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	Ex-bayley-ellard Principal Admits Abuse By Peggy Wright Daily Record January 16, 2009 http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090116/COMMUNITIES26/901160342/1005/NEWS01 Mattiace fought charges for six years After nearly six years of fighting sexual abuse charges, the former principal of the now-defunct Bayley-Ellard High School in Madison admitted Thursday to touching a male student's buttocks during a hug and to shoving a male teacher and warning him not to report it. Montville resident Frank Mattiace, 72, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court, Morristown, to the fourth-degree charges of abuse and neglect of a child and criminal coercion. The Morris County Prosecutor's Office has recommended a sentence of five years probation and up to 364 days in the county jail but defense lawyer Gerard Hanlon said it's unlikely the ailing Mattiace will be ordered to serve any time behind bars. With his wife and son watching in the courtroom, Mattiace told Judge John B. Dangler that he hugged a 17-year-old student in May 2003 and touched his buttocks in the process. He pleaded guilty to this crime under a non-sexual statute and referred to Title 9, which generally encompasses offenses of abuse and neglect of children. Mattiace also admitted to a count of criminal coercion, telling the judge he shoved a teacher at some point between July 1997 and 2001 and warned the instructor that he wouldn't be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities if he reported the offensive touching. Mattiace was supposed to stand trial next month in Morris County on charges of sexually groping and endangering the welfare of the student between May and June 2003 and of forcing the male teacher -- who was in his twenties when he taught at Bayley-Ellard -- to have sex with him between 1997 and 2001. A trial was delayed for years while a series of judges dealt with numerous legal motions, including defense attempts to get the charges dismissed and to gain access to the younger victim's confidential psychological records. County Assistant Prosecutor Melanie Smith said the plea bargain was extended in light of Mattiace's poor health and in an effort to bring closure to the victims. Hanlon, who said Mattiace is scheduled to undergo major surgery next week, also needs closure. The mother of the student victim declined comment on Thursday when reached at home. The teacher could not be reached. The popular principal of the school, which ceased operations in 2005 due to declining enrollment, was arrested on June 11, 2003, on the grounds of the private, Catholic high school and charged with fondling the student who had just transferred to the school after being kicked out of two other schools. After Mattiace's arrest was publicized, the teacher, who left Bayley-Ellard in 2002, reported to authorities that Mattiace forced him to engage in sex on school property between June 1997 and December 2001. This teacher stated that he submitted to Mattiace's advances because he lacked a teacher's certification in New Jersey and thought he would be fired and his future teaching career wrecked. Within days of Mattiace's arrest on just the student molestation charge, about 100 students and parents held a two-hour rally at the rear entrance of Bayley-Ellard to proclaim their support for the principal who headed the school for nine years. Peggy Wright can be reached at (973) 267-1142 or pwright@gannett.com.
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