Judge rejects motion to dismiss sexual abuse case against Camden school board president but delays start of civil trial

A judge on Friday refused to dismiss a civil lawsuit against Camden School Advisory Board President Wasim Muhammad alleging he sexually abused a former student when he was her teacher 30 years ago.

After hearing legal arguments for about an hour, Superior Court Judge John Kennedy rejected motions from defense lawyers for Muhammad and the school district and found there was enough evidence against both to proceed. He did grant their request to delay the trial and reschedule it for March 11.

Defense lawyer Troy Archie argued that the case has disputed facts without physical evidence. A former teacher who said she saw the former student leaving Muhammad’s home during the school day previously had a sexual relationship with Muhammad, he said.

“There’s really no evidence other than ‘he say, she say,’” Archie said. “She’s just saying it happened. My client disputes it.”

The judge and Jeffrey Fritz, who represents the former student and brought the lawsuit, said the case should be decided by a jury. In the meantime, the judge accepted a recommendation by Brian P. Budic, one of three lawyers representing the school district, to hold a settlement conference Feb. 5. Budic declined to comment.

An arbitrator previously recommended a $1 million settlement in the case that would have held Muhammad liable for 60% of the judgment and the district 40%. Both sides rejected it.

Muhammad, 56, is accused by a former student identified as Jane Doe in a lawsuit filed in 2021 of sexually abusing her when he was her social studies teacher, starting in 1994 and continuing for years. The alleged abuse began when she was 14 at Cooper B. Hatch Middle School in the city’s Parkside neighborhood, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that Muhammad — then known as Donnie Walker — groomed her for the abuse that began when she was a seventh grader. It alleges that district officials knew or should have known about the abuse and did nothing to stop it.

» READ MORE: A former student has alleged sexual abuse for years by current Camden Advisory School Board president

The state-run district sought to dismiss the case in part arguing that changes in New Jersey’s Child Sexual Abuse Act were enacted in 2019 — before the alleged abuse occurred. It also contended that claims of “negligent infliction of emotional distress” were inappropriate.

“We look forward to a jury now deciding this case,” Fritz said in a statement.

Fritz said his client, now 44 and living in the South, looks forward to proceeding to trial. Married with two teenage sons and an adult daughter, she is a kindergarten teacher. According to her deposition, she suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic distress.

“I have night terrors … I have nightmares,” she said in a deposition in May. “I wake up screaming.”

She alleges that Muhammad took her to the Feather Nest Inn in Cherry Hill and other motels, and later she would meet him at his home near the school. When she moved out of the area with her family during her freshman year at Camden High School, the girl said Muhammad traveled there on two occasions, signing her out of school as an uncle and taking her to a motel to have sex with her.

After she turned 18, she said Muhammad convinced her to return to New Jersey to live with him. Muhammad said she became his wife under his Islamic faith, but said there was not an actual ceremony. She denies the two were ever married.

In his deposition in August, Muhammad said he began a sexual relationship with her in 1997 when she was 18. He said the marriage ended after about a year, that “basically, it didn’t work out.”

“You know, at the time I — other wives at the time was really, you know, not really, you know, for that particular marriage because it wasn’t something that was discussed with them prior to,” he testified.

Muhammad said he has a legal wife and four wives under his religious beliefs. He said he lived with one of his Islamic wives and their children for the past eight years. He was asked to explain the distinction between the marriages.

”I am a Muslim, and I am involved with multiple wives, but I’m legally, according to a legal marriage of the United States, married to …” one person.

Muhammad declined to answer a question from Fritz during the deposition about whether he had “ever engaged in sexual activity with [Jane Doe] and another of your wives simultaneously?”

“I refuse to answer. Can I plead the Fifth on that one, sir?” Muhammad asked.

Fritz told Muhammad that was his decision.

The plaintiff alleged that Muhammad “coerced” her to engage in sexual activity with him and one of his Islamic wives and took her to a pornography theater where he forced her to have sex with a stranger while Muhammad watched and masturbated. Muhammad acknowledged visiting porn theaters as a young man, but never with the plaintiff. He said he would meet up with friends and they would spend time “just being men and hanging out.”

The case has sparked an outcry in Camden and demands for Muhammad, now a community activist and minister at Muhammad’s Temple No. 20 in Camden, to resign from the school board. Muhammad took a leave of absence last week after Gov. Phil Murphy said Muhammad should step down immediately.

» READ MORE: https://www.inquirer.com/news/muhammad-university-camden-nj-academics-islam-20220517.html

Muhammad was appointed to the school board by then-Mayor Dana Redd in 2013 after the state seized control over the struggling school system. He was twice elected after board elections resumed and has been president since 2020.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

“My client maintains his innocence,” Archie said.