By Ken Serrano
Home News Tribune
March 5, 2010
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100305/NEWS/3050331/-1/newsfront/Edison-school-swim-coach-indicted-in-sexual-assault-case
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| Sarah Blessing |
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — A South Plainfield woman accused of having sex with a female student at Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison when she served as swim coach there has been indicted in the sexual assault case.
Sarah E. Blessing, 27, who also worked as a fifth-grade teacher in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District, was indicted on the charges of sexual assault, criminal sexual contact, endangering the welfare of a child and witness tampering.
If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison on the sexual assault charge alone.Blessing was arrested at her home on LaCosta Place in South Plainfield Dec. 1. She is free on $150,000 bail.
The fifth-grade teacher at Park Middle School in Scotch Plains had served as the girls swim coach at the Roman Catholic high school in Edison since 2005. The Diocese of Metuchen fired Blessing after she was arrested and charged. Blessing was suspended with pay from her $56,891-a-year tenured position at the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District immediately after her arrest.
Investigators determined that Blessing began having sex with the student in June of 2009 up until the time of her arrest, authorities said.
The investigation started when the Diocese of Metuchen called law-enforcement authorities after discovering the relationship, authorities said.The teen-ager was a student at Bishop Ahr the time of the alleged assaults.
Blessing's attorney did not immediately return a call.
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