A former Triton High School teacher pleaded guilty Thursday in relation to a sex with students scandal at the Camden County school.
Former Triton High School Nick Martinelli, 28, of Cherry Hill, pleaded guilty Thursday to a fourth-degree count of hindering apprehension. In court he admitted to impeding the progress of investigators looking into an improper relationship he later admitted to having with a Triton student, according to a press release from Camden County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Jason Laughlin.
As part of his plea Martinelli isn't allowed to have contact with the former student and must forfeit his teaching certificate. He will receive a year of probation when he is sentenced on April 12, according to Laughlin.
Two other former teachers, Jeff Logandro, 32, of Blackwood, N.J. and Daniel Michielli, 27, also of Blackwood, both pleaded guilty in February to third-degree conspiracy to commit official misconduct after they carried on improper physical relationships with students that they held authority over, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk announced in a press release at the time.
Both Logandro and Michielli will be sentenced Friday, prosecutors said.
Former Triton principal Catherine DePaul, 55, of Woodbury also pleaded guilty in February to a disorderly person charge of failure to report a crime, after she didn't report the teachers' alleged abuses to law enforcement, prosecutors said.
"It's obvious there existed a culture at Triton High School whereby teachers thought they could get away with improper relationships with their students and administrators turned a blind eye," Faulk said after the educators were arrested last year.
Prosecutors say that in April 2012 that a Triton student alerted a substitute teacher that teachers were having sex with students. In turn, that teacher told DePaul but prosecutors say that the principal failed to report the allegations to law enforcement.
As part of her plea, DePaul agreed to forfeit her job, never hold a public job in New Jersey again and will serve one year probation, prosecutors said.
The school’s vice principal, Jernee Kollock, still face charges.
