Document 6590766

$ 2 / FINAL EDITION
S U N D AY, N O V E M B E R 9 , 2 0 1 4
A F F I L I AT E D W I T H
Will Rutgers and Princeton resume historic rivalry?
Once jailed
for molesting
a student,
Jim Cunneely
says his crime
is part of a cycle
of abuse that
began when he
was a student.
POLITICS
Christie’s
friends got
GOP group
contracts
At least two people close
to New Jersey’s governor
benefited financially from
Chris Christie’s chairmanship of the Republican
Governor’s Association,
records show.
Longtime political
strategist Mike DuHaime, a
partner at the public
strategy firm Mercury
Public Affairs, and Cam
Henderson, a former chief
of staff to First Lady Mary
Pat Christie, received
consulting contracts from
the RGA. / Page 3
BUSINESS
A hairy situation
for razor industry
With “No Shave November”
and its mustachioed counterpart,
“Movember,” many men across
America are keeping sharp
objects away from their faces.
But for a growing number, the
month is no different and it’s
cutting into some companies’
profits. Spending on razors and
blades fell last year, to $2.3 billion,
for the first time since the
recession. / Page A15
TV
Back to the bat cave
for ‘60s series’ fans
In anticipation of the release
this week of the complete DVD set
of the action series, we recall our
many conversations with the stars
of the show, from Yvonne Craig
who played Batgirl to Cesar
Romero, aka the Joker. “I always
thought as a cat, I could toy with
any male star,” said Julie Newmar,
who was purr-fectly cast as the
Catwoman. / A&E
Today’s
Weather
IN SPORTS
How a
teacher
became a
SEX
OFFENDER
(ARISTIDE ECONOMOPOULOS/NJ ADVANCE MEDIA FOR THE STAR-LEDGER)
PART ONE OF TWO
P
By Mark Mueller / NJ Advance Media for The Star-Ledger
ale and shaking, Jim Cunneely lay in bed,
barely finding the breath to speak. He
clung to his wife like a child, his head on
her chest.
“I’m going to have to go,” he whispered.
“They’re coming. I’m going to have to go.”
Dawn Cunneely didn’t understand. Go where? Her
husband wasn’t making sense.
“Who’s coming for you?”
“I’m going to have to go,” he repeated faintly. “They’re
coming.”
On the night of Feb. 5, 2007, they came for Jim Cunneely, a popular French teacher — a teacher of the year
— at Kittatinny Regional High School in Sussex County.
Two police officers escorted him to a van and drove him
to the Hardyston station, where they sat him at a spare
steel table.
“How are you, Jim?” a State
Police detective asked, according to a transcript of the
conversation.
Cunneely was tired. Tired of
the worry. Tired of the secrets.
In that moment of guilt and
shame and catharsis, Cunneely,
then 30, admitted to a sevenmonth sexual relationship with
a 15-year-old girl, a student in
his class. He described trysts in
motels, in her bedroom, in his
car. He told her he loved her, the
confession shows.
His acts would lead to the
destruction of his marriage, the
end of his career, a year in
prison and a lifetime of parole
Mostly sunny with a light northwest wind.
Tonight will be clear with calm conditions.
High: 57° Low: 36° / Forecast, Page 2
Index
supervision under Megan’s Law.
He had become among the most
reviled of criminals: the sex
offender.
But his arrest, Cunneely said,
also forced him to face a past he
had all but ignored, even as it
dictated the patterns and
behaviors of his life, fueling
impulses and muting every
internal alarm.
The teacher of the year says
that, at 15, he, too, was sexually
abused by his French teacher,
also a teacher of the year.
In court documents, in a
self-published memoir and in
interviews with NJ Advance
Media, Cunneely alleges the
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Business / A15
Classified / H1
County / B1
Jersey / A19
Jim Cunneely and teacher Carol D’Annunzio in photos from
a 1994 Lenape Valley Regional High School yearbook.
Investigation opened
Jim Cunneely alleges his female French teacher sexually
abused him when he was a 15-year-old high school student.
After inquiries by NJ Advance Media, the Sussex County
Prosecutor’s Office — the same agency that sent Cunneely to
prison for sexually abusing a female student when he was a
French teacher himself — opened a criminal investigation
into Carol D’Annunzio.
To see his interview, visit NJ.com.
relationship with the teacher,
Carol D’Annunzio, then 42,
lasted more than two years and
dominated every aspect of his
time at Lenape Valley Regional
High School in Stanhope during
the early 1990s.
He described trysts in her
classroom, in the auditorium, in
her home and car. She told him
she loved him, he said. On a
Obituaries / A21
Perspective / D1
Puzzles / E5
Sports / C1
Travel / E8
TV Grid / E6
school trip to Paris, they
exchanged symbolic wedding
vows beside the Seine, Cunneely
said. He says he still has the
crucifix ring she placed on his
finger that day.
To those who study sexual
abuse, Cunneely’s account of his
life, from alleged victim to
abuser, is not unusual.
SEE CUNNEELY, PAGE 12
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