Ex-rescue squad worker admits sex assaults

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a former South Plainfield Rescue Squad worker pleaded guilty today to charges of sexually assaulting two males in separate incidents.

Ronald Sward (DOB 12/25/63) of Matis Street in South Plainfield pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault and official misconduct, admitting he sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy over an eight-year period, beginning in 2001.

Sward also admitted sexually assaulting a 17-year-old male on various occasions in South Plainfield and Woodbridge between January 2010 and May 2010.

Sward pleaded guilty under an agreement reached with Middlesex County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Christie L. Bevacqua. In exchange, the defendant will be sentenced to a 10-year prison term and must serve five years before he can be eligible for parole.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick on May 20, 2011.

Sward was arrested on June 7, 2010, and was charged following an investigation by Detective Daryl Strother of the South Plainfield Police Department and Investigator Frank DiNinno of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Sward, who knew both of his victims, resigned on June 7, 2010 from his post as the deputy chief of the rescue squad.