Erica DePalo, a West Orange teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old male student, was spared prison time for her crime under a plea bargain struck with Essex County prosecutors, a show of leniency that some believe points to a crude sexism in our criminal justice system.
If she were a man who had sex with a female student, the argument goes, she would surely spend time behind bars.
But the sentence in this case is reasonable. DePalo will serve at least 15 years on parole, register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will never teach again or hold any public job. A former teacher of the year in Essex County, DePalo suffers from depression and offered a convincing apology at her sentencing yesterday. This is a damaged woman, not a malevolent one. And the victim and his family agreed to this plea.
As for the larger concern about sexism in these cases, that too is overblown.
The Star-Ledger’s Julia Terruso examined 97 cases over the past decade in which a New Jersey teacher was convicted of having sex with a student. And yes, male teachers were treated more harshly: 54 percent went to jail, compared with 44 percent of female teachers. And their prison terms were longer: 2.4 years on average, compared with 1.6 years for female teachers.
But that disparity is modest, and there may be good reasons for it.
Prosecutors must consider, first of all, whether they can win these cases at trial. It is reasonable for them to consider the reaction of jurors, including any sexist feelings jurors may have about these crimes.
If jurors see a female perpetrator as less exploitative and predatory than a male perpetrator, they would be less likely to convict. Like it or not, that is a cultural reality that prosecutors must weigh when calculating their chances of winning a guilty verdict.
West Orange Superintendent James O’Neill said the DePalo plea may undermine efforts to discourage sexual contact between teachers and students. And yes, that is a cost of these plea bargains.
But it would be a serious mistake to establish mandatory prison sentences in these cases, as several other states do.
This case shows that justice is not that simple. Prosecutors and judges need to have discretion to handle each case on its own merits. They did just that in this case.