NORTH JERSEY DOT COM

BY JUSTO BAUTISTA AND JOSEPH AX

Fox 5 news reporter Charles Leaf was being
held in the Bergen County Jail on $250,000
bail Friday night on charges of sexually
abusing a 4-year-old girl who is an
acquaintance.

Leaf, an award-winning reporter who is
married with two children, was charged with
aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and e
ndangering the welfare of a child, Bergen
County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said. The
house where the assault allegedly took place,
a renovated Cape Cod with a two-car garage
and dormers near the roof, is in a modest
neighborhood in Wyckoff.

He will be arraigned on Nov. 4 in Wyckoff
Municipal Court.

Leaf, 40, an ex-Marine, joined the station in
2006 and is the station’s investigative and
general-assignment reporter. He has covered

national stories, including the Bernard
Madoff scandal and the proposed
development of an Islamic community center n
ear the World Trade Center site, according
to his résumé on myfoxny.com.