Teacher Molests Student, No Jail Time

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

I hear ya. The liberals think that by trying to force their agenda and change the Catholic Church, all sex abuse will stop if priests will marry, they forgot about the others who were married, Read ON:

"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???

Outrage greets judge's comments on teacher in tryst
Friday, May 24, 2002

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.

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?level_3_id=50&page=3707305

Lawyers defend judge in teacher-sex case
Saturday, May 25, 2002

By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer

Attorneys lined up Friday in support of embattled Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta, who came under fire this week for giving probation to a 40-something teacher from Lyndhurst who had sex with a 13-year-old student.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers alike expressed admiration for Gaeta, largely in response to comments of Assemblywoman Rose Marie Heck, who on Thursday broached the idea of removing Gaeta from the bench.

"These politicians ought to stay the hell out of our judiciary,'' said criminal defense lawyer Robert Galantucci. "When they make these outrageous political statements, it shows they have no understanding of what our constitutional system provides.''

Galantucci and fellow lawyers suggested politicians leave the situation to the state Appellate Division. That's where the case was headed Friday after Bergen County prosecutors filed an appeal of the controversial sentence.

Rather than send her to prison, Gaeta gave Pamela Diehl-Moore, 43, five years probation for her tryst with the boy, who was a student in her seventh-grade class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Clifton. Diehl-Moore had sex with the boy at her Lyndhurst home throughout the summer of 1999, authorities said.

Diehl-Moore had pleaded guilty to sexual assault in exchange for what prosecutors expected would be a three-year prison sentence. But Gaeta scrapped the deal, citing Diehl-Moore's history of serious psychiatric problems and the fact that prosecutors presented no evidence to show the boy had been harmed by the offense.

Among his comments during Wednesday's sentencing, the judge said: "I really don't see the harm that was done here, and certainly society doesn't need to be worried.

"It's just something between two people that clicked beyond the student-teacher relationship.''

Gaeta added: "Maybe it was a way for him [the boy], once this happened, to satisfy his sexual needs. People mature at different ages.''

The judge also cited a state-ordered evaluation that deemed Diehl-Moore a low risk to repeat the crime and said she was not a sexual predator. The divorced mother of two lost her teaching license as a result of her guilty plea.

On Friday, Heck tempered her statements somewhat but continued to call on the judge to make public amends.

"I'm not happy about what he said,'' Heck said. "I'd like to see him retract those statements or qualify those statements publicly. His leniency was his prerogative. I thought it was a bit liberal, but what upset me were his statements.''

Heck said she believes Gaeta needs additional training in the field of sexual assault and vowed to introduce legislation calling on judges to receive such instruction.

When called for comment on Friday, Assignment Judge Sybil R. Moses had her secretary call a reporter and say: "This matter is on appeal and she cannot comment at this time.''

Gaeta also declined comment.

A lawyer since 1970, Gaeta was appointed a Superior Court judge in December 1986 and has been sitting in the criminal division longer than any of his colleagues on the bench in Bergen County. He also served as a municipal prosecutor in South Hackensack and was the municipal judge in South Hackensack and Wyckoff.

Several lawyers who regularly appear before Gaeta were eager to defend him on Friday.

"I don't have any problem with someone saying they disagree with the decision,'' said Jay Atkins, a partner in a River Edge law firm. "I have a big problem with people saying he should resign or he should be thrown off the bench.

"He's fair and he's got the [guts] to make a decision - even a controversial one.''

Hackensack defense attorney Kevin Roe agreed.

"He has the capacity for compassion. He will abide by the law, but if a situation calls for exceptions to be made under appropriate legal circumstances, then he'll do so.''

Two other Bergen County defense lawyers, former prosecutors Carl Losito and Albert Carilli, called Heck directly on Friday to express their displeasure with her remarks and defend the judge.

"I know in my heart that the judge always protects the victims,'' said Losito. "He prides himself on that.''

Like Losito, Carilli has appeared before Gaeta from both sides of the legal aisle.

"I was a prosecutor for six years and I loved him,'' Carilli said. "You know a judge is good when you like him as a prosecutor and as a defense guy. Judge Gaeta is a credit to the bench. That's the bottom line.''

The defense lawyers contested the notion that Gaeta is soft on convicts. Gaeta presided over the 1990 trial of John M. Martini Sr., who received the death penalty for the kidnapping and murder of businessman Irving Flax. Gaeta issued the death warrant, although the sentence has yet to be carried out.

If anything, Galantucci said, Gaeta is too prosecutor-friendly for his tastes.

"I disagree with him more than I agree with him,'' Galantucci said. "There's nothing wrong with a judge exercising an independent judgment. To try and take that away is a big mistake.''

Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com

Here are some updates.

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3740699

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3707305

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3691889

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3694952

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3823756

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3855963

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/44103.htm

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=2750454

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3443894

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3623854

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3031577

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3066629

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?id=3269340

http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?=3134203

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