Priest's today who engage in one sex act are now being nailed to the cross, stories put in the AP and spread all over the world; (I am not talking about the predators/pedophiles), this teacher's name was not. As a matter of fact the whole case was NOT in the news until today, no TV cameras and NO national news, no editorials, no outrage.
The double standard when a female commits the abuse (e.g. Mary Kay Lotorno case in WA) instead of a male. Seems to me(my opinion) that males are treated much more harshly when convicted of the same offense. There seems to be a "way to go, stud" mentality when a boy scores with an adult. This is out-an-out abouse, 13 yr. olds are babies.
This is the judge saying this! Unbelieveable that adults of this country can see no harm with a grown adult having sex with a child. I do not believe a 13 year old is a man. I can just see the new direction we are heading into in this country~ sex with children is the next "right".
Well, not babies but they are still children. I have a 13 year old that still plays with his legos. I cannot even fathom somthing like this happening to him and it not doing him harm. This judge is nuts! I'm glad we homeschool but I feel for those kids out there at the mercy of people like that woman abuser.
This is in no way comparable to a grown man committing a deviant asexual act with a young boy. Nor is it in any way equivalent with a young girl being seduced by an adult male.
There is also the reality, that this teacher has probably already been terribly punished by the stigma. After all, how many women--even the quite promiscuous ones--want to be known for having a thirteen year old lover?! I think that the Judge probably made the right decision, but I admit that I do not know any facts other than what was reported immediately above.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
A male teacher's private parts would be hanging from the court house flagpole.
"It was a lapse in judgment. I tried to help this boy in a way that he professed to me his family didn't.''
1. I'd hope the family isn't molesting him, she didn't help him, she molested him.
"I would never hurt anybody. I will never do this again,"
2. She did hurt someone and her daughters too...
"For her part, Diehl-Moore made an impassioned, tearful plea in which she begged the judge not to separate her from her two daughters."
3. And yet she tried to leave them via sucide. Is this a fit mother?
"Maybe it was a way for him, once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs,'' Gaeta said. "People mature at different rates.''
4. Hey judge "Maybe" is crap. The law doesn't account for different maturity rates, it's black and white for this crime. But perhaps he is the type that would try Jr. here as an adult for a lesser crime, say smoking weed in gym class.
The Heading doesn't really say too much. A tryst is really a slan word for people involved in a love affair, the word is used generally for consenting adults involved in an affair.It should have read,
Teacher Molests Child, NO JAIL TIME??
No?
Well, I would hope his family didn't "help" him in this way.
Holy ****! Someone at the state level did something right!
Now if she were Catholic, or worse yet, a white Catholic male, the media would have been all over this like white on rice.
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
The day after a judge gave a 43-year-old schoolteacher probation for having sex with her 13-year-old student, Bergen County's top prosecutor vowed to appeal and a state assemblywoman called for his removal from the bench.
Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta's comments - including describing the relationship as just "something ... that clicked" - also sparked a flurry of calls to talk shows and to his chambers in Hackensack.
In announcing the sentence, Gaeta ignored a plea deal that called for Pamela Diehl-Moore to receive a three-year state prison term. Instead, he said, a combination of factors justified scrapping the deal and placing her on probation for five years.
"It's just something between two people that clicked beyond the student-teacher relationship," Gaeta said. "I really don't see the harm that was done here, and certainly society doesn't need to be worried.
"Maybe it was a way for him [the boy], once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs,'' the judge added.
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Thursday that his office plans to appeal.
"We respectfully disagree with Judge Gaeta, and we think the sentence was in error,'' said Molinelli, who was sworn in last week.
The prosecutor wasn't the only one troubled by the judge's decision, which was a topic of conversation Thursday on some national talk-radio and television programs. A staff member said Gaeta's chambers were flooded by angry telephone calls. Many people got the judge's number from a morning radio show.
Some were vexed not as much by the sentence itself as by Gaeta's remarks in issuing it.
Assemblywoman Rose Marie Heck, R-Hasbrouck Heights, called the sentence "shocking and unacceptable.''
"Since the judge doesn't believe society needs to be concerned about this, does that mean he believes there should be no law against adults having sex with minors?'' Heck said. "If so, I would suggest it is time for this judge to be removed from the bench."
Wednesday's sentencing also caused a stir among Gaeta's superiors: It was the subject of a Thursday morning meeting between Assignment Judge Sybil R. Moses and Presiding Criminal Judge William C. Meehan, according to several courthouse sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gaeta, who has been a lawyer since 1970 and a judge since 1986, had a prearranged day off Thursday, his staff said, and could not be reached for comment.
