A state appellate panel said James Boykins was not exempt from a state law barring more than one extended prison term

James Boykins(New Jersey Department of Corrections) 

TRENTON -- A serial rapist who sexually assaulted a woman two days before his trial on another rape charge was not handed an illegal prison term when he was sentenced twice to life behind bars, a state appellate court has ruled.

The decision, issued Wednesday by a three-judge panel, grew out of the case of James Boykins, a career criminal who tried to argue that because he was out on bail at the time of the second rape, he was protected by a state law barring defendants from heavier prison sentences.

Boykins, whom the court described as "a career criminal and a serial rapist," was sentenced in 1990 to an extended term of life in prison for a conviction on kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and other charges filed in Monmouth County. 

In 1994, he was convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in Lakewood in an incident that occurred two days before his trial in Monmouth County started and while he was out on bail, according to the decision.

In that Ocean County case, Boykins was sentenced to another extended term of life in prison. Both sentences, which he is serving consecutively at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, require him to serve at least 25 years of his term before becoming eligible for parole.

Boykins, 59, racked up charges of kidnapping, sexual assault and other offenses in New Jersey, Maryland, California and the District of Columbia between the ages of 20 and 35, the court noted. He was on probation for an assault conviction in Washington, D.C., and for a cocaine distribution conviction in New Jersey at the time of the Monmouth County crime.

The state's criminal laws say that a person who commits a crime before he is sentenced for another crime can't get more than one extended prison term unless he committed that offense while in custody.

The sentencing judge in Ocean County concluded that although Boykins out on bail, he was in custody when he raped the woman in Lakewood.

Boykins argued that a person is not in custody while on bail. To bolster his claim, he pointed to court rulings that prohibit defendants who are released on bail from accruing jail credits toward their parole.

But in the court's published opinion, Judge Allison Accurso, joined by judges Jack Sabatino and Karen Suter, said that doesn't apply to New Jersey's laws governing sentencings.

"Having considered the statutory language and available legislative history, we are convinced that defendant's second extended-term sentence for kidnapping...was not an illegal sentence," Accurso wrote.

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Without fail, one of the best things HS football is the throng of cheering students pulling for their classmates: The student section. They're loud. They can get wild. Sometimes, they're superorgan...

Without fail, one of the best things HS football is the throng of cheering students pulling for their classmates: The student section.

They're loud. They can get wild. Sometimes, they're super organized, with leaders, coordinated themes and a playbook of chants. The costumes can be elaborate. The rituals can be passed down for decades. Some fan sections even travel well on road games.

So we want to know - which N.J. school has the best student section? Here's how you can tell us. NJ.com is opening up nominations for the best student section. 

Nominating your school is a piece of cake. Just snap a photo of your school's student section, preferably in an excited state. Then upload your photo and answer a few questions using the form below. We'll add your photo to the gallery above and count your school as nominated - but after that, things get interesting.

Nominations will be open through Tuesday, Sept. 27. We will split the nominations into three N.J. regions - North, Central and South - and launch a poll for each region. Your voting in the regional polls will determine the schools that move on to an elimination bracket, with week-long head-to-head voting matchups to determine regional champs.  Champs from each region will compete in a three-way poll to determine THE best student section in New Jersey football. The whole thing will wrap up right around the beginning of November.

Additional notes:
• The form below will work with your cell phone - you can nominate your school at halftime!
• NJ.com staff will also make nominations with our own photography.
• Only upload photos you have shot or that you personally received permission to use. We can't use photos from other media outlets. Please don't grab and submit photos from other websites.
• Multiple nominations for a school are OK, but we may not use every photo.

So start talking and sharing - rally the troops to nominate, vote and make your student section officially the best in N.J.

About 2 percent of New Jersey school children got religious exemptions from vaccines.

TRENTON -- The number of New Jersey school children who skipped vaccines for religious reasons topped 9,500 in the 2015-16 school year, according to the state health department. 

That number has been steadily climbing but represents just 2 percent of New Jersey's the 506,000 preschool, kindergarten, first and sixth graders in the state, according to state data. It's nearly 600 percent higher than the 1,641 whose parents requested a religious exemption a decade ago. 

Medical exemptions have steadily declined, with 1,303 requested in the 2014-15 school year compared to 1,592 the previous year.

Under New Jersey's religious exemption policy, parents and guardians can submit a signed statement indicating "immunization interferes with the free exercise of the pupil's religious rights." No other documentation is required. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued a statement saying that as a last resort, it's OK for doctors to stop seeing patients who refuse their shots. The Academy also urged states to repeal laws that have allowed parents to use religion as an excuse for not getting their children inoculated, saying this poses a health risk. 

