Autistic man's plunge spawns new N.J. law

TRENTON, N.J. — An autistic Howell man’s disturbing ordeal in the dead of winter last year has led to better protections for developmentally disabled adults.

Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law Monday providing for prison terms up to 10 years for endangering the welfare of developmentally disabled persons.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean, proposed the law last year after reading about the ordeal of Parker Drake in the Asbury Park Press.

Drake, an autistic man from Howell who also suffers from diabetes, was 19 years old on Feb. 25 when two acquaintances offered him $20 and two packs of cigarettes to jump off the Manasquan jetty into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. When he did, the two acquaintances made a video of Drake struggling in the raging ocean and posted it to a social media website.

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Drake’s mother, Christine Marshall, said her son, now 20, could have drowned or died from hypothermia or because the pump that delivers insulin to his body froze when he plunged into the ocean.

Marshall sought a prosecution against the two men from Howell who enticed her son but learned that there was no law on the books then making what they did a crime. So, she signed complaints against the pair — Nicholas Formica and Christopher Tilton — in Manasquan Municipal Court charging them with disorderly persons offenses punishable by a maximum of six months in jail. The complaints are pending, and the new law is not retroactive.

"If the family did not come forward and tell their story -— and they really are the heroes here — we would not have known about this,'' Singer said Monday in a telephone interview. "Thanks to them we changed the law to make it better.''

“What happened to Parker Drake was deeply troubling and could have ended tragically,'' Singer said. "I commend Parker and his mother for having the courage to stand up and tell his story. These added protections should send a clear message that this type of bullying and dangerous acts against those with developmental disabilities won’t be tolerated in New Jersey and that those who do so will be held accountable.”

Under the new law, it is now a second-degree crime to create a substantial risk of death for someone with a developmental disability. As such, the crime is punishable by five to 10 years in prison or a fine up to $150,000, or both.

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The law provides for lesser penalties when the risk posed to developmentally disabled persons is less severe:

• Putting a developmentally disabled person at substantial risk of serious bodily injury is now a third-degree crime, punishable by three to five years in prison, a fine up to $15,000, or both;

• Creating a substantial risk of bodily injury to a person with a developmental disability is a fourth-degree crime, punishable by up to 18 months in prison or a fine up to $10,000, or both.

The new law also addresses conduct endangering persons without developmental disabilities. It makes it a disorderly persons offense to recklessly engage in conduct that creates a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person. The offense is upgraded to a fourth-degree crime to create a risk of seriously bodily injury to another person, and to a third-degree crime to engage in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death to another person.

Singer and Sweeney consulted a number of advocacy groups, including Autism New Jersey, Disability Rights New Jersey, NJ ARC and New Jersey Council of Developmental Disabilities, in crafting the legislation.

Follow Kathleen Hopkins on Twitter: @Khopkinsapp