A federal civil rights lawsuit filed by South Jersey mother Nadia Baxter accuses Monroe Township police officer Michael Marsh and several institutional defendants of false arrest, malicious prosecution and fabricating evidence. The complaint alleges Marsh grabbed Baxter by the arm and neck, shoved her into lobby chairs and put her in a chokehold twice after she came to Williamstown High School with menstrual products for her daughter.
The encounter took place around 9 a.m. on October 11, 2024, in the Gloucester County high school’s lobby, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia. Baxter filed the suit this month in U.S. District Court of New Jersey. It names Marsh, Monroe Township, the Monroe Township Police Department, the Monroe Township Board of Education and the Williamstown High School principal as defendants, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Baxter’s attorney, Lara DiFabrizio, said her client did not threaten or argue with Marsh and was trying to reach her daughter. The school handbook directs visitors to leave outside drop-offs in a cabinet near the main entrance. The complaint alleges Marsh blocked the door as Baxter’s daughter approached, after which school staff restrained the teenager. New Jersey’s 2023 education-law-enforcement agreement is identified as a memorandum of agreement by the New Jersey Department of Education and Department of Law & Public Safety.
Police Said the Officer Was the One Injured
Immediately after the incident, Monroe Township police publicly stated on social media that both the school resource officer and a faculty member were physical assault victims during the lobby encounter, the Inquirer's report notes. The department separately released a statement saying Marsh sustained face and hand injuries on the day of the arrest, and police said at the time that the department had zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in schools.
Baxter was charged with assault and resisting arrest. Facing the possibility those charges could affect her career, she ultimately pleaded guilty to violating a municipal general-nuisance ordinance after prosecutors offered the plea deal in February. Her daughter, a senior who was maintaining straight A's at the time, was suspended for assaulting staff members, according to the lawsuit, and was out of school for seven weeks before the Monroe Township Board of Education allowed her to return. She was also removed from the basketball team and her position as president of the African American Cultural Society, and placed on probation barred from athletics and other extracurricular activities.
What State Use-of-Force Rules Say About Chokeholds
The lawsuit's deadly-force framing is rooted in New Jersey Attorney General Use of Force guidelines, which define a chokehold as direct pressure to the trachea or carotid artery restricting airflow or blood flow. Those guidelines classify chokeholds as deadly force, prohibited except as an absolute last resort to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm.
In his own state use-of-force report, Marsh described responding to a disturbance and categorized his actions as a takedown, describing Baxter as a threatening assailant, per the same account. Marsh has reported one use of force in Monroe Township. Attorney General guidelines require officers to submit such written reports within 24 hours of deploying physical, mechanical, or deadly force against a civilian, under rules established by the state Office of the Attorney General.
Statewide rules on chokeholds and reporting
New Jersey’s statewide policy classifies chokeholds as deadly force and prohibits them except as an absolute last resort, when an officer reasonably believes they are immediately necessary to protect someone from imminent death or serious bodily injury, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. The office also says officers must submit detailed information within 24 hours about every use of force they perform or witness, as described in its statewide reporting guidance.
Baxter filed an internal affairs complaint against Marsh that same month, but Monroe Township Police Department internal affairs investigators found in April 2025 that while the alleged incident occurred, Marsh did not violate rules, procedures, directives, or training, according to the complaint. Baxter’s attorney, Lara DiFabrizio, said it was unacceptable that no one had been held accountable.
Department Stands Behind the Officer's Record
Kevin Bielski, a captain with the Monroe Township Police Department, defended Marsh, saying his reputation with parents, students, and staff speaks for itself. Monroe Township police named Marsh officer of the month in March. The department also achieved statewide accreditation from the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police in September 2025 after demonstrating compliance with more than 100 administrative standards, including internal affairs procedures and use-of-force protocols.
New Jersey has required all on-duty Monroe Township police officers, including school resource officers, to wear operational body-worn cameras, meaning footage from that program could figure into the case alongside any school surveillance video as the lawsuit moves through federal discovery. The state also tracks law enforcement use-of-force incidents across more than 500 agencies through a centralized electronic reporting portal the Attorney General's office established in October 2020.
The Policy Backdrop: Why She Had the Products at All
Baxter was delivering menstrual products to her daughter amid a state requirement, enacted in 2023, for public school districts serving grades 6 through 12 to provide free products in at least half of female and gender-neutral bathrooms. The mandate took effect for the 2024–2025 school year, according to the New Jersey Department of Human Services. The state budgeted $3.5 million in fiscal year 2025 to reimburse districts for supplies for an estimated 355,000 public school students statewide. New Jersey Department of Education guidance says schools can meet the requirement with options such as countertop baskets or storage drawers in bathrooms, rather than dispensers.
Baxter's daughter is now a college sophomore who has returned to earning straight A's, and Baxter herself moved out of Monroe Township after her daughter's graduation. The federal lawsuit remains pending in U.S. District Court of New Jersey.
