NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: An Indian-American former principal of an exclusive Manhattan Montessori school was sentenced to a maximum of the 14 years in prison for having sexual relations with one of her students when he was about 13 and she about 30.
Pronouncing the sentence on 40-year-old Lina Sinha, Manhattan Supreme Court judge Carol Berkman said her offences become all the more “culpable″ as she comes from an advantageous background. “She is intelligent, educated, well-raised, hardworking and beautiful, and she is a predator. She abused the position of trust she had with the victim,” the judge observed.
Sinha, who has two master’s degrees from Columbia University, has been variously described in the US media as “Lusty Lina” and a “bed-ucator”. The victim, now a 24-year policeman, had alleged that he was only 13 when Sinha gave him oral sex as he sat on a classroom sink. This was the start of a long, furtive relationship. Sinha taught him to reach her bedroom above the school by sneaking past the security cameras installed by her parents, who owned the institution. She stocked her room with video games and kept him there weekends at a time.
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.
The victim had reluctantly taken the stand against Sinha last month, describing a twisted, nearly decade-long relationship. Sinha was unmasked after the victim finally broke off the relationship in December 2004, and she embarked on a campaign of false criminal accusations designed to ruin his NYPD career.
A second former student had also testified that Sinha took him to bed at age 12.
Assistant district attorney Florence Chapin asked Berkman to sentence her to the maximum possible time. Sinha could be paroled after about five years. Her lawyer Gerald Shargel said he would file an appeal against the conviction and the judge allowed her to remain free on a bail of $3.5 million while her lawyers appeal the decision.
The Sinha family owns several businesses in New York including a travel agency and a spice shop.
“Lina Sinha is no different than any other sexual predator who abuses a child,” Chapin said during the brief hearing and urged the judge not to give credence to the “locker-room joke of ‘Where was she when I was in school?”
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.
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April 21st, 2007 
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