New Haven school teacher acquitted of sexual assault charges

NEW HAVEN >> A jury Thursday decided that the account of a young girl alleging she was sexually assaulted by a special education teacher was not credible and acquitted Robert Schmitt on both charges.

Following the announcement of the quick verdict, defense attorney Diane Polan said, “It’s a very frightening time to be a male teacher. Any false accusation can be made against you.”

She added, “I hope this will help him regain his reputation and his profession, both of which have been taken away from him for two years.”

Schmitt, 50, of Hamden, who has been on paid leave since he was escorted out of MicroSociety Magnet School on Sept. 11, 2013, hugged Polan and his tearful wife after court was adjourned.

“I think justice has been served,” he said. He declined to make any further comment on what he has been through.

Polan said Schmitt’s union has negotiated an agreement by which he will be paid by the New Haven school system until Oct. 1, then resign.

He had been charged with risk of injury to a minor and fourth-degree sexual assault. Both of those are felonies.

The complainant waited 18 months, until 2013, before telling her school’s social worker: “Mr. Schmitt touched me on my breast.”

The girl described her story in detail when she testified during the trial. The jurors, realizing her account was the state’s entire case, asked to have it played back to them Thursday.

She said she was alone with Schmitt in his small office, with the door closed, when he approached her from behind. She said she was seated in a chair, studying.

“He massaged my neck, working his way down to my chest,” she said.

The girl said it made her “scared” and “uncomfortable” and it had happened repeatedly.

But Polan, in her closing argument Thursday morning, reminded the jurors there was no physical evidence and no way to corroborate the girl’s story.

“You heard witnesses repeating what she told them,” she noted. “That doesn’t make it true. It’s just hearsay.”

Polan also noted the girl had been treated for mental health issues.

During the defense portion of the trial, another teacher at the school testified the girl had a tendency to tell lies and he had never seen her upset when she returned from seeing Schmitt. Nor had she resisted going to his office.

“Her delusional thinking is significant to this case,” Polan said. “She’s not believable and her testimony is not credible.”

But Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Mary SanAngelo said in her closing argument, “Merely because she has had counseling and (health) records does not mean she can’t be believed. That would mean that anybody who has mental health issues can’t be believed.”

SanAngelo said the girl delayed reporting the allegations because she was embarrassed, scared and confused. “It’s hard for a child to tell on an adult, a person of authority.”

“You can’t tell a book by its cover,” SanAngelo said of Schmitt, who sat calmly in the courtroom, dressed in a tie, blue sweater and gray slacks. “People say he’s ‘a good coach, a good dad, a good neighbor, a good teacher.’ That doesn’t mean something didn’t happen behind that closed door.”

Polan said Schmitt’s only mistake was closing the door to his office “and leaving himself open to being falsely accused of sexual assault.” She noted he kept the door closed when helping many of his students because the hallway was so noisy.

Polan asserted the girl had been bullied and teased so much by other students it had damaged her self-esteem. “This created a need to get attention. She’s certainly gotten a lot of attention with these accusations.”

But SanAngelo responded, “She wanted ‘attention’? What kind of a child will say, ‘I’ve been sexually touched by a teacher’ to get attention? You want good attention.”

Polan noted the girl kept embellishing her story. “That’s not surprising,” Polan added, “because her mother has a lawsuit pending, seeking money from the Board of Education, the city and my client.”

The six jurors, three women and three men, began deliberating at about 2 p.m. Shortly afterward, they requested the playback of the girl’s testimony. But after hearing the segment where she described what Schmitt supposedly had done to her, the jury foreperson said they didn’t need to hear any more. Several minutes later, at 3:40 p.m., she told Superior Court Judge Jon C. Blue they had reached a verdict.

SanAngelo had no comment on the outcome. Nor would she say whether the state will pursue three other cases of fourth-degree sexual assault charges against Schmitt, from other students at the same school. Prosecutors have not yet moved to trials for them.

Call Randall Beach at 203-680-9345.