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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
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the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today we
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are back with a new episode in our Bad Teachers
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State specific series. And as I like to do, we
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are going to jump right into it. And it starts really.
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In nineteen eighty nine for.
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Our first subject, when Julie Rizzitello was born in the
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state of New Jersey, in the Jersey Shore area of
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the state. Of course, everyone's familiar with the Jersey Shore. Now,
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in her mid twenties, Julie chose education as herr profession
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of choice, and in September of twenty fourteen, she was
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hired by the Wall Township Public School System as an
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English teacher, which this particular school, Wall Township High This was.
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A school that was known to educate.
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Let's say, the more privileged kids in the area of
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the Jersey Shore, and she would teach ninth grade English
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and she also helped with act prep work. Now, colleagues
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would describe Julie Ristello as a phenomenal teacher right away.
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They would really take to her. She had kind of
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a unique personality that was a little magnetic, and they
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would also say she offered a pretty stable teaching environment. Now,
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over the next decade, she would build trust among her
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peers and her boss, and she would eventually become one
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of the top.
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Paid teachers at that school.
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Then, in twenty seventeen, she gets married to her husband
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and the couple settles in brick Township, which is an
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ocean community about fifteen minutes from where she worked. Easy
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commute for her, and Julie and her husband would then
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go on to have two children. Family also a pretty
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significant part of Julie's life. Her relatives owned a very
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popular bagel shop on the Jersey Shore, and Julie allegedly
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would serve ace kind of a recruiter of employees due
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to her access to young high school aged students her
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being a teacher. She'd say, Hey, you want to make
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some extra money in the bagel shop, We're hiring. So
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at this point, everything on the surface seemed perfect for
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Julie Rizzitello. She was thirty five years old, she was
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a mother of two. She had spent more than.
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A decade teaching and kind of honing young minds, and
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by the summer of twenty twenty four, Julie suddenly walks
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into the administration building and she hands in her resignation.
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But what happened to this teacher that appeared to have
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it all by this point in life. Well, it started
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in April of that year, quietly, almost innocently at first,
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a former student, fresh out of her English class from
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a couple of years back. He starts texting her, and
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the messages were casual at first, just checking in, seeing
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what's going on in your life. Now, that's totally inappropriate,
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right for a teacher and a student, But it was
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the sort of text a young person would send if
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they were testing the waters, sort of speak, seeing if
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this teacher would say, Hey, I'm your teacher, or I
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was your teacher, your former teacher, and we shouldn't be
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texting each other back and forth about what's up in
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our life.
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Right.
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Well, she should have cut this off full stop right
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there at the beginning, right, But she didn't. Julie wanted
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the attention, and it became a.
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Craving for her.
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Now by May of twenty twenty four, a month later,
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those texts turned really explicit. Nude photos were sent back
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and forth between this teacher and student. Then the encounter
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started mostly in the afternoon in her home while her
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kids were at daycare, or they would have quick meetings
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in the high school parking lot at night, even in
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the bagel shop. A few times after the bagel shop
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would close. She would tell herself it was different. This time,
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he had just turned eighteen.
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It was legal.
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Things would continue throughout the end of that school year,
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but in early July, middle of a summer break, an
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anonymous tip would land on the principal's desk of that
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school and everything would change. An unnamed fellow teacher would
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notice the way this kid hung out with this teacher
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even in the summertime, and as a mandated reporter, this
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person reported it. An investigation was started immediately, and by
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the time the headlines hit the Facebook groups, Julie had
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already had that resignation letter typed up. It was short,
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it was to the point, it was signed and dated,
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and she simply strolled into that building, handed it in
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and walked out of that school that was her second
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home since she was twenty five years old. Now at
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this point in her life, she was thirty six. Shortly
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after turning in that resignation, a team of unmarked police
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cars shows up at her home and they arrest her.
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Now at the station, they read her the charges, two
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counts of second degree sexual assault, accounts of criminal sexual
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contact in one count witness tampering. Now, apparently she had
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told this young man to delete everything from his iPhone
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when she discovered she was being investigated. Bell is set,
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which she makes that bell with conditions such as an
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ankle bracelet. And she can't go around kids other than
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her own kids. And I'm going to review both the
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affidavit of probable cause and the arrest warn't with you
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quickly so that you can get some context. And I'm
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going to read the probable cause affidavit first. It says,
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on July one of twenty twenty four, the director of
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Human Resources at the Wall Township Public Schools contacted Detective
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Bureau of that area to report possible inappropriate sexual relationship
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between a former student and Wall Township High School teacher.
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And the reason it said former student was a student
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had graduated by this point. The teacher, Julie A. Risitello,
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was reported to be having a sexual relationship with an
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eighteen year old victim while he was a student at
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the school. Formal statements were taken from the victim, during
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which he detailed a romantic relationship he was having with
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Risitello starting in April of twenty twenty four. May eighteenth
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of twenty twenty four, the victim reported he had oral
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sex and sexual intercourse with Risitello in his vehicle in Brick,
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New Jersey. Victim reported that he and Rositello continued to
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have sexual intercourse sexual contacts on multiple occasions between April
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twenty twenty four and June of twenty twenty four. The
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sexual conduct occurred in Wall Township, Belmar, and Brick, which
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are counties. He also reported that Rositello sent him new
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photographs of herself following the first time they had sexual intercourse.
