Teacher Michael Agrippine charged with molesting Allentown 3rd grade student pleads no contest to endangering charge gets no jail time

I’m not sure what the allegations are in this case, but the child can’t sleep in his own bed anymore because he’s afraid this teacher might grab him. 

The MorningCall reports shifting nervously and continuing to proclaim his innocence, a substitute teacher pleaded no contest Friday to a charge stemming from his alleged molestation of a third-grade boy at an Allentown elementary school — a case with troubling problems for the prosecution, according to the presiding judge. 

The plea deal includes no jail time for 48-year-old Michael Agrippine, who told Lehigh County Judge Kelly L. Banach he's the victim. The boy's mother strongly protested the plea, calling it an injustice, and urged the judge to reject it.

Agrippine entered the plea to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor that was added Friday. But he insisted he didn't molest the boy a year ago in a bathroom stall at Union Terrace Elementary School, as alleged.

"Being accused of something this horrifying goes against everything I've done in my life," said Agrippine, of Upper Saucon Township. "This has shattered my soul. … I thought police were heroes who were there to protect and serve. I didn't know I needed to be protected from them."

While Banach said Agrippine's alleged confession to police was questionable and the alleged victim was not completely credible, she said Agrippine still needs to be watched carefully.

"Notwithstanding the problems with the case, quite frankly, I think you're a person who needs watching," the judge said. "You're squirrelly, to put it plainly."

In return for the plea, charges of aggravated indecent assault of a child and intercourse/sexual contact with a student at a school, both felonies, were dropped. Indecent assault of a person under 14, a misdemeanor, was also dropped. The crime Agrippine pleaded no contest to is not a sex offense under Megan's Law, so he does not have to register his address.

Agrippine, who has no prior criminal record and has been free on $75,000 bail, will serve five years of probation and give up his teaching certificate in Pennsylvania. Banach ordered him to undergo sex offender treatment and have no unsupervised contact with any children except his own. 

I don't believe for a second this comes out of nowhere," the judge said. "I don't know the particulars, but I believe something happened. To me, you are a person of concern. I'm glad you relinquished your right to teach."

In pleading no contest, Agrippine isn't admitting he molested the student but is acknowledging he could have been proved guilty at trial.

"I'll continue to proclaim my innocence. I'll continue to be a law-abiding citizen. I am the victim in this case," Agrippine said, adding he's "afraid to walk into another classroom again" and now works in the steel industry.

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