‘No more evil,’ mother says as son’s teacher gets 7 years for molesting students

Standing before a Superior Court judge in Newark on Monday afternoon, former Bloomfield High School teacher Leo Donaldson expressed gratitude to the victim who exposed his crimes.

“I just want to say thank you to the young man who got me out of the place I was in by forcing this into the light,” Donaldson said, tearfully attributing his molestation of former students to his own trauma from sexual abuse as a child.

Judge Richard T. Sules, however, told Donaldson, 32, that while his victimization had been tragic, it was neither “an excuse nor a justification” for his crimes, sentencing him to seven years in state prison on charges that included aggravated sexual assault and official misconduct.

Donaldson, who was arrested by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office in October 2016, was charged by a grand jury last year with a total of 37 counts under an indictment that accused him of exploiting his position at the high school to coerce a number of male students into sex acts.

Authorities said the assaults took place both at Donaldson’s home and in his classroom.

He ultimately pleaded guilty in March to aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct.

One of the two students he was convicted of assaulting addressed the court Monday, describing how Donaldson had gained his trust as a friend and personal ally before threatening to kick the boy off the track team if he didn’t engage in sex acts at the teacher’s direction.

“I am speaking for every boy and young man who didn’t have the strength to speak after you took it away,” the boy said.

In making his case to the judge for leniency, defense attorney Vlad Tyshchenko described Donaldson’s own abusive upbringing on a “cult-like” family compound in Sussex County, where he was viciously beaten by an uncle and molested by a sibling.

Those traumatic experiences, the attorney said, stunted his client’s development and led him to view his victims as peers, rather than as young students over whom he held power.

“I’ve been practicing law for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a defendant more remorseful — genuinely remorseful — for their actions” than Donaldson, Tsychenko said as his client, seated at the counsel table next to him, choked back tears.

The testifying victim’s mother wasn’t buying it, telling Donaldson: “Character is who you are in the dark, and my son was brave enough to come forward.”

“No more evil,” she said. “No more. It ends here.”

Tsychenko asked the judge to sentence Donaldson to five years in prison — the minimum end of the range — arguing psychologists’ assessments of his client showed a lack of compulsive behavior that would put him at risk of reoffending.

Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor Celeste Montesino, however, argued one of those very same assessments nonetheless had explicitly declared Donaldson as having an “above average” risk of committing further crimes.

“There are no victims sitting at the defense table right now,” Montesino said.

Donaldson, who appeared in court wearing a dark suit, purple shirt and a tie, was largely stoic as a sheriff’s officer handcuffed his wrists behind his back while Sules imposed the sentence.

The teacher, who was immediately suspended from his Bloomfield High School job in the wake of his 2016 arrest, will forfeit his public position as part of his guilty plea. The State Board of Examiners had in April formalized the suspension of Donaldson’s teaching certificates. 

Donaldson also will spend the rest of his life on parole supervision and must register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law once he’s released from prison, Sules ordered.

Tsychenko declined to comment further after the sentencing.

Leo Donaldson’s husband Bradley Donaldson also was charged in the case with endangering the welfare of a minor, but has been approved to enter the state’s Pre-Trial Intervention program, Montesino said.

Sules was scheduled to issue a final ruling on the application Monday afternoon after Leo Donaldson’s sentencing.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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