Julie Rizzitello teacher sentenced 10 years prison sexual assault charges

A former New Jersey highschool instructor who groomed two of her college students earlier than sexually assaulting them, together with at her household’s bagel store, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in jail, prosecutors mentioned.

Julie Rizzitello, 37, who taught at Wall Excessive College in Wall Township, was sentenced throughout a listening to in Monmouth County Superior Court docket, in response to the The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Decide Jill G. O’Malley ordered that she serve 10 years in state jail, be positioned on supervised probation for all times, register as a intercourse offender beneath Megan’s Legislation, which requires sure offenders to register with legislation enforcement, don’t have any contact with victims and completely forfeit her job as a instructor.

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Julie Rizzitello in an undated photograph. The previous Wall Township Excessive College instructor was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in jail. (Public colleges wall)

Rizzitello had pleaded responsible in September to 2 counts of second-degree assault stemming from crimes in 2017 and 2024.

Prosecutors mentioned the intercourse acts passed off at Rizzitello’s dwelling in Brick, in a automobile in a Wall Township car parking zone and at a Belmar bagel store owned by her household, the place each victims labored at her suggestion.

An investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Workplace Particular Victims Bureau and the Wall Township Police Division revealed that Rizzitello met one sufferer as a freshman and the opposite as a junior in highschool. Authorities mentioned she requested to spend time alone with the teenagers and developed a pleasant relationship earlier than escalating to sexual exercise over a number of months.

Whereas the investigation was ongoing, Rizzitello contacted each victims and requested them to delete proof of the crimes from their digital units, authorities mentioned.

Police arrested Rizzitello with out incident in July 2024 after a district worker knowledgeable them of her relationship with a scholar, police mentioned. Coast star.

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Former Wall Township Excessive College instructor Julie Rizzitello appeared in Monmouth County Court docket in Freehold, NJ, final 12 months after pleading responsible to sexually assaulting two college students. (Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press/USA TODAY NETWORK)

The incidents involving the primary sufferer occurred in Could and June 2024, in response to the newspaper, citing a police arrest warrant.

Rizzitello and the scholar, who had turned 18, had sexual contact in his automobile in Brick in Could 2024. NJ.com reported, citing an affidavit of possible trigger. In addition they met at different places and she or he despatched him nude photographs, officers mentioned.

After her arrest, a second sufferer got here ahead and informed investigators that he and Rizzitello had intercourse at her Brick Township dwelling in November 2017 and January 2018, in response to the Coast Star, citing an affidavit of possible trigger. The sufferer was 17 years outdated on the time. Photographs and textual content messages corroborated his story, the outlet reported.

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Julie Rizzitello faces a listening to final 12 months in Monmouth County Court docket in Freehold, NJ, after admitting to sexual assault involving two college students. (Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press/USA TODAY NETWORK)

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In imposing sentence on Wednesday, O’Malley rejected a protection request to scale back the jail sentence to 5 years, citing a sufferer affect assertion that prosecutors mentioned was learn in court docket.

“These crimes weren’t remoted incidents that constituted moments of poor judgment; they had been textbook examples of ‘grooming,’ involving a suspect who repeatedly used techniques of isolation, manipulation and management for her personal egocentric functions,” mentioned Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago. “The egregious nature of the conduct was compounded by the plain proven fact that the emotional and psychological harm she inflicted got here on the expense of two of the identical younger minds she was charged with growing and nurturing.”

Wall Township Police Chief Sean O’Halloran praised the victims for coming ahead.

“I wish to commend the braveness of those that have come ahead to report these crimes. It’s by no means straightforward to talk up, particularly when the perpetrator is somebody able of belief,” O’Halloran mentioned.

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Wall Excessive College in Wall Township, NJ, the place former instructor Julie Rizzitello as soon as labored. (Google Maps)

Rizzitello, who taught English, was employed in 2013 and earned an annual wage of about $62,000 earlier than resigning, in response to NJ.com.

In July 2024, Wall Township Public Colleges acknowledged the allegations and mentioned the district was totally cooperating with legislation enforcement.