A former Shelton High School math teacher who resigned last spring after allegedly taking a student out to dinner entered a not guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday, WFSB reports.
George Perduta’s lawyer called the misdemeanor charge lodged against him a ​“tremendous waste of judicial resources,” the television station reported.
Perduta, 57, was charged with disorderly conduct Sept. 8, the culmination of a Shelton police investigation that started in April.
A 17-year-old female student, then a senior at the high school, said Perduta tried to kiss her in the parking lot of the Shelton Walmart after the two returned from dinner at the Texas Road House in West Haven.
School officials and Shelton police quickly found out, with both agencies launching investigations into his relationship with the student.
It is believed the April incident is the only time Perduta met with the teen outside of school.
Perduta resigned from the high school in May. Just prior to that he resigned his position on the board of education in Berlin.
Click here for an in-depth story published by the Valley Indy Sept. 17.
Perduta is due back in Superior Court in Derby Nov. 16.
The video below is the report from WFSB.