Published: January 08, 2009 12:13 am      

CHIARELLA CASE: Teacher to face jury trial

Falls teacher accused of intimate relationship with student will face a jury on Wednesday

Paul Chiarella will put his freedom and his fate as a school teacher in the hands of a Niagara Falls City Court jury.

The suspended NFHS teacher will take his case to a jury on Wednesday. The panel will consider whether Chiarella engaged “in an intimate relationship” with a 16-year old female student.

“He’s ready to go, I’m ready to go and he’s looking forward to putting this behind him,” said defense attorney James Faso.

Both Faso and Assistant District Attorney Robert Zucco said they expected it would take about a day to pick the jury and at least two days to try the case.

Chiarella, 38, 943 Rankine Road, faces charges of third-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child in connection with a series of incidents involving the student, who was a junior at the high school at the time.

Zucco said he will call the student to testify in the case.

Described by those who know him as a “popular teacher,” Chiarella has taught in the Falls district for eight years and is currently free on a $1,000 bail bond. He is also suspended with pay from his teaching position.

School district officials have begun efforts to fire Chiarella, but have declined to comment on those efforts.

“He has an attorney provided to him by (the Falls teachers’) union,” Faso said, “and I think those proceedings are scheduled for after our trial.”

Chiarella was arrested on Feb. 26 after Falls police investigators said they had evidence that the he befriended the student and on several occasions “kissed her on the mouth and neck.” He also reportedly allowed the student to “skip class” and hang out in his classroom.

Investigators said the encounters between Chiarella and student occurred “in a secured stage dressing room” at the high school, usually during the last period of the school day.

The relationship began in September 2007 when the student enrolled in Chiarella’s media production class. The victim said she and Chiarella shared mutual interests in movies, books and music.

While that formed the initial basis for their relationship, the student said Chiarella eventually began to talk to her about his “counseling and marital problems.” In addition to their contact at school, Chiarella and the student also engaged in extensive online conversations.

The teen’s mother said she became aware that her daughter and a teacher she knew only as “Mr. C” were having late-evening chats on a home computer and became concerned. The mother said she went to the high school in November and confronted Chiarella and told him to “step back” from his relationship with her daughter.

After warning Chiarella to “cease and desist” in his behavior, the mother told him if he didn’t she would take her concerns to school officials.

The student said the relationship continued over the 2007-08 winter recess. She said Chiarella brought her Christmas presents and took her to a movie at an Orchard Park theater complex.

Chiarella also told her he wanted “to pursue a relationship past my graduation and to the point of having children with me.” The teen said she began to feel “overwhelmed” by the relationship and said she “realized what we were doing was wrong.”

According to the student, Chiarella told her, “He agreed that it was wrong, but it didn’t feel wrong.” She said he told her he expected they would “get caught” and he would “kill himself.”

Faso had asked City Court Judge Robert Merino to order school district officials to give him access to the student’s “school file.” The defense lawyer argued that there might be information in the file that would be useful to Chiarella’s defense, noting that another student, in a statement to a school official, described the victim as “a habitual liar.”

Zucco opposed the request, calling it a “fishing expedition.”

Merino rejected the request.