*News
Release* Date: March 30, 2011
Middlesex
County Prosecutor’s Office
Additional charges filed against karate school owner
Middlesex
County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan and Highland Park Police Chief Stephen J.
Rizco announced today that a karate school teacher, charged earlier this month
with improperly touching a 16-year-old girl, has been charged a second time with
counts of sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls.
Joel
A. Levy (DOB 8/22/67) of North Third Avenue, Highland Park, was charged on March
29, 2011, after he surrendered to Highland Park police.
He
was charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact, and two
counts of endangering the welfare of the two 15-year-old girls.
He
also was charged with a second degree count of sexual assault and a count of
criminal sexual contact involving one of the victims.
The
new charges were filed after Investigator Daniel Ruschak and Investigator Lisa
Collins, both of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, and Detective Nicole
Young of the Highland Park Police Department determined that Levy sexually
assaulted the 15-year-old girls on multiple occasions and at various locations
during separate incidents.
One
of the victims was assaulted on various occasions between October 25, 2009 and
January 29, 2010, while the other girl was assaulted on numerous occasions
between December 2001 and May 2002.
The
investigation began after police learned that the two girls had been victims of
Levy.
Levy,
owner of The Family Martial Arts Academy, North Third Avenue, Highland Park,
also had been employed at New Brunswick High School as a teacher overseeing
students serving in-school suspensions. He had worked for the school district
since November 2010.
In
addition, he has worked as a teacher in Edison,
After
the new charges were filed, Levy posted $125,000 bail and was released.
He
previously was arrested March 10, 2011 on a charge of criminal sexual contact,
a fourth degree offense.
In
that case, he was accused of improperly touching the 16-year-old girl at his
karate school on March 7, 2011.
He
subsequently was released after posting $10,000 bail.
Anyone
with information on these, or similar incidents, is asked to call Investigator
Ruschak of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3600, or Detective
Young of the Highland Park Police Department at (732) 572-3800.
As
is the case with all criminal defendants, the charges against Levy are merely accusations
and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.