A 41-year-old man has been convicted of the 2015 rape of a co-worker he supervised at a residence for disabled adults, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced on Wednesday. He could face up to a decade in prison upon sentencing.

A jury convicted Mark F. Hailstork, of Clementon, of second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact following a week-long trial in Monmouth County Superior Court. Hailstork is facing a sentence of up to 10 years in a New Jersey state prison when he returns for sentencing on Sept. 20 before Judge Joseph Oxley.

The case background …

At trial the jury heard from the victim about the October 2015 rape by Hailstork at an apartment on Garrett Drive in Long Branch. 

The victim, a nurse who worked for an organization which provided housing and 24-hour care to developmentally disabled adults in Long Branch, testified that she was scheduled to work a double shift caring for two severely disabled adults in the apartment she was regularly assigned.

She went on to explain that the aid who was scheduled to work the second shift with her — the overnight shift — called out and Hailstork filled in for that shift. Hailstork was one of her supervisors on the job.

The victim told the jury that throughout the overnight shift, from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m., Hailstork made sexual advances toward her. Eventually, at about 6 a.m. the victim went into the bathroom to shower in an effort to get away from Hailstork.

He entered the ladies’ bathroom and dragged her out of the shower and raped her. After the sexual assault, the victim finished working her shift and went home. She reported the sexual assault to the Long Branch Police Department the next afternoon.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office