Moses, the highest-ranking judge in Bergen County, did not return messages seeking comment.
Diehl-Moore was the boy's seventh-grade teacher at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton. The sexual liaisons took place at her Lyndhurst home during the summer of 1999, authorities said. The divorced mother of two is no longer licensed to teach.
Diehl-Moore cried in court Wednesday, promising Gaeta she would never come before him again and begging him not to separate her from her two daughters.
In handing down the sentence, Gaeta cited Diehl-Moore's history of depression, which her lawyer said included an attempted suicide in February.
He said he had not seen evidence that the boy had suffered any psychological damage as a result of the affair.
Following her guilty plea, Diehl-Moore had been evaluated at the state's Adult Diagnostic Treatment Center in Avenel, where anyone convicted of a sex offense undergoes a mandatory evaluation. Experts there said that she was not a significant risk to commit another offense and not a sexual predator, the judge noted.
Originally charged with aggravated sexual assault, Diehl-Moore pleaded guilty in January to second-degree sexual assault - normally punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to seek only a three-year term in exchange for her plea.
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Trainer accepts jail for affair with teen
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Accused of carrying on an affair with a 16-year-old female student, a former Glen Rock High School athletic trainer wasn't about to test her luck with a jury - or a judge.
On Monday she pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges, in exchange for a pledge from prosecutors that they would seek no more than a four-year prison sentence.
Lois Weierstall's punishment will be determined by a Superior Court judge in Hackensack in the fall. Although her attorney, Nancy E. Lucianna, is holding out hope for leniency, she considers her chances for probation slim.
"The current climate makes it impossible to try a case like this and not face substantial jail time," Lucianna said Monday.
She was referring to another recent sex case, also involving a student-educator relationship, that sparked headlines. After admitting to an affair with a 13-year-old boy who had been in her class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton, Pamela Diehl-Moore of Lyndhurst made a similar deal with prosecutors. In exchange for her guilty plea, they agreed to treat the crime as a third-degree offense and seek a three-year prison term.
But Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta scrapped the deal and sentenced Diehl-Moore to five years' probation with intensive counseling, citing psychological issues and an apparent lack of evidence that the boy had suffered as a result of the relationship.
Gaeta also made comments during the sentencing that caused a public uproar and prompted the county's top judge to request an inquiry by a statewide judicial review committee.
Lucianna said Monday that the Diehl-Moore case created a difficult atmosphere for her client. Given the controversy surrounding Gaeta's decision, any judge would likely be predisposed to issue a harsher sentence, she said.
Weierstall had been charged with four counts each of sexual assault and criminal sexual contact. Each of the sexual assault charges are second-degree offenses punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
Under the deal, Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Patricia Baglivi agreed to treat the offense as a third-degree crime and seek a maximum sentence of four years.
Superior Court Judge Joseph S. Conte set a Sept. 27 sentencing date.
Weierstall's cheeks were flushed and she fought back tears as she responded tersely to her lawyer's questions at Monday's court appearance. She admitted to molesting the girl, who was identified only by her initials, between January and March 2001 at Weierstall's River Edge home and inside a parked car in Paramus.
Weierstall, 50, was a trainer for the school's female athletic teams at the time of the assaults. Although she held a teaching certificate, she did not teach classes, Lucianna said.
The girl was a senior and played on the school soccer team, where she met Weierstall.
The girl had introduced Weierstall to her parents as "a friend,'' but the parents became suspicious and hired a private investigator to follow their daughter, Lucianna said.
"This is an outstanding trainer who was with Glen Rock for 14 years," Lucianna said. "She's loved by the people at that school. This girl had deep feelings for Ms. Weierstall."
Although 16 is the age of consent in New Jersey, the relationship is illegal because of Weierstall's job.
"This was a consensual relationship," Lucianna said. "It's only criminal because of her status at the school."
Baglivi said Weierstall's position at the school afforded her influence over the girl. That, she said, is why the law specifically treats such cases differently.
Weierstall must also forfeit her computer, which is how Baglivi said the two communicated. Lucianna said the girl sent Weierstall frequent e-mails of an intimate nature.
Lucianna said her client was suffering from depression when she engaged in the relationship. She said Weierstall cares for her parents, both of whom are in their 80s, and that sending her to prison would seriously affect them.
Weierstall's teaching license has been suspended and will be forfeited as a result of Monday's guilty plea.
Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com