Parents sending their children on class trips overseas: beware. Chaperones may not be prosecuted for sexual assault against the students they are overseeing if the alleged crimes take place in a foreign country.
In a 6-0 decision last week, the New Jersey Supreme Court overturned earlier rulings and said the state did not have “territorial jurisdiction” because the alleged sexual acts by two male chaperones against three 17-year-old female students at a Catholic high school took place in Germany.
The court, however, did recognize what some may consider the “unsettling” nature of its decision and suggested that the legislature may want to rewrite the law. “It is troubling to think that a teacher responsible for the care of young adults can sexually assault them on a school trip abroad and not be subject to prosecution in our state,” the justices said in their decision.
The case began back in February 2011 when Michael Sumulikoski and Artur Sopel supervised a group of students from Paramus Catholic High School on a trip to Germany. A week after the group returned to New Jersey, stories started spreading that something sexual had occurred between the men, who worked at the school, and three of the female students on the trip. A teacher reported the men to state authorities and a Bergen County grand jury indicted Sumulikoski and Sopel on multiple counts of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Sumulikoski, 28 at the time, was a permanent substitute teacher and assistant varsity football coach. Sopel, 31 at the time, was the vice president of operations at the coed Catholic school. Both men are graduates of the school, which says it is the largest private school in the state, with enrollment of nearly 1,600. After their arrests in April 2011, they were immediately suspended without pay and later dismissed from their jobs.
The students were traveling as part of the school’s annual winter trip to Europe. The group toured Belgium and then split in two. Most of the students went on to France but a group of 17 students headed to Germany, with Sumulikoski and Sopel as the only adults in charge.
From the beginning, their attorneys argued that the local courts didn’t have jurisdiction. They lost that argument with the local judge and the appeals court. The appeals court had ruled in June 2013 that there were “foundational elements” in New Jersey and that the chaperones had a legal obligation to care for the students that did not end until they returned home.
In the end, the Supreme Court sided with the defendants’ argument that having “supervisory or disciplinary power” over the victim and “having assumed the responsibility for the care of a child” are facts or circumstances that define a relationship, but are not types of “conduct” that are punishable.
There was no evidence to conclude that the defendants committed any acts, formed any culpable intent or took any steps to plan a sexual assault while still in New Jersey, according to the decision.
The Supreme Court also said it was forced to ignore the girls’ ages in making its determination. The state law considers it sexual assault when someone with “supervisory or disciplinary power” penetrates a person older than 16 and younger than 18. The students, at age 17, fit the description. Nevertheless, the court ruled that age “is a circumstance or status that cannot afford jurisdiction.”
All the charges against Sumulikoski were dropped. Sopel still faces 11 charges for witness tampering – he allegedly told the girls to lie about what happened – and for an alleged sexual assault against another student in 2010. She came forward after the allegations about what happened on the class trip became public. News reports say the families of the girls plan to press civil suits against the men.
Artur Sopel (left) and Michael Sumulikoski (right). (AP Photo/Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office)
