Nicole Dufault now accused of sex with five students
Newark – Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Maplewood Police Chief Robert J.
Cimino announced today that a teacher at Columbia High School
in Maplewood has
been charged with sexually assaulting two more male students.
Late Tuesday Nicole Dufault,
35, of Caldwell
was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting three students. With the
charges authorized today, the number of victims rises to five. She is accused
of multiple counts of first degree aggravated sexual assault and multiple
counts of second degree endangering the welfare of a child. All five of the
victims are 15-year-old boys who were students at Columbia High School.
Today Dufault made her first
court appearance. She entered a not guilty plead to the charges involving the
original three victims. All of the incidents occurred
during the regular school year and also during summer school in 2013 and 2014.
Dufault is
currently being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark on $500,000 bail.
She has been ordered to have no contact with any of the victims. Dufault has
two minor children who have been removed from her custody.
A language arts
teacher who has been employed at the school for approximately 9 years, Dufault
is accused of having oral sex and vaginal intercourse with the students on
school property and in her car on multiple occasions.
The investigation, which is
active and ongoing, was conducted by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
Special Victims Unit and the Maplewood Police Department. Anyone with
information is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Special
Victims Unit at 973-753-1130.
Counseling and other
assistance will be available to students through the South Orange/Maplewood
School district.
These are
accusations. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they enter a
guilty plea or are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
