The New Jersey lawsuit seeks at least $1 million and says online claims damaged a teacher’s career.
BERKELEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A New Jersey history teacher and coach has sued a student and her family, alleging the student accessed his private Instagram account, shared explicit images and helped spread false claims that forced him onto administrative leave.
Daniel Torsiello, a teacher at Central Regional High School, is seeking at least $1 million in damages in a civil lawsuit filed in Ocean County Superior Court. The suit says the alleged sharing of screenshots caused lost income, reputational harm and threats to his teaching and coaching jobs. Torsiello has denied having an inappropriate relationship with a student, and court filings cited in reports say he has not been charged with a crime.
The case began with access to a school sports account, according to the lawsuit. Torsiello says he allowed the student to use an Instagram account tied to a school team so she could post updates about games and activities. The suit alleges the student then used that access to enter his personal account, where private messages and explicit images involving adults were stored. Torsiello’s attorney, Joshua P. Cittadino, said in a notice letter that the private communications were unrelated to school activities and did not involve students. The lawsuit says the student took screenshots and sent them to other students, setting off a wider spread of posts, images and comments online.
Torsiello was placed on administrative leave from his teaching job in early February, according to the lawsuit. He also coached girls’ basketball and boys’ volleyball at Central Regional High School, and the suit says the fallout cost him school coaching posts and put another coaching job at risk. The complaint says additional social media posts appeared about two weeks after he was placed on leave, including claims that he had an inappropriate relationship with a student at Central Regional. Torsiello calls those claims false. His attorney sent a March 9 notice letter demanding a written retraction, a public correction, the names of people who received the screenshots, removal of the material and written assurance that it would not be shared again.
The lawsuit says the student and her family had not responded to the March 9 letter as of May 2. It also says a letter was sent to a Facebook page that had shared information about Torsiello, but that no response was received. Reports on the complaint say the student is identified in court papers by initials because she is a minor. The family’s contact information was not immediately available in some court records, and no attorney for the family was listed in reports on the docket. The lawsuit remains a civil complaint, not a finding of fact, and the defendants had not yet filed a public response in the reports reviewed.
The Central Regional School District became part of the public debate after students learned of the claims and the images. Superintendent Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder said in a February statement that the district had no reports or information in its possession about alleged sexual misconduct by district staff with students. The statement also said messages between two adult staff members had been inadvertently accessed by students. The lawsuit says Torsiello’s personal messages involved consenting adults and were not meant for students or the public. Local prosecutors have not publicly confirmed whether an investigation was opened, according to reports, and Torsiello has not been criminally charged.
The complaint includes claims tied to defamation, libel, invasion of privacy and false light. Torsiello says the posts harmed his standing as a teacher, coach and community member. The suit also says the controversy damaged his ability to earn income through coaching and extracurricular work. He has worked as a history teacher at Central Regional and has also been connected to coaching at Ocean County College. The complaint says he faces possible loss of that college coaching role. It also describes harm to his nonprofit work, including fundraising connected to a humanitarian project he helped create.
In interviews and court filings, Torsiello has said embarrassment over private adult messages is not the same as misconduct with a student. He said the accusations became damaging because they moved from private images to claims about school-related sexual misconduct. “It’s frustrating when you haven’t done anything wrong,” he told a local outlet. The lawsuit says screenshots, comments, photographs and videos moved across social media and among students, making the claims harder to contain. It asks the court for damages, attorney fees, punitive damages and any other relief a judge finds proper.
The case is pending in Ocean County Superior Court. The next major step is a response from the defendants or further court action on the civil claims. As of May 27, Torsiello remains the plaintiff in a lawsuit that centers on private online material, school discipline and disputed allegations that have not been proved in court.
Author note: Last updated May 27, 2026.