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General News: Washingtonville Principal Pleads Guilty
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| Washingtonville principal Michael Rossi greeted supporters outside the Cornwall courtroom last spring. |
January 14, 2012
By Nancy Peckenham
The Washingtonville high school principal accused of improper contact with a then-16-year-old male student in late 2010 has pled guilty to one misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a minor in a plea bargain with the Sullivan County District Attorney. The guilty plea was presented in the New Windsor courtroom of Judge Noreen Calderin
Principal Michael Rossi, 53, was accused of sending hundreds of inappropriate text messages to the student in October 2010, then having improper sexual contact with the teen in a car parked in the town of Cornwall.
As part of the deal, principal Michael Rossi will not have to serve jail time but he will give up his teaching license. Judge Calderin ordered Rossi to pay a $1,000 fine as part of a conditional discharge and to undergo a mental-health evaluation. An order of protection barring Rossi from contact with the student was permanently extended.
In return for the plea, the DA has dropped additional misdemeanor charges, including sexual harassment, that Rossi faced in New Windsor and Cornwall courts. Cornwall judge Frank Navarra earlier dropped the charge of forcible touching due to lack of evidence.
Rossi’s court appearances in Cornwall town court attracted dozens of supporters who declared his innocence, including his neighbors in New Windsors and former students in Washingtonville and from Hastings-on-Hudson, where he worked for 20 years.
Rossi’s attorney, Alan Lewis, said that his client accepted the plea agreement because “he wants to get on with his life.”
Comments:
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I don't understand - how did he manage a deal with the Sullivan county DA in an Orange County Court in New Windsor if the case was being heard in Cornwall?
posted by Kate Benson on 01/15/12 at 10:55 PM
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