Edison Gym Teacher Sues For Slander In Online Name Mix-Up

EDISON, NJ — Update, Aug. 2021: In a ruling issued Aug. 27, 2021, Hon. Bruce Kaplan of the Middlesex County Superior Court dismissed all of Burke's claims against the defendants.

Judge Kaplan said the parties involved were protected by the freedom of speech when they commented about her on Facebook. The court also rejected an accusation from Burke that the defendants acted with malice. Neither Michael Pocchio, a lawyer for the defendants, nor Burke's lawyer, Frank Fusco, returned Patch's calls with questions.

Original Patch report:

An Edison school teacher is suing four town residents who she says libeled her on Facebook and WhatsApp, after she says they got her identity mixed up with another Middlesex County school teacher who was fired in 2006 after being accused of having sex with a student.

The teacher who filed the lawsuit is Amy Burke, 42, who works as a physical education teacher at Edison High School. Burke filed her lawsuit in December against Akhil Malhotra, Ken Nelson, Laurie Roche and Christo Makropoulos, all Edison residents. She said they slandered her on three local Edison Facebook pages and WhatsApp.

Burke is not the same Amy Burke who was fired from working as a gym teacher in the Perth Amboy school district in 2006, according to her lawyer, Frank Fusco.

In 2006, that Amy Burke was charged with having sexual relations with a 13-year-old student, according to News 12. Under the plea agreement, Burke agreed to give up her teaching certificates and never seek a teaching position in New Jersey. She was also sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct, according to the state licensing board.

"They are not the same person," said Fusco. "She is not the same person as the teacher in Perth Amboy. This is about social media responsibility. And this is social media irresponsibility at its highest."

Fusco said his client has worked her entire career in the Edison school district. That includes in 2006, and her name was Amy Hansen at that time. She got married in 2015 and that's when her name changed to Burke, he said. This was confirmed by a search of her employment records with the state teachers' union, the New Jersey Education Association, which showed Amy Hansen working in the Edison district for her entire career, never in Perth Amboy schools, and her named legally changed to Amy Burke in 2015.

On December 1, 2019, Fusco says Malhotra wrote about Burke on three Facebook page: Edison Residents, Edison Citizens and Friends of Edison. According to the suit, Malhotra wrote: “It’s very quite disturbing that a perthamboy (sic) teacher who was convicted for having sex with a 13-year-old student and banned from ever teaching again is now teaching at Edison High school.”

Those three Facebook pages combined have more than 10,000 members.

When asked by another Facebook user, Malhotra later claimed it was the same Amy Burke, according to the lawsuit.

Nelson is being sued because he also published on his personal Facebook page that the Perth Amboy teacher and the Edison teacher were the same person, according to the lawsuit.

Roche was sued because on Dec. 1 of last year, Fusco says she published a series of statements on a WhatsApp group known as “Our Edison, Our Schools," writing, "Why is a teacher convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old student and who was supposedly banned from ever teaching again teaching at Edison high school for over 97k a year?” She also published a link to the article about the Perth Amboy incident, and a list of Edison teachers, circling Burke's name. She also confirmed it was the same person, stating “Yes same person. Thank you," according to the lawsuit.

And Makropoulos published on Facebook a compilation of the above postings, stating that he “exposed” a sexual predator, according to the lawsuit.

Fusco said the Edison school district and Board of Education were aware of the online comments, and did nothing. Repeated calls and emails to Edison schools superintendent Bernard Bragen and the Edison school board were not returned.

Fusco said someone brought the comments to Burke's attention, and that she never engaged or defended herself online — or told the posters they were mistaken.

Patch also reached out to the four defendants, and only Makropoulos got back to us with a statement:

"I thought all along it was Amy Burke from Perth Amboy because many students and parents kept complaining about this," he wrote in an email to Patch. "I contacted a member of the Edison BOE and I said if this is the same woman, fire her ... I actually found out she was my gym teacher in middle school, but her name used to be Mrs. Hansen and now it is Amy Burke so she must have gotten married ... Nobody ever contacted me back."

"I would like to apologize to the Burke family and Mrs. Amy Burke," Makropoulos continued. "For now this is all I would like to say since I have a civil lawsuit against me ... Mrs. Hansen/Amy Burke is a great teacher and was always good to me and all the students."

Malhotra referred all questions to his attorney, Michael Pocchio. Pocchio is representing Malhotra, Nelson and Roche.

"We expect the court will dispose of this case quickly in light of the thin facts and evidence," said Pocchio in a statement provided to Patch. "More importantly, however, this case will shine a light on certain elected officials in Edison who choose to encourage litigation among residents and taxpayers rather than making efforts to make the schools better."

He did not name who he was referring to.

Burke is seeking punitive cash damages from the four defendants. She would also like a public apology.

"It was brought to her attention and she did not respond to the posts," said her lawyer. "When things like this happen, it needs to be brought to light. They need to know it's wrong. You shouldn't just post things without doing some background research. Before you make these assertions, you need to do some homework."

"Especially not something this serious," he continued. "They were accusing someone of very serious and salacious activity."