Computer Teacher Fired After Atlantic City Hotel Robbery Charge
Amanda Crafts, 35, and Veda Engel, 23, face charges after a man was restrained in a hotel room and charged $1,250 via Apple Pay.
By Samantha Reed ·
Middle Township Middle School computer teacher Amanda Crafts was fired after her Oct. 9 arrest in an Atlantic City casino hotel robbery and sexual assault case. The district confirmed the termination in an Oct. 19 statement.
Crafts, 35, of Wildwood Crest, and her friend Veda Engel, 23, of Cape May, are charged in the incident. According to police, the victim met the women at a hotel resort bar, then went to their room after exchanging numbers with Engel. The victim told investigators the two women stripped and restrained him to the bed.
Engel forced sexual acts on the victim before stopping and saying, "That's what you get for $1,250," according to the complaint. As Crafts held the victim down, Engel used facial recognition to unlock his phone and made four Apple Pay transactions totaling $1,250 to her account. A detective wrote in affidavits that the transactions were "made without his consent in exchange for sexual acts."
At her first court appearance, Crafts told Judge Timothy Maguire during a video appearance from the Atlantic County Justice Facility that she was a teacher with no prior arrests. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. Crafts has four children and works in the school's special area department teaching computers.
Superintendent Stephanie DeRose said the district's responsibility is to protect students and ensure those caring for and educating them meet expected standards. Engel works at SoFresh SoClean Commercial Cleaning in Ocean City, her attorney said.
This was not Engel's first prostitution-related charge. Last year, she allegedly offered an undercover New Jersey State Police detective sex for $1,000 at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and was released on a summons. Both women were released Oct. 15 after nearly a week in custody, with pretrial release requiring court check-ins every other week.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections identified Crafts. Breaking AC reported details of the incident and Engel's prior charges.
Source: Fox News
