The married New Jersey former middle school teacher accused of sexually abusing and grooming a preteen for years cried as a judge ordered her to be held behind bars until her trial.

Ashley Fisler, who appeared by video from jail, held her hands up to her mouth, then wiped her eyes and sniveled as Judge William Ziegler ruled she posed a risk to the community if she remained free until trial on first-degree aggravated sexual assault charges. She also grimaced and rocked back and forth upon hearing the news.

The judge said the evidence allegedly showed Fisler “was able to surreptitiously keep this relationship between herself and the victim … that is, she hid the relationship from her husband, other people and all others, and continued this relationship knowing his precise age.”

Fisler, a 36-year-old 8th grade social studies teacher at Orchard Valley Middle School in Washington, is accused of having sex with her student six times when he was 13 and 14 and continuing to sext him for years until he finally ended it and reported her to the police in January.

“Given the weight of the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, in support of the charges in this case, and given the fact that there is a presumption of incarceration for a first degree offense, this court finds that the state has proven by clear and convincing evidence that there are no conditions which will allow for the defendant’s pretrial release in order to protect the public generally,” Ziegler said.

At a bail hearing Wednesday, prosecutor Kylie Finley said her office has 7,500 pages of disturbing and incriminating text exchanges between Fisler and the boy showing she carried out six years of “grooming, manipulation and abuse” against him.

She allegedly had sex with the student in her car and even in the classroom where she taught him.

Then for years Fisler sent creepy messages to him in which she reminisced about their sexual encounters, made him describe sex he had with girls his own age, offered to buy him a sex toy, said she would shave his pubic hair and sent racy photos of herself and requested the same from him, Finley alleged.

The teenager repeatedly tried to break things off with Fisler but she manipulated him to keep him in her clutches, the prosecuted claimed.

And when he told her of his struggles with mental health and with dating people his own age Fisler admitted to forcing him “to grow up abnormally quick” and even took “the blame for all of this,” Finley claimed.

In one message from Jan. 2, 2025 he wrote to Fisler: “I have to try really hard to rebuild the things you broke inside of me. You destroyed things inside of me. You stripped me of my innocence.”

And in January of this year Fisler continued to text the teen for days even after texted: “I don’t want you in my life anymore,” Finley claimed.

The messages corroborated the teen’s detailed account of the abuse he endured when he reported it, Finley said.

Finley also claimed Fisler sent inappropriate messages to at least two other students.

She quit teaching in 2023.

Fisler’s lawyer, Rocco Cipparone, Wednesday argued against jail for her, claiming there was no evidence she physically abused him and the texts showed her alleged victim was no “babe in the woods.”

“He’s not texting like a kid…his texts are as graphic and direct as any I’ve seen from an adult,” defense attorney Rocco Cipparone said. “I’m not saying he’s not the age he is, but this is not a babe in the woods scenario that Ms. Finley is creating from a risk and a danger perspective.”

Cipparone also accused prosecutors of cherry-picking messages and taking them out of context to make them appear more incriminating than they actually were.

“The state’s evidence leaves something to be desired, it’s contextual, selective, salacious texts that will be challenged,” he said.

On Thursday, Ziegler said “the state has a seemingly strong case where the testimony and or statements of the victim are lined up with and confirmed by, the content of the text messages between himself and the defendant.”

Fisler is charged with six counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, two counts of official misconduct and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. She faces 20 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.

She is due back in court on May 14.