Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3^rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

*News Release* Date: June 13, 2011

Ex-substitute teacher placed on probation

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced today that 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.

Monique Ucelli (DOB 1/2/74) 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, at a hearing at the Middlesex County Courthouse on June 10, 2011, 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 on September 21, 2010.

Ucelli was sentenced to the term after she pleaded guilty on February 18, 2011, to a count of criminal sexual contact, admitting that she improperly touched the boy 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 Perth Amboy Police Department and Investigator Andreea(cq) 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.