Colonia soccer coach held on $150K bail in student se* case
by Jim O'Neill/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday January 30, 2008, 3:53 PM
Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Colonia Middle School teacher Craig Yarnall, seen during arraignment in Middlesex County Court today.Bail was set at $150,000 this afternoon for a physical education teacher and former Colonia High School girls soccer coach who is facing charges of having a se*ual relationship with a 17-year-old female student for the past 10 months.
Craig Yarnall, 37, answered affirmatively when a judge at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick set the bail and asked him if he understood the charges against him.
Yarnall, a teacher at Colonia Middle School, appeared without an attorney. He said he had not been given a chance to make a phone call since he was arrested Tuesday afternoon.
Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa said he would arrange for Yarnall to have access to a phone at the Middlesex County jail, where he has been held since his arrest.
Yarnell was charged with official misconduct and se*ual assault after Woodbridge Police Officer Dennis Benigno found him and the girl parked in a section of Merrill Park in the township shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.
Benigno questioned Yarnall and the girl, and referred the incident to detectives, who later charged that Yarnall had been having a se*ual relationship with the girl since April. Prosecutors said the 17-year-old was a student, but declined to say what school she attends or how she knew Yarnall. She was 16 when the relationship started, authorities said.
Yarnall was the Colonia High School junior varsity soccer coach for the girls team from September 2005 to September 2006. He began working for the school district in September 2003 as an adaptive physical education teacher for special education students at Colonia Middle School, Iselin Middle School, Woodbridge Middle School and JFK Memorial High School.
He was suspended with pay from his $48,000-a-year teaching job after his arrest. No trial date has been set.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-3600.
by Jim O'Neill/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday January 30, 2008, 3:53 PM
Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Colonia Middle School teacher Craig Yarnall, seen during arraignment in Middlesex County Court today.Bail was set at $150,000 this afternoon for a physical education teacher and former Colonia High School girls soccer coach who is facing charges of having a se*ual relationship with a 17-year-old female student for the past 10 months.
Craig Yarnall, 37, answered affirmatively when a judge at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick set the bail and asked him if he understood the charges against him.
Yarnall, a teacher at Colonia Middle School, appeared without an attorney. He said he had not been given a chance to make a phone call since he was arrested Tuesday afternoon.
Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa said he would arrange for Yarnall to have access to a phone at the Middlesex County jail, where he has been held since his arrest.
Yarnell was charged with official misconduct and se*ual assault after Woodbridge Police Officer Dennis Benigno found him and the girl parked in a section of Merrill Park in the township shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.
Benigno questioned Yarnall and the girl, and referred the incident to detectives, who later charged that Yarnall had been having a se*ual relationship with the girl since April. Prosecutors said the 17-year-old was a student, but declined to say what school she attends or how she knew Yarnall. She was 16 when the relationship started, authorities said.
Yarnall was the Colonia High School junior varsity soccer coach for the girls team from September 2005 to September 2006. He began working for the school district in September 2003 as an adaptive physical education teacher for special education students at Colonia Middle School, Iselin Middle School, Woodbridge Middle School and JFK Memorial High School.
He was suspended with pay from his $48,000-a-year teaching job after his arrest. No trial date has been set.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-3600.