Why some docs may not treat those who refuse shots

An attempt to make it tougher for New Jersey families to get the religious exemption by requiring they explain how vaccines "would violate, contradict, or otherwise be inconsistent" with their religion failed in the last legislative session. It was opposed by the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, which said lawmakers should not judge a parent's religious beliefs.

Among New Jersey counties, Hunterdon had the highest percentage of religious exemption requests (4.8 percent), while Hudson had the lowest (0.9 percent). 

Here is a county-by-county breakdown of how many school children have been granted exemptions from vaccines: 

Atlantic: 264, representing 1.8 percent of all students 

Bergen: 1,367, 2.5 percent

Burlington: 397, 1.6 percent

Camden: 343, 1.2 percent

Cape May: 115, 2.8 percent

Cumberland: 145, 1.5 percent

Essex: 770, 1.5 percent

Gloucester: 244, 1.6 percent

Hudson: 349, 0.9 percent

Hunterdon: 294, 4.8 percent

Mercer: 247, 1.1 percent

Middlesex: 545, 1.2 percent

Monmouth: 1,189, 3.5 percent

Morris: 783, 2.7 percent

Ocean: 715, 2.5 percent

Passaic: 520, 1.7 percent

Salem: 42, 1.3 percent

Somerset: 410, 2.2 percent

Sussex: 226, 3.4 percent

Union: 402, 1.2 percent

Warren: 139, 3.0 percent

State total: 9,506, 1.9 percent

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

The towns are hoping a federal beach replenishment project will address their bad erosion issues Watch video

Tropical Storm Hermine may be long gone, but some Shore towns in New Jersey are still feeling the effects and planning for future storms while they continue to wait for beach replenishment.

A week after Hermine made its way toward New Jersey, whipping up high waves, the southernmost beaches in Brick Township remain closed because of severe erosion.

And while the Ortley Beach section of Toms River fared better than usual in storms, township officials say they're keeping a close eye on that section of the oceanfront and are taking measures to shore up the dunes there ahead of the anticipated off-season storms.

"We were pleasantly surprised at how we were able to get through the storm, but that was more a function of how far offshore Hermine was," said Paul Shives, Toms River business administrator.

Hermine's aftermath didn't force the closure of Ortley beaches, but on Tuesday the township council is expected to vote on a resolution setting aside $5 million for emergency dune and beach repairs before next summer, Shives said.

He said the resolution would allow the township to designate a contractor to work on an as-needed basis in emergencies and to pay for sand to be trucked in to bolster the dunes.

"God willing, we won't need it," Shives said. "Ours is more about strengthening and widening the dune as much as we can."

Beach closed indefinitely because of severe erosion from Hermine

The township spent $3 million -- $1.7 million from the state and the rest from its own coffers - last year to bolster the shoreline in Ortley Beach, he said.  That figure doesn't include the cost of labor, which the township provided, he said.

In Brick, Hermine exposed a steel wall installed in 2014 to help protect homes and Route 35 along the southern end of town and left the beach a narrow strip with a drop-off of at least 8 feet.

Mayor John Ducey said he's not calling for sand to be trucked in because future storms would wash it out to sea. Instead, township crews are pushing up sand onto shore at low tide to build up the beach and cover the wall.

"Over the winter season, any sand we truck in would be washed away," he said. "It would be a waste of money."

Ducey and Shives both said they're waiting for a long-stalled federal beach replenishment project to widen their respective beaches and create large dunes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which designed the project, is expected to go out for bid the end of this month for work planned to start next spring.

The project has been on the books for two decades but had not been funded until money became available after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The project has been delayed because some residents have refused to voluntarily give the easements to their properties for the work. With litigation still pending in Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head, the project is expected to run from Mantoloking to Seaside Park while those legal issues are battled in court.

A seven-year-old boy is being credited with saving his mother from diabetic shock., according to a report.

File Photo(Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) 

BRICK -- A seven-year-old Ocean County boy is being credited with saving the life of his mother after she recently fell into a diabetic shock.

Aden Earl, of Brick, was sleeping in his bed recently when he heard his mother, Christine, scream for help, according to a report by CBS2.com.

Aden rushed to call 911, but couldn't get through. So, the astute boy quickly called a family friend instead, according to the report. Once making contact over the phone, he ran downstairs and unlocked the front door so paramedics could easily enter once they arrived.

When paramedics arrived at the home, they put an IV in Christine's arm, and she recovered within a couple of minutes, the report said.

Christine told CBS2 that her son stayed calm throughout the entire situation.

She said she was planning on taking Aden to a Lakewood BlueClaws game.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.

At least 703 New Jerseyans died on Sept. 11, 2001. Here, for the first time, are all of their photos

Fifteen years ago, nearly 3,000 Americans lost their lives in the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history. More than 700 of those victims were from New Jersey. Most perished at the World Trade Center. Others were on hijacked planes. At least two worked at the Pentagon.

Their memories live on.

