A lifeguard at the Bayonne Lincoln Community School has been charged with making false statements to law enforcement regarding the June 9th, 2022 incident at the school pool where two brothers drowned.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Ashley Danback, 37, of Toms River, is charged with one count of false swearing, a fourth-degree crime, Hudson County Prosecutor Wayne Mello said in a statement.
She was arrested at the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and released on a summons pending her first court appearance.
The charge relates to statements the defendant made during an investigation surrounding the deaths of two males at the Lincoln Community School pool on the aforementioned date. June 9, 2022.
The statements were made after the investigation began and did not contribute to the deaths of the two brothers, authorities said.
The family of Jack Jiang, 16, and Chu Ming Zheng, 19, filed a $100 million tort claim was filed in June 2022 and a lawsuit was filed in Hudson County Superior Court shortly thereafter.
They declined a $14 million settlement in September and ultimately avoided a trial via a $26 million settlement in November.
Back in June, prior to the board of education entering serious negotiations to settle the case, Daryl Zaslow, the attorney for the boys’ estate, alleged that there was concealed evidence, violating lifeguard protocols, and lying to police, citing depositions in the case, as only HCV reported.
” … The entire interview Defendant Danback provided to the Detective consists of blatant and calculated misrepresentations of what actually happened, created by Defendant Danback in a shameless effort to absolve herself from any responsibility for the drowning deaths that occurred just two days prior,” Zaslow wrote in a 51-page mediation statement.
“Quite notably, Defendant Danback admitted during her deposition she was unaware there was a surveillance camera in the lobby when she gave her interview to the police and believed she would get away with her atrocious lies.”