Nicole Dufault
MAPLEWOOD / SOUTH ORANGE — On Friday, Sept. 26, Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin denied a request from Columbia High School teacher Nicole Dufault, 35, of Caldwell to reduce her bail.
In a Sept. 29 email, Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed to the News-Record that Dufault is still being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark on $500,000 bail, the amount set in court Sept. 19 after Dufault pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and multiple counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Carter confirmed that Dufault is charged with having been involved in more than 30 separate sexual incidents with CHS students. Additionally, Carter confirmed that the ECPO has a video showing Dufault performing a sexual act with a student.
Dufault was arrested Wednesday, Sept. 17, and has been charged with sexually assaulting five students, according to the ECPO. She was charged after she allegedly sexually assaulted five CHS students, all 15-year-old boys. The alleged incidents occurred during the regular school year as well as during summer school in 2013 and 2014, according to the ECPO.
Dufault, a language arts teacher employed at the school for approximately nine years, is accused of assaulting the students on school property and in her car on multiple occasions, according to the ECPO. Since being charged, Dufault’s two minor children have been removed from her custody and she has been ordered not to have any contact with the alleged victims.
In the past two weeks it has come to light that some parents of CHS students had complained about Dufault, stating that she behaved inappropriately in the classroom.
“Parents previously complained about her having inappropriate conversations with students,” Carter told the News-Record. “There were no previous complaints of a criminal nature.”
The investigation, conducted by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit and the Maplewood Police Department, is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the ECPO Special Victims Unit at 973-753-1130.
These are accusations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.