Was a Union City teachers union president full of hot air when she claimed one of her teachers got away with having sex with a student?
That's what Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez indicates in a statement she released yesterday morning. Suarez said her office prosecuted a 64-year-old Union City teacher and the man is scheduled to be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to criminal sexual contact involving a 16-year-old student.
The union chief's claim about the teacher came during an undercover video produced by conservative group Project Veritas and posted online May 3. In the video, a woman identified as Kathleen Valencia, president of the Union City Education Association, tells a woman working undercover for Project Veritas that a Union City teacher had "sex with a teenage girl" and was in no legal trouble because the child did not press charges.
The 15-minute video caused such a stir that the Union City school district said the same day that Valencia had been suspended and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney announced he plans to hold hearings to investigate the video. The one featuring Valencia was preceded by another, similar one involving the Hamilton Township teachers union president, David R. Perry.
The Jersey Journal asked Suarez after the release of the video whether she had investigated any sex crime claims involving a Union City teacher. In her statement, Suarez said her office spoke to officials with the Union City and statewide teachers unions and confirmed that the teacher Valencia referred to is Dennis Palatini, of Clifton.
Palatini is accused of initiating sexual contact starting in November 2016 with a female student who at the time was 16 years old, according to a criminal complaint. He was a teacher at the district's academy for at-risk high school students and asked the girl to send him nude photos of her and to write a "sexual narrative" involving a teacher and a student, the complaint says. The victim told police he drove her to a parking garage and committed a sexual act while she was in the car, according to the complaint.
Valencia was widely condemned for her comments regarding the teacher she said had "sex with a student." She did not say she covered up that incident, but she used him as an example of a teacher who committed a crime and did not get fired.
The woman filming the video claimed to be the sister of a Union City teacher who had injured a student. She expressed fear to Valencia that her brother would get fired as a result.
Don't worry, Valencia told her, holding up a file.
"This file right here is from a teacher who had sex with a student, OK? You're not going to jail," Valencia says. "This file is about whether or not the teacher gets to keep his pension. Sex with a teenage girl. Is he going to jail? No. How come? Because the child's not pressing charges."
Palatini, who is still listed as a teacher on the Union City school district's website, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 25. His attorney could not immediately be reached to comment.
Valencia is still listed as president of the UCEA on its website. A call placed to her cellphone says the number has been changed. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned. A spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association said she resigned on May 3.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd.