NJ Catholic school teacher accused of secretly recording young girls
Axel Palomares, 50, was arrested on Tuesday following the execution of a search warrant at his home in Morristown, authorities announced. He's facing multiple charges including creating and possessing child sex abuse material.
Prior to his arrest, Palomares taught Spanish and coached the girls soccer team at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison, according to NJ.com.
An investigation into Palomares began in December after authorities received a tip regarding a user on the Kik chat app talking about his illicit recordings and having fantasies of abusing kids.
Amid their investigation, law enforcement learned that Palomares had been seen on surveillance video 'spending a considerable amount of time' in bathrooms at the Bridgewater Commons, according to a criminal complaint. He was also seen on various occasions at the Short Hills Mall in Millburn, where he's believed to have recorded young girls in compromising positions.
He's similarly accused of filming upskirt videos of at least one female student at St. Thomas Aquinas.
A warrant obtained by ABC 7 says the alleged misconduct occurred between April 2022 to at least March of this year.
The search of Palomares' home turned up a small recording device and hundreds of images of child sex abuse, authorities said. No cameras or other other recording equipment were found when they swept the school following his arrest, reported NJ.com.
Palomares is currently being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Facility while awaiting a pre-trial detention hearing on Friday.
In a statement to ABC 7, the Catholic Diocese of Metuchen said it was 'devastated to learn' that its students' privacy may have been violated by the 'sickening conduct' of which Palomares is accused.
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NBC News
3 hours ago
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What we know about man killed while running from ICE agents in Monrovia
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The Intercept
6 hours ago
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Inside Gaza's Only Catholic Church, One Month After Israel's Attack
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These conversations brought a sense of comfort to the Christian people. Pope Francis had repeatedly condemned Israel's conduct and even suggested that accusations of genocide in Gaza warranted investigation. Father Gabriele Romanelli attends to the injured after Israel bombed the Holy Family Church on July 17, 2025. Photo: Khamis Al-Rifi On the morning of the strike, after completing his prayers and a work meeting, Father Romanelli encountered Suhail Abu Dawood, 19, a young postulant of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, on the staircase. When the attack began, Romanelli rushed to help someone else before being injured himself. Suhail sustained a serious shrapnel wound to his side and was hospitalized. Videos circulated on social media later showed Romanelli with his right leg bandaged. The shelling of the church damaged its compound, and the main church building sustained heavy damage. This latest assault on civilians who had sought safety within the church has left us heartbroken. Israel said, as always, that it regretted the incident, describing it as accidental, and promised an investigation. Shadi Abu Dawood, 46, lost his mother, Najwa, that morning. His son Suhail was critically injured alongside Father Romanelli. The day before she died, Najwa asked her son to take her picture. Shadi Abu Dawood with hi mother, Najwa Abu Dawood, on July 16, 2025, one day before the Israeli strike killed her. Photo: Courtesy Shadi Abu Dawood 'She told me, 'Take a photo for me, my son. I want to travel and get treatment,' Shadi said. She had been suffering from a hip fracture since the beginning of the genocide; she could barely walk. That morning, Shadi went to get bread from a nearby baker. Najwa sat in the courtyard with other women. 'Then came the massacre, exactly at 10 a.m. The scene was horrifying — my mother was covered in blood and wounded in the head. I kept calling her: 'Mom, wake up, Mom, wake up.' She's now gone to a place where there is no pain, no sorrow,' Shadi lamented. Najwa was known for her deep faith. 'She always taught the children to pray, to love the Bible, and to hold on to faith. She prayed constantly,' Shadi told me. 'Attacking churches by the Israeli occupation is unjustified, brutal action. We love peace and call for it.' Read our complete coverage Mosa Ayaad, 41, lost his aunt, Fumya Ayaad, 84, in that bombing. 'My aunt Fumya was a calm and gentle soul, she loved to pray and served those around her with a warm smile despite the toll of the years,' Mosa said. Fumya lived deeply rooted in this land, knowing the faces of neighbors and the names of every child in the neighborhood. She shared in people's joys and sorrows without ever distinguishing between Muslim and Christian. Over the years, she was honored multiple times for her excellence and creativity. She worked her way up until she became a school principal, always proud to have raised generations of her neighbors. 'Though she had no children of her own, her legacy lives on in the thousands of Gazans who learned under her care,' Mosa said. The funeral of Fumya Ayaad and Saad Salama inside the Holy Family Church on the night of July 17, 2025. Photo: Khamis Al-Rifi On the day she was killed, the bombing of the church was sudden and fierce. Explosions shook the building, and rubble rained down on worshippers and displaced people who had sought shelter within the church walls, believing it to be a safe haven. 'My aunt died beneath the debris, alongside many others who carried nothing but their faith and a small hope for survival,' he said. 'Seeing the church targeted was a wound to the soul. For us, it is not just a building — it is a house of prayer, a house of gathering, a refuge for the weak.' 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'The hospital was working far beyond its capacity, but we all gave everything we could to save lives, without the luxury of stopping for a moment.' 'This land carries our story and the memory of those who are gone.' 'Despite the genocide and the fear we live through, what keeps me rooted is that this land carries our story and the memory of those who are gone,' Mosa said. His hope comes from ordinary people — from the solidarity of neighbors, from every hand that reaches out to bandage a wound or wipe away a tear. 'This land is us. As long as we live, we will carry it in our hearts and tell its story,' Mosa emphasized. Montaser Tarazi, 37, was inside with his family when the missile struck. 'We heard a massive explosion. The ground shook. Smoke and ash filled the air. I thought it was the end. I felt terror and deep sadness — especially seeing the children cry.' The church, he said, was more than a house of worship. 'It was a home for everyone who lost theirs. 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Children still play in the courtyard, though their laughter is quieter now. What conscience accepts the killing of unarmed civilians who took refuge in churches after losing everything? Attacking places of worship and killing the innocent people inside — a stain on humanity's conscience. The Israeli occupation is arrogant: It doesn't care if you're Christian or Muslim, nor does it care whether it's striking a church, a mosque, a home, or even a school. We are living in the midst of a brutal, merciless genocide that swallows everything.
