Belleville BOE settles suit started after sex abuse claims

The Belleville Board of Education has approved a settlement for a lawsuit in which the school district is accused of letting a teacher's aide sexually abuse a student in 2013.

The BOE approved the settlement by a unanimous vote on Monday, but the amount the district must pay remained undisclosed pending the district's response to a request under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act.

Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko, who was named in the suit, referred comments to the district's legal counsel.

While the events in question occurred in 2013, Tomko started as the district's top leader in 2015.

Two-thirds of the settlement will be paid for by the district's insurance carrier, Summit Risk Services, said BOE Attorney Stephen Edelstein.

"We’re always happy to have cases cleared up," Edelstein said on Tuesday, May 23.

In November, the board had hired Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein & Celso to represent it in the case, pending in U.S. District Court.

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The resolution approving the settlement denies liability for any claims in the lawsuit.

The teacher’s aide, Melissa Bradley of Belleville, is serving a three-year prison term for endangering the welfare of a child, who was a high school senior at the time, and was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, according to the lawsuit.

Bradley plead guilty to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in 2015.

As reported by NorthJersey.com, Bradley, who was 27 at the time, had been charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault.

The suit names a high school English teacher, four school officials, a former police chief and a social worker at the high school.

Initially filed in Superior Court in Mercer County, a complaint filed in the lawsuit claims negligent hiring, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The suit claims that after “grooming” the student in a classroom by flirting with him, rubbing his leg and eventually “grabbing and massaging” his groin, Bradley took him from school grounds in her Jeep to a nearby Wendy’s, where the two had intercourse on five or six separate occasions while parked in the lot of the fast-food establishment.

The special education student was incapable of consenting to foreplay, oral sex, and sexual intercourse with Bradley, the lawsuit maintains.

The complaint claims Bradley sent naked photographs of herself to the student, which were then posted online, thus prompting the investigation that led to her arrest.

Email: kadosh@northjersey.com