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Victim provided consent to search his cell phone, which revealed
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numerous communications and photographs between Risitello and victim that were
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sexual in nature. He also reported that he disclosed his
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relationship with Rositello to several of his friend Additional formal
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statements were obtained with several witnesses who also detailed their
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knowledge of Rositello's relationship with victim and coroborated Victim's disclosure.
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So that's the probable cause affidavit, and then they serve
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the warrant, and the warrant says, within the jurisdiction of
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this court, Julie Rositello commit sexual assault by committing an
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act of sexual penetration upon victim, a pupil who at
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the time was at least eighteen but less than twenty
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two years old, while a teaching staff member and had
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supervisory or disciplinary power over victims, specifically having oral and
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vaginal intercourse with victim between May eighteenth of twenty twenty
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four and June fourteenth of twenty twenty four.
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And then it states the criminal Code that that violated.
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So two weeks later, on July sixteenth, in seventeenth of
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twenty twenty four, she has a hearing and prosecutors drop
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an absolute bombshell. Another victim had surfaced, this one from
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years earlier, a boy who had been seventeen back in
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twenty seventeen, and he was, it says, a freshman English student.
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I don't know how you're seventeen and still a freshman,
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That's what it says. So that's what I'm gonna go with.
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And she asked him to come help her in her
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classroom over the lunch hour. Now, in that classroom, she
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would have sex with him that day and multiple other
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times from December of twenty seventeen to nearly February of
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twenty eighteen in places like her home when her husband
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was at work and the kids were a daycare, as
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well as school in her classroom. And keep in mind,
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this affair with this particular student took place seven years
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prior to her affair that she was originally arrested for
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with the eighteen year old. Now, this new discovery leads
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to an additional count of second degree sexual assault as
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well as an additional count of witness tampering.
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Like you see in almost all of.
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These cases, the weeks turn into moss, the moss turn
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into years, which no exception here. The hearings would come
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and go until August twenty ninth of twenty twenty five,
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if you can believe that took that long, And Julie
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would cop a plea like they all do, and she
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would plead to two counts of second degree sex assault,
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one for each student. Now at this point she's thirty
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seven years old. So after you plead, you go back
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to court for your sentencing, and the victims they also
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get to speak and provide a victim impact statement sometimes
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they actually talk in court. Sometimes they turn the statement
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in and someone else reads it.
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Just depends.
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In this case, the victims did speak in court, and
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the whole point of this is the judge considers us
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before he makes his ruling.
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And this is where.
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In my view, the biggest bombshell of all is going
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to surface, when on February eleventh of twenty twenty six,
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just a couple of weeks from the date in which
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I'm recording this right now, that sentencing hearing would occur,
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and that victim from way back in twenty seventeen would speak,
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and he would drop the biggest bombshell of all when
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he would reveal that during an encounter on his birthday
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in twenty eighteen, he didn't have a condom, apparently, and
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Julie wanted to have sex with this kid, this freshman,
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even though he's seventeen at this time. She apparently assured
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him she could not get pregnant. Don't worry about it
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if you don't have a condom, no big deal. However,
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eight weeks later, in her home, with him in the room,
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she takes a home pregnancy test, and she discovers that
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she was indeed pregnant.
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With this kid's child.
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She would then terminate the pregnancy, despite him begging her
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not to, and right there in open court, he would
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describe how hurt he was and how heartbroken he was,
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and that this had a major effect on his life
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after that, and after he told his story, that would
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have a profound effect on the judge, whose voice would
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actually crack when he recalled it during the sentencing. So
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last month, Julie Ristello was sentenced to ten years in
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prison for each of the two counts. Now, the sentence
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is set to run concurrent. That means it's ten years
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total because you serve both at the same time, but
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much more fitting than what you are used to hearing
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on this show typically. And I believe that that victim
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impact statement made all the difference in the severity of the.
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Sentence that she got.
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And it's really such a shame y'all, because Julie had everything.
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She was stunningly beautiful, a tall, blue eyed blonde.
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She had two beautiful kids, she was married to a
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man that loved her, and she lost it all for
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at least ten years. Now as far as her marriage,
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something that may surprise you is, at least as of
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this recording. Her and her husband are still married. He
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did not divorce her over this, which is pretty crazy
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to me. But there you have it. Now, let's go
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to our second bad teacher that I'm going to cover today,
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and that's the story of language arts teacher at Columbia
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High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. And her name is
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Nicole Dufault. And Nicole was born in nineteen seventy nine
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in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Now, by the time she graduates
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from high school in nineteen ninety seven, she already knew
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that she wanted to be a teacher. She graduates from
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college and by her early twenties she had already earned
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her teaching credentials, and in two thousand and four, after
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kind of trying it out in different schools, she settles
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in completely in her chosen profession by accepting a language
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arts teaching position at Columbia High School. This is in Maplewood,
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New Jersey. Now while there her life really starts to blossom.
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She gets married in two thousand and nine. In twenty ten,
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she has her first child, a son, and in twenty
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eleven she has another son. And now, by all accounts,
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she was a fantastic mother to her children. However, beneath
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the surface, as it seems like it always is, trouble
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was brewing. By July fifteenth of twenty thirteen, she actually
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files for divorce from her husband, which, y'all, this dude
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is no prize in his own right, and we'll get
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to that. But it may be the fastest divorce in
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the history of New Jersey because from the filing on
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July of twenty thirteen to the time it was final
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in October of twenty thirteen, there was only a three
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month time frame between the time it's filed to the
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time it was final That's the quickest divorce I've ever heard,
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especially considering this couple had two kids.
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It's just mind blown to me how fast it was.