A former Gloucester County teacher accused of sexually assaulting a middle school student continued to exchange thousands of often sexually explicit text messages with him after he entered high school, prosecutors say.
In one of the 7,500 pages of text collected by investigators, the former student wrote that the teacher left him mentally broken.
“You destroyed something inside me. You took away my innocence,” he said in the text message.
Ashley A. Fisler, 36, of Washington Township, was arrested last week after the former student told investigators that she sexually assaulted him multiple times, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors said Fesler was working as a teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School in Washington Township but no longer works as an educator anywhere.
She appeared for a detention hearing via video link from jail on Wednesday, but a decision on whether she will remain in jail until trial was postponed until Thursday.
Prosecutors said the student reported the incident to police in January. Fesler issued a statement to investigators last month denying the allegations.
Defense lawyer Rocco Cipparone argued in court that prosecutors did not have any evidence of an alleged crime and could only rely on old texts to make their case.
“The selective, obscene text cited by the prosecution lacks context,” he said.
Ashley Fisler
The victim, now an adult, described at least four sexual assaults in 2021 and 2022 in Fesler’s car and in her classroom when Fesler was a middle school student, authorities said.
Those claims are supported by 7,500 pages of text messages between Fisler and the victim, Gloucester County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Finley said Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the messages were sent from May 2023 to January of this year, in which Fisler recalled sexual assault victims.
Finley said prosecutors did not have information on the year of the alleged attack because of technical limitations.
“Not only did the text messages demonstrate the level of grooming and manipulation by the defendant, but they also repeatedly corroborated the sexual relationships disclosed by the victim, including specific sexual acts that the victim disclosed to police during interviews,” Finley said.
Prosecutors said that while she was no longer the victim’s teacher and the assault ended in 2022, Fisler continued to send text messages to the student after he entered high school, messages that highlighted her ongoing illegal conduct with minors.
“In December 2023, the victim confided to the defendant that he was having difficulty in school because he was having erections more frequently at school. The defendant’s reaction was, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s great,'” Finley said.
In another letter, Fisler offered to buy the teen a sex toy, prosecutors said.
Fisler showed no emotion as testimony was heard via video link from jail on Wednesday.
She was charged with six counts of first-degree sexual assault of a minor, one count of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child and one count of second-degree official misconduct.
Incriminating photos allegedly sent between Fesler and the victim in recovered text messages could not be retrieved.
“We can’t actually see the images embedded in these text messages, but we can see when the images were sent and we can see the context,” prosecutors said.
In one of the messages, Finley said, Fisler told the student to send her a photo of his genitals.
The text messages also show the teen discussing his mental health issues. Finley said he told Fisler that her behavior damaged him and called her controlling and selfish.
“On January 20, 2025, the victim told the defendant, ‘I have to work very hard to rebuild what you destroyed inside me. You destroyed what was inside me. You took away my innocence,'” prosecutors said.
Finley then described Fesler’s response.
“The defendant admitted that she hurt him numerous times and said, ‘I take responsibility for all of this,'” Finley said. “She even admitted that she put him in a position he shouldn’t be, saying, ‘I feel like I forced you to grow up incredibly fast.'”
Fesler continued to have contact with the victim in January, when he tried to break contact, Finley said.
Prosecutors said she also tried to hide evidence of her behavior by deleting old text messages, telling police she did so because she frequently had affairs.
Fisler’s attorney, Ciparone, said all of the texts cited by prosecutors were sent years after the alleged crimes and provided no evidence of the year the alleged attacks occurred.
He said: “I have not heard the prosecutor say that there are any words, images, or evidence from the same period in 2021 that can reveal this alleged behavior.”
Fisler agreed to take a polygraph test but was refused, Ciparone said.
He said the former student’s claims may have been financially motivated and said he consulted a lawyer before contacting police.
Prosecutors said Fesler said in a police interview that she quit her teaching job in 2023 because she “blurred the boundaries” with another student, but Ciparone said the matter did not involve any illegal conduct.
“Ms. Feisler told police that the reason she left was because a female student had hickeys on her neck. She asked Ms. Feisler to buy her concealer cosmetics so she would not get in trouble with her parents,” the attorney said. “Ms. Fisler did this, she said, and I blurred the lines and decided to leave teaching to pursue other things.”
Fisler, whose maiden name is Sulla, joined the district in 2015 as a social studies teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School, according to a district news release that year.
In 2019, two years before the alleged sexual assault, another of Fisler’s students wrote an essay for a statewide competition describing Fisler as his hero.
He wrote that his teacher was a “protector” who wanted to make sure students felt safe and comfortable at school.
The article was selected as one of four winning entries, and Fisler was celebrated by her district.
In an announcement about the winning essay, Orchard Valley’s principal called Fisler “an energetic, dedicated, hard-working teacher with a passion for teaching social studies.”
The press release called her “living proof that effective educators can have an immediate, positive and lasting impact on children.”
Prosecutors also described other allegations of inappropriate communications between Fesler and students.
“At least one other family reported to police inappropriate communications between the defendant and another child who was her student at the time,” Finley said. “In September 2024, the victim told the defendant that another student (the third child) told people that a middle school teacher named Mrs. Fesler had sent him bikini photos.”
In arguing that Fisler should remain in prison, prosecutors said her actions showed she posed a danger to others and that she was a flight risk because she faced a lengthy prison sentence.
Each aggravated sexual assault charge alone carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Her lawyer said Fesler is a near-local resident with strong ties to the area and would not pose a risk if released.
While the court’s public safety assessment recommended she remain jailed, Superior Court Judge William Ziegler said he needed time to review relevant case law before making his decision.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Thursday.
Fisler teaches in the same district where she attended as a student.
She graduated from Washington Township High School in 2007 and received a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in education from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck.
Her student teaching experience includes four months at Washington Township High School in 2013, according to a resume she posted online.
Fisler’s employment with the district ended in April 2023, the district confirmed.
In June 2023, she launched a company that designs and manufactures personalized clothing, according to her resume.
As of 2024, she worked part-time in her family’s tree care business, the resume states.
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