LONG BRANCH, NJ — The Long Branch school district settled for a total of $3.7 million with four teen girls who sued the district after they were molested by their teacher at George L. Catrambone Elementary School.
The teacher is Gustavo Barrientos, 58, who was convicted for the sex crimes and is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence.
The four are all teenagers now. But they ranged from 8 to 12 years old when they say Barrientos molested them while he was their elementary school teacher. The girls say Barrientos touched them inappropriately in the classroom and on field trips, and several of the girls said Barrientos showed them pornography in the classroom.
Barrientos taught third, fourth and fifth grades at the elementary school. He was first arrested in 2021 and then indicted in 2022 on one count of first-degree aggravated sex assault, three counts of second-degree sex assault and four counts of child endangerment. In 2024, a jury found him guilty of two of the child endangerment charges; he pleaded guilty to the other six charges. He was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison.
After Barrientos was convicted, the four victims sued the Long Branch school district.
The largest settlement was reached with a student identified as I.C. In her lawsuit, the teen girl said Barrientos was her homeroom teacher, math teacher and he also tutored her after school in reading. Her would inappropriately hug and kiss her, put his hand under her skirt and rub her inner thigh, showed her pornographic material and also said he wanted to teach her how to kiss, saying “who better to teach you than a teacher." He also digitally penetrated her, her lawsuit says.
Her settlement was the largest: The Long Branch Board of Education settled with her for a total of $2,750,000. A total of $686,122 will be paid to her attorney for attorney’s fees (25 percent of the total settlement) and $8,100 will be paid to the Center for Functional Psychotherapy, where the young woman received treatment. A net recovery of $2,050,267 will be given directly to the young woman, in the form of a check payable to the Monmouth County Surrogate for her benefit, according to the settlement.
The Long Branch school district settled for much less with the other three teen girls. The school district settled the other three lawsuits for $325,000 each, according to TransparencyNJ.com, which has copies of all four lawsuits.
All four teenage girls are represented by the same attorney, Zlata Rudikh of Rudikh & Associates in Old Bridge.
Barrientos was first arrested in 2021, after one of the girls, 10 years old at the time, told police he showed her porn in the classroom.
As the Monmouth County Prosecutor investigated, the three additional victims came forward. The four teenage girls say Barrientos molested them over a two-year period, from 2017 to 2019.
At one point, Barrientos also worked at Red Bank Charter School; he was never accused of any crimes at that school.
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