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.
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.
You are so right! And, if this were a Catholic priest caught doing this to a 13 year old boy we'd hear tons about that abuse. It's just disgusting to me what this woman did to that child.
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
Yes, the newspapers did leave out the graphic details. A techer should not engage in intercourse with a student under 18, period. No ifs ands or buts.
That isn't a question for the child molester to decide.
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.
There is a fundamental difference between the sexes, and to suggest that a teenage boy is damaged by being satisfied by an older woman, is a bit of a stretch.While 13 year olds of either sex may be sexually mature physically, they are not emotionally mature. This was a flagrant abuse of authority. Throw 'er in the slammer.
After all, how many women--even the quite promiscuous ones--want to be known for having a thirteen year old lover?!IMO, there are a lot of single women between the ages of about 38 and 45 who'd be happy with Quasimodo. (Asbestos suit on : )
Since you and I both know that only a very sick adult will engage in this sort of activity, this child will be emotionally involved with a sick adult -- a sick adult who we know has a history of depressive episodes. Do you think it's healthy for him to be burdened with all the personal problems and travails of this adult? And what if she winds up committing suicide, which she very well could? Do you think he's not going to feel guilty about it, blame himself? And the fact that she's (obviously) promiscuous means he will be at greater risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease, one that may not be so easily cured. He could wind up going through life with chronic herpes or even die of AIDS. But no matter what disease he may pick up, he's unlikely to want to tell anybody about it, isn't he? Because then, he will have to tell the rest and he can't really do that, can he? So it will fester while he vainly hopes that it will just go away. And there are many, many more problems this kid will be exposed to. His moral development will be warped to say the least. I can't believe you would take this so lightly.
The Judge doubtless investigated the possibility of any complications, such as you suggest, and concluded that the punishment was adequate from what she learned in the investigation. The circumstances in which a teenaged boy has his first sexual encounter are really not worth the time I have already spent trying to put a little perspective on this. My only purpose for even posting in this thread, which is not in my opinion a major news item, was to support the traditional view that separate standards do indeed pertain to male and female sexuality, and for very good reasons. Historically, very few ever suggested that male innocence was as important as female innocence; and very few ever tried to protect the former as avidly as the latter. We do not prepare our sons to be mothers.
I was not suggesting that school teachers should be having affairs with the students; only suggesting that this probable slut who wouldn't have even been hired in the days when the double standard was widely understood, is just a promiscuous woman in an loosely moralled age, and not public enemy number one.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
I must have missed that part of the article. It sounds like your morals aren't too different from hers.
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?
I taught myself to arc weld at 8 and was building hot rods and at 12 I drove my first dragster at Santa Ana in 1949 and went 128.
Where was this teacher when I was 13!
Me too. I would also want to see both his hands above the bench during these proceedings.
I figured we were on the same side of this issue...NO SEX with Kids/Minors/Juveniles.
I guess what threw me off was your opening line...
"I disagree with you on this one".
AMEN! This type of "teaching" relationship must be stopped... a long prison sentance could have set an example to orher predators. There is no difference between males or females who prey on children for sexual gratification. Wonder if she will continue in her teaching employment?Bet she does.
So if a boy gets infected with an STD by an adult woman, it's less of a problem 'cause he's a boy? Or if a boy's head gets scrambled up by his raging hormones and the toying affections of an adult woman, it's no big deal? Then, if my son - made sexually active by an irresponsible female teacher - turned his sexual "experience" towards your daughter and got her pregnant - there's no reason to think that there are any serious consequences to boys becoming sexually active at a young age. After all, it's only a problem for girls, right?
Yeah, I see your logic.
"CHURCH EVANGELIZERS PREYED ON LOW-INCOME KIDS.
Men from a rural Baptist church known for its aggressive evangelizing of children are suspected of molesting as many as 22 boys & girls. The associate pastor, volunteer bus driver & a third church member are believed to have fondled some & raped others, ranging in age from 3 to 10, on church buses & property. Charges involving 10 victims were brought against Associate Pastor Timothy Lee Leonard, 32, of North Sharon Baptist Church near Grass Lake, & volunteer Sunday school bus driver, church deacon Mark Foeller. Three other church members are being investigated.
The suspects went to low-income housing projects or trailer parks in 4 counties, telling parents they would "take the children to church & teach them about God", according to Det. Robert Fitzpatrick, Jackson Co. Men would walk up to children in their yards, coaxing them with treats to come to weekend services or summer Bible school. Leonard was relieved of church duties involving children in August, after police started investigating him when a doctor reported suspected abuse in a child with a sexual disease. He also worked as instructor & gym teacher in the North Sharon Christian School, enrolling about 65 students. " We have to keep our kids _safe_ from Baptist pedophiles!
