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Irregular News for 02.13.06
A Newark substitute teacher who forced a second-grader to stand on a chair and tightened a string around the child's neck in a mock hanging has been convicted of disorderly persons offenses and could face jail time, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Albert Coleman, 61, of East Orange, was convicted Tuesday in a bench trial before Superior Court Judge Dennis Carey of simple assault and disorderly conduct, said Mark Ali, an assistant Essex County prosecutor.
Ali, who heads the office's child-abuse unit, said the incident occurred March 29, 2004, as Coleman was overseeing the boy, now 9, in an after-school program at the Elliott Street School.
Coleman, who wanted to punish the child for not following instructions to do his homework, asked him if he knew what "strangulation" was and then forced him to stand on a chair, Ali said.
A string that had been used for a decoration was hanging from a light fixture above the chair with one end in a loop like a noose, the prosecutor said. Coleman slipped the string around the child's neck and pulled it tight by kicking the child's chair, Ali said.
"The child was crying hysterically afterward," Ali said. "The wound from the string went about a third of the way around his neck."
The incident came to the attention of school officials immediately after it occurred.
Coleman, who did not testify at the trial, gave a different version of the event in his testimony before a grand jury on Nov. 9, 2004.
The teacher said he was just playing with the child and that the string was never around his neck, according to a transcript of the testimony Ali entered into evidence in the trial.
He said he told the child in jest he was going to hang him from the string if he did not stop fooling around and do his homework. He said when the child kept fooling around, he went though with the gag and pulled up a chair.
"The string wasn't long enough to go over his whole neck," he said, according to the transcript. "(He) was playing along with me like he was dead. I said, 'All right, man, lets get down.' ... The string was never around his neck, and as he jumped down, it was in the fat of his neck, and as he jumped down, it left a welt on his neck."
Coleman said he told the child to go to the bathroom and get a wet paper towel to put on the welt. He said the child was not upset.
A grand jury, after hearing Coleman's testimony, declined to indict him for aggravated assault, so he was tried on disorderly persons charges before Carey without a jury.
But Ali said Carey believed the child's testimony -- that the loop of the string was around his neck and that it pulled tight when the teacher kicked the chair.
"The judge found that the defendant's testimony before the grand jury lacked credibility," Ali said.
Even if Coleman's version was accurate, his recklessness was still sufficient to constitute a simple assault, the prosecutor said.
No one answered the door yesterday at Coleman's house on Lindsley Place in East Orange. His public defender, Sterling Kinsale, could not be reached for comment.
While disorderly persons offenses often do not involve jail time, Ali said the charges can carry a penalty of up to six months in the county jail and that he would argue for incarceration.
He said the conviction would bar Coleman, who had been a substitute in the Newark schools for about 10 years, from ever working again as a teacher.
The teacher had declined to accept a plea offer because he had hopes of acquittal so he could teach again, Ali said.
Ali said the victim, as well as another teacher, a school security guard and a school administrator testified at the one-day trial. The prosecutor said he also submitted photographs of the child's neck as evidence.
source
A Newark substitute teacher who forced a second-grader to stand on a chair and tightened a string around the child's neck in a mock hanging has been convicted of disorderly persons offenses and could face jail time, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Albert Coleman, 61, of East Orange, was convicted Tuesday in a bench trial before Superior Court Judge Dennis Carey of simple assault and disorderly conduct, said Mark Ali, an assistant Essex County prosecutor.
Ali, who heads the office's child-abuse unit, said the incident occurred March 29, 2004, as Coleman was overseeing the boy, now 9, in an after-school program at the Elliott Street School.
Coleman, who wanted to punish the child for not following instructions to do his homework, asked him if he knew what "strangulation" was and then forced him to stand on a chair, Ali said.
A string that had been used for a decoration was hanging from a light fixture above the chair with one end in a loop like a noose, the prosecutor said. Coleman slipped the string around the child's neck and pulled it tight by kicking the child's chair, Ali said.
"The child was crying hysterically afterward," Ali said. "The wound from the string went about a third of the way around his neck."
The incident came to the attention of school officials immediately after it occurred.
Coleman, who did not testify at the trial, gave a different version of the event in his testimony before a grand jury on Nov. 9, 2004.
The teacher said he was just playing with the child and that the string was never around his neck, according to a transcript of the testimony Ali entered into evidence in the trial.
He said he told the child in jest he was going to hang him from the string if he did not stop fooling around and do his homework. He said when the child kept fooling around, he went though with the gag and pulled up a chair.
"The string wasn't long enough to go over his whole neck," he said, according to the transcript. "(He) was playing along with me like he was dead. I said, 'All right, man, lets get down.' ... The string was never around his neck, and as he jumped down, it was in the fat of his neck, and as he jumped down, it left a welt on his neck."
Coleman said he told the child to go to the bathroom and get a wet paper towel to put on the welt. He said the child was not upset.
A grand jury, after hearing Coleman's testimony, declined to indict him for aggravated assault, so he was tried on disorderly persons charges before Carey without a jury.
But Ali said Carey believed the child's testimony -- that the loop of the string was around his neck and that it pulled tight when the teacher kicked the chair.
"The judge found that the defendant's testimony before the grand jury lacked credibility," Ali said.
Even if Coleman's version was accurate, his recklessness was still sufficient to constitute a simple assault, the prosecutor said.
No one answered the door yesterday at Coleman's house on Lindsley Place in East Orange. His public defender, Sterling Kinsale, could not be reached for comment.
While disorderly persons offenses often do not involve jail time, Ali said the charges can carry a penalty of up to six months in the county jail and that he would argue for incarceration.
He said the conviction would bar Coleman, who had been a substitute in the Newark schools for about 10 years, from ever working again as a teacher.
The teacher had declined to accept a plea offer because he had hopes of acquittal so he could teach again, Ali said.
Ali said the victim, as well as another teacher, a school security guard and a school administrator testified at the one-day trial. The prosecutor said he also submitted photographs of the child's neck as evidence.
source