With today's anniversary, NJ Advance Media presents a tribute in photos to 703 victims known to have lived in or grown up in the Garden State.

Viewers can navigate through the entire gallery or jump to names using the alphabetical links below.*

For desktop users who would prefer to read the captions beside the photos, the gallery can be viewed here.

Acquaviva to Apollo* [?] Arczynski to Basmajian [?]  Bauer to Betterly

Bharvaney to Brady [?] Brandemarti to Callahan [?]  Calvi to Charette

Cherry to Colbert [?] Coleman to Cramer [?]  Crant to D'Ambrosi

Darling to D'Esposito [?] Devitt to Dudek [?]  Duger to Etzold

Evans to Ferrugio [?] Fersini to Fraser [?]  Frederick to Gilbey

Giordano to Grazioso [?] Green to Hargrave [?]  Harris to Horning

Houston to Jensen [?] Jerath to Keane [?]  Keene to Koo

Kopiczko to Lassman [?] Laszczynski to Lilore [?]  Lin to Maddison

Magnuson to Mattson [?] May to McHeffey [?]  McLaughlin to Mirpuri

Molisani to Murphy [?] Murphy to Niedermeyer [?]  Nimbley to Parandkar

Parker to Pham [?] Picarro to Pullis [?]  Pykon to Rescorla

Reynolds to Rodriguez [?] Rodriguez to Rowe [?]  Ruben to Schlag

Schlissel to Silverstein [?] Simmons to Stahlman [?]  Starita to Takahashi

Talhami to Tobin [?] Todisco to Vanacore [?]  Vandevander to Walsh

Warner to Woodwell [?]  Wortley to Zisa

* Joao A.D. Aguiar, 30, of Red Bank, and Jean A. Andrucki, 43, of Hoboken, were unintentionally omitted from the first photo collage and can be found on the final collage. 

Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 

The electronics mogul, whose late night commercials are still remembered by many, presided behind the scenes over a massive con game. Before being eclipsed by the much larger Ponzi scheme of con artist Bernie Madoff, and the accounting scandals at Enron, the shell game at Crazy Eddie was considered one of the largest securities frauds ever uncovered. Watch video

BROOKLYN--He was known as Crazy Eddie.

Eddie Antar, the electronics kingpin who once presided over a retail empire spanning four states, died Saturday, according to a family member. Antar's company was known for its  frenetic television advertising of a seemingly crazed pitchman--before it all collapsed like a house of cards in a multi-million-dollar securities fraud.

He was 68. Funeral services are scheduled today in New Jersey.

Antar, who first went into business with his father out of a storefront on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, turned Crazy Eddie into the largest electronics chain in the New York metropolitan area.

Later headquartered in Edison, it grew to 43 stores in four states, fueled by its aggressive sales tactics and over-the-top late-night TV ads--at a time when manufacturers fought hard to set retail prices.

Indeed, not many knew what Antar looked like. Most mistakenly believed that former New York radio disc jockey Jerry Carroll, whose spastic, over-the-top delivery that promised the lowest "insane prices" anywhere, for everything from VCRs, stereos, televisions and speakers--and became the face of the Crazy Eddie business--was in fact Eddie himself.

But because of those commercials, seemingly everyone in the New York metropolitan area knew Crazy Eddie, a store that some said had greater name recognition than Coca-Cola.

The pitch was simple: Shop around. Get the best prices you can find. Then go to Crazy Eddie and he'll beat it! Crazy Eddie's prices are insaaane!

It was marketing genius; a highly successful hook.

"People still use Crazy Eddie as the gold standard of what a real deal is," Antar said years later. "They say, 'I want a Crazy Eddie-type deal.'"

He was helped in part by the fact that he had almost single-handedly broken the rules of the game that had allowed electronics giants like Sony and Panasonic set the price for their goods.

Early on, Crazy Eddie had found a way around the so-called Fair-Trade laws that prohibited retailers from selling products below suggested retail price.

Crazy Eddie grew into a three hundred million dollar business. It quickly opened 43 stores in four states, and then decided to go for the brass ring--taking the company public in a Wall Street stock offering.

But what no one realized was that despite the sales and stores and commercials that branded Crazy Eddie for a generation, what was going on behind the scenes was a massive scam.

Antar wasn't crazy. He was skimming profits, cheating the IRS and scamming customers, in what was then the biggest retail financial fraud in U.S. history, by adding imaginary stock and falsifying accounts to make it look like sales were surging.

Antar while on trial in Newark in 1991 (George McNish | Star-Ledger file photo)

After an outside investor group gained control of Crazy Eddie in late 1987, it all began to fall apart as auditors started going through the books The business filed for bankruptcy, Antar disregarded a court order to return more than $50 million that the government contended represented illegal profits.