* BRONSON MINISTER ARRAIGNED. First Congregational Church minister David Covert Moore was charged with 5 counts of criminal sexual conduct of 4 children under the age of 15. In July he checked himself into Pine Rest Christian Counseling Services in Grand Rapids. Source: Jackson Citizen Patriot 8/29/92.
* AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN RAIDED. Deputies raided the home of Veterans Administration chaplain Rev. Donald G. Phillips, of Butler County, seizing 500 video tapes, movie equipment and restraints following a tip that he produced pornographic movies with young girls. The Baptist minister recently received the highest recognition awarded a VA chaplain, "the Award for Excellence in Chaplain Service". Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/19/92.
* BAPTIST VOLUNTEER CONVICTED. Granite State Baptist Church volunteer David Kirsch, 39, of Salem, was convicted of sexually assaulting 6 young girls through the church from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Source: USA Today 9/25/92.
* MINISTER & GIRLFRIEND INDICTED. Trenton pastor Franklin Tucker, 37, Final Call Ministry, was indicted for molesting his girlfriend's daughters, 9 & 15. His girlfriend was indicted for forcing her daughters to recant the allegations to police. The abuse came to light when the 9-year-old told a school official, who contacted police. Source: Trenton Times 9/15/92.
* CIVIL SUIT: 11-YEAR-OLD MOLESTED. A family in Dare County, North Carouna is suing Methodist minister Carl M. Eller for abusing their daughter, 11, as well as the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, a bishop and a reverend for knowing of his history of sexual misconduct but doing nothing about it. The family says she was molested when her father, a carpenter, was installing cabinets in the parsonage. Eller pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal assault on a female. However, the family said that in 1987 Eller had molested or made lewd comments to 4 women at his church, and forcibly kissed and touched 2 girls age 13. Three women had lodged formal complaints with the church, but the only action was to transfer him from Aurora to Hamlet. Source: News & Observer 1/15/92.
* BAPTIST PASTOR RESIGNS AMID SCANDAL. Asheville Baptist pastor Michael R. Stewart, 34, of Oakley, resigned following his arrest in a prostitution sting. Stewart's name was among 400 on a full-page ad that month promoting family & traditional biblical values. Source: Citizen-Times 6/30/92.
* CHURCH SUED FOR NEGLIGENCE. One of several girls who said Alva minister Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden molested her is suing the First Presbyterian Church for failing to check his background before hiring him. Allegations of sexual crimes were made at his former position in Kansas. Charges allege that he molested Alva church girls, ages 4 to 14. The church posted his bond. Source: _Tulsa Tribune
* PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER GETS 40 YEARS. Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting young girls in his congregation, convicted on 8 counts of lewd molestation & 1 count of rape by instrumentation involving a girl, 7. Bridgen, 57, was accused of molesting 11 girls, aged 4 to 14, during the 4 years he was at the Alva church. His congregation put the church up as bond, insisting he was innocent. He was placed in protected custody. Brigden blamed his arrest on a girl, 4, whose parents were the first to take the children's allegations seriously. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Brigden wrote his wife about the 4-year-old, whom he described as "4 going on 400 years old", saying she invited him to spend the night in her bed, & was mad that he declined. Source: Tulsa Tribune 8/92, Tulsa World 9/3/92, _Daily Oklahoman_ 6/14/92.
* CHURCH VOLUNTEER CHARGED WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. Church volunteer Seven Jon Long, 41, was arrested for sodomy and taking pornographic pictures of young girls under 12 from Assembly of God Church in Rogue River, where he was a youth volunteer. He told detectives his pictures were art. Source: Daily Courier, Grants Pass, 4/17/92.
* CONVICTED PASTOR "RIGHT WITH LORD". Rev. Virgil Carpenter, 48, pastor of Bible Missionary Church in Ontario, was convicted of sodomy & sexual abuse of a girl, 9, over a 1-1/2 year period. A jury convicted Carpenter of 2 felony counts of sodomy & 4 felony counts of sexual abuse. He faces 5 additional felony charges in 2 upcoming trials. "I'm really not worried," he told supporters who had gathered in the courtroom before the verdict. "I'm right with the Lord." Source: Corvallis Gazette-Times 10/11/92.
Why weren't these stories given national press coverage? Why is there a coverup of Christian pedophile ministers' crimes against America's children???
Keep that list in #41 handy.
I think the article mentioned her teaching license has been revoked. For that state? Or all states? For private school as well? For the time being? Hmmmmm.
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