Teacher Who Slept With Students Got Them Jobs At Her Family's Belmar Bagel Shop

BELMAR, NJ — The two high school-aged victims of former Wall Township High School English teacher Julie Rizzitello — who had sexual affairs with both teen boys, while they were in high school — worked at a bagel shop owned by Rizzitello's family.

It was Rizzitello who asked her family to hire the two teen boys, said the Monmouth County Prosecutor.

Both teen boys worked at the family's bagel shop in Belmar. She also had sexual encounters with the teen boys at the bagel shop, said the county prosecutor.

Rizzitello, 37, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Wednesday. She previously guilty to two counts of second-degree sex assault.

Her defense lawyer, Mitchell Ansell, initially asked that his client serve a reduced term of five years in prison, which Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill O’Malley denied.

Both the judge and the county prosecutor say Rizzitello deliberately seduced both teen boys. Rizzitello met her first victim when he was a freshman in high school, and the other when he was a junior. She was the ninth-grade English teacher at Wall Twp. High School.

She "groomed" the teens, said Prosecutor Raymond Santiago. After initially asking to spend time with them alone and developing a casually friendly relationship, the conduct escalated to sexual activity with each, lasting for a period of several months. Sex with both victims took place largely in three locations: in Rizzitello’s home in Brick Twp., in a vehicle at a Wall Township parking lot, and at the Belmar bagel shop.

Rizzitello caused "emotional and psychological" harm to the two teen boys, said the prosecutor.

According to a report from Jersey Shore Online, Rizzitello encouraged one of the students to have sex without protection on his birthday. Weeks later, she told him she was pregnant and that the timing aligned with their encounter, the report said. Rizzitello had an abortion.

“These crimes were not isolated incidents constituting moments of poor judgment; they were textbook cases of grooming, involving a defendant who repeatedly leveraged tactics of isolation, manipulation and control for the sake of her own selfish purposes,” said Santiago.

Rizzitello is a married wife and mother of several young children; she and her husband live in Brick Township (Ocean County).

She will be on parole supervision for life, must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law, is barred from contact with the victims and must permanently forfeit her teaching position.