Ex-Toms River Teacher Found Guilty Of 2002 Sex Assaults On Student

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A former art teacher from Toms River High School North has been convicted of sexually assaulting one of his students repeatedly from 2002 to 2004, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced Thursday.

Raymond Waters, 71, was found guilty on five counts of aggravated sexual assault and 13 counts of sexual assault following a three-week trial in Ocean County Superior Court before Judge Guy P. Ryan, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Waters, who most recently lived in Pawlet, Vermont, met the student in 2002, when the student was in Waters' art class, authorities said.

The student reported the assaults in January 2014, Billhimer said.

From September 2002 to September 2004, Waters and his husband, Allen Harbatuk, 76, sexually assaulted the student at the Joseph A. Citta Boy Scout Reservation in Barnegat Township, and Waters’ then-home in Hillsborough. Waters also assaulted the boy at Toms River North, Billhimer said.

Waters and Harbatuk were arrested at their home in Hillsborough on Oct. 22, 2014. Harbatuk was found guilty on June 21, 2018, and was sentenced to 7 years in prison on Nov. 2, 2018.

Waters was remanded to the Ocean County Jail pending sentencing, the date of which has yet to be determined, Billhimer said.

Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Kristin Pressman and Assistant Prosecutor Kaitlyn Burke tried the case on behalf of the state. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit, Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Victim Witness Advocacy Unit, Toms River Police Department, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, and Hillsborough Township Police Department, combined on the investigation.