Probation Sentence Appealed For Teacher Who Had Sex With Teen
Originally published by The Associated Press, May 25, 2002
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office has appealed a judge's probationary sentence for a teacher who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old student.
Pamela Diehl-Moore, 43, of Lyndhurst, pleaded guilty to sexual assault under a deal that would have sent her to prison for three years.
But Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta disregarded the deal last week, describing the sexual encounters with the student as "just something between two people that clicked beyond the student-teacher relationship."
"I don't really see the harm that was done and certainly society doesn't need to be worried," he said at the sentencing, adding, "Maybe it was a way for him, once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs."
County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli appealed the case Friday, claiming the facts clearly warranted jail time.
Advocates for sexual abuse victims reacted angrily to Gaeta's remarks.
"I wonder whether Judge Gaeta isn't seeing this as some sort of initiation, a rite of passage for a young boy," said Lydia Pizzute, director of the Bergen County Rape Crisis Center. "There is no way on earth this is anything but sexual assault."
Assemblywoman Rose Heck, R-Bergen, said she plans to introduce legislation that would require judges to get more training on sex crimes.
"He is supposed to be a professional, a judge, and he is supposed to carry through the law," said Heck. "Circumstances do not allow for a young boy to be treated differently in the courts than a young girl."
But some lawyers defended the judge, and said Heck has no business intervening in a court matter.
"These politicians ought to stay the hell out of our judiciary," said Robert Galantucci, a criminal defense lawyer. "When they make these outrageous political statements, it shows they have no understanding of what our constitutional system provides."
The six-month relationship between teacher and student started in the summer of 1999 just after the boy finished Diehl-Moore's seventh grade class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton.
Diehl-Moore, a divorcee and mother of two, lost her teaching license.
Such lenient punishment for the teacher could deter other boys who have been victims of sexual abuse from coming forward, critics of Diehl-Moore's sentence said.
"We don't live in a society that is very conducive for males to come forward to express their feelings, never mind disclose something as traumatic as sexual assault," said Alana Goebel, director of policy education at the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
