Former NHS Guidance Intern Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ In Sexual Assault Case

By Andrew Gorosko

WATERBURY — A former guidance intern at Newtown High School, who is accused of having had a sexual relationship with a male student under age 16, has pleaded “not guilty” in Waterbury Superior Court to two counts of second degree sexual assault and one count of risk of injury or impairing the morals of a minor.

Jillian Gehrkens, 26, of Middlebury entered those pleas in a court appearance on September 21 before Judge Frank Iannotti. Ms Gehrkens is represented by defense attorney William F. Dow III. Ms Gehrkens’ next scheduled court appearance in Waterbury is on October 28. She is free on $25,000 bail on the charges.

At 7 am on September 19, Ms Gehrkens turned herself over to Newtown police and was charged with violation of the conditions of release. Newtown police held Ms Gehrkens on $40,000 bail and transported her to Danbury Superior Court for arraignment that day on the charge. After arraignment, a judge released Ms Gehrkens on a written promise to appear in Danbury Superior Court on October 24.

 In a statement, Newtown police said that following an investigation by Newtown police and Middlebury police, it was determined that Ms Gehrkens had twice violated the conditions of her August 30 release from Waterbury Superior Court, which included that Ms Gehrkens have no contact with the victim of the alleged crimes.

“The investigation determined that contact between the accused and the victim had occurred after the judge had set the condition of [Ms Gehrkens’] release prohibiting that,” police said.

On August 29, Middlebury police had arrested Ms Gehrkens, who is married, on a warrant alleging that she had sexual contact with the Newtown High School male student.

Ms Gehrkens allegedly had sexual contact in Middlebury with the 15-year-old boy. Police have withheld the boy’s identity. The boy is now 16.

In Waterbury Superior Court on September 16, Judge Iannotti ordered that Ms Gehrkens be placed under limited house arrest and that she wear an electronic monitoring device on her ankle to help court officials keep tabs on her whereabouts. That move came after the judge had learned that Ms Gehrkens allegedly twice had contact with the victim after her initial arrest.

After learning that Ms Gehrkens is no longer employed as assistant director of career services at Post University in Waterbury, Judge Iannotti on September 21 ordered that the times of day during which Ms Gehrkens may leave her Middlebury home be reduced. She may now leave home for three hours per day to seek work.

Newtown School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff has said that based on a suspicion that illicit behavior involving Ms Gehrkens was occurring, school officials referred the matter to the state Department of Children and Families (DCF). After receiving that complaint, DCF referred the matter to Newtown police. Newtown police investigated the case and after learning that alleged crimes had occurred within Middlebury, turned over the case to Middlebury police.

Ms Gehrkens had worked as a guidance office intern at Newtown High School from January 2004 to January 2005, after which she left that post. While an intern, she was affiliated with Western Connecticut State University in Danbury as a graduate student.

Starting in August 2000, Ms Gehrkens had worked as an applied behavioral analyst, tutoring children in the Newtown school system’s autism program at the elementary school level.

Second degree sexual assault involves a person engaging in sexual intercourse with another person when the victim is at least 13 years old, but under 16 years old, and when the accused is more than two years older than the victim. The crime also applies in cases in which the accused is a school employee and the victim is a student enrolled in a school in which the accused works.

Second-degree sexual assault is a felony in which a conviction carries a mandatory minimum nine-month jail sentence. The risk of injury charge involves the accused having intimate sexual contact with a child under age 16.