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Austin Hopler sexually assaulted the woman -- who, like him, is 25 -- following an event at a local home last June 6, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and West Milford Township Police Chief James Devore alleged in a joint release.
Hopler was arrested last Monday, Jan. 9, following an investigation by township police and members of the prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit, they said.
The six-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran – who’d been stationed at Fort Dix and served as an artillery cannoneer -- was brought before Superior Court Judge Marybel Mercado-Ramirez in Paterson on Friday, Jan. 13.
The judge ordered that Hopler remain held in the Passaic County Jail pending further court action on charges of sexual assault and criminal sexual contact, Valdes and Devore said.
Hopler was graduated from West Milford High School in 2016 and received a Bachelor’s degree in sociology – with a concentration in “crime, law and society” – in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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