English teacher sexually abused her student then aborting his baby | US | News
A New Jersey English teacher who sexually abused two teenage students who became pregnant by a student after convincing them to have unprotected sex was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Julie Rizzitello, 37, told her teenage victim she was carrying his child but later informed him that she had terminated the pregnancy. He didn’t want her to have an abortion.
Care began when the child was in first grade
Rizzitello, a teacher at Wall Township High School, began grooming his first victim in 2017, when he was a freshman. She told the boy that she dreamed of sleeping with him, and this fantasy came true many times in 2017 and 2018. He convinced her to have unprotected sex on her birthday, which caused her to become pregnant.
Monmouth County Judge Jill Grace O’Malley revealed the extent of the psychological damage the teen suffered during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
“She doesn’t have to deal with the fact that she was harassed and sexually assaulted by the teacher she groomed, loved and trusted throughout her entire high school years,” the judge told the court, according to Jersey Shore Online.
“But now this person is having a hard time accepting the fact that she had an abortion and [he] He wasn’t comfortable with this. This is the psychological effect; is destruction.”
Judge labels teacher a sexual harasser
Rizzitello pleaded guilty last year to two counts of second-degree sexual assault and harassed each victim for months, prosecutors said. A second victim, an 18-year-old, was targeted in early 2024.
Prosecutors said the abuse took place at his home, in parking lots and at the family-owned bagel shop where both victims worked.
When the teacher continued to interrupt him to deny he was a carer, Judge O’Malley told him: “Stop shaking your head… These are the facts.”
According to Jersey Shore Online, the judge was uncompromising in his assessment of Rizzitello: “This is grooming. It’s traditional grooming that I see every week here in this courthouse. This is standard sexual predator behavior. You are no different.”
Attempt to destroy evidence after arrest
After his arrest in July 2024, prosecutors said he reached out to both victims and urged them to destroy phone and device evidence.
“These crimes were not isolated incidents that constituted moments of poor decision-making; they were textbook cases of grooming involving a defendant who repeatedly used tactics of isolation, manipulation and control for his own selfish purposes,” Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said in a statement.
“The appalling nature of the behavior is compounded by the fact that the emotional and psychological damage it inflicted was at the expense of two of the same young minds he was entrusted to develop and nurture.”
