Manalapan Keeps School Guard Accused Of Racial Beating

MANALAPAN, NJ — The Board of Education for the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District rejected a recommendation from the district's superintendent last week to fire a school security officer who was indicted for a racially-motivated beating of an Indian doctor in Jersey City in 1987. The alleged attack was with a baseball bat and was so vicious it left the doctor in a coma for a week.

At the Oct. 16 Board meeting, Marciante recommended the Board fire Marc Evangelista, the school security officer at Lafayette Mills elementary school, the Asbury Park Press reported. Evangelista was indicted by a grand jury for the 1987 incident, where he and two others allegedly beat up the doctor.

That attack, which the prosecutor said at the time was racially motivated, left the victim Kaushal Sharan, in a coma for nearly a week. They were indicted on federal civil rights charges. However, a federal judge dismissed those charges in 1993 after jurors were deadlocked and failed to find Evangelista guilty.

In fact, in 1990, Evangelista became a Jersey City police officer two and a half years after the incident, before his charges were dismissed. He retired from the Jersey City police force in 2017 at the rank of lieutenant. This year, he and six others were hired as armed security guards at Manalapan-Englishtown schools in response to the Parkland shooting; prior to their hiring, the school district did not have armed security guards.

According to the Asbury Park Press, several parents who live in Manalapan found out about the charges in his past and asked Marciante to terminate his contract because many children who attend Manalapan public schools are of Indian or Asian descent.

However, the Board of Education voted last week to keep Evangelista in his job.

Evangelista, 49, now lives in Manalapan. He makes about $32,000 a year as a security officer at Lafayette Mills elementary, the APP reported.

He passed a criminal background check when he was hired by Manalapan schools; the federal civil rights charges did not show up.

Marciante did not return Patch's call for comment.

Photo: Lafayette Mills elementary via Google Earth.