the victim’s father “abnormal.”
“This was not a consensual interaction,” said Wilson. “This defendant responded to the minor’s residence after sending him sexual pictures for what the victim stated was approximately 15 minutes on Grindr. These parties did not know each other before that day, and this defendant responded to his home armed with a nitrate popper in his front pocket. A nd when he did not immediately get what he was looking for from the victim, he used that substance, held it over the victim’s mouth, rendering him physically helpless as he indicated he was dizzy. The room was spinning.”
“He felt too weak to do anything than just plead with him to stop. And then this defendant, after putting this substance over the victim’s mouth, gets on top of him and holds his hands over his head as he forces his victim’s mouth,” Wilson said.
Wilson argued that the age of the victim did not matter.
“You cannot just decide because you had a sexual conversation with somebody that you’re going to use a nitrite, hold it over their face and force yourself upon them,” she stated.
She said LaBruno “knew the second he walked into that room, regardless of the age of the victim, that he was physically dominant over that victim.”
“But he still decided to use the rush. He still used the popper to overcome him and get what he wanted,” said Wilson. “And thankfully, the victim’s father responded in that moment and interrupted what could have been a very different case before the court today.”
The prosecutor’s office released the name of the victim’s father, but the New Jersey Globe is withholding the name to protect the privacy of the victim.
The Jersey City Police Department has suspended LaBruno without pay.
Until earlier this month, LaBruno was the Democratic candidate for State Assembly in the 39th district.
