SECAUCUS – An administrative law judge has ruled in favor of the Secaucus Board of Education in a case involving former administrative assistant Natalizia “Natalie” Busnelli Aljallad, whom the Board of Trustees voted to terminate last June 2010 for conduct unbecoming and sexual harassment.
In a 20-page ruling made on March 16, Administrative Law Judge Ellen S. Bass wrote that Aljallad is “an admitted and shameless prevaricator,” adding, “I did not deem Aljallad’s testimony to be credible.” The ex-employee’s testimony, Bass found, was at times evasive and contradictory.
According to interviews and affidavits obtained by the Reporter last year, Aljallad was terminated from her job as a tenured administrative aide in the board office, following allegations that she sexually harassed Reinaldo Cruzado, a Secaucus Police officer assigned to Secaucus High School as a safety officer, made false statements to the same police officer, and made slanderous statements against Michael Makarski and Frank Trombetta, two Board of Education trustees.
The alleged incidents took place a year ago, according to an affidavit from Schools Superintendent Cynthia Randina.
In January 2010 Aljallad was suspended without pay from her job, and the Board of Trustees ultimately voted in June to terminate her employment with the Board of Education, a termination Aljallad was fighting through the Court of Administrative Law.
But in her ruling, Administrative Law Judge Bass wrote that her “demeanor at the hearing buttressed my impression that she fabricated her story” and that her actions disrupted the personal and professional lives of Cruzado, Makarski, and Trombetta. As a result, Bass found that the Secaucus Board of Education “has demonstrated that Aljallad is guilty of unbecoming conduct…The [BOE] urges that dismissal is the only appropriate penalty for Aljallad’s conduct. I agree.”
Philip Feintuch, Aljallad’s attorney, was unavailable for comment this afternoon.
For further details about this story, please see this weekend’s edition of the Secaucus Reporter. – E. Assata Wright