Cannot control impulses for socially inappropriate behavior.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A New Jersey high school teacher accused of having sex with six male students suffers from a brain condition that allegedly left her defenseless to rebuff the students’ aggressive behavior, her lawyer stated earlier this week.
Nicole DuFault, 36, of Caldwell, pleaded not guilty in April to aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment charges and faces a 40-count indictment, reported the Daily Mail. DuFault served as a language arts teacher at Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J. before she was arrested last September.
The students were all 14- and 15-year-old boys who were victimized between 2013 and 2014. According to multiple news outlets, the teenagers stated some of the sexual encounters occurred on school property while others took place in DuFault’s car.
Dufault’s attorney, Timothy Smith, said she suffers from “frontal lobe syndrome,” a condition that experts have said is associated with socially inappropriate behavior and the inability to control impulses, among other symptoms.
“Ms. Dufault suffers from frontal lobe syndrome which has rendered her defenseless to over-aggressive behavior, and that is exactly what she was exposed to,” Smith said in a statement to NJ Advance Media. “Such will be our defense to a number of counts to the indictment. The remaining counts are either legally deficient or resulted from opportunistic tendencies,” Smith added.
In a phone interview with NJ Advance Media, Smith stated that Dufault’s syndrome stems from brain surgery she underwent following complications due to her first pregnancy. During that surgery, a shunt and the related apparatus was installed in Dufault’s brain, he said.
In response to Smith’s statement, Essex Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Gina Iosim, who is handling the case, released the following in a statement:
“All too often victims of sexual abuse are demonized by their abusers. It takes a tremendous amount of courage for a victim, especially a juvenile victim, to come forward knowing the stigma some in society place on victims of sexual abuse. We continue to prepare for trial so our juvenile victims may find the justice they are seeking.”