‘Obsessed’ Teacher Who Sent Student 25,000 Messages Sobs as She’s Sentenced for Sex Abuse
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In 2024, teachers at a New Jersey middle school started noticing the attention teacher Allison Havemann-Niedrach, 45, was giving a 15-year-old male student
The now-ex teacher, a mother of two, sexually abused the boy at hotels and at her house for six months, according to prosecutors
She reportedly sobbed in court when the student said he had forgiven her during sentencing
A former New Jersey middle school teacher who was “obsessed” with a student she sexually abused for six months has learned her fate.
On Friday, Aug. 28, Allison Havemann-Niedrach, 45, a mother of two from Jackson Township, was sentenced to 12 years in state prison for committing sexual crimes against a 15-year-old male student, Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago announced in a statement on Monday, Aug. 31.
During the hearing, the victim told the court that he was having trouble in high school because of the attention he received when other students found out about his ordeal, the Asbury Park Pressreported.
“For two or three years, I thought it was my fault,” he told the court, per the newspaper. When he said he had forgiven her “for what she did,” Havemann-Niedrach reportedly began sobbing.
In a statement Havemann-Niedrach made to the court, she said she apologized “profusely” for her actions, adding that she was “moved by his forgiveness,” the newspaper reported.
Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley, however, had harsh words for the former Freehold Intermediate School special education teacher, telling her: “You are his trauma. You ruined him,” according to the Daily Voice.
The judge added that the teen had thought about dying by suicide in the summer 2024, per the Asbury Park Press.
In the fall of 2023, Havemann-Niedrach began grooming the student by attending his sporting events and buying him gifts, including a sex toy, the judge said in court.
Over time, the attention she gave to the student began to arouse suspicion at the school, prosecutors said.
One teacher told authorities she saw the suspect “rubbing the victim’s neck and back area in a circular motion and that she appeared to be flirting with him and noticed her touching his leg,” Assistant Prosecutor Danielle Zanzuccki said in court in July 2024.
Zanzuccki said there were 25,000 text messages between the suspect and the teen and the teen told a friend that he and Havemann-Niedrach were dating.
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“I would submit that she’s obsessed with this child,” Zanzuccki said at the time.
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In June 2024, a vice principal at the school notified police, the Asbury Park Press reported.
According to the newspaper, when the boy’s mother spoke to authorities, she said she had become concerned about her son whose sister said she had seen him in his teacher’s car and noted that he was often on his phone for long periods at night.
He initially said nothing was going on between him and the teacher but later told his mother that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with her, prosecutors said, per the newspaper.
He told police that their sexual relationship began in January 2024 and that they would meet at hotels and at her house, according to prosecutors.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Bureau and the Freehold Borough Police Department began investigating and learned that the criminal conduct by Havemann-Niedrach began in January 2024 and continued for approximately six months before she was arrested in June 2024.
She was charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
In January 2026, Havemann-Niedrach pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated sexual assault.
During her sentencing on Friday, Aug. 28, she was ordered to serve a minimum of 85% of the term before the possibility of parole.
Her attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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