NJ teacher in support of ex-field hockey club coach Brett Clay arrested for stalking, harassment
A New Jersey school teacher was charged and arrested for cyber stalking and harassment. Photo: Jana Benscoter
Tracy Biondi, of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, has been arrested on charges of cyber-harassment and stalking, according to the Somerset County Prosecutor’s office.
The 56-year-old Bridgewater Township School District teacher had ties to the field hockey community and former New Jersey club field hockey coach Brett Clay.
Clay pled guilty in February to charges of fourth degree attempted criminal sexual contact after he admitted to trying to have “sexual contact” with one of his juvenile field hockey players.
Biondi openly supported Clay and tried to rally other families behind him, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Law enforcement began their investigation of allegations of harassment and stalking in May.
Several reports of harassment emerged after Biondi was said to have circulated handwritten letters about the victim, which were discovered by her friends and family.
The letters were “harassing in nature and contained lewd, indecent, and obscene messages about the victim,” according to law enforcement.
The victim’s friends were also contacted via social media by an anonymous user who made similar harassing, damaging and disparaging statements about the victim to her friends and the victim’s supporters.
Tracy Biondi was arrested on charges of stalking and harassment. Photo: Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office
Detectives, provided a warrant, were able to determine that the social media messages were sent from an account associated with Biondi.
Despite Clay’s conviction and admission of guilt, Biondi “began a relentless campaign to attack the victim of the offense.”
“Biondi manufactured outright lies about the victim and anonymously sent those blatantly false statements to the victim’s friends, teammates, and classmates,” according to the statement. “The purpose of these meritless false statements was to harass and revictimize the victim. Biondi went so far as to call the juvenile victim a "liar” despite knowing that Clay had admitted the allegations. Biondi spread these malicious lies through handwritten letters and social media.”
Female Athlete News CEO and founder Jana Benscoter turned over roughly 37 Instagram messages — harassing and threatening in nature — received from an anonymous user in April to support law enforcement’s investigation.
Biondi was arrested November 13 on charges of fourth degree Cyber Harassment, fourth degree Stalking, and Harassment, and a disorderly person’s offense. She is in jail pending a hearing on the matter.
Brett Clay
Clay sent hundreds of text messages in sexual nature to the victim. He offered her money in exchange for sexual content.
Throughout the 256 pages of their thread of messages, authorities discovered that Clay persistently asked the athlete to share with him either non-explicit or explicitly detailed sexual stories.
Clay had even told the athlete that he had “developed a plan for them to be together in the future.”
The judge ordered Clay to comply with a psycho-sexual evaluation, receive treatment, register on the New Jersey Megan’s Law Sex Offender Internet Registry list, and fulfill a DNA sampling prior to his departure to South Africa, where he is from.
Clay had agreed to: “not teach or coach anyone under the age of 18; not work a supervisory position of anyone age 18 or younger; not apply or volunteer in any position that involves children under the age of 18; and, not apply for employment in public or private schools in the state of New Jersey.”
Since having reported the story on Female Athlete News, the prosecutor’s office has declined comment about further legal matters pertaining to Clay. To date, Clay has not registered on the Megan’s Law registry.
Anyone with information relating to this investigation is asked to contact the Somerset County Prosecutors Office Special Victim’s Unit at (908) 231-7100 or the Bridgewater Township Police Department at (908) 722-4111 or via the STOPit app.
The STOPit app allows citizens to provide anonymous reports including videos and photos. STOPit can be downloaded to your smart phone for free at the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, access code: SOMERSETNJ.
Information can also be provided through Somerset County Communications Center at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) or the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office website https://somersetprosnj,gov.
All anonymous STOPit reports, and tips will be kept confidential.
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Follow us on our social media pages or reach us at femaleathletenews@gmail.com with a story idea.
