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Sentence Changed to 3 Years for Teacher in Sexual Assault

By Robert Hanley
Originally published in The New York Times, September 7, 2002

HACKENSACK, N.J.— A former teacher who had admitted sexually assaulting a 13-year-old student in 1999 was ordered today, in an unusual second sentencing, to serve three years in a New Jersey prison.

The new sentence replaced a much-criticized sentence of five years’ probation that the teacher, Pamela Diehl-Moore, 43, received last May. Two months later, a New Jersey appeals court threw out that sentence on grounds that the judge who imposed it should have imprisoned Ms. Diehl-Moore.

After deputies escorted Ms. Diehl-Moore from court in handcuffs this morning, the Bergen County prosecutor, John L. Molinelli, said the jail term was the proper sentence.

“This is exactly what Ms. Diehl-Moore deserved for what she did,” Mr. Molinelli said. “This was the right finish to this matter.”

Her lawyers, Richard P. Galler and Robert A. Bresin, called the jail term unfair and said New Jersey’s sentencing laws are too rigid and do not allow judges enough latitude when sentencing defendants in cases with extenuating circumstances.

They argued that Ms. Diehl-Moore, a 43-year-old divorced mother of two, was depressed and suicidal, partly over her mother’s death, when she had a six-month sexual relationship with the student in 1999 while he was a seventh grader in Clifton, N.J.

Initially, she was charged with sexual assault and faced a 20-year term if convicted. But in January, Mr. Molinelli’s office offered a plea deal in which Ms. Diehl-Moore would receive only a three-year term if she pleaded guilty. She accepted the arrangement.

However, at her original sentencing last May, Judge Bruce Gaeta of New Jersey Superior Court disregarded the plea deal, spared Ms. Diehl-Moore prison and ordered the five years of probation.

In his sentencing remarks then, Judge Gaeta said that the relationship with Ms. Diehl-Moore may have allowed the boy to satisfy his sexual needs, and that he had no evidence the youth had been psychologically harmed. The judge also said that state psychiatrists had found that the teacher was suicidal and recommended not imprisoning her.

The judge’s reasoning touched off criticism, particularly his remarks about the youth satisfying his sexual needs. Afterward, Judge Gaeta was transferred from the criminal branch to the civil branch of New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack. The state’s chief judge in Bergen County, Sybil Moses, also asked a state committee on judicial conduct to review the sentence. That inquiry is still under way, officials said today.

During today’s sentencing hearing, Mr. Galler, one of the defense lawyers, told Judge William C. Meehan he believed that Judge Gaeta’s original sentence was fair and proper. “He realized this woman had suffered enough,” Mr. Galler said.

Ms. Diehl-Moore dabbed at her eyes with a tissue during her lawyer’s argument. When Judge Meehan asked her if she wanted to say anything, she rose and said softly, “I want to reiterate my remorse.”

An assistant Bergen County prosecutor, Martin Delaney, told Judge Meehan that the youth had been ridiculed by peers because of the case. “He worries about dealing with this the rest of his life,” Mr. Delaney said. “This was caused by a person he trusted, his parents trusted, and the community trusted.”

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Meehan said the youth, who attends high school, suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. The judge said he has emotional and social problems.