Red Bank Regional substitute teacher charged with bedding 16 year old student

Accused rapist is founder of a youth advocacy organization

Darnell Lewis recruiting youth to make the right choices in Newark, August 2010. photo via I.M.P.A.C.T.’s facebook page

A substitute teacher and assistant football and basketball coach at Red Bank Regional High School is facing charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child after it was learned that he engaged in sexual intercourse with a 16 year of girl in his Red Bank home, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced from Afghanistan yesterday.

Gramiccioni is on a six month deployment with the Naval Reserve JAG Corps.

Darnell Lewis, 37, is charged with three counts of second degree Sexual Assault and one count of second degree Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He is being held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on $200,000 bail with no 10 percent option, as set my Superior Court Judge Angela White Dalton. He is to have no contact with the victim, should he make bail, according to White Dalton’s order.

Described as a hall monitor, substitute teacher and coach by Gramiccioni’s statement, Lewis recently resigned from Red Bank Regional and has not returned to the school.

Lewis is the founder of I.M.P.A.C.T., an organization he founded in 2010 that purports to help people make better choices.

On it’s facebook page, I.M.P.A.C.T. says:

We mentor youth in life skills, confidence building and etiquette, team work through sports, character building, discipline and conflict resolution, peer mediation and self empowerment. We make schools visits, home visits and even support our young people by attending their personal games and social events.
Our approach is “OUT OF THE BOX”

I M P A C T is the passion, care and concern that emanate from within to equip our youth with the necessary tools to navigate through the middle school, high school and college years. We aim to provide skills to address the “How to” processes of life; allowing youth to gain exposure to people, places and things outside of their cultural norm. In hopes to create a well-balanced approach in life.

Lewis recorded this video following the news of Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida.

According to Gramiccioni, Lewis engaged in sexual intercourse with the girl at least three times between December 31, 2013 and April 2014. The Prosecutor’s Special Victims Bureau, the Red Bank Police and the Little Silver Police conducted the investigation which lead to the charges.

If convicted of all charges, Lewis faces up to 40 years in state prison.