Indianapolis Star
6 hours ago
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Trump's takeover of Washington D.C.: Would it be legal in Indiana or elsewhere?
Things are tense in Washington D.C. The night of Aug. 13 – two days after President Donald Trump announced he would flood the streets with 800 National Guard soldiers and seize control of the city's police force – masked men wearing Homeland Security Investigation vests established a checkpoint and began pulling over cars for small infractions. A Spanish-speaking man was loaded into a black pickup and taken away, the Washington Post reported. Others, meanwhile, were checked for 'driving eligibility' and 'status.' The checkpoint eventually drew an angry crowd. They booed and screamed for officers to 'read the Constitution.' One man – who the Trump administration later claimed worked in the Office for International Affairs – was charged with a felony for pelting an officer with a submarine sandwich. He could face up to eight years in prison. In the days since, authorities have begun clearing homeless camps and attempting to ramp up federal control of the city. Trump claims he took over D.C. because of supposedly high crime levels. But the specific impetus came earlier this month, when 10 juveniles allegedly attacked a teenage DOGE staffer who calls himself 'Big Balls.' The president has also said he'd like to extend the operation to other locales across the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Doing so outside of D.C., however, could prove complicated. Matt Hanka, a professor of political science at the University of Southern Indiana, said the nation's capital is its own animal – a city without a state and the only one in the country where the National Guard is controlled not by a governor but the president himself. That makes it unlikely that situations like Washington's could spread to Indiana or other locales, at least according to the letter of the law. Hanka, along with laws that stretch back as far as the Bill of Rights itself, shed light on what's occurring in Washington, if it could ever metastasize across the country, and what could possibly happen next. According to a 52-year-old law, they are – at least for now. 'Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, the federal government has the authority to have control over D.C.,' Hanka said. 'And it can take control of the police for up to 30 days during what's called an emergency.' Trump claims D.C.'s crime precipitated that emergency, even though local officials say crime rates have actually dropped compared to the last couple years – something that's echoed in metropolitan police's official data. Law stipulates that Congress can extend Trump's 30-day limit. And considering Republicans control both chambers, that would likely happen if the president asked. But there are lots of possibilities beyond that, Hanka said. 'Congress can grant him that authority,' he said. 'But Congress also has the authority to even change the Home Rule Act.' They could give him greater power or even repeal the act altogether, he said. Not according to the 10th Amendment – and another long-standing law that boasts a title you would normally hear in a western. Unlike every other city in the country, Washington D.C. doesn't reside in a state and therefore isn't under the rule of a governor. In places like Chicago or L.A. or even Indianapolis and Evansville, mobilizing a state's National Guard is the job of the governor. For the local D.C. guard, that falls to the president. The separation between state and federal power makes up the idea of federalism: something that's enshrined in the 10th Amendment. During an interview with the Courier & Press, Hanka read it verbatim: 'the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.' Then there's the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It bars the military from being used in civilian law enforcement. 'Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.' It's since been updated to include the Marines, Navy and Space Force. The National Guard, however, isn't specifically included in that, which could give Trump 'wiggle room,' Hanka said – especially in D.C. That should be a nonstarter in cities under the control of governors. But that wasn't the case in Los Angeles. In June, scores of residents took to the streets to protest ICE crackdowns in the city. Trump went against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsome and deployed more than 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guardsmen in an attempt to quell the protests. That led to nationwide concerns that Trump could unilaterally declare "martial law" and crack down on cities as he pleased. In an interview with the Courier & Press in June, however, USI Associate Professor of Political Science Nick LaRowe pointed out that "martial law" is a hazy, ill-defined term that doesn't turn up anywhere in the U.S. or Indiana constitutions. So far Trump's threats to expand situations like D.C.'s into the more parts of the country have centered on cities in Democrat-led states: Chicago, Baltimore, L.A., etc. That's despite the fact many red-state cities have some of the highest homicide rates in the country, according to FBI data. Indianapolis has battled a rash of gun violence over the summer, so much so that the head of the city's police union asked Gov. Mike Braun and state lawmakers to 'step in,' Indy Star reported. Despite Trump's focus on blue states, Hanka could see a future in which Trump-aligning governors acquiesce to the president's wishes if his gaze ever falls upon their cities. "I certainty can see situations where they comply to mobilizing the National Guard," he said. "I can't say anything beyond that." Yes. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to expand Trump's order by naming Terry Cole, head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, 'emergency police commissioner.' That led D.C.'s own attorney general, Brian Schwalb, to file a federal lawsuit. He called the move a 'brazen usurpation' of D.C.'s sovereignty. Meanwhile, Trump has already signaled he plans to ask Congress to extend the federalization beyond 30 days, the New York Times reported. The very fact he has to ask is a key tenet of American democracy. Hanka said the Founding Fathers' experience with the King of England imbued them with a desire to put checks and balances on the power of any American ruler.
