Long Island-based digital creator Matt Dolitsky now has his name cleared, as a New Jersey State Superior Court Judge overturned his guilty verdict for criminal trespass on June 8.
Dolitsky, host of the popular YouTube channel Two Feet Outdoors, is an occasional contributor to Fire Island News, documenting his nature-hike adventures from Robert Moses to Smith Point in extreme weather. His photos and video reels are always welcome and well received by our readership, including his most recent contribution, which chronicles his camp stay in Fire Island National Seashore’s Otis Pike Wilderness in January during harsh winter conditions—a stunt for which he obtained permission from the National Park Service.
However, back in 2024, one of his nature adventures received legal backlash after a kayak tour in a New Jersey tributary that included exploring what appeared to be an abandoned 110-foot luxury yacht in a creek in Middlesex, N.J. got him slapped with trespassing charges.
Kersten Kortbawi, owner of Viking Terminal Holdings, made the claim that the derelict yacht was her private property when the case went to court two years later. She stated there were visible signs marking the area, which Dolitsky ignored. Dolitsky’s attorneys countered that any signage in place was old and faded, and therefore insufficient. The attorneys representing Kortbawi’s responded in turn that that the video could attract copycat visitors, as it has been viewed over 350,000 times, when the case went to bench trial on Feb. 26, in Sayreville, N.J. municipal court.
The maximum sentence for trespassing in Sayreville is 30 days in prison. Judge Spencer Robbins found Dolitsky guilty at that hearing, but ruled to fined him $407, and additionally ordered him to also pay Kortbawi’s court costs, for a financial burden of approximately $1,000. At that times Dolitsky’s attorney vowed the ruling would be appealed.
The appeal took just over three months to go to court. State Superior Court Judge Robert Jones ruled that decades-old warning signs faded beyond legibility did not suffice as adequate notice and reduced the sentence to a non-criminal ordinance violation, and reduced Dolitsky’s financial responsibility to a flat $400 fine without additional costs.
Dolitsky expressed relief in a statement he made to NJ.com, stating it was never his intention to do any harm.
