New Jersey Teacher Nicole Dufault Pleads Guilty To Having Sexual Relations With Six Male Students – By Nathan Francis (Inquisitr) /Jan 23 2020
New Jersey high school teacher Nicole Dufault has pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with six male students who were between the ages of 14 and 15, years after initially claiming that she was the real victim.
The former Columbia High School language arts teacher had originally been indicted by a grand jury in February 2015, but just this week reached a plea deal with Essex County prosecutors to avoid going to trial, the New York Post reported. As part of the deal, Dufault pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual contact. She was also forced to give up her teaching license and will have to register as a sex offender.
As CBS New York reported, prosecutors plan to ask that she be sentenced to five years in prison and remain under parole supervision for life after her release.
The 40-year-old had sex with the students multiple times on school grounds between 2013 and 2014, prosecutors said. In one of those instances, she was allegedly caught on tape performing oral sex on one of the victims while another teenage boy was nearby, the report noted.
Dufault’s case made national headlines at the time of her arrest, with her attorney claiming in court that the teenage boys had been the ones who coerced her into having sex.
“She’d pled not guilty, we believe in her innocence,” defense attorney Timothy Smith said at an initial court hearing.
He added that he believed his client was the actual victim in the case.
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