Supreme Court allows child’s testimony in former Plainfield teacher's sexual assault trial

The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed with an appellate court ruling that an 8-year-old's videotaped statement about allegations of sexual abuse by a former Plainfield music teacher can be used in his trial, though years later she can only recall one incident.

Donnie Harrell, 58, of Bridgewater, is still awaiting trial on a seven-count indictment on charges of second-degree sexual assault, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree official misconduct and second-degree pattern of official misconduct that involves two alleged victims.

The trial has been delayed pending the outcome of court rulings on whether the child's videotaped testimony could be used in the trial.

In its ruling issued Tuesday, the Supreme Court noted that prosecutors in future child sexual abuse cases should "act expeditiously" on cases that rely on a young child's ability to recall events.

The case made its way to the state Supreme Court after the trial judge ruled the videotape could not be used. But the Union County Prosecutor's Office appealed that ruling and the appellate court agreed with the prosecutor's office.

Harrell then appealed that ruling to the state Supreme Court.

On March 30, 2016, Detective Joshua Rios of the Union County Prosecutor's Office Child Advocacy Center conducted the videotaped interview with the 8-year-old girl, a second grader at Clinton Elementary School.

In that interview, court papers say, the girl described how Harrell touched her and placed her hand on his "private parts" on more than one occasion during school hours in the school's music room.

However, during trial preparations in the summer of 2022, the girl, then 15, told a trial prosecutor and investigator that she could not recall most of the events she had reported to Rios in 2016.

The girl said she remembered Harrell placing her hand on him, but did not remember him touching her, court papers say.

Harrell was her music teacher in first and second grades and she "really liked" him and thought he was a "really good teacher,” court papers say.

In a hearing before the trial, the girl said that she "didn't know at the time (the abuse) was a bad thing, but had a feeling it was a bad thing" because she was only in second grade, according to court papers.

The trial judge ruled that the videotaped statements she made about incidents she could not recall now would not be allowed in the trial because Harrell would not be allowed to cross-examine her about those allegations.

The girl's "failure to recall all the details bears upon her credibility and the weight of the evidence," the appellate court wrote in its opinion overturning the trial judge's ruling, adding the child would still be subject to cross-examination during the trial.

In its brief ruling, the state Supreme Court wrote "it is no surprise that a young child may have difficulty remembering a traumatic episode alleged to have taken place years earlier."

In this case, the Supreme Court noted, more than three years had elapsed between the interview with the detective and the return of the indictment.

Harrell started working full-time for the Plainfield school district as a music teacher at Clinton Elementary School in April 2014.

A decade before he joined the Plainfield district, Harrell had been acquitted on charges of exposing himself to children at an Asbury Park elementary school.

After the more recent charges were filed, the New Jersey Department of Education ruled in favor of the Plainfield school district in firing Harrell.

Harrell had appealed his termination from the school district in January 2019, arguing that his tenure rights had been violated. But Administrative Law Judge Susana Guerrero ruled earlier that Harrell had never received tenure in Plainfield and the state Department of Education agreed.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ court allows child’s testimony in ex-teacher's sex assault trial