No Deal: New Castle Judge Rejects Schraufnagel Plea Arrangement
By Andrew Vitelli
A New Castle town judge rejected a plea deal for former Horace Greeley High School drama teacher Christopher Schraufnagel over concerns that the deal would not require the defendant to register as a New York State sex offender.
“After carefully considering the arguments advanced by the People in support of the proposed plea agreement, I am unable to approve it in its current form,” Town Justice Douglas Kraus wrote in his 12-page decision on Wednesday.
Kraus said he was troubled that the deal, under which Schraufnagel admitted to sexual contact with two students, would have sentenced him to three years’ probation and force him to surrender his teaching license. However, it did not require the ex-teacher to register under the state Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA). Having to register under SORA would carry for at least 20 years.
Instead, the plea deal would have required Schraufnagel to comply with the Probation Department’s Sex Offender conditions.
“I have been, and remain, troubled by the fact that the present case involves multiple SORA-defined sex offenses by a teacher against his minor students, that occurred over a period of four years, and yet the proposed disposition does not involve a plea to even one violation of a statute that would require registration under SORA,” Kraus wrote in his decision.
Assistant District Attorney Mary Clark-DiRusso and Schraufnagel’s attorney, Stacey Richman, appeared in town court Thursday night. The parties agreed to meet again on Nov. 10, which had been the original sentencing date. If a new plea deal can’t be reached, the case would head to trial.
Clark-DiRusso said the prosecution has submitted an amended plea offer, while the defendant’s attorney asked Kraus for a reconsideration of the plea deal. Schraufnagel, who is reportedly receiving cancer treatment, did not appear in court, with Richman telling the judge her client could not make it due to illness.
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