Unsettling Ruling

The Record
March 27, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-editorials/unsettling-ruling-1.1293288

Ex-Paramus Catholic High School employees Michael Sumulikoski, left, and Artur Sopel in court in Hackensack in 2011.

NO ONE should be surprised that the state Supreme Court this week ruled that individuals cannot be prosecuted for crimes allegedly committed in a foreign country. The unanimous court ruling broke no new ground; it simply reinforced longstanding principles about the sovereignty of individual nations in terms of prosecuting crimes.

Yet the ruling was still unsettling, as the court itself acknowledged, because it related to very serious charges: The alleged sexual abuse of three high school students by two of their chaperones during a 2011 school trip to Germany.

John Molinelli, the Bergen County Prosecutor whose office sought to prosecute the case in New Jersey, called on lawmakers to change the state’s criminal code to remedy the court opinion. And state Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, says he plans to do just that. Nonetheless, it’s hard to see exactly how state legislators can amend a code to allow New Jersey to criminally prosecute sexual offenses allegedly committed in a foreign land.

What the ruling should do is prompt parents and school officials to be more cognizant of the chaperones who accompany students on overseas trips and of the laws governing sexual activity in the nation being visited.

Lower courts had approved the state’s intent to prosecute the case in New Jersey on the grounds that the supervisory relationship between the chaperones and the students, who were from Paramus Catholic High School, was established in the state. A lower court suggested a "factual nexus" had been established because "parents entrusted their children to defendants in this state."

It’s true parents approved their child’s participation in this European trip while they were in New Jersey, but as the court ultimately ruled, "all of the acts of sexual misconduct allegedly occurred in Germany." Another option for prosecutors in New Jersey would have been to try to establish that the chaperones planned their alleged crimes before embarking on the trip. But there was no evidence to support that.

Molinelli, in fact, noted that the court’s ruling was based exclusively on the law, which is another way of saying that the court got it right. After all, how can a court be faulted for basing its opinion on existing law?

While we are not surprised by the ruling, it is regrettable two men charged with serious offenses involving minors will not be prosecuted for what allegedly happened in Germany, although one of the men still faces sexual assault charges from a case involving another minor that predates the overseas trip. Civil suits are also pending against the school and the Archdiocese of Newark.

There is no easy solution here. The alleged assaults theoretically could have been reported to German authorities when they occurred, but that’s not easy for students to do in a foreign country. The best, although difficult, solution going forward in cases such as these would be for New Jersey law enforcement officials to work with their foreign counterparts to swiftly prosecute individuals in the country where the alleged offense took place.