A former substitute teacher at the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical High School in Perth Amboy has been placed on probation for five years for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old male student in Sayreville, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan.
Monique Ucelli, 37, of Staten Island, N.Y., also was fined $1,300, was ordered to register as a Megan’s Law offender and must not have any contact with her victim. In addition, Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus, during a June 10 hearing at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick, ordered Ucelli to surrender her two teaching certificates and said the defendant must continue to undergo mental health and substance abuse counseling.
The judge imposed, and suspended, a 180-day term at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick. Ucelli was credited with serving 11 days at the correction center following her arrest in September 2010. Ucelli was sentenced to the term after she pleaded guilty in February to a count of criminal sexual contact, admitting that she improperly touched the minor for her own sexual gratification during an encounter on March 15, 2010, at her home. She was living in Sayreville at the time.
The defendant pleaded guilty to an accusation and waived her right to a presentation of the case to a grand jury in Middlesex County. The plea agreement was reached with Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Lynn Pilone.
Ucelli was charged following an investigation by Detective Peter Boulieris of the PerthAmboy Police Department and Investigator Andreea Capraru of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation began after school authorities contacted police.
Ucelli had worked as a general assignment substitute at the Perth Amboy school for about two years when she was charged.