35°
The suits obtained by Daily Voice were filed in Essex County Superior Court against Nicole Dufault and the South Orange-Maplewood School District.
The divorced Bloomfield mom of two in January 2020 pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact on accusations she sexually assaulted six boys in 2013 and 2014.
Authorities arrested Dufault in September 2014 on charges of aggravated sexual assault against several students at Columbia High School, where she’d been a language arts teacher for nine years.
The encounters, which occurred on school property and in her car in 2013 and 2014, came to light after another student shared a cellphone video of one of the victims getting oral sex from Dufault, authorities alleged.
South Orange-Maplewood School District administrators declined to comment on pending litigation, and said only that a sexual harassment policy and protocols have been in place since 2001. Those protocols, however, are being revised.
One victim was in eighth grade when he initially heard of a teacher who had sex with students, took students out for illicit lunches, helped them cut class and more, according to one of the suits.
Dufault was the boy's teacher during summer classes for students with disabilities when she began showering him with expensive gifts such as Nike sneakers and changing his grades in the system, the suit says.
She also showed some boys in her class videos of her having sex with a janitor, and asked about their penis sizes, according to the suit.
Dufault went on to take the boy's virginity, raping him upwards of 200 times after that, the suit alleges. She abused him regularly in the classroom, the suit says. On one occasion, Dufault -- referred to in the suit as "Nicky" -- gave the boy $500 and then forced him to perform oral sex on her, according to the lawsuit.
For another victim, the abuse began during his freshman year, a separate suit says. He was introduced to Dufault by a friend who was in her class, and Dufault one day asked for his cell phone number, court documents show.
It wasn't long before Dufault began sexting the boy and saying she couldn't wait to "give him oral sex" and that she wanted to kill a female student, because the boy was talking to her, the suit alleges.
One day, Dufault texted the boy and told him to come to her classroom at Columbia High School during lunch, then locked the door, closed the blinds and started touching the boy's penis over his clothes, the lawsuit reads.
She then unbuckled his pants and performed oral sex on him, and asked him to do the same to her, the suit says. When the boy refused, she asked him to kiss her lips and neck -- which the boy did, according to the suit.
Dufault warned the boy not to tell anyone about the abuse and promised she would clear his cut classes for him -- something he did often for sex with Dufault, the lawsuit alleges.
Dufault apparently took many of her victims out to lunch and had sex with them in her car at various locations around town, the suits say.
"These interactions with Nicole Dufault were the first sexual experiences of [the defendant's] life – namely, being forced to have sexual intercourse with Nicole Dufault, being forced to receive oral sex from her, being fondled and masturbated by the teacher, and being sexually violated by the teacher at the age of 14 years old," the suit reads.
The suit says Dufault engaged in a "calculated series of manipulation and grooming" on the victim.
The suit filed on behalf of the third alleged victim says he was a student in one of Dufault's classes for students with disabilities when the grooming began. One morning in June 2014, Dufault instructed the defendant to come to her classroom where she was supervising a student taking a test.
“This f--ing kid is taking forever,” Dufault apparently said.
When he arrived, Dufault escorted the boy through the school and out the side door, where they crossed paths with a school librarian -- which made the victim nervous, the suit reads.
The pair eventually reached Dufault's car, where the teacher told the boy "Take off your f--ing pants," and she proceeded to perform oral sex on him, the boy ejaculated in the teacher's mouth, and the two engaged in casual conversation as if nothing had happened, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit said Dufault seemed unafraid of being discovered, and the victim promised her he wouldn't say anything to anyone.
"South Orange-Maplewood School District, Columbia High School, Maplewood Middle School, NJ DYFS, Family Connections, Inc., actually knew and/or had reason to know that defendants, Nicole Dufault, engaged in a sexual offense of flagrantly lewd and inappropriate conduct and/or sexual abuse which would violate the laws of New Jersey," one of the new suits states.
"Defendants, South Orange-Maplewood School District, Columbia High School, Maplewood Middle School, NJ DYFS, Family Connections, Inc., failed to take appropriate actions to protect plaintiff against sexual harassment/abuse at South Orange-Maplewood School District and/or Columbia High School despite having actual notice of the past lewd and/or inappropriate conduct and/or sexual abuse by defendants, Nicole Dufault, all in violation of the rights guaranteed to plaintiff by the laws of New Jersey."
The victims are being represented by Philadelphia attorneys John W. Baldante and Mark R. Cohen.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Highland Lakes-Vernon and receive free news updates.
