No Jurisdiction Over Teacher-Student Sex That Occurs Overseas

The New Jersey Supreme Court has dismissed the criminal charges brought against two teachers who were alleged to have had sexual relations with three of their charges while serving as chaperones for a trip to Germany.

In this appeal, the Court considers whether the State can prosecute offenses that occurred in Germany in a New Jersey courtroom.

In February 2011, a group of students from Paramus Catholic High School traveled to Europe as part of a school-sponsored trip. Defendants Michael Sumulikoski and Artur Sopel, who both worked at the school, served as the sole chaperones for a portion of the group that went to Germany. One week after the trip ended, a teacher reported that sexual misconduct had occurred between the chaperones and students during the trip. An investigation revealed that defendants had engaged in multiple acts of sexual misconduct with three seventeen-year-old female students while in Germany.

The court’s lament

The Court recognizes that the outcome here may be unsettling. However, it is driven by existing statutory law, which requires that “conduct” that is an element of the offense occur in New Jersey. Although the Legislature may consider amending the law, nothing in the sexual assault or endangering statutes as currently written suggests that those laws were intended to apply to conduct by a teacher/chaperone, outside of this State, directed against a student in the person’s care, in a manner that comports with due process.

The court reversed the decision of the Appellate Division. (Mike Frisch)