In a federal indictment unsealed after he was taken into custody, Antar and other family members were charged with securities fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. They were also charged with obstructing justice by destroying and hiding Crazy Eddie's business records.

Eddie was also charged by authorities with skimming millions of dollars in cash from the sales of Crazy Eddie stores, using the money to fund an extravagant lifestyle for his family.

"By any measure, this is a staggering securities fraud," declared Michael Chertoff, then the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, who told reporters that the Antars had created "a giant bubble" of a company by creating false inventory reports, as well as forged bills for money it owed and was owed.

Before being eclipsed by the much larger Ponzi scheme of con artist Bernie Madoff, and the accounting scandals at Enron, the shell game at Crazy Eddie was considered one of the largest securities frauds ever uncovered. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged that the company's false financial statements propelled its stock to $79 a share from an initial public offering price of $8 a share.

Eddie Antar's long court case finally ends

As the probe by the SEC and U.S. Attorney's Office grew, Eddie Antar fled the country in 1990 and remained a fugitive until his arrest in Israel in June 1992.

He and his brother, Mitchell, were convicted of stock fraud in 1993, but their convictions were overturned in 1995 on a finding of judicial bias. Both subsequently pleaded guilty instead of facing retrial and Eddie Antar went to jail. After he was released, he returned home to Brooklyn and stayed out of the public eye.

The Crazy Eddie stores

Antar is survived by daughters Simone, Nicole, Noelle and Gabrielle; a son Sammy E. Antar; brothers Mitchell and Allen, and a sister, Ellen Kuszer.

In an interview with The Star-Ledger, Antar would say little about the fraud that brought down his empire, but acknowledged his business would not be soon forgotten.

"Everybody knows Crazy Eddie. What can I tell you?" he remarked. "I changed the business. I changed the whole business."

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 

Join the NJ.com football writers for their first chat of the season, Sunday, 7:30-8:30 p.m.

WOODBRIDGE -- The first full week of high school football is in the books and there's plenty to talk about.

The NJ.com football writers -- Jermey Schneider, Pat Lanni, Bill Evans, Braulio Perez and Joe Zedalis will host their first Sunday night chat, 7:30-8:30 p.m. right here. Come prepared with questions, comments, thoughts.

MORE: Results and links for Sat., Sept. 10

The newest NJ.com Top 20 will be released at 6 p.m. Could there be another new No. 1?

What about the upsets, the big performances, Player of the Year candidates, the Week 2 games? It is all on the table and open for discussion.

Just enter your opinions or questions in the comments box below and be part of the conversation.

The NJ.com football writers will be here at 7:30 p.m. We hope you will be, too.

Joe Zedalis may be reached at jzedalis@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @josephzedalis. Like NJ.com HS sports on Facebook.

Dogs and cats throughout New Jersey need homes.

Sometimes, it seems our dogs just don't listen to us; we bark commands and our canine companions just don't respond.

Courtesy of Distejon 

For those dog owners who are hoping to improve communication with their pets, OneMind Dogs (oneminddogs.com) has a method that may be worth trying.

The OneMind Dogs training method concentrates on forging the dog-human bond and works in concert with the dog's natural instincts. The method follows the philosophy that dogs do not make mistakes, their behavior is a direct response to the signals they get from us humans.

So, here are OneMind Dogs' tips on how to speak dog:

1. MOTION OVER VOICE
"While vocal cues are useful in training, your dog naturally responds first to body language. If you teach your dog to sit and lie down using words and accompanying hand gestures, and then you tell your dog to "sit" but use the gesture for "lie down," your dog will lie down - following the gesture, not the word. Therefore, use your body language to really communicate meaningfully with your dog."

2. TREAT 'SMALL'
"From a dog's perspective, a large treat is no greater a reward than a small one. When training with large treats as rewards, your dog will become full and lose motivation more quickly. So treat often using small bits. The timing of when you treat is crucial, too. For example, if you reward your dog for sitting too late, after she has already gotten up from the position, the next time she will naturally get up in anticipation of her reward."

3. LEAD BY EXAMPLE
"When dogs learn new skills, they automatically associate the emotion surrounding the experience with the skill itself - so if you're having a bad day, it's not the best day for a training session. If you approach the training session with a positive outlook, your dog will be enthusiastic about what you're teaching him, both during the session and in the future. You'll find that keeping an upbeat attitude will also lengthen your dog's attention span for longer sessions."

OneMind Dogs was developed in Finland in 2003, when top-performing agility dog Tekla suddenly lost her hearing. From then on, her trainer could only rely on physical cues to communicate and had to see the world from Tekla's perspective in order to make the dog understand her. What could have been a crushing road block for Tekla's agility career turned into a groundbreaking way for all dogs and their humans to become more in sync than ever before.

