NEWINGTON – A former Newington High School student who claimed school officials failed to protect her from a theater adviser’s sexual predation has settled a lawsuit with the town and its Board of Education, according to court records.
No amount was specified in the settlement of the complaint by former student Marissa Michaels, who claimed school officials ignored her “silent scream for help” as former school employee Joshua Berman sexually abused her. Michaels and her attorney and the attorney for the town and school board could not be reached immediately Wednesday.
Hearst Connecticut Media Group typically does not name victims of alleged sexual assault, but Michaels gave an interview to NBC Connecticut and posted an “Open Letter to Newington High School” on social media in 2020.
When she was 15 and before the abuse started, Michaels wrote in the post, “I spent my Friday nights in a marching band uniform and went to sleep away camp in the summer. I got my braces tightened every four weeks. My bedroom wall was plastered with photos of Doctor Who, Fall Out Boy and teen vogue articles.
“You allowed that innocence to slowly be ripped away from a girl who already had anxiety and self esteem issues,” Michaels wrote. “You chose to ignore the car rides home from him, being caught sitting in a dark auditorium and many parents’ suspicions being brought directly to you.”
Berman, a Rocky Hill native who was living in New Britain, died unexpectedly at age 34 in May 2022 before he could answer criminal sexual assault charges filed in December 2019 by Newington and Rocky Hill police, according to court documents. Michaels filed her suit in 2023 in state Superior Court in Hartford.
In spring 2014 when Michaels was a sophomore, a janitor at the high school saw her and Berman together in the darkened auditorium, the suit says. The janitor reported what he saw to a high school administrator and teachers, but no action was taken, the suit says.
Berman “sexually abused, sexually assaulted and sexually exploited” the plaintiff both on and off school premises, the suit says. Berman’s conduct escalated from placing a hand on Michaels’ inner thigh to pressuring her to have sex with him in a prop room at the high school in February 2016, The Hartford Courant reported in 2020, citing an arrest warrant affidavit.
Michaels has said she kept quiet at the time, in part because Berman threatened to destroy her career in theater if she did not comply with his sexual advances.
In a motion for summary judgement filed in August last year, however, the town and school board claimed “there is no action of any Board employee that put the plaintiff in danger and/or any awareness by any such employee that his or her act of inaction would put the plaintiff in danger.”
Michaels’ attorney, Cindy L. Robinson of Fairfield, had offered to settle the claim for $2.5 million in 2024, according to court documents, but no answer to the offer was included in available court files. A withdrawal of action by the plaintiff was dated Aug. 12.
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This article originally published at Newington settles lawsuit claiming school failed to protect student from sexual abuse by adviser.
