Former Teacher Gets Parole After Admitting to Sex with Student

The 33-year-old former West Orange High School teacher and Montclair resident who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student was sentenced Monday and will serve no jail time, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

Erica DePalo, a former Essex County Teacher of the Year, was sentenced on Monday in Newark Superior Court to a three-year suspended sentence of parole with no jail time. She will also forfeit of her teaching license and be on lifetime supervision under Megan's Law, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said.

When DePalo acccepted the plea deal in February the interim superintendent of the West Orange School District, James O'Neill, told Patch he was “personally disappointed” and felt the parents and students in the district “have been poorly served by the justice system in Essex County."

DePalo was arrested on Aug. 31, 2012 and initially charged with aggravated sexual assault and a second count of sexual assault since the student was 15 and could not consent.

DePalo was chosen as the 2011-12 County Teacher of the Year, which is part of the state Department of Education’s New Jersey Teacher of the Year program. That year, she also was selected as one of the five finalists for the Teacher of the Year in the same program.

DePalo's lawyer Anthony Alfano could not be reached for comment.