Posted on 05/23/2002 10:59:34 AM PDT by Coleus
Teacher in tryst is spared prison
Thursday, May 23, 2002
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
Pamela Diehl-Moore's birthday present Wednesday was three years of her life.
The 43-year-old former schoolteacher from Lyndhurst came to court in Hackensack, Bergen County, NJ, having struck a deal with prosecutors that called for her to serve three years in prison for carrying on an affair with a 13-year-old student.
Instead, Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta sentenced Diehl-Moore to five years' probation and ordered her to continue intensive counseling for severe depression, which she blamed for the "lapse in judgment'' that landed her in trouble in the first place.
"I really don't see the harm that was done here and certainly society doesn't need to be worried,'' Gaeta explained. "I do not believe she is a sexual predator. It's just something between two people that clicked beyond the teacher-student relationship."
The judge also noted that he had seen no evidence that the boy suffered any psychological damage from the liaisons.
"Maybe it was a way for him, once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs,'' Gaeta said. "People mature at different rates.''
Diehl-Moore met the boy at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton, where she taught. The affair occurred in the summer of 1999, just after the boy completed the seventh grade. Diehl-Moore took him back to her Lyndhurst home, where they had consensual sex.
According to state law, a child that young cannot legally give consent. Diehl-Moore's position as the boy's teacher also made the relationship illegal.
Diehl-Moore pleaded guilty in January to sexual assault, a second-degree crime ordinarily punishable by up to 10 years in prison. As part of the deal, however, prosecutors agreed to treat it as a third-degree crime and seek a minimum three-year sentence.
Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Martin Delaney invoked the request at Wednesday's sentencing, calling the circumstances of the case "egregious'' and contending that Diehl-Moore violated the trust of a teacher-pupil relationship.
"We are talking about a sexual assault ... of a little boy,'' Delaney said. "We need to send a message to these people that this is unacceptable and you will pay with your liberty.''
For her part, Diehl-Moore made an impassioned, tearful plea in which she begged the judge not to separate her from her two daughters.
"I would never hurt anybody. I will never do this again," she said. "It was a lapse in judgment. I tried to help this boy in a way that he professed to me his family didn't.''
In the end, Gaeta appeared swayed by Diehl-Moore's long history of mental and emotional problems. Her lawyer, Richard Galler, said Diehl-Moore has been hospitalized twice since her April 2001 arrest.
He said she attempted suicide in February by overdosing on her psychiatric medications.
Diehl-Moore is divorced and is no longer licensed to teach.
Galler said his client has a lifelong history of severe depression and was under even more stress at the time of the affair because of her mother's death. Sending her to prison would be "a severe injustice,'' he argued.
Gaeta agreed.
"What good is it sending her to state prison, where she's not going to get any help for her problems?'' Gaeta said. "This is an exception where society is best served by having her treated.''
At Delaney's request, Gaeta stayed his sentence for 45 days while prosecutors decide whether to appeal.
Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is
lima@northjersey.com
Freep the Judge, I have no e mail address for him or any Bergen County Judges. Only the webmaster for the State of NJ Courts Page, probably will not do much good.
webmaster.mailbox@judiciary.state.nj.us
Leave Message with the Bergen County Administration
In New Jersey, Judges are appointed by the Governor with the approval of the local State Senator or Senators of that legislative district or districts which include Bergen County, after 7 yrs. they are tenured.
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