NRI Teacher jailed for sex with teen male students
Sinha, who faced as much as 18 years, must serve 4-2/3 years before being eligible for parole.

NEW YORK, April 20, 2007
Ramesh Agarwal

On Thursday, NRI Lina Sinha, 40, Manhattan Montessori school former principal was sentenced to a maximum of 14 years in prison. She remain free on $3,5-million bond until Monday while her lawyers appeal the conviction. Sinha did not show any reaction as the judge pronounced the sentence.

Sinha was accused of seducing two of her students - the first in June 1996 when he was 13 and the second in January 2001 when he was 12 and a seventh grader. The former is now a 24-year-old police officer.

The prosecution said the two had sexual intercourse for the first time when the boy was 15. They met at a number of places including a school van. Sinha was convicted on several misdemeanour counts of criminal impersonation and falsely reporting an incident. Berkman sentenced her to a year on each of the misdemeanour counts but said they were to be served concurrently with the felony sentences

Defence lawyer Gerald Shargel said as he left court that he would file a notice of appeal and an application for continued bail pending a decision on the appeal "within minutes" at the Appellate Division.

Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman said:

• "She's intelligent, educated, well-raised, hardworking and beautiful, and she's a predator who lived a lie," Berkman said. "She abused the position of trust she had with (the victim). She took a great deal, I think, from (the victim)."
  
• The fact that Sinha came from an advantaged background "makes her offences all the more culpable" than the poorer, less educated defendants that the judge usually sees. "She can't claim she knew no better."

The judge had earlier turned down her lawyer's plea for special consideration by quoting from Shakespeare. "Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds," she told the convict.

The jury deadlocked on six rape counts, including those relating to the second teen, allegedly seduced by her when he was a 12-year-old seventh grader, prosecutors say.Assistant District Attorney Florence Chapin cited the crimes for which Sinha was convicted and asked Berkman to sentence her to the maximum possible.

NRI Female Teacher Lina Sinha convicted for rape and sodomisation teen male students

NEW YORK, March 30, 2007
Ramesh Agarwal

NRI Lina Sinha, 40, School teacher has been convicted by a jury of five men and seven women on felony counts of sodomy and witness bribery. In October 2005, she was charged with 80 total counts of rape, sodomy and tampering with witnesses and evidence in a teacher-student sex case.

In 2006, she rejected a plea bargain which would have sent her to prison for six years. In Feb, 2007, the trial got underway in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. On Thursday, she was accused of sex liaisons with two barely pubescent students and convicted for sodomizing one of them when he was 13 years old. The police officer testified that Sinha treated him to sexual intercourse as a 15th birthday present, according to the New York Times.

• During investigation, she was arrested when she tried to bribe a second boy by buying him sneakers, a prepaid telephone and USD 400 cash to lie about their sexual relationship.
• For sodomizing the student when he was older, a crime with a lesser penalty than the same act with a 13 years old.

April 19 was scheduled for sentencing her and Judge Berkman raised Sinha's bail to $3.5 million from $50,000. Lina Sinha was handcuffed in front of her large family including her father, mother, sister and an aunt.

She might get 15-20 years in jail from these convictions- seven years each for sodomy and witness bribery, four years for a lesser sodomy charge and few years for each of several misdemeanor counts of criminal impersonation and false reporting.

Gerald L. Shargel, her attorney said, he would appeal.

Previous:

• New York, May 31, 2006: An Indian-origin female teacher and director at a private school in Manhattan, who is already charged with the statutory rape and sodomy of a male pupil, has been indicted on similar charges involving a second boy, a prosecutor has said.
• New York, Nov. 01, 2005: NRI, (non-resident Indian) female teacher was charged yesterday with sodomizing and raping a former male student who is now a New York City cop.

• For over 16 years, 40-year old had been both the director and a teacher at the prestigious Montessori International School of New York, a private elementary school her parents founded in 1969 at 347 East 55th Street
• She got two master's degrees from Columbia University
• The Sinha family owns several businesses in New York including travel agency and a spice shop. People who have known the family for a long time just cannot believe the allegations against Lina Sinha. Many of them said she was driven by her mother's passion for education.
• Her parents own three Montessori schools - in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.