Sexting, molesting, rape — 6 NJ teachers lose credentials this month

TRENTON — The state has revoked or suspended the credentials of six more educators who have been convicted or charged with sex crimes involving students or children.

The decisions by the State Board of Examiners, the body that licenses teachers, were released this month.

Last month, the board took away the credentials of five other teachers accused or convicted of similar offenses.

Jenna L. Leahey, a former English teacher at Parsippany Hills High School who was sentenced in April to five years in prison for exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a 16-year-old student, with whom she also had sexual contact, relinquished her license this month.

Leahey had pleaded guilty to second-degree child endangerment involving sexual contact by a caretaker. Prosecutors in Morris County said she had sexual contact with the boy on and off school grounds.

After she is out of prison, Leahey will be subject to parole supervision for life.

Elizandra Martinez, a former teacher at Collier High School — a special-needs private school in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro — is losing her substitute teaching credential after admitting to kissing and fondling a 17-year-old student.

Martinez was also a volunteer coach with the Lady of Our Good Shepherd Catholic Organization, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said. The crime took place May 2016 in West Windsor.

Martinez agreed to relinquish her credential after pleading guilty in April to fourth-degree criminal sexual contact. She is expected to receive probation and be subject to Megan's Law when she is sentenced Friday.

Joshua A. Mohlmann, a 7th-grade math teacher at Harmony Township School District in Warren County, agreed to give up his certificate after pleading guilty to having sexual relations with a girl for years, starting when she was 14 years old.

Mohlmann pleaded guilty in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, to sexual assault, child endangerment, and furnishing alcohol to a minor. He was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

Lauren Coyle-Mitchell, a teacher accused of raping a 15-year-old girl attending the Lena Edwards Academic Charter School in Jersey City in 2015, had her teaching certificates, including one for teaching disabled students, suspended pending her trial.

Prosecutors say the abuse happened at the teacher's Lyndhurst home when she was 31. She was arrested again last year after prosecutors say she violated a court order by contacting the alleged victim.

Coyle-Mitchell has been charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree child endangerment.

John Q. Angeline, a South Plainfield High School English teacher, had his teaching and administrator certificates suspended pending his trial on charges that he raped a teen for three years starting when the victim was 15-years-old.

The alleged victim was not a student. Angeline was 41 at the time of his arrest.

Angeline has been indicted on charges of second-degree sexual contact, second-degree child endangerment, third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

Luke V. Bakula, of Haskell, had his elementary teaching certificate suspended pending the outcome of charges that he raped a 9-year-old in 2005 in Bloomingdale and Pompton Lakes. The alleged crimes happened before he was a teacher.

Bakula, who was 27 at the time of his arrest, was indicted in 2015 on charges of first-degree aggravated criminal sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and third-degree child endangerment.

Bakula had been hired months before his arrest as a paraprofessional in Ringwood public schools.

Sergio Bichao is deputy digital editor at New Jersey 101.5. Send him news tips: Call 609-359-5348 or email sergio.bichao@townsquaremedia.com.