Here's a gallery of dogs and cats in need of adoption from northern and central New Jersey. Make sure captions are enabled to get all the information for each homeless pet.

More galleries of adoptable pets can be seen here and here.

It's the third top 20 and our third No. 1 team. Will this one hold down the throne?

Ready to drop nearly $700,000 on a home in New Jersey? Here are 10 options for you.

Homebuyers armed with a budget of $675,000 -- more than double the amount of the median home value in New Jersey -- have a range of residences in which they can choose to live, including a home on a lagoon at the Jersey Shore and a waterfront condo on the Hudson River. 

In-ground pools, outdoor kitchens and finished basements with wet bars are among the amenities found inside properties in the Garden State that are on the market for less than $700,000. 

That limit on price won't get you close to affording one of the priciest homes up for sale in New Jersey (you'll need at least $12 million to buy your way into that exclusive club) but a $675,000 budget can still net a one-of-a-kind property in the state.

See what $175K buys in these 10 N.J. towns

Head to Hopewell in Mercer County, where a home first built in the 1800s (and extensively renovated) is up for sale for $675,000. In addition to the three-bedroom historic home, the property also features a two-story barn, a detached garage and a converted chicken coop that's been outfitted with air conditioning, heat and electricity. 

Roughly 50 miles away in Summit, a "perfectly maintained" split level home with four bedrooms and a price tag of $675,000 is looking for a buyer. The Butler Parkway home is within walking distance to a nearby elementary school and a little more than a mile from the train. 

Take a tour through those properties and others that were on the market as of Friday for around $675,000 in the gallery above. 

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

A look at how some of the N.J. natives in college football fared this weekend.

A application by the Borough of Seaside Heights to allow the transfer of a public beach to a developer is being opposed by two environmental groups.

It sounds like a pitch from the game show "Let's Make A Deal:" How about swapping 1.37 acres of prime public beachfront on the Atlantic Ocean for an antique carousel, a parking lot and 67 acres of inaccessible wetlands?

As crazy as it might sound, this deal-making is for real.

For possibly the first time in New Jersey history, a deal to trade away a public beach has been made between the state, a town and a private developer. That approval is now under appeal.

On June 30, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recommended to the State House Commission an application by the Borough of Seaside Heights to allow the diversion of the public beach. The State House Commission approved the application.

2 groups want to halt Casino Pier expansion

If the decision stands, Seaside Heights will trade the beach to a private developer who owns Casino Pier. The developer is seeking more beachfront land in order to rebuild its popular amusement pier over sand instead of water.

In exchange for the 1.37 acres of beach, Seaside Heights would get a 100-year-old carousel and a small parking lot adjacent to the boardwalk. In addition, 67 acres of county-owned wetlands in neighboring Toms River would receive Green Acres protection.

If this deal sounds fishy, that's because it is.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the American Littoral Society jointly filed a lawsuit on Aug. 12 challenging the legality of this swap.

Here's why: The Department of Environmental Protection does not have the legal authority to trade recreational parkland for personal property, such as a carousel. The agency erroneously construed its ability to "preserve historic areas" to include antiques.

Even if trading public land for personal property was legal, the trade is far from even. It's a windfall for the owners of Casino Pier and a terrible deal for the beach-going public.

As Will Rogers once observed about land - "they aren't making any more of it." Beachfront land in New Jersey is truly irreplaceable. A parcel of 1.37 acres may not sound huge, but it is prime real estate and a major recreational asset. For decades of hot summer days, this slice of sand has accommodated thousands of beachgoers.

The "replacement" land in Toms River is not of equal value from economic, recreation or ecological perspectives. It's mostly stream buffer and riparian corridor next to a highway. In addition to being largely inaccessible, most of the year it's too wet to walk in. The public would get no additional ecological benefit from having it included in the swap.

Yes, the 100-year-old carousel is "nostalgic," as Seaside Heights described it. But the Green Acres Program is in the business of permanently preserving lands for the public, not trading them away for antiques, as lovely as this carousel may be.

Let's hope the court agrees. Allowing this deal to proceed would compromise the integrity of the Green Acres program and the public trust. It would send an unfortunate signal to developers that any piece of public land can be bartered away for lesser value land and antiques.

To learn more about preserving New Jersey's land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website or contact me at info@njconservation.org.

Michele S. Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.

The man reached under the stall in the unisex changing area

BRICK --  Police are asking for the public's help to identify a man they say took pictures of women in a Target dressing room.

A man who allegedly photographed women in a changing room at the Target in Brick.Brick police 

The man entered the unisex changing room and then reached underneath the stall to photograph women in the adjacent stall, Brick police said in a news release.

The incidents took place on Aug, 29 and then again on Friday, according to police. 

He then quickly fled the store on Route 70 in an older, dark-colored BMW sedan with tinted windows.

