NJ Nurse Suspended Without Pay After Calling Out Doctor Who ‘Cheered’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
A New Jersey nurse says she was suspended without pay after confronting a surgeon who allegedly celebrated the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk — and is now suing her hospital for retaliation.
Lexi Kuenzle, a 33-year-old nurse at Englewood Health in Bergen County, filed a lawsuit Friday against the hospital, bariatric surgeon Dr. Matthew Jung, and others, alleging she was punished for objecting to Jung’s shocking remarks.
According to the lawsuit, Kuenzle was at a nurse’s station with eight colleagues and a patient on a stretcher when news broke of Kirk’s assassination. “Oh, my God! That’s terrible! I love him!” Kuenzle exclaimed.
Dr. Jung allegedly sneered in response: “I hate Charlie Kirk. He had it coming. He deserved it.”
Kuenzle said she was stunned. “You’re a doctor. How could you say someone deserved to die?” she recalled asking.
“It was mind-blowing to me,” Kuenzle later told The New York Post. “I was so angry and upset.”
She immediately reported Jung’s comments to hospital management and later described the incident on her Instagram page. But instead of disciplining the surgeon, Kuenzle says Englewood Health punished her. The following day she was pulled into a meeting with administrators, suspended without pay, and told by a union representative to start looking for another job.
The suit argues Kuenzle was targeted for exercising her right to call out unethical behavior. “[Kuenzle] had the audacity to question how Dr. Jung can comply with the Hippocratic Oath and the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics while celebrating the murder of a non-violent Christian speaker who was on a college campus,” the complaint states.
Kuenzle, a Hoboken resident, has been a nurse for 10 years and worked at Englewood Health for nearly two. Her social media proudly displays her conservative views, including photos of her posing with an American flag and a cardboard cutout of President Donald Trump.
It is unclear whether Dr. Jung has faced any consequences for his comments. According to the lawsuit, he later offered to “buy lunch” for the nurses who heard his rant — but excluded Kuenzle, since she had already been suspended.
Kuenzle is now seeking damages.
GOP activist Scott Presler praised her courage, dubbing her one of “Charlie’s Angels.” He questioned whether Jung can ethically treat patients who disagree with his politics: “Would he treat them differently? Would he allow his emotions to cloud his judgement, as he did by saying such a statement in front of a patient?”
The case highlights growing questions about whether medical professionals are being held to equal standards when their political biases cross into patient care and public life.
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