Police released three surveillance images showing the man and the vehicle. They ask anyone with information to contact Detective Tara Schinder at (732) 262-1115 or (732)262-1100.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

The 42-year-old pizzeria owner took a stroll along Route 9 wearing a pink bikini bottom and carrying a sign noting his last-place finish

TOMS RIVER - For one fantasy football league in Ocean County, it's less about coming in first than avoiding finishing in the basement.

That's because the last-place finisher must parade along Route 9 wearing only a pink bikini bottom (and a pair of sneakers) while carrying a sign pointing out his failure.

This year's victim was Angelo Boemio, the 42-year-old owner of a pizzeria, according to NYPost.com. He spent 10 minutes on Labor Day on nearly full display along the side of the road after bringing up the rear in his league last season.

Boemio did a shot of tequila, removed his fleece and appeared to take his punishment in stride.

The league, comprised mainly of pizzeria owners in Ocean County, added the rule to keep participants from losing interest once they fell out of the playoff chase.

Some passers-by reported Bonemio, but authorities let him do his public penance without any hassle.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

We compared New Jersey's current demographics to what they were in 2008 and found out what's changed and how it will change this upcoming presidential election.

It's been eight years since Barack Obama was elected president, and we're only about 10 weeks away from voting a new administration into office.

But how has the electorate in New Jersey changed since 2008?

We looked at Census data to examine some differences between 2008 electorate and the one that will be casting their ballots in November.

According to the numbers, New Jersey's demographic changes over the last eight years, which include more millennials, more Hispanics and population surges in urban areas, are veering the already solidly blue state even more to the left.

In addition, the economic stagnation in the Garden state that could be helping Republican candidate Donald Trump seems to barely be improving his chances.

Population Boom in urban areas of North Jersey

A comparison of two Census population estimates (one from 2005-2009 and the other from 2010-2014) shows that New Jersey's voting-age population has grown from 6.6 million to 6.8 million.

In other words, the electorate has become larger by at least 3.9 percent.

A county-by-county breakdown shows that voting-age populations have increased in all New Jersey counties. Still, North Jersey counties benefited more from the population boom that those in South Jersey.

Hudson county's voting-age population skyrocketed by 9 percent, while Middlesex and Union also saw increases of 6.5 and 5.2 percent, respectively. Passaic grew by 4.6 percent, while Bergen did so by 4.1 percent.

Meanwhile, coastal and southern counties experienced only modest growth. Monmouth, Camden, Salem and Cape May counties all saw less than 1 percent growth in their voting-age population.

This is a shift from the previous decade, when the coastal and southern New Jersey counties were growing at a faster rate than their northern neighbors, according to the 2010 Census.

South Jersey has always been less populous, but since the 2008 election, the population gulf between the two regions has grown wider.

Sparsely population Sussex and Warren counties have also stagnated in their voting-age population, both growing less than one percent in eight years. A Rutgers study found that starting in 2010, urban counties were growing faster than suburban counties in New Jersey for the first time since World War II.

More Millennials

The 2008 election was memorable for its high youth voter turnout, which gave Barack Obama his decisive victory.

In this election, there may be even more potential young voters in New Jersey.

According to a Census analysis of population demographics from 2010 to 2014, the number of young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 grew to 1.9 million from 1.8 million when compared to the previous five years.

This is in step with what's happening in the rest of the country, where millennials have matched baby boomers as the largest electorate in the U.S.

However, their turnout rate on Election Day is still lower than other age groups. Only 46 percent of New Jersey residents between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the 2012 election, according to Census data. 

Economic Recovery Stagnated 

In 2008, New Jersey residents had not experienced the full effects of the Great Recession. Census data shows that it's still struggling to recover from it.

The household median income from a Census analysis taken from 2010 to 2014 was $72,062 -- down significantly from household median income data taken from 2005 to 2009, which was $76,119 when adjusted for 2014 inflation.

Atlantic County residents, in particular, were hit hard. The median income went down from $60,618 to $54,392-- a staggering 10 percent decrease.

In fact, New Jersey residents saw their household median income decline since 2008 and remain stagnant after 2013. When you adjust for inflation, the data shows that New Jersey residents are earning less than they did 10 years ago.

In addition, nearly one million people in New Jersey now live in poverty, according to Census data. Back in 2005, there were only about 739,000 who lived below the poverty line.

More Hispanics and Asians

Since the election in 2008, the Hispanic population has surged by about 20 percent-- from 1.4 million to 1.6 million, according to a Census analysis of population demographics comparing estimates from 2005-2009 to ones from 2010-2014.

In fact, the increasing Hispanic population is fueling much of New Jersey's recent population growth, according to Census data.

Non-Hispanic whites still make up most of the New Jersey population at 57 percent, while Hispanics are at 19 percent, making them the largest minority group in the state.

However, that doesn't make them the fastest growing racial demographic. That distinction goes to the Asian population in New Jersey, which went from about 638,000 in 2005-2009 to about 775,000 in 2010-2014, growing by about 21.5 percent.

Because immigrants make up a sizable part of the Hispanic population in New Jersey, only 48 percent of them are eligible to vote - about 831,000, according to Pew Research Center.

The same report states that the primary source of eligible voters among New Jersey Hispanics are young U.S. citizens turning 18 years old.

What does it all mean?

It's still unlikely that Trump will win in New Jersey. The latest FiveThirtyEight projections show Clinton has an 88.2 percent chance of winning the state.

Even though actual voters in New Jersey are older and whiter, the new demographics make a Trump victory even less likely, according to Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth Polling Institute.

"We've been seeing a trend that [New Jersey's] becoming more diverse," said Murray. "In turn, that has been driving Democratic numbers in a lot of places."

When it comes to Hispanics and millennials - two groups who tend to vote Democrat - Murray has noticed even though turnout rates haven't gone up, the numbers of total voters has.

"It's not that there is more enthusiasm - just that there are more of them," he said.

As for the New Jersey population shifting to urban counties, Murray attributes this to political self-segregation, where people purposely move to places where they can be closer to people who think like them politically. This is making urban counties increasingly more Democratic, while making rural and suburban ones are more Republican.

When it comes to the economy, though, by all objective measures, the economic anxiety felt by New Jersey residents of stagnating incomes and slow recovery should be driving them to Trump.

"We're just not seeing that," Murray said. "We have a strange phenomenon where people are blaming both sides for what's happening."

One thing to keep in mind is that the Census data covers all New Jersey residents. This analysis is about the potential electorate in this year's election compared to what it was in 2008 - not actual voters.

The New Jersey Division of Elections does not break down New Jersey voter registration by demographic so it's difficult to predict who will actually show up to vote this year.

Back in 2012, only 64.3 percent of the eligible population in New Jersey registered to vote and only 54.5 percent showed up to the polls that November. In addition, each of the last seven elections has set a record for low voter turnout in New Jersey.

Carla Astudillo may be reached at castudillo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @carla_astudi. Find her on Facebook.

Cherelle Jovanna Locklear, 21, hanged herself with a necktie in a dorm bathroom in 2015, a lawsuit claims.

Cherelle Jovanna Locklear. (Facebook) 

WAYNE - A mother has filed a lawsuit against William Paterson University, claiming her daughter committed suicide after officials at the school failed to fully investigate the student's claims of rape.

Cherelle Jovanna Locklear, 21, was found by her roommates hanging by a necktie in a dorm bathroom on Nov. 22, 2015, according to a lawsuit filed Sept. 8 in U.S. District Court by her mother, Marquesa C. Jackson-Locklear.

Originally from Jackson, Locklear had been a student at the school since 2012, the suit states.

She had been raped at the William Paterson University Sigma Pi Fraternity house on or about Sept. 25, 2015 but did not report the assault right away, Locklear's mother said in court papers.

On or about Oct. 15, 2015, Locklear tried to kill herself by overdosing on pills, the lawsuit states. The suicide attempt led to a five-day hospitalization, her mother said.

After she was released, Locklear went to Theresa A. Bivaletz, who is coordinator of William Paterson's Victim Services, according to the suit.

"Cherelle described the circumstances of the rape and identified the perpetrator and directed Bivaletz to report the rape to the university police department," the suit states.

The lawsuit states Bivaletz did not report the rape to campus police until November 2015.

"Even after receiving the report of the sexual assault, the university police department utterly failed to perform an appropriate and thorough investigation," the lawsuit states.

As a result, the suspect was neither "confronted nor charged," according to the suit.

The lawsuit alleges that Bivaletz and campus police detectives Ellen DeSimone and Michael John Arp were aware of the sex assault and Locklear's suicide attempt "and collectively failed to act as required by law to investigate the assault and protect Cherelle's safety."

The suit states that Jackson-Locklear filed 11 OPRA requests, but that the name of her daughter's alleged rapist had been redacted from documents the school's records custodian produced.

The lawsuit alleges William Paterson University employees violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which state in part no person should be discriminated against on the basis of sex.

The suit states the school had been aware of other instances of sexual assault and sex-based violence against female students and its failure to address those problems "created a climate in which such misconduct against women was tolerated."

University officials were not immediately available to comment on the suit Tuesday morning.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Joseph Battista told a woman who witnessed his behavior and confronted him that he "forgot to zipper," according to police.

HOWELL -- A 58-year-old Jackson man was arrested last month after he exited his vehicle with his genitals exposed at a convenience store parking lot, police announced Tuesday.

Howell police learned of the Aug. 30 incident after a woman parked at the Wawa on Route 9 south witnessed the man's behavior and reported it to authorities, Detective Sgt. Christian Antunez, the police department's spokesman, said in a news release.

The woman, in her 50s, was talking on a cell phone in her vehicle when a man, later identified as Joseph Battista, pulled his white four-door Buick into a parking space across from her around 6:30 p.m., Antunez said.

Battista was alone in the car and stared at the woman, Antunez said. When he exited his Buick, the spokesman said, he had his genitals "clearly exposed."

Angered and offended by what she saw, police said, the woman took a photograph of Battista's vehicle and told him she would report him to police.

Battista dismissed her claims, telling the woman he "forgot to zipper," according to police. He then entered the Wawa.

Howell police Detective Anthony Romano was able to identify Battista and arrest him, Antunez said.

Battista was charged with lewdness and released pending a future court appearance. 

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Deja Farrior, 22, was killed when a car fleeing police in Trenton crashed into her car at a Hamilton intersection

HAMILTON -- A 22-year-old woman was killed Monday night when an Ocean County man who had been leading State Police on a chase ran a red light and t-boned her car, authorities said.

Deja Farrior, 22, was killed in a crash following a police chase (Facebook profile photo used with permission from the family) 

Deja Farrior, whose car was pinned against a telephone pole, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Dozens of family members and friends gathered in mourning outside her house on South Olden Avenue Tuesday morning.

"She was my everything," her father, Terence Farrior, said. "She was Daddy's little girl."

A preliminary investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office found that just before 10 p.m., the State Police's Crime Suppression Unit was conducting a narcotics investigation in Trenton.

After seeing what appeared to be a drug deal, they attempted to pull over a gray Chevy Trailblazer, but the SUV sped off, authorities said. Police gave chase into neighboring Hamilton with their lights and sirens on.

The officers ended the pursuit in the area of Whitehorse Circle as the driver continued north on South Broad Street, Acting Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said.

The Trailblazer then ran a red light at the intersection of South Broad Street and Park Avenue, hitting a black Honda Civic driven by Farrior, who was turning left onto Park Avenue, authorities said.

Her car was struck in the passenger side door and forced into a telephone pole.

The driver of the Trailblazer, later identified as 22-year-old Chandler Heaviside, got out and fled on foot, but was apprehended by police. He was found to have heroin on him.

Stabbing caps violent weekend that left 3 dead, 4 wounded

The two passengers -- Lawrence Sears, 28, of Manchester, and Harry Remington III, 25, of Brick -- are also facing drug possession charges after a bundle of heroin was found on the car floorboard, authorities said.

Heaviside, who lives in Jackson, was charged with drug possession, death by auto while under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, causing death while driving with a suspended license, assault by auto and eluding.

Heaviside was released from Ocean County Jail on Feb. 29 after serving seven months for a felony heroin charge stemming from a October 2013 arrest in Jackson, the corrections department confirmed.

He was also arrested in April 2014 on heroin and drug paraphernalia charges after police found him and another man passed out in a car that had struck a concrete partition at the gas pumps at a Wawa. Heaviside was the passenger.

Monday's incident is being investigated by the prosecutor's office's Serious Collision Response Team, Hamilton police and State Police.

Staff writer Kevin Shea contributed to this report.

Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

A white van was parked in the woods.

From left to right: Demetrius Kiprakis, Bryan Sahlin and Roseanna Fox. (Ocean County Jail) 

MANCHESTER -- Police arrested three people after they busted a "rolling methamphetamine lab" in the Pine Lake Park section of town on Monday, authorities said.

The arrests came after police received a report of a suspicious white van parked in the woods near the 2,000 block of Larchmont Street, Manchester police Capt. Todd Malland said in a news release.

He said police stopped the van around 3:38 p.m. on the 600 block of Middlesex Street, located about a half-mile south of where it was first spotted. After running the plates, police said, officers discovered the vehicle was reported stolen in Berkeley County, South Carolina.

A search of the van turned up several items "consistent with the manufacturing of crystal methamphetamine," Malland said. Members of the New Jersey State Police Hazardous Materials Response Unit, Berkeley Township Hazmat Team and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office's Arson Unit were called in to assist in removing the materials.

Authorities closed down Middlesex Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue for approximately five hours for the investigation, Malland said. Police evacuated one residence in the area.

The van's driver, 30-year-old Demetrius Kiprakis of Goose Greek, South Carolina, and another occupant, 29-year-old Bryan Sahlin of Manchester, were each charged with manufacturing of methamphetamine, a first-degree crime. They were also charged with various other drug distribution and possession charges.

Both men were taken to the Ocean County Jail, and bail was set at $410,000 each.

Another occupant in the vehicle, 57-year-old Roseanna Fox of Toms River, was charged with possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and other drug possession charges. She was lodged in the Ocean County Jail in lieu of